Marijuana Is Not Actually Medicine - Understanding ‘Medical Marijuana’

June 24, 2019 - The US Surgeon General speaks about medical marijuana. As medicine is defined in our country today…"there is no such thing as medical marijuana," he says. When it comes to medical marijuana …” we need to have the courage to have a more nuanced conversation.”

There are components in the marijuana plant that may have medicinal value: THC, CBD, other cannabinoids, terpins. These need to be and should be studied.

So start testing - nothing is stopping the marijuana industry from conducting FDA-grade testing for these components

The marijuana industry should step up and start clinical trials. Clinical trials are expensive and time consuming, but every drug that exists in the American market place has undergone them. Cannabinoids are powerful neurotransmitters, and as such, nothing about “marijuana as medicine” suggests a different path would be acceptable for it.

Clinical trials are how consumers and the American public are protected from untrue claims about product efficacy that can have dire consequences including death. Drug mis-use and interactions with other drugs a person might be taking can be very dangerous.

That the marijuana industry has been unwilling (so far) to work to legitimize the colossal number of claims made on its behalf is concerning.

THC available by prescription today

CBD available by prescription today

Medicine in the United States is confirmed by the FDA. There are important guidelines like dosing, side-effects, purity, duration of effect, drug interactions, etc. that the FDA requires a drug manufacture to reliably determine through rigorous testing before a substance can be called “medicine.”

And in fact, THC has been available by prescription since the 1970s, so what is all this talk about medical marijuana?

Of note, the requirements are different for drugs/medicines available with a prescription versus available on drug and grocery store shelves (these drugs are called “over-the-counter”). This class of medications have shown to be less harmful if misused and many times less effective than prescription drugs.

Even if prescribed by a doctor, the decision to take a medication is deeply personal

Everyone runs their own mental calculation when deciding to take a medication. This calculates considers things like:

* The level of discomfort an ailment or condition creates,
* Recommendations for relief that a doctor or the market are providing
* Explanations of how the relief will occur
* If the relief may come with side effects (acute or potential)
* Presumption of how the side effects will be personally tolerated

So, enter the idea that marijuana could be used for medicinal purposes - an idea offered to us by the market place - marijuana users and the marijuana industry (vs conclusive research vetted by the FDA or state health departments).

“Medical Marijuana” is both

1) a social experiment in self-medication, and

2) what has become an important step in a political strategy to legalize marijuana for recreation use (some say an important step on the path to legalizing all illicit drugs - mushrooms, heroin, meth, MDMA, etc. - for recreational use)

Some thoughts on Self-Medication…