Lester Grinspoon
BACK IN 1966,
concerned that so many young people were harming themselves through the
use of marijuana, I began to review the medical and scientific
literature to help clarify the nature of this harmfulness. Much to my
surprise, I discovered that it was a substance remarkably free of
toxicity.
In fact, it is far safer than any pharmaceutical or recreational drug.
There is no record of a single overdose death around the world from its
recreational or medicinal use. Compare that to aspirin, which is
responsible for more than 1,000 deaths per year in this country alone.
Many of those who staunchly defend the prohibition against marijuana
believe we do not yet know enough about it to be able to make the kinds
of decisions that are now necessary.
Despite the US government’s
three-quarter-century-long prohibition of marijuana and its confinement
to Schedule 1 of the Drug Control and Abuse Act
of 1970, it is nonetheless one of the most studied therapeutically
active substances in history; to date there are more than 20,000
published studies or reviews in the scientific literature referencing
the cannabis plant and its cannabinoids, nearly half of which were
published within the past five years.
By contrast hydrocodone, a pharmaceutical opioid which is responsible
for a large and growing number of overdose deaths from illicit use,
yields just more than 600 references in the entire compilation of the
available scientific research. The entirety of this research supports
none of the claims made by Governor Charlie Baker and his colleagues in
their op-ed in the Boston Globe.
No comments:
Post a Comment