Science Cannabis

varijuana (cannabis) is among the most widely used of all psychoactivedrugs. Despite the fact that its possession and use isillegal in most countries, cannabis is used regularly by as manyas 20 million people in the United States and Europe, and by millionsmore in other parts of the world. In recent years thousands of patientswith acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), multiple sclerosis,and a variety of other disabling diseases have begun to smoke marijuanaillegally in the firm belief that it makes their symptoms better, despite therelative paucity of medical evidence to substantiate such belief.The writer Stephen Jay Gould described his use of marijuana insuppressing the nausea associated with cancer treatment:I had surgery, followed by a month of radiation, chemotherapy, more surgery,and a subsequent year of additional chemotherapy. I found that Icould control the less severe nausea of radiation by conventional medicines.But when I started intravenous chemotherapy (Adriamycin), absolutelynothing in the available arsenal of antiemetics worked at all. I wasmiserable and came to dread the frequent treatments with an almost perverseintensity.. . . marijuana worked like a charm. I disliked the " side effect" of mentalblurring (the "main effect" for recreational users), but the sheer bliss of notexperiencing nausea — and then not having to fear it for all the days interveningbetween treatments — was the greatest boost I received in all myyear of treatment, and surely had a most important effect upon my eventualcure.(Grinspoon and Bakalar, 1993)In California as part of the 1996 election voters approved "Proposition215," which sought to make it legal to smoke marijuana with adoctor's recommendation. During the following year "cannabis buyersclubs" were established throughout the state to provide supplies ofcannabis for medicinal use. On the whole these were run by wellintentionedpeople and were strictly regulated, patients were checked foridentity, medical records, and doctor's diagnosis and only then were theyallowed to purchase a small quantity of marijuana. In the 1998 stateelections a further six states voted to permit access to medical marijuana,