Pubdate: Mon, 30 Aug 1999
Date: 08/30/1999
Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Author: H. Gordon Ainsleigh

During the recent controversies over medical marijuana prosecutions in
Placer County, I have been surprised by the absence of depression from
the list of serious diseases that marijuana helps.

Several of my chiropractic patients tell me that antidepressant
prescription drugs don't work nearly as well as marijuana, but these
people still try to get by on the pharmaceuticals as much as possible
because of their fear of getting arrested in herbally obsessed Placer
County. A typical comment is, "Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft take five
weeks to work and don't work very well. Marijuana takes five minutes
to work and stops depression in its tracks."

Like so many chiropractors, I'm not in favor of medicating only the
few most awful, life-threatening depressions. Chiropractors view pain,
emotional or physical, as a friend telling us what needs to be changed
and motivating us to get moving. Drugs just cover up the problem, in
this case a depressing life that needs changing.

However, for those who don't or can't take the time, get to a
counselor, spend the money, do the effort, feel the pain and change
what must be changed, or for those who have just drawn some really bad
cards in life's game of chance, depression can be a life-threatening
illness. Those people should have available the cheapest and most
effective antidepressant medication there is. For many, that is
clearly marijuana. The Hindus didn't call it "poor-man's paradise" for
nothing.

H. Gordon Ainsleigh,
Meadow Vista