ic. It confirms that all the states that have allowed patients to use medical marijuana have not made a serious mistake.” SABIN Other studies have found that marijuana indeed has medicinal value, as well as some risk. “The US National Institutes of Health and an affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences have concluded that the active ingredients in marijuana can ease the pain, nausea, and vomiting of cancer and AIDS. It also is prescribed for certain glaucoma patients (555555).” The NIH, the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, and San Mateo County will all be sponsoring future medical marijuana studies. One study has found that smoking marijuana increases the risk of a heart attack. Researchers discovered that the risk of heart attack was the highest in the first hour after smoking, dropping to twice the normal risk in the second hour, and then returning to normal quickly after (77777). Dr. Murray Mittleman, the head researcher of the study, went on to say, “The risk of a heart attack for a 50-year-old otherwise healthy man after smoking a single marijuana cigarette would be about 10 in 1 million.” There are many conflicting viewpoints on marijuana’s worth. Dale Gieringer, California director of NORML, says “... that marijuana is safe and effective and that the government hasn’t a leg to stand on by preventing its medical use (111111).” Dr. Billy Martin, chief of pharmacology at the Medical College of Vermont says, “We lack evidence that there is something unique about marijuana, other than an impressive number of anecdotal reports (44444).” Dr. Lester Grinspoon, chairman of the NORML Foundation says, “We’re going to have to go through this business of doing these studies. They won’t prove anything that clinicians who have paid attention to this don’t already know(444444).” The National Academy of Sciences and the Natio...
