We all have cannabinoid receptors in our brains. The one great thing about the "high" of cannabis was the serendipitous discovery of the "endocannbinoid system." There are scientists and pharmacologists who have said, "Cannabis will be to the 21st century as aspirin was to the 20th century: a wonder drug."
To prevent an individual who is suffering from a serious disorder access to a non-toxic plant, just because of the possibility that it would be abused, is absurd. Drug-control policy should be dictated by the National Academy of Sciences-Institute of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, not by individuals who have no training in cliincal pharmacology or basic medical science.
Self-medication is a self-preservation instinct in the human species. When does the legal relief of pain and suffering become the illegal pursuit of pleasure? Isn't it the alienable right to medicate oneself contained in the rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?" Is it morally wrong to alter mind/consciousness with some drugs and healthy to do so with others?
Cannabis can be a useful tool by substituting it in place of more harmful drugs. Research carried out by Berkeley and published in the Harm Reduction Journal found that "40 percent used cannabis to control their alcohol cravings, 66 percent as a replacement for prescription drugs and 26 percent for other, more potent, illegal drugs." The reason being "because (cannabis) has less adverse side effects than alcohol, illicit or prescription drugs and has a less withdrawal potential and provides better symptom management."
Society says that Prozac or Paxil is good and cannabis evil, but good and evil are not attributed to molecules. Drugs are neither good nor bad, in and of themselves. It how they are used and the type of person using them in a certain set and setting that determines whether there will be a positive or negative outcome.
Alcohol fuels agrression and violence. Cannabis is a safer euphoriant than alcohol.The regulation of cannabis would decrease the use of harder drugs such as alcohol, tobacco and methamphetamine.
There would be considerable savings in government spending on prison control, the criminal justice system's "gravy train." Every instance of freedom and democracy, ancient through American, has sprouted from agrarian cultures. Democratic capitalism has it roots in an agricultural society, based on individual exercise of property rights.
Isn't nature legitimate?
In no way, shape, or form am I condoning recreational drug use, but we should at least recognize that there are safer intoxicants, that personal use will continue, and that there is a significant medical benefit to certain segments of the population who finds it's use healing.
Dr. Chris Curran Dombrowski is a resident of Tumon.
Source: Pacific Daily News
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