Marijuana Recent ballot initiatives dealing with smoked marijuana in a number states would contradict federal law, undermine the scientific process for establishing safe medicines, and promote use of a crude substance whose purified equivalent is already available for medical use. Determining what medicines are safe and effective must be done scientifically by doctors and researchers, not through political processes. Hard evidence, not anecdote and belief, must determine which pharmaceutical products should be taken for specific ailments. Just as people who are ill don't grow their own penicillin from moldy bread, individuals can't guarantee the purity and dosage of THC by growing crude marijuana. Americans are just beginning to comprehend the enormous public health consequences of cigarettes.
Smoking is a poor delivery system that exposes the person to harmful substances.
Marinol has been made easier for physicians to prescribe. After eighteen months of rigorous study, the Institute of Medicine released its findings this past March. The report condemned the dangers of smoking marijuana, an unrefined botanical product that does not meet the standards for safe and modern medicines, yet noted that cannabinoids like THC may have some medical value in the relief of symptoms. Legalizing the medical use of marijuana is unnecessary and even dangerous given the prevalence of drug abuse, especially among young people. The context for today's drug abuse is unsupervised adolescents, on the one hand, and a global, multibillion-dollar outlaw drug industry, on the other.