Medical Marijuana

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Medical Marijuana

Marijuana is medicine. It has been used for thousands of years to treat a

wide variety of ailments. Marijuana (Cannabis sativa L.) was legal in the

United States for all purposes - industrial and recreational, as well as

medicinal until 1937.

Today, only eight Americans are legally allowed to use marijuana as medicine.

NORML is working to restore marijuana's availability as medicine. Medicinal

Value Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically

active substances known. No one has ever died from an overdose. It is also

extremely versatile.

Four of its general therapeutic applications include: relief from nausea and

increase of appetite; reduction of intraocular ("within the eye") pressure;

reduction of muscle spasms; relief from mild to moderate chronic pain.

Marijuana is often useful in the treatment of the following conditions:

Cancer: Marijuana alleviates the nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite caused

by chemotherapy treatment. AIDS: Marijuana alleviates the nausea, vomiting,

and loss of appetite caused by the disease itself and by treatment with AZT and

other drugs.

Glaucoma: Marijuana, by reducing intraocular pressure, alleviates the pain and

slows or halts the progress of the disease. Glaucoma, which damages vision by

gradually increasing eye pressure over time, is the leading cause of blindness

in the United States.

Multiple Sclerosis: Marijuana reduces the muscle pain and spasticity caused by

the disease. It may also relieve tremor and unsteadiness of gait, and it helps

some patients with bladder control. Multiple sclerosis is the leading cause of

neurological disability among young and middle-aged adults in the United States.

Epilepsy: Marijuana prevents epileptic seizures in some patients.

Chronic Pain: Marijuana reduces the chronic, often debilitating pain caused by

a variety of injuries and disorders.

Each of these uses has been recognized as legitimate at least once by various

courts, legislatures, government, or scientific agencies throughout the United

States. Currently, such well respected organizations as the National Academy of

Sciences (1982), the California Medical Association (1993), the Federation of

American Scientists (1994), the Australian Commonwealth Department of Human

Services and Health (1994), the American Public Health Association ...

... middle of paper ...

...2618) to amend the federal law to allow

physician's to legally prescribe marijuana as a medicine to patients. NORML

testifies before Congress in 1996 on behalf of medical marijuana. The

legislature of Washington state appropriates over $100,000 in 1996 to conduct

clinical studies on patients to determine the effectiveness of medical marijuana

in the treatment of serious illnesses. The appropriation also fund research on

cultivating medical marijuana in a tamper-free environment and explores

potential ways in which the state can legally distribute the drug for medical

use. Due in part to the activism of NORML members, a California initiative to

legalize marijuana for medical purposes (Proposition 215) gathers enough

signatures to be placed on the November 1996 election ballot. In August, both

the San Francisco Medical Society and the California Academy of Family

Physicians -- representing a combined total of almost 10,000 physicians

statewide -- endorse the proposition.

The challenge for compassionate Americans is to translate this public support

into effective reform. It may not be easy to break the DEA's stranglehold on

medicinal marijuana, but it can be done!

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