e said that Marijuana is definitely effective for some patients in which nothing else worked eight or 10 years ago, but that may not be the case now, it needs to be looked at again.Dr. Alan Leshner, head of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, organized the meeting after California and Arizona enacted state laws that allow medical uses of marijuana. Under U.S. law, marijuana is illegal and has no approved clinical use. Leshner said NIH would finance medical marijuana studies, if proposed research is approved by the agency's peer-review process.The White House did ask NIH to see if marijuana, when smoked, has any medical benefit. "The major problem here is getting good, scientific data. That is the bedrock of the whole enterprise, Beaver said.Marijuana's active ingredient, a compound called delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, exists in pill form. But proponents of the drug say it's much more effective when smoked, because that way, patients can control the dosage.Marijuana has been widely touted as a treatment for the drastic weight loss associated with AIDS and for reducing the nausea caused by chemotherapy. "Three years ago, I lost 40 pounds due to AIDS wasting syndrome, AIDS patient Kiyoshi Kuromiya said. "I since regained that 40 pounds thanks to smoked marijuana." Panelist Dr. Kenneth Johnson of the University of Maryland Hospital said it's possible that smoked marijuana helps to control some multiple sclerosis symptoms. But there have been no comprehensive studies.Smoking pot is linked to many behaviors that can screw up your plans. Marijuana affects memory, judgment and perception even in the short-term, as was found in a study conducted by Pope and Yurgelun-Todd published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It can mess you up in school, in sports or clubs, or with your friends. If you're high on marijuana, you are more likely to make stupid mistakes that could embarrass or even hurt you. If you smoke a lot,...
