Expert: Brenda Martin - 2/17/2005

Question
This is for my Benchmark. Please help me with your expertise. Give me your knowledge.

What do you know about it?

Do you think marijuana can help people who have glaucoma? Why?

Do you think the government is wrong for taking people who are on medical marijuana off of it, even when it works better for them than almost any other drug?Why?

Answer
Here is what I know about the drug—

Marijuana users have long contended that the drug is relatively harmless. However, “new evidence suggests [that marijuana's] effects in the brain resemble those of ‘hard' drugs such as heroin,” reports the journal Science. Scientists from the United States, Spain, and Italy conducted the studies. Among their findings was that “the active ingredient in marijuana—a cannabinoid known as THC—results in the same key biochemical event that seems to reinforce dependence on other drugs, from nicotine to heroin: a release of dopamine in part of the brain's ‘reward' pathway,” which keeps users coming back for more. When long-term marijuana use is stopped, the level of another chemical, a peptide called corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), rises in the brain. CRF has been linked to the emotional stress and anxiety that result from withdrawal from opiates, alcohol, and cocaine. Accordingly, one researcher said: “I would be satisfied if, following all this evidence, people would no longer consider THC a ‘soft' drug.”

David Powelson, M.D., formerly chief of psychiatry, Cowell Hospital, University of California, Berkeley, at one time advocated legalizing the use of marijuana. Later, after more evidence was available, he wrote: “I now believe that marijuana is the most dangerous drug we must contend with: 1. Its early use is beguiling. The user is given an illusion of feeling good; he cannot sense the deterioration of his mental and physiological processes. 2. Its continued use leads to delusional thinking. After one to three years of continuous use, the pathological forms of thinking begin to take over the thought process.”—Executive Health Report,

Dr. Robert L. DuPont, former director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the United States, who in the past was quoted as minimizing danger from marijuana, more recently stated: “The real issue is the health danger posed by this epidemic [of marijuana use by the younger generation], danger of at least two kinds. One is the effects of the intoxication, ranging from the hazardous impact on driving to caring less about everything. The other area is purely physical. Here the concerns range from the regular occurrence of chronic bronchitis among marijuana users to the very real possibilities of harmful hormonal effects, effects on the immune system and possibly even cancer.”—Montreal Gazette,

Science Digest provided these details: “Regular marijuana puffing may, in the long run, widen the gaps between nerve endings in the brain that are necessary for such vital functions as memory, emotion and behavior. In order for nerves to perform their functions, they must communicate between themselves.” Then, commenting on the results of tests involving animals, the article continues: “The most marked effects occurred in the septal region, associated with emotions; the hippocampus, concerned with memory formation; and the amygdala, responsible for certain behavioural functions"

“Marijuana is a very potent drug, and the biggest mistake we make is comparing it to alcohol.” “Molecule for molecule, THC [in marijuana] is 10,000 times stronger than alcohol in its ability to produce mild intoxication . . . THC is removed slowly from the body, and many months are required to recover from its effects.” (Executive Health Report,)

Consider, for example, the lungs. Even marijuana's staunchest supporters admit that inhaling smoke cannot possibly be good for you. Marijuana smoke, like the smoke from tobacco, consists of a number of toxic substances, such as tars.

Dr. Forest S. Tennant, Jr., surveyed 492 U.S. Army soldiers who had used marijuana. Nearly 25 percent of them “suffered sore throats from smoking cannabis, and some 6 percent reported that they had suffered from bronchitis.” In another study, 24 out of 30 marijuana users were found to have bronchial “lesions characteristic of the early stages of cancer.”

True, no one can guarantee that such ones will actually develop cancer later on. But would you want to run that risk?

Based on my knowledge, I would say any medicinal benefits that may be gained from its use are outweighed by the dangers and long term affects.

All the best
Brenda