Science Cannabis

VITHE SCIENCE OF MARIJUANAwith pain, eases the nausea caused by chemotherapeutic drugs used totreat cancer, and lowers intraocular pressure in patients with glaucoma.Several states passed laws permitting the medical use of cannabis followedshortly by concerns that recreational users might illicitly feignmedical needs. The House of Lords in the United Kingdom carried out astudy weighing the good and bad of cannabis, while the Institute of Medicineof the United States National Academy of Sciences carried out asimilar investigation. Both came to the conclusion that cannabis has bothgood and bad points and advised the general public and law-makingbodies to adopt a balanced perspective. While smoking cannabis for recreationalpurposes may indeed cause some harm, it is not nearly as dangerousas cocaine, alcohol, or cigarettes. As for medical uses, some areasare quite promising, but more clinical studies are needed.What I find remarkable about all of this is that the British andAmerican Commissions, reflecting recent public thinking, bear remarkablesimilarities to analogous efforts going back at least 100 years. In thenineteenth century the British government addressed the uses of cannabisin India, where it had been employed routinely for recreationaland medical purposes since the first millennium. The 1893 report of theIndian Hemp Drugs Commission is particularly impressive in its "modern,"well-balanced perspective. At that time cannabis was rumored toelicit criminal behavior and severely damage the brain. The Commissioncritically evaluated all reports and concluded, like the United States andthe United Kingdom reports 100 years later, that cannabis had good aswell as bad features, and therapeutic promise as well as recreational utilityif employed in moderation.There were further incarnations of the cannabis debate. In theUnited States in the late 1930s and early 1940s researchers had comeclose to isolating the active ingredient of the plant and had synthesizedTHC derivatives that were entering clinical trial. However, many newsmedia reports labeled cannabis a "killer drug." In 1939, Mayor LaGuardiaof New York City appointed a Blue Ribbon Committee to evaluatethe situation that came to conclusions similar to those of the IndianHemp Commission. Especially notable are comments of the Committeedealing with allegations that cannabis is a stepping stone to the use of