What Religious Liberty?
The Incredible Ever-Expanding Dead End
Anti-Cure, Anti-Life
Whose Values in
Education?
Toppling
Dominos
Anti-Christians
don't have to be Hypocrites but Many Volunteer
Intolerant Tolerance
The Emperor's
Clothes or a Cheap Tuxedo
The Myth of
Hitler's Pope, Part I
The Myth of
Hitler's Pope, Part II
Embryonic
Stem Cell Research Again
The Madness of
Secularism
"Don't Impose Your
Religion on Me"
Dictatorship of Relativism
Two Babies at Christmas
Living Will or Death
Warrant?
Court Ordered
Slow Motion Torture-Death Sentence
Men in Black
A Lot of Hot Air
The Culture War
Battles
"Stay with us, Lord"
Secular-to-English Dictionary
Moral Guidance for
Catholics in this Election
Christians
Losing America
Stem Cell Wars
Catholic
Pro-Abortion Politicians and Communion
Useful Idiots
Who Killed Jesus?
A Primer on Gay
Marriage
Whose Side are You
on?
Vouchers Revisited
Real and Fake
Cloning Bans
Broken Compasses
No Room in the Inn
Killing Fields
Revisited
Gay but not Merry
Adam and Steve?
The Battle for the Court
Victimless Crimes
More Salt, Please
The Next Big Fight
When Religion
Becomes Evil
Virginity Making a Comeback?
You've Come a Long Way,
Baby
The Incarnational
Approach
The Many Meanings of ACLU
Things Your Media Never Told
You
A Nasty Little Secret
Two Points of View on the Birth of Jesus
You Gotta Kill Them. How Else
Are They Going To Learn?
Perplexing Christmas Questions
How Do You See Christ Today?
Now that there is Another Ewe, will there be
Another You?
What is Conscience Anyhow?
Divorce of Love and Life
What Counts as a Mass?
What is a Covenant?
I Wish I had Your Faith
Are there Too Many Decrees of
Nullity?
Dutch Treats
Ecumenism
Going from Baby Doe to Granny Doe
Comments of Evangelium Vitae
The Exception Corrupts the Rule
Good Morality or
Good Medicine
Generation-X'ers Smart in Every Way But
One
A Matter of Good Breeding
Herod and Pontius Pilate at the
Polls
Hitler's Pope or Righteous Gentile?
The Unknown God
What exactly is wrong with
homosexuality?
Ideology Trumps Science, Reality,
and Common Sense
What Exactly is an Indulgence?
Infallibility and Error in the Church
Pilate Asked, "What is Truth?"
The Truth about Families
New Killing Fields
Choice of Language and Language of
Choice
A Lexicon for Our Day
Why are there so many bodies?
Marijuana, Medicine or Menace?
Medical Research and Ethics
Meditation
"You Taught me well,
Mommie dearest"
Moral Fallout
Neutral on the Wrong
Side
"These are the
Nineties After All"
Many are Wed but Few
are Married
"...Prepare him for
additional obligations"
A Useful Lie
A Partridge in a
Pear Tree
Religious Persecution in
the U.S.?
What Makes a Person a
Person?
The Point of a Point of
View
Politically Correct,
Morally Depraved
Population
Controllers out of Control
Practical Dreamers
Social Progress
through Immorality
Shall we Do Evil for
Goodness Sake?
Reason and Faith
Resurrection Glory
Same Sex Marriages?
Pearl of Great Price
"I used to be
schizophrenic, but we're all right now"
Sexual Morality
Irrelevant in Judging Public Officials?
Undesirable Side Effects
Some News is Good News
SOSSLQ's, not POSSLQ's
Spoils of Splits
Why Attend Mass
Every Sunday?
Is it All Right to Pull
the Plug?
An Appeal for Intolerance
Topics Catechetical
A Voting Catechism
A Moral Guide to
Voting
Vouchers: Has Their Time Come?
What Child is This?
What did they die of?
You are the Man
You may be a liberal
if...
Get Rid of that Worthless
Relative
Planned Un-Parenthood
Weighing Pro-Life Issues
Prior to Voting
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by Monsignor James C. Brunner |
 Faith
Points |
Marijuana, Medicine or Menace?
Two states, California and Arizona, have passed initiatives to decriminalize smoking marijuana for "medicinal" purposes. Those favoring decriminalization claim that marijuana is useful for glaucoma, for suppressing nausea in persons taking chemotherapy, for relieving pain in persons suffering from cancer, for countering wasting syndrome in AIDS patients. It is supposed to ease the symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
Legalization, they state, would eliminate turf wars among drug dealers and save money wasted on the drug war and in building more prisons. There is no hope of winning the battle against drugs. The drug war has been lost.
It is inconsistent, argue the proponents, to legalize alcohol and tobacco and outlaw marijuana, which is less harmful than both. It is not true that marijuana is a gateway to harder drugs. Most often it is a terminal drug (no pun intended!).
