There is so much debate on the subject of medical
Marijuana that one
could begin to believe that there are still questions about whether or
not the
Drug is even harmful.
But it has been known and well documented for many years that marijuana
is a harmful drug and not one major American health organization
accepts crude marijuana as medicine.
The fact that this debate is still being carried on in the media is no
accident. So much pro marijuana information has made it into mainstream
society that, according to recent surveys, children of today do not
view marijuana to be as dangerous as did children of twenty years
ago. It actually appears to young people and adults that the
question of whether or not marijuana is harmful is undecided.
Young people are seeing this issue brought up regularly and it’s important that it is put into some perspective for them.
In the
Narconon Drug Abuse Prevention program we speak to students from
third grade through college and often hear the question, “What is the
story with medical marijuana?”
Although that question is regarded as complex, the answer actually is rather simple.
All drugs can be toxic and are potentially dangerous. Doctors and
pharmaceutical companies are aware of this. This is why the
proper dosages are clearly printed on the labels of prescription
bottles.
Physicians know that most drugs don’t really cure the patient; the body
cures itself. Sometimes the body is too slow or doesn’t even
recognize the illness. In many of these cases a drug can
help the body to overcome the ailment.
Even more often, drugs are used not to cure at all, but to ease the symptoms of disease.
Some students actually have gotten the false idea that marijuana can cure glaucoma or even cancer!
But all drugs produce effects other than those intended—side
effects. So the task is to weigh the potential gain of a
particular medication against its unwanted or damaging side effects.
The government body which approves or disapproves drugs for use in the
United States is the Food and Drug Administration.
The US FDA has never approved marijuana for any use.
Marijuana is a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act.
Schedule I drugs are classified as having a high potential for abuse,
no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and
lack of accepted safety for use even under medical supervision. Other
Schedule I drugs include
Cocaine,
Heroin and
LSD.
Of the 400 chemicals in marijuana, only one is the reason for the uproar, Delta-9 tetra-hydro cannabinol (THC).
Studies have shown that THC is a neurotoxin. A neurotoxin is a
substance that damages or impairs the functions of nerve tissue.
The benefits claimed by the proponents of medical marijuana include
relief of nausea due to cancer chemotherapy and reduction of
intraocular (inside the eye), pressure due to glaucoma. However,
approved and effective medications to relieve these symptoms have been
available for quite some time.
There is an approved drug called
Marinol that isn’t smoked, which
contains synthetic THC and can be taken in more controlled
doses. But even with this medication the manufacturer warns
of side effects that include paranoid reaction, drowsiness, and
abnormal thinking.
The short and long term effects of marijuana use include: memory loss,
difficulty in learning, distorted perception, trouble with thinking and
problem solving, loss of motor skills, decrease in muscle strength,
increased heart rate, and anxiety.
Are any FDA-approved medications smoked?
No. Smoking is generally a poor way to deliver medicine. It is
difficult to administer safe, regulated dosages of medications by
smoking. Additionally the harmful chemicals and carcinogens that
are byproducts of smoking create entirely new health problems.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), someone who
smokes five joints per week may be taking in as many cancer-causing
chemicals as may someone who smokes a full pack of cigarettes per
day. Smoking one marijuana cigarette deposits about four times as
much tar into the lungs as a filtered tobacco cigarette.
Marijuana’s negative effects also last well beyond the initial use. THC
is lipophilic, meaning the chemical is fat-bonding and gets stored
inside a person’s body for weeks, months and possibly even years after
use ceases.
In our Narconon rehabilitation centers, we are faced daily with the
ravaging effects of drug abuse. Those who come in to our programs
didn’t start on drugs yesterday; they traveled down a long road and
made many wrong turns to get to the point of needing our help.
The effort that is required to help these addicts at that point is
monumental. Nearly all of them started down the road of
Addiction by first using marijuana, tobacco or alcohol.
The deadliest side effect of medical marijuana is the message being sent to our kids, the lie that using marijuana is safe.
So it is imperative that we don’t send that message. We must do our
jobs to educate them as to the real facts and trust them to make the
right decision.
Mr. Tony Bylsma, a Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor and
Executive Director of Narconon Drug Prevention & Education, has
since 1980 educated many thousands of students on the dangers of drugs.
In addition he has years of experience in rehabilitating drug addicts.
He can be reached at 1-888-966-3784.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the DEA and Drug Free America Foundation for their contributions to this article.
Deadliest Side Effect... 
