Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Medical marijuana

The Los Angeles Times ran a pair of opposing pro/con pieces recently. I saw the headline for the con piece and thought it might be reefer madness rant, but thankfully it's much smarter than that. Acknowledging that marijuana's risks are relatively small, he argues that the FDA refuses to approve or yanks approval of drugs with fewer risks than marijuana.

I don't have a strong opinion on the matter and don't believe that anyone should do jail time for possession of marijuana in smallish quantities. I also don't think marijuana should get any special treatment from the FDA, in either direction--if it meets FFDA standards, approve it; if it doesn't meet FDA standards, deny approval. However, my impression is that most of the advocates of medical marijuana seem to be more interested in legalizing marijuana for their own use. I tend to find them pretty unpersuasive and they inspire a passive aggressive contrarian instinct in me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just wait until you suffer from what I suffer from, Diabetic Neuropathic Gastroparesis (paralyzed stomsch,) where you surf waves of nausea from mild to severe every hour of every day. Which, if not controlled leads to vomiting and wasting syndrome as in HIV-AIDS. I live a quiet, humble life having to treat my nausea with marijuana illegally. I have a 'script for Marinol but it just does not cut it. Yet it is the only safe drug for chronic nausea control. Regalen, the most commonly prescribed drug for my condition, causes irreverseable Parkinson like shakes and tremors, and this is legal? I have to risk imprisonment to be nausea free, in the land of the free, some America. What level have we sunk to?!?!???