Illegal and Unknown
The effort to make marijuana available for medical purposes gained momentum after an Institute of Medicine (IOM) report suggested that the illegal drug held therapeutic potential. In the 1999 study, which was sponsored by the government's anti-drug office, the IOM stated that marijuana's active ingredients might prove effective for a range of conditions. These included countering nausea and lack of appetite from cancer treatment, to helping with painful conditions such as multiple sclerosis. The researchers called for rigorous testing in clinical trials.
Stanley Watson, the co-director of the Mental Health Research Institute at the University of Michigan and one of the authors of the IOM report, said there has been a lack of political interest in pursuing further studies. "There's not enough evidence to let us say that marijuana is a great treatment, nor is there enough evidence to let us say that marijuana is a bad treatment," he said. "The fact is we're stuck."
The Options
At the moment, the only legal marijuana option is Marinol, a prescription pill that contains THC, the active ingredient found in its illegal counterpart. The Food and Drug Administration approved Marinol to help relieve the nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy. This past April, Canadian health authorities allowed for the use of a marijuana spray called Sativex. The new spray, which dissolves in the mouth and treats neurological pain associated with multiple sclerosis, contains THC and another marijuana ingredient, cannabidiol
For those who have tried marijuana to help with their medical conditions, are either of these an effective alternative? Margaret Haney of Columbia University said that a marijuana pill has not exactly caught on, but she contends that such drugs can help.