We are by nature rational beings. It is not rational but immoral for one to risk destroying his or her body for the sole purpose of a self-serving euphoria especially since the changed state often leads to other moral evils. This would not apply if the substance is necessary for alleviating pain. This is precisely the argument that proponents try to make. The problem with the argument is that marijuana is not a medicine. Some 12,000 studies have not found it to be safe and effective one. Most American Health Associations reject it as a medicine including the American Medical Association, American Cancer Society, National Multiple Sclerosis Association and the American Academy of Ophthalmology. They all condemn the production, use, and sale of marijuana. In 1994 Robert Bonner, DEA Administrator said, "By an modern scientific standard, marijuana is no medicine." A court after hearing dozens of experts upheld his ruling.Let us look at the glaucoma claims. Studies have shown that the ingredient THC (Delta-9 Tetrahydrocannobinol) in marijuana could not lower intraocular pressure enough to prevent optic nerve damage. The Department of Health and Human Services declares, "Marijuana offers no advantage over currently available glaucoma drugs and indeed could be less effective than these agents."
Neither is marijuana effective against the wasting syndrome associated with AIDS. Proponents claim that marijuana increases appetite and decreases nausea. If true, it is not an unmixed blessing. It also suppresses the immune system by impairing the ability of T-cells to fight off infection, which would be detrimental to AIDS patients. Many AIDS patients are afflicted with pneumonia and marijuana actually increases its incidence. The deep inhalation of characteristic of marijuana smokers makes it harmful for patients with impaired lung capacity such as pneumonia patients.
A controlled study by Dr. H. S. Greenberg reported in Pharmacology and Therapy showed that smoking marijuana made symptoms of multiple sclerosis worse. Many chemicals in marijuana are known to be harmful while others have yet to be studied. It contains carcinogens in greater concentration than tobacco. It is possible that doctors who prescribe marijuana could be sued for medical malpractice.
When marijuana smokers claim alleviation of certain symptoms they may well be reacting like persons who bought snake oil in days past. The elixir, laced liberally with alcohol, made people "feel" better but actually harmed them if they were persuaded from not getting the real medicine they required.
We are not yet finished reciting the baneful effects of marijuana. Marijuana induces a dream like state in which ideas are disconnected and free-flowing, interfering with a person’s willingness to pay attention. It distorts and enhances time, color,, and spatial perceptions. Difficulty with depth perception and an altered sense of timing make marijuana users dangerous at the control of any vehicle. The Physicians Desk Reference states that THC, the main ingredient in marijuana, causes "decreased ability to control drives and impulses." Dr. Don R. Cherek in Psychopharmacology showed that smoking marijuana caused increased aggressive behavior in inner city males. Just what we need in our violence prone society. Marijuana is addictive. Over 100,000 persons seek treatment for marijuana each year.
Marijuana leads to birth defects. Researchers found significant negative effects of prenatal marijuana exposure on the performance of both African American and Caucasian children in intelligence tests. On average children exposed prenatally to marijuana will have a lower IQ compared to children who are not exposed, even when the effects of environmental factors are adjusted. Marijuana has caused damaged to the cerebral system of rhesus monkeys. Babies born to marijuana users were shorter, weighed less, and had smaller head sizes than children born to non-users.
Whatever may be the truth about the medicinal benefits of marijuana they are obliterated by the long-term damage not only to users, but to future generations. This is not just snake oil. Marijuana is a real snake that bites. Any benefit from marijuana can be provided better by other medicines approved by the FDA.
Legalizing marijuana will not reduce crime. Crimes do not occur just because people want to buy drugs but because they use them. We are not losing the war on drugs. Since 1979 drug usage has dropped significantly. In 1979 24 million people were current drug users; in 1994 only 13 million were. Drug abuse is a preventable disease. The costs of the drug war are miniscule compared with the costs of drug abuse.
The comparisons between marijuana and alcohol and tobacco are not valid. True, both can cause disease and death. It is possible to use alcohol moderately with no prejudice to and even an enhancement of health, as in lowering cholesterol. The correct use of marijuana has as its intent intoxication. Marijuana is potentially more harmful than tobacco. Tobacco does not produce the behavior modification of marijuana.
Herbert Kleber, M.D. in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry reported that 20% of those who used marijuana 3 to 10 times went on to use cocaine and 75% of those who used marijuana 100 times went on to use cocaine. If marijuana is not a gateway to harder drugs it will serve until someone builds one.
Legalization of marijuana will lead to increased drug usage. Legalization was given a try in Alaska in 1975 and it was a signal to adolescents to light up. A 1988 study by University of Alaska showed that 12 to 17 year olds used marijuana at more than twice the national average for their age group. In Oregon legalization led to similar results. In 1990 Alaskans voted overwhelmingly to recriminalize marijuana. In the Netherlands legalization of drugs which was meant to reduce crime resulted in a 30% increase in marijuana addicts and a 22% increase for other drug users.
In looking at the initiative approved in California it is hard to overcome a suspicion that terminal patients were shamefully used as a cover for a measure that effectively legalizes marijuana for virtually everyone. The California initiative is unbelievably sloppy unless one presupposes that it was written by a drug dealer. In that case it is brilliant. It does not define "physician." A health caretaker could be unlicensed. There is no requirement for written prescriptions or record keeping. It is not confined to serious illnesses but permitted for "any illness…for which marijuana provides relief." This could be headaches, hiccups, or hysteria. There is no age limit. Children could use marijuana "medicinally." Far from asking that marijuana be treated like a medicine it bypasses the scrutiny of the FDA. It allows any quantities of marijuana to be grown anywhere. If your neighbor grows it what prevents him for giving or selling it to your child? Parents will have a more difficult job than before in teaching their adolescents to stay away from this "medicine."
If legalization of marijuana rears its ugly head in your state resist it with all your might. Immorality has never brought societal improvement.
