The functionality of marijuana for medicinal purposes is not a concept born in modern time. With the earliest written reference to medicinal marijuana found in the fifteenth century Chinese Pharmacopia, its medicinal uses predate recorded history (Zeese). Throughout history, marijuana has been used to treat numerous afflictions including: asthma, peptic ulcers, migraines, inflammation, hypertension, and insomnia. However, years of misuse have lead to increasingly negative stigmas associated with smoking marijuana. As a result, marijuana's medicinal uses are often negated by our society. In fact, a campaign to discredit the notion that smoking marijuana has medicinal benefits is currently being implemented by the Clinton Administration (Zeese). The victims in this offensive are the millions of U.S. citizens suffering from cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, and epilepsy, for whom marijuana would provide the best relief.
Currently, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance by the Food and Drug Administration. Schedule I substances include any drug that is illegal to posses and distribute. Patