It’s only a matter of time before recreational marijuana use becomes legalized across the country. Legalization is not likely to occur as a response to some widespread movement focused on restoring freedom to the people, it most likely will follow the same path as did alcohol in the 1920’s: citizens will become increasingly annoyed by all the negative effects of prohibition and forget what all the fuss was about to begin with. I’m fairly certain this will happen in time for me to share a beer and a smoke with my future children before they go off to college (but don’t tell my grandpa that—he was whiskey drinker/cigar smoker). Alcohol prohibition that began in the 1940’s was sponsored by evangelical Protestant churches, in particular the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Disciples and Congregationalists. Starting in Kansas and Maine, the movement didn’t really catch fire until the early 1900’s when it was taken over by the Anti-Saloon League that lobbied for nationwide prohibition during World War I. As is typical of these types of movements, special interest groups generated propaganda to gather supporters: alcohol prohibition would purportedly reduce domestic violence at home, keep our soldiers strong and fit for battle and—most importantly—prevent the Germans from ruling our country from afar via irresistible Hefeweizens and Pilseners.
Yet Another Reason to Legalize Marijuana
A typical scene at a Prohibition-era speakeasy
A similar sort of movement has been occurring over the last decade in regard to the legalization of marijuana. There is strong evidence that marijuana can provide long-term palliative care for patients in significant pain. Among the most commonly cited benefits is its ability to reduce nausea and vomiting and stimulate hunger in chemotherapy and AIDS patients. Other less established benefits of the drug include treatment of premenstrual syndrome, unintentional weight loss, neurogenic pain, movement disorders, asthma and glaucoma. The FDA reported that between 1997 and 2005, zero deaths were caused by primary use of marijuana. These findings have led to the drug’s legalization for medicinal use in many states. These laws have appeared to provide great benefits to patients. One of my close friends, an ER physician and medicinal marijuana prescriber in Michigan, adamantly proclaims that the pain relief provided by prescription-strength marijuana matches or beats the relief provided by highly addictive narcotics. The only different, he says, is that patients cease their drug-seeking behavior and learn to maintain a stable level of comfort.
Of course, studies have demonstrated some drawbacks to marijuana use including negative effects on intelligence , memory , respiratory function and higher incidence of mental disorders among users, which include schizophrenia , psychosis and depression . But it isn’t clear that the incidence of these problems exceeds the incidence we would expect to see with use of other recreational drugs such as alcohol. At this point, all we know is that marijuana use does appear to have negative psychological effects if used during young adulthood. But many researchers question the methodology used in these studies and, even if sound, these results haven’t been reliably reproduced in older populations.
Synethetic marijuana, known as "Spice" or "K2"
The typical response of researchers to these types of reports is to stress the importance of cracking down on illegal production of synthetic marijuana and reiterate the dangers of drug abuse to our youth—as if we weren’t doing that before. We act as though these types of findings give us new insight into the dangers of drug abuse even though all they demonstrate is that when denied something they know to be relatively harmless, youths turn to something they mistakenly believe to be equally harmless. I am not suggesting that all drugs should be legalized, for many like cocaine and methamphetamine are highly addictive and have extremely negative effects over the long term. What I am suggesting is that we question whether the evidence against the legalization of marijuana really stands up to its purported benefits. Maybe legalization of marijuana would provide those 11,406 people with a level of access to a drug they couldn’t avoid abusing. Maybe a good chunk would suffer from minor cognitive deficits preventing them from winning a Nobel Prize. But none of them would have landed in the hospital.
