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Marijuana Should Be Legalized for Medical Use

 The Legalization of Marijuana, 2016

From Opposing Viewpoints in Context

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"Marijuana has been used throughout the world for thousands of years, and its medicinal benefits are incontrovertible."

In the following viewpoint, the Drug Policy Alliance argues that marijuana is safe and effective as a medicine for the treatment of many illnesses. The alliance reports that because of this and the change in public opinion, about half the states now allow the use of medical marijuana. The author claims that the federal government should not interfere with the states and should do more to support research about medical marijuana. The Drug Policy Alliance is a national advocacy leader of drug law reform that is grounded in science, compassion, health, and human rights.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, what two states most recently adopted laws to legalize the use of medical marijuana?

2. What are at least two of the medical conditions that the author claims can be effectively treated by use of medical marijuana?

3. In what way has the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) created a catch-22, according to the author?

Since the 1990s, polls have shown public support for medical marijuana ranging from 70 to 80 percent. Twenty-three states, one U.S. territory (Guam), and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. Thirteen jurisdictions did so by popular vote—Alaska (58% voter approval), Arizona (65%), California (56%), Colorado (54%), Guam (56%), Maine (61%), Massachusetts (63%), Michigan (63%), Montana (62%), Nevada (65%), Oregon (55%), Washington State (59%) and Washington, D.C. (69%)—while Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont did so through the legislative process.

State Medical Marijuana Laws

State medical marijuana programs vary in significant ways, but most are tightly controlled and regulated by the state health departments. All but one (Washington State) issue identification cards to patients, which help law enforcementrecognize who is a valid medical marijuana patient. Seventeen states and D.C. regulate and license centers that produce and dispense marijuana to patients (or will begin doing so in the near future). In California, medical marijuana production and distribution is regulated locally.

The two most recent states to legalize medical marijuana, New York and Minnesota, adopted more limited laws. For example, Minnesota does not allow access to or use of the raw marijuana plant, and neither state permits smoking marijuana—in spite of the strong scientific evidence about the efficacy of smoked marijuana in whole plant form. While these two states' new laws will help thousands of patients, they could be significantly strengthened to provide relief for thousands more.

States that have adopted medical marijuana laws have experienced few, if any, significant problems. Several recent studies have found that medical marijuana laws do not result in an increase—and might actually result in a decrease—in rates of marijuana use as well as traffic fatalities, prescription overdose deaths, suicides, and crime rates.

The Safety and Efficacy of Medical Marijuana

Marijuana has been used throughout the world for thousands of years, and its medicinal benefits are incontrovertible, now proven by decades of peer-reviewed, controlled studies published in highly respected medical journals. Marijuana has been shown to alleviate symptoms of a wide range of debilitating medical conditions, including cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), epilepsy, Crohn's disease, and glaucoma, and is often an effective alternative to narcotic painkillers.

Evidence of marijuana's efficacy in treating severe and intractable pain is particularly impressive. Researchers at the University of California conducted a decade of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials on the medical utility of inhaled marijuana, concluding that marijuana should be a "first line treatment" for patients with painful neuropathy, who often do not respond to other available treatments. In 1999, the White House commissioned the national Institute of Medicine (IOM) to conduct a two-year review of the scientific data then available with respect to marijuana's potential medical benefits. The study team concluded that, "nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety ... all can be mitigated by marijuana."

More recent research has only confirmed marijuana's broad spectrum of medicinal benefits, even finding that marijuana has potent anti-cancer properties and could one day help unlock new cancer treatments.

The Federal Government

Under our federalist system of government, there are independent state and federal laws regarding marijuana. A state may choose to pass laws making the use of medical marijuana legal under its own laws. Nevertheless, the use of marijuana for any reason remains illegal under federal law, and the federal government retains its ability to arrest and prosecute patients under federal law even if their actions are legal under state law.

Until recently, this situation presented major difficulties for states trying to regulate medical marijuana, leaving lawful patients, and especially providers, vulnerable to arrest and interference from federal law enforcement. However, in August of 2013, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it will allow states to implement laws that legally regulate the production, distribution and sale of marijuana at the state level. The DOJ issued a directive to U.S. attorneys across the country outlining federal objectives for enforcing marijuana laws in states where it is now legal. While reserving the right to challenge state laws in the future, and to enforce federal laws under certain circumstances, the federal government will coordinate with states rather than interfere unless states fail to meet certain core federal priorities, such as preventing access to marijuana by minors, diversion of marijuana to neighboring states, revenue going to criminal enterprises, increases in violence or drugged driving, and damage to public lands.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) have created a catch-22 for patients, doctors and scientists by denying that marijuana is a medicine because it is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—while simultaneously obstructing the very research required for marijuana to gain FDA approval.

Marijuana remains the only Schedule I drug that DEA prohibits from being produced by private laboratories for scientific research. While there is a plethora of scientific research establishing marijuana's safety and efficacy, NIDA and DEA have effectively blocked the standard FDA development process that would allow for the marijuana plant to be brought to market as a prescription medicine. Although DEA licenses multiple privately funded manufacturers of all other Schedule I drugs, it permits just one facility—operated by NIDA—to supply marijuana to scientists. NIDA has refused to provide marijuana for several major FDA-approved studies.

The Drug Policy Alliance [DPA] played a primary role in the passage of medical marijuana laws in eleven states, starting with California's Proposition 215 in 1996. DPA is committed to increasing the number of states that allow for medical use under state law, strengthening existing state medical marijuana programs, protecting patients from criminal sanctions and discrimination, ending the federal prohibition of marijuana, and ultimately removing marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970 to facilitate research, ensure patient access and allow for marijuana's legal regulation.