rug. Many drugs could be smoked, but there is no good reason to do so because oral preparations produce adequate blood concentration. With THC this is not the case. “Inhaling is a better route of administration than swallowing. Inhaling is about equal in efficiency to intravenous injection, and considerably more practical. ” Other than its illegality, the primary drawback of smoking marijuana is that it deposits irritants in the lungs. With prolonged high dose use, this could cause lung problems. However, “with short-term use, there is little risk of lung damage. ” Given the current options smoking marijuana is the most effective and possibly the cheapest way to deliver THC. The cost of Marinol is upwards to $10 per a pill. With the black market tax on Marijuana removed natural marijuana in plant form could be delivered to patients at a fraction of the cost of Marinol.In the 1970’s the federal government funded research into “marijuana’s therapeutic uses and provided marijuana supplies to qualified researchers. ”It also established the “compassionate use” program, through which patients, on a case-by-case basis, could obtain marijuana from a government maintained farm. In its 1976 Marijuana and Health reports to Congress, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) recommended “further exploration of marijuana’s medical uses. ”Ronald Reagan’s election as president in1980 brought a renewed war on marijuana and an end to the federal governments support for medical marijuana. This anti-marijuana idealism carried on throughout the eighties on into President Bush’s reign as well. “In 1992 the Bush administration shut down the compassionate use program and the Clinton administration, also decided against reinstating it ” “The DEA continues to oppose any legal change that would make marijuana available as a medicine and even opposes furt...
