Medical Marijuana, I’m Skeptical About A Ban Submitted By Dr. Alan Koslow M.D August 12, 2009

Thia was an article I wrote 2 years ago.
Medical Marijuana, I’m
Skeptical About A Ban
Submitted By Dr. Alan Koslow M.D.
One week from today the State Board of Pharmacy of Iowa
will hold a public hearing on medicinal use of marijuana. This
is an issue that has vexed me for many years. As a physician who
treats patients with severe pain syndromes I have seen many a
patient get addicted to legal prescription pain medication while
still suffering. This is because the legal pain medication is not
the best medication to treat a pain syndrome called neuropathic
pain. How I explain it to my patients is that narcotic pain
medications will knock you out and as your drifting off you are
still experiencing pain. There are multiple studies which have
documented good pain relief with smoking marijuana for neuropathic
pain syndromes. There are many other proven uses for
medical marijuana. However, our prejudices prevent use from
using a proven remedy.
Marijuana has a history that is a mixture of myths and
falsehoods that make it problematic for opponents to change
their attitude. If you haven’t seen the film ‘Reefer Madness’ you
should. It is available free on the web if you look for it. This is
the beginning of many of the myths. Regardless of how you feel
about those myths, and I’m not going to debunk them in this
piece, it is important to put marijuana in perspective to both legal
over the counter products (alcohol and tobacco) and prescription
products (Morphine, Vicodin, Methadone, and many others).
Marijuana has shown no adverse health effects when compared
to either alcohol or tobacco. I think you all know the
terrible health effects of both alcohol and tobacco. Alcohol and
alcoholism causes 85,000 deaths each year from a combination
of direct medical problems or traffic related deaths. Tobacco
causes 430,000 deaths each year. In Britain, official government
statistics listed five deaths from cannabis in the period 1993-
1995. “Tetrahydrocannabinol is a very safe drug. Laboratory
animals (rats, mice, dogs, monkeys) can tolerate doses about
5,000 times more than is required to produce a high.” (from a
British government report). When compared to tobacco there
are equal or less effect on the lungs.
Alcohol and tobacco are two of the most addictive products
in our society. Millions of people are addicted to both. There
are questions about the true physical addiction potential of
marijuana but most experts agree it is less then either of the two
legal products. So if it is purely the addictive potential alcohol
and tobacco should be banned and medical marijuana should be
approved. Now the real question is, since we are only talking
about medical marijuana, how addictive is it compared to
prescription pain and anti-nausea medication. All the evidence
points to marijuana is far less addictive then almost all prescription
pain medication.
So let us get over our paranoia and allow our patients to have
the best treatment available for certain conditions.
Dr. Alan Koslow is a vascular surgeon, former Iowa State
Legislature candidate and a regular on the Deace Group Round
Table on WHO 1040 AM Fridays from 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.