Can Marijuana Make You Well?>>By George Nava True II>>

At one time, it was hip to smoke pot. Before marijuana became an illegal>>drug, it was popular among European writers and intellectuals. Those who>>used this drug include the likes of French writer Victor Hugo, German>>philosopher­ Friedrich Nietzsche, American actor Errol Flynn, and former US>>President John F. Kennedy.>>Today, marijuana is making a comeback - not as a recreational drug but as>

medicine. Many glaucoma and AIDS patients are turning to this cheap weed>>upon the recommendation of some doctors. Cancer patients are likewise told>>that marijuana can lessen the side effects of chemotherapy.>>

Ancient Remedy>>All this is not new. The ancient Egyptians recommended marijuana for sore>>eyes while various cultures used it to treat coughs, headaches, and>>menstrual cramps. Chinese Emperor Shen Nung was convinced the plant could>>cure beriberi, malaria, rheumatism, and constipation.>>In ancient India, marijuana was the standard treatment for fever and>>dysentery while African women smoked it to relieve the pain of childbirth.>>Other conditions believed to be cured by marijuana were anxiety, asthma,>>depression­, epilepsy, and loss of appetite. Small wonder it has become the>>most popular illegal drug in the United States and the second most>

abused drug in the Philippines.>>

Fact or Folklore?>>However,­ health authorities, particularly the American Medical>

insist that the old uses of marijuana are part of medical folklore not>

Can the same be said about marijuana's role in glaucoma and cancer?>>That notion was proposed by Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Lester Grinspoon and>>James Bakalar in their book Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine. The two>

marijuana could ease nausea and vomiting associated with cancer>>chemotherap­y, improve the appetite of AIDS patients, and help those with>>glaucoma. While editors of The New England Journal of Medicine and The>>Annals of Medicine dismissed Grinspoon's book for containing mostly>>anectodal evidence, it became a ray of hope to many desperate patients.>>

No Reason to Work>>Scientists say there is no compelling reason to prescribe marijuana for>

condition. While marijuana can lower eye pressure due to glaucoma, it also>>lowers blood pressure. This, in turn, lowers the blood supply to the optic>>nerve and may cancel the beneficial effects of lowering eye pressure.>>Because of this, it is not recommended by the US National Eye Institute.>>"Today,­ there's not enough scientific evidence that marijuana could be>

and effective for anybody to do a controlled trial on marijuana and>>glaucoma," according to Dr. Richard Brubaker, an ophthalmologist at the>

Clinic in Minnesota. "The preliminary evidence is just not strong enough.">>

Pot and Cancer>>Smoked marijuana appears to be effective against nausea and vomiting due>

chemotherapy. This is due to tetrahydrocannabino­l (THC), one of the>

main ingredients. But doctors are wary about giving the drug freely since>>marijuana contains over 400 carcinogens or cancer-causing substances and>

been implicated in cancers of the lungs, mouth, lips, and tongue. Besides,>>advances in chemotherapy have paved the way for the development of>

anti-nausea medications without marijuana's side effects and high>

for abuse.>>"Marijuana is not a pure substance but is an unstable, varying complex>>mixture of over 400 chemicals, many of which are harmful substances which>>have not been well-studied either alone or in combination with each other.>>New harmful chemical components of marijuana are still being discovered.>>When smoked, marijuana produces over 2,000 chemicals, including hydrogen>>cyanide, ammonia, carbon monoxide, acetaldehyde, acetone, phenol, cresol,>>naphtalene­, and well-known carcinogens such as benz(a)pyrene,>>ben­z(a)anthracene, benzene and nitrosamine. Many of these cancer-causing>>sub­stances are present in higher concentrations in marijuana smoke than in>>tobacco smoke," revealed Dr. Janet D. Lapey of the Concerned Citizens for>>Drug Prevention, Inc.>>

Risks of Smoking Pot>>Aside from addiction, marijuana can wreak havoc on your immune system,>

respiratory diseases, and mental disorders such as depression,>>halluc­inations, and panic attacks. Pregnant women who smoke marijuana have>>an increased risk of delivering babies with low birth weight and leukemia.>>With these in mind, don't expect to get a prescription for marijuana from>>your doctor in the near future. Until the medical benefits of marijuana>

proven, smoking pot is defintely out.>>"Although marijuana continues to be available for research, over 12,000>>scientific studies on marijuana have been published, and the drug has>

been shown to be safe or effective for the treatment of any condition. In>>June 1991, the US Public Health Service ordered a study of this issue by>>scientists at the National Institutes of Health. The report, issued in>

1992, concluded that scientific studies have never shown marijuana to be>>safe or effective as medicine and that there are better, safer drugs>>available for all conditions considered," Lapey concluded.