Marihuana as medicine: a plea for reconsideration

Article Abstract:

The beneficial therapeutic uses of medical marijuana should be weighed against the perceived hazards of its recreational use. Marijuana can treat vomiting and nausea caused by chemotherapy treatments and stimulate appetite and relieve pain for AIDS patients. Although cannabis historically has been recommended as a safe and effective muscle relaxant, anti-convulsant, and analgesic, its medical use is currently not accepted in the U.S. Following two years of testimony from physicians and patients, the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) administrative law judge declared in 1988 that marijuana should be used for medical purposes, but was overruled the DEA. The FDA had allowed a Compassionate Investigational New Drug use, but has granted few people this permission. In 1992 the provision was dropped because it conflicted with the administration's campaign against illegal drugs. Marijuana is far less addictive than some of the prescription drugs on the market.

Author: Grinspoon, Lester, Bakalar, James B.
Health aspects, Medical marijuana

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On-line medicine @ nih.gov

Article Abstract:

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is actively uploading medical information to the Internet. The NIH Website contains links to all of the member institutes that supply medical information to physicians and consumers. One link is to the National Cancer Institute's CancerNet, which includes links to the PDQ database of clinical cancer trials and abstracts of the institute's journal. The link to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases includes information on AIDS and links to other online AIDS resources. The link to the National Library of Medicine includes the full text of clinical practice guidelines and links to online bibliographic databases such as MEDLINE. The library's History of Medicine exhibit provides almost 60,000 images that can be viewed online and the Visible Human Project contains 55 gigabytes of anatomical images.

Author: Ferguson, John H.
Evaluation, Information services, United States. National Institutes of Health, World Wide Web

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