SOCIAL WORK IN PUBLIC HEALTH

Views on Medical Marijuana and its Future

Social Work in Public Health:
Seweh Kpan
Wright State University

SOCIAL WORK IN PUBLIC HEALTH

Abstract
Today, the idea of medical marijuana usage is controversial in the United States
according to laws, policies, public opinions, and scientific inferences. Federal law has
banned the use of medical marijuana although eighteen state governments including
Washington D.C., support this use. Some rulings favor the federal government's opinion
and others supported the larger public view. Legalizing medical marijuana has always
been favored by most of U.S the public. While marijuana is prohibited in most states, it is
only a matter of time before medical and recreational use is legalized in the near future. .
By using three forces such as; scientific knowledge, social-political acceptance, and laws,
each will to demonstrate where marijuana takes place today. Scientific research results
should aid the decisions for laws and medical use of marijuana; this method will foretell the
future of medical marijuana by judging the past history of its journey in the social-political
arena.

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Introduction
Should U.S congress men legalize marijuana in all states to aid hospitals when
giving treatment to patients? However, You are probably wondering how does marijuana
help treat patients? In 1970, the US Congress placed marijuana in Schedule I of the
Controlled Substance Act because they deem it to have no accepted medical use. Since
then, 18 of 50 states and DC have legalized the medical use of marijuana. Medical
marijuana can be safe and effective treatment for the symptoms of cancer, AIDS, multiple
sclerosis, pain, glaucoma, epilepsy and other conditions (Thomas. 2010). Smoking
marijuana for medicinal purposes continues to increase its horizons (to people who
thought negatively about it), especially after many states began to legalize its use
(Thomas. 2010). Advocates of medical marijuana legalization claim that smoking
marijuana induces harmless effects and improves the quality of life, especially in
chronically ill patients (Voelker, 1994). Although more states are getting ready to legalize
medical marijuana, the federal government remains steadfast in its intent to keep
marijuana as a restricted drug (Hoffmann & Weber, 2010). Multiple studies, prominent
medical organizations, government reports, and the use of marijuana throughout its history
back up these efforts to legalize marijuana. The future of legalizing medical marijuana
could prevail.

Scientific Studies and Opinion

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By the 1980s, per some reports, marijuana had made positive impact on seriously ill
patients. Medical use of marijuana in glaucoma became anecdotal to treat the nausea and
vomiting from chemotherapy drugs, which sparked up scientific interest to look into the
drug (Myers, 2011). The initial research, combined with anecdotal facts, called for a closer
look at medicinal cannabis, as stated in 1982 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report
Marijuana and Health. In the public discussion (conference) on the practices and
effectiveness of marijuana for medical use, National Institute of Health in 1997 organized a
conference to go over available evidence on the medical use of marijuana and the
usefulness of its future studies. Experts attending the conference, who had differing
specialties, the wanted further study of the safety and productiveness of marijuana
(Cohen, 2009)

Works when treating chronic pain and physical symptoms, medical marijuana
through different mechanisms in the brain than conventional drugs for the same dilemmas,
according to the IOM 1999, Marijuana and medicine. Marijuana contains many
cannabinoids such as;delta 9m tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), with cannabidiol being the
most frequent. This new knowledge about marijuana has presented appealing
opportunities for drug companies to advance in novel drugs through clarification of
chemical cannabinoids, and the IOM to back up more research on these projects. IOM
also reported that addiction to marijuana is much less than alcohol because of the
antianxiety and sedative effect of marijuana which is beneficial.

Even with limitations, a handful of studies proceeded to conduct clinical trials after
many legal and administrative hassles. Abrams et al. (2007) The IOM published the first

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more recent clinical trial about smoked marijuana in a peer-reviewed journal, after a gap of
30 years from previous studies completed in the 1970s. This study consist of randomized
placebo-control trial focused on the effectiveness of medical marijuana in the treatment of
HIV-associated chronic neuropathic pain. The results show a reduction of daily pain
variables by 34% among people who smoked marijuana (Abrams et al., 2007). In a similar
study, Wallace et al. (2007) found that a medium dose of smoked marijuana reduced pain
induced by injections of capsaicin among 15 volunteers. Another double-blinded, placebocontrolled, cross-over study of marijuana demonstrated a dose related analgesic response
against central and peripheral neuropathic pain (Abrams et al., 2007).

