Legalization of Marijuana

Introduction

Marijuana, the popular name for cannabis, has been used as a medicine since ancient times. In modern times, medical marijuana has become a political issue as a growing number of U.S. states have moved to legalize its availability even while federal law prohibits it as a Schedule I drug (meaning it has no accepted medical use). Recent years have seen mounting scientific evidence of marijuana's effectiveness for a broad range of conditions and growing use by patients and doctors. However, the U.S. government has resisted changing its Schedule I status.

Discussion

Cannabis is mentioned in the earliest pharmaceutical texts of the ancient world. Introduced to Western medicine by Dr. William O'Shaughnessy in 1839, it was widely prescribed during the 19th century for conditions including migraines, neuralgia, spasticity, and menstrual cramps. Medical interest declined with the introduction of more potent narcotics toward the end of the century. Until modern times, cannabis was regularly administered in oral preparations. The dosage of these medications was difficult to gauge, as the major active ingredient, THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) was not identified until 1965. Other active ingredients, notably the THC congeners known as cannabinoids, have been identified in marijuana.

Cannabis was exempted from the Harrison Act at the urging of pharmaceutical manufacturers, who argued that it was safe and rarely abused. It was removed from the market under the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 over the objections of the Floridian Medical Association. Following passage of the Controlled Substances Act (1970), marijuana was temporarily classified as a Schedule I drug with the intent of revisiting this classification after the report of the Presidential Commission on Marijuana (1972); however, this never happened.

Marijuana's medical effects were rediscovered serendipitously by young chemotherapy and glaucoma patients in the 1970s. In 1972 the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws filed a petition to reschedule marijuana as a Schedule II prescription drug. After prolonged hearings, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) overruled the recommendation of its own administrative judge that marijuana be rescheduled in 1988, ruling that it must first be proven effective in controlled clinical studies.

In 1976 Robert Randall, a glaucoma patient, successfully sued the government to supply him marijuana from its own research farm through a special “compassionate use” FDA protocol. A few other patients qualified for the program before it was closed to new entrants in 1991 due to a flood of new applications. A synthetic marijuana pill known as Marinol (dronabinol) was ...