While patients suffer or resort to illegal street purchases of unregulated substances that could contain other drugs, the most vehement anti-drug crusaders have prevailed in preserving baseless fears. Only a few states have voted to legalize medical marijuana. Studying a patch method of dispersal has several advantages. Removing smoking from the procedure may assuage opponents by making it look more like medicine and less like the illegal activity. Dr. Audra Stinchcomb, the assistant professor who will conduct the research, noted that a patch method will give a more accurate, steady dose, making it easier to test in clinical trials.
Smoking can also have side effects such as dizziness and lung problems.
But some advocates of medical marijuana say that smoking is the most efficient method precisely because it is absorbed so quickly into the bloodstream. Studying a patch method should not signal any retreat from current methods of medical use, nor preclude the study of smoking the substance. The cruel battle to stifle the use of medical marijuana has gone on far too long, and for no reason other than political posturing by those who deliberately draw false connections between suffering patients and street-corner drug abusers. Let the healing begin. News Article Courtesy Of MapInc.