Policies and law on medical marijuana

Medical use of marijuana with a physician's recommendation is legal in 18 states
and Washington, DC, under varying statutes. The states plus one district eliminating local
criminal penalties for medicinal purposes of marijuana include Alaska, Arizona, California,
Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland,
Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont,
and Washington. California became the first state to legalize marijuana in 1996 (Hoffmann
& Weber, 2010). Under the state act, patients that are seriously ill can acquire and use
medical marijuana with recommendations from a physician. In most of the states, the
patients that are enrolled in state-run medical marijuana programs can obtain the help of
caregivers to even grow marijuana plants (Pacula et al., 2002) . In states with legalized
medical marijuana, doctors are allowed to recommend marijuana use to their patients
under the protection of the Physician Patient Communications First Amendment
(McCarthy, 2004). However, if these acts violates federal law, federal agencies have the

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authority to arrest and prosecute such cases(Cohen, 2010;LeVay, 2000; Mikos, 2009) .
Illinois, New York, and Ohio are still pending in legislation to legalize medical marijuana.
This will keep marijuana still under a watch for violation under the law. Federal authorities
still thinks that there should be more studies to back up the idea of patients having medical
marijuana accessible in a home setting.

Public Opinion
Almost every nationwide public opinion poll on legalizing medical marijuana favored
the use of medical marijuana by seriously ill patients when recommended by their
physician. In a random telephone survey among 1,033 adults nationwide by CBS News in
October 2011, 77% people said that they favor legalizing medical use of marijuana. The
participants were asked the following question, Should doctors be allowed to prescribe
marijuana for serious illnesses? Only 17% of people surveyed responded against the
medical use of marijuana, and 6% didn't express any opinion (Backus, 2011).
Since 1995 many organizations (that are unbiased) and news media carried out 27
nationwide opinion polls. Only one survey indicated that less than 50% of the respondents
favored the use of medical marijuana (Cohen, 2006).Blendon and Young (1998), in a
research that analyzed 47 nationwide surveys done between 1978 and 1997, concluded
that even though Americans strongly oppose the illicit use of marijuana and consider it a
dangerous drug, they support its legalization for medical use. In a random telephone
survey among 1,002 people in California indicated that 80% respondents support medical
marijuana (Mikos, 2009). The drug norms set by most of the U.S have reached more
permissive viewpoint to back the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

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Future of Medical Marijuana

The three forces play key roles in the future of medical marijuana use in the U.S.
These forces include scientific knowledge, social-political acceptance, and laws.
To overcome political-social forces, its necessary to have determined effort on
support of the scientific community to use the past lesson of failure, not only to
scientifically investigate marijuana as a medical treatment, but to also use the data to
educate the political leaders and opponents about effective uses of marijuana to bring
changes in the laws. Medical leaders that hold a high degree of intellectual capability to
think outside of the box (figure of speech) and view issues in innovative ways. Its
necessary for Researchers to come up with novel strategies to curb the power of religion,
politics, mass media, social perceptions, and beliefs. The results of scientific research
must guide the decisions for laws and medical use of marijuana (Montagne, 2012).
The movement of scientific knowledge takes its time, a slow moving process, but
can shift into new knowledge. The movement of medical marijuana knowledge appears
no differently. More than 30 years have elapsed from the time of the initial anecdotal case
studies to the current randomized trial on medical marijuana in pain, nausea, and
vomiting from chemotherapy drugs to muscle spasticity conditions. Times are changing
with medical organizations coming together in support of changes to the laws. Therefore,
medical marijuana continues to change public views of its use. Given the negative effects
of smoking, a different form of the drug will most likely be approved. Some form of
cannabinoids will eventually become conventional treatment in the future for a limited
number of medical conditions.

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Conclusion
If the studies of medical marijuana keeps prevailing, and it is placed under a
Schedule II designation, regular evaluation and research by industry could continue.
Scientific evaluation could continue support established medicine to move knowledge
forward on marijuana. Devising strict laws can safeguard policies and practices from any
undue stiff misuse for recreational use by both the general public and licensed drug
manufacturers.

Any policy toward commercialization of marijuana or any of its derivatives can be

limited in scope to prevent the widespread use of these products for illicit abusive uses.
The movement of medical marijuana into the mainstream of society continues break down
barriers that anti-supporters have against the drug.

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References

Abrams, D. I., Jay, C. A., Shade, S. B., Vizoso, H., Reda, H., Press, S. and Petersen, K.
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Backus, F. 2011. Marijuana and medical marijuana. CBS News, Retrieved
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Cohen , P. J. 2009. Medical marijuana: The conflict between scientific evidence and
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Wallace, M., Schulteis, G., Atkinson, J. H., Wolfson, T., Lazzaretto, D., Bentley, H. and
Abramson, I. 2007. Dose-dependent effects of smoked cannabis on capsaicininduced pain and hyperalgesia in healthy volunteers

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