New Studies Destroy the Last Objection to Medical Marijuana

US: Web: New Studies Destroy the Last Objection to Medical Marijuana: "NEW STUDIES DESTROY THE LAST OBJECTION TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Anyone who advocates for medical marijuana sooner or later runs into arguments about smoking: 'No real medicine is smoked.' 'Smoking is bad for the lungs; why would any doctor recommend something so harmful?' It's a line of reasoning that medical marijuana opponents have used to great effect in Congress, state legislatures, and elsewhere. Indeed, the FDA's controversial 2006 statement opposing medical marijuana was couched in repeated references to 'smoked marijuana.'

But new research demonstrates that all those fears of 'smoked marijuana' as medicine are 100 percent obsolete.

The smoking argument was the closest thing to a scientifically meaningful objection to medical marijuana. While marijuana smoke, unlike tobacco, has never been shown to cause lung cancer, heavy marijuana smoking has been associated with assorted respiratory symptoms and a potentially increased risk of bronchitis. That's because burning any plant material produces a whole lot of substances such as tars, and carbon monoxide that are not good for the lungs.

Nevertheless, inhalation is clearly the best method for administering marijuana's active components, called cannabinoids. Cannabinoids such as THC are fat-soluble molecules that are absorbed slowly and unevenly when taken orally, a"