A few of many editorial boards that have endorsed medical marijuana include:

Boston Globe Chicago Tribune
Miami Herald
New York Times
Orange County Register
USA Today

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"It has been well known for thousand of years that cannabis has medical uses. It is far safer than most medicines prescribed by doctors daily and often works for patients who cannot tolerate the side effects of other drugs. In many cases no other drug will do the job as safely or as well. Cannabis has never been demonstrated to have caused an overdose death. It does not disturb any physiological functions or damage any body organ when used in therapeutic doses. It produces little or no physical dependence or tolerance, and there is no evidence that medical use of cannabis has ever led to habitual use as an intoxicant. There are many ways in which marihuana can be used to reduce human suffering at small cost. Clinical experience suggests that it is helpful for patients with severe nausea and vomiting, arthritis, glaucoma, muscle spasms, premenstrual syndrome, seizure disorders, the AIDS weight loss syndrome, asthma, fibromyalgia, Tourette’s syndrome, and depression, to name a few."Testimony of Lester Grinspoon, M.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School before the Crime Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. October 1, 1997

Lester Grinspoon, M.D., "Why Won't the Government Let Us Use Marijuana as Medicine?" (Boston Globe, December 7, 2000)

"Marijuana is not the safe drug portrayed by the marijuana lobby. It is addictive; it adversely affects the immune system; leads to the use of other drugs such as cocaine; is linked to cases of cancer; causes respiratory diseases, mental disorders, including psychosis, depression, panic attacks, hallucinations, paranoia, decreased cognitive performance, disconnected thought, delusions, and impaired memory. Marijuana use is a risk factor for the progression to full-blown AIDS in HIV-positive persons, and HIV-positive marijuana smokers have an increased incidence of bacterial pneumonia. My submitted testimony contains scientific reference for all these effects." Statement of Janet Lapey, M.D., Executive Director, Concerned Citizens for Drug Prevention, Inc.

June 6, 2005, the US Supreme Court ruled federal government may prosecute ill people who using marijuana for medical purposes, contrary to state law.  Gonzales v. Raich ruled federal laws may pre-empt state laws.  Congress could decriminalizing medical marijuana.

"Menace or Medicine: Marijuana Reform on the Ballot" (NPR's "Justice Talking" series. Should people with serious medical conditions be able to use marijuana to treat or alleviate their conditions or their symptoms? This issue is the subject of several state ballot initiatives and a recent California lawsuit that seeks the right to use the drug on behalf of AIDS and cancer patients who argue they have no other medical alternatives.

How does THC work? -- 40 years ago, researchers figured THC was the element primarily responsible for marijuana's effects. Now the discovery of a special receptor in cells for THC, a biological slot for what marijuana delivers. This establishes it is not dissolving in membranes of brain cells. There's a specific receptor protein.

Cannabis and the Brain: A User's Guide. Animal studies show cannabinoids inhibit neurodegeneration delay and disease progression. Cannabinoids alleviate depression and anxiety --a safer alternative to anti-depressant pharmaceuticals. Cannabis cannot cause death by overdose. Cannabinoids neuroprotective properties protect the brain-against the damage from of strokes and acute head trauma. THC targets malignant cells. Deadly, aggressive glioma tumors are unresponsive to treatment and rapidly devastate brain tissue. Glioma tumors do respond to cannabis. Non-psychoactive cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) provides neuroprotecion, against alcohol-induced brain damage. CBD reduced ethanol-induced cell brain death up to 60 percent. Cannabinoids stop the progression of lung carcinoma, leukemia, skin carcinoma, colectoral cancer, prostate cancer and breast cancer and may slow neurodegenerative disease progression: Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/Lou Gehrig's Disease. Marijuana does not have a long or short-term negative impact on global intelligence.

Medical Marijuana Briefing Paper 2002 -- For thousands of years, marijuana has been used to treat a wide variety of ailments. Until 1937, marijuana Cannabis sativa L. was legal in the US for all purposes. March 17, 1999, the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded "there are some limited circumstances in which we recommend smoking marijuana for medical uses." The IOM report is the result of 2 years of research funded by the White House drug policy office of all existing data on marijuana's therapeutic uses.

"At a secret location in the home counties of England, 15 000 cannabis plants are being grown quite legally. They are being bred from strains whose names Hindu Kush, Skunk, Northern Lights, Gloria are redolent of the Amsterdam coffee house scene. Their psychoactive seed heads, which stand over two metres high, are carefully studied but never smoked. For these plants are being cultivated as part of the world's first commercial trial of medicinal cannabis. The company behind the trial, GW Pharmaceuticals ... " HighWire Press

The Marijuana Policy Project The Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the US. MPP works to minimize the harm associated with marijuana. MPP believes that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is prison. MPP focuses on removing criminal penalties for marijuana use, with an emphasis on making marijuana medically available to seriously ill people who have the approval of their doctors.

Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base Institute of Medicine's report.

Making medical marijuana legally available

State By State Medical Marijuana Laws: How to Remove the Threat of Arrest

Canada's national medical marijuana program: A model for the U.S.?

Pot Club Crackdown -- Since 1996, Mirron Willis has been on an assortment of prescription HIV treatment drugs to keep his viral load down, but they make it hard to keep a meal down. The only effective antidote for his nausea is marijuana. In this time of national emergency, federal law enforcement agents are pulling out all the stops to nail medical marijuana clubs.

"When I first tried the marijuana, I felt hunger for the first time since I felt sick. It was amazing. From that day forward, I've been a convert," he states, pointing out that his weight's been stable ever since. With marijuana to control his symptoms, he considers himself to be in "pretty good health overall." But the marijuana that has given John Precup back his well being has also made him a criminal.

Media Enlist in Government Marijuana Crusade -- Why the government and press furor over cannabis as medicine? Do the 8% of the teens who smoke marijuana represent such a national calamity that it should lead ABC to launch "an unprecedented public service campaign"? fair

Let them eat chemo -- Will the Supreme Court's ruling shut down the medical marijuana movement? At every level the US Government remains steadfast in its opposition to the demon weed. Even if it's being smoked by bald old ladies in wheelchairs. Salon

Half an Ounce of Healing -- The desperately ill members of a Santa Cruz marijuana club aren't growing pot to get high or make money. They just want to find some relief.

Turns Out It's Not the Black Cats You Have to Watch Our For

Clinical Trials for Marijuana Based Pain Reliever in Canada

Support federal medical marijuana legislation

Medical Marijuana Studies Seek Patients

Copyright Kari Sable Burns 1994-2007