The Debate Over Medical Marijuana

Recently, California legislation voted for Proposition 215 which oversteps federal law, by proclaiming the right of doctors to verbally recommend marijuana to their patients. However, like many political controversies, this one is headed for the courts. After the vote for Prop. 215, General Barry McCaffrey and the Justice Dept. have threatened to revoke the licenses of doctors who prescribe marijuana. This however will be hard to trace since a verbal recommendation doesn't leave a paper trail. But aside from that, this threat to revoke the licenses of doctors who prescribe marijuana is a serious measure because it infringes on the historic power of doctors in the US, and that of doctors in California that are legally protected by Prop. 215. This fuels the arguments that the government has no place in the examination room.

What this whole mess really boils down to is not whether marijuana makes good medicine or even the threat of legalization but the issue of freedom of speech. According to the First Amendment, doctors have the right to discuss freely all possible treatments including marijuana with their patients. The doctor/ patient relationship is just as important if not more than lawyer/ client and priest/ parishioner relationships whose privileged communication is recognized by the federal government. And thus if doctors feel that marijuana is good medicine for their ill patients then they have a right to prescribe it and that information should remain confidential; the federal government really has no right to intervene.

Medical marijuana has not been tested extensively enough to say one way or another whether it is actually good medicine. The problem with marijuana testing is that Washington refuses to allow clinical trial but instead restricts researchers to review literature on medical marijuana. Many doctors, however, feel that marijuana is quite effective in alleviating pain in cancer and AIDS patients, and reducing muscle spasms associated with epilepsy and sclerosis. The undeniable advantage of marijuana for people with chronic pain or with spastic disorders such as multiple sclerosis, is that marijuana intake can be tailored to an individual's needs, whereas many prescription drugs may just knock patients out for the day; marijuana directly responds to the symptoms.

Regardless of public perception, if you are a skeptic and believe that marijuana has no medical worth or if you're a believer in the possible medical benefits of marijuana and its continued research to cure seriously ill people, the medical marijuana controversy should not be debated on its good medicine but rather remain an issue of freedom of speech between doctor and patient, which is why the AMA has already approved the use of medical marijuana in the first place.