“Where there’s smoke…”
According to a Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse policy brief, clinical evidence links marijuana usage with cognitive impairment and increased risk of psychosis—a risk that increases with earlier age and higher levels of use. The brief also warns: “Experience in the United States indicates that decreased regulation, including flexible arrangements for personal or designated growers and retail sales, is likely to result in increased rates of diversion [misuse]) (“Marijuana for Medical Purposes,” July 15, p. 8). The Partnership for a Drug Free Canada (PDFC) raises other medical issues. For instance, marijuana smokers exhibit many of the same symptoms as tobacco smokers. These can include abnormal incidence of chest colds, increased coughing and phlegm production. A 2015 PDFC report states: “Regardless of the THC content, the amount of tar inhaled by marijuana smokers and the level of carbon monoxide absorbed are three to five times greater than among tobacco smokers” (“Marijuana”).
Some doctors will point out that the hotter-burning temperature also can result in increased loss of the cilia in the lungs, which can lead to diseases such as emphysema. It is interesting to note that, for years, the Canadian Cancer Society has lobbied against tobacco smoking, and has won widespread public support—yet the same people who wisely oppose tobacco smoking often seem not to care that in marijuana they have a substance found to be many times more deadly to the human lung.
We have seen that medical associations resist the use of so-called “medical marijuana,” as there is no solid clinical evidence that the drug is effective. Required dosages for specific ailments are not researched, concentration of the active ingredient THC varies with plant samples (making dosages impossible to determine), and there are the negative side effects, which include addiction. For those who insist on the medical benefit of THC, physicians point out that dosage-controlled, carefully measured medications already exist: dronabinol (Marinol®) and nabilone (Cesamet®). Physicians can already prescribe either of these medications. So, why is there such a cry for medical marijuana? Could it be that the approved, clinically monitored medications allow the THC to act on the body but do not give the user a “high”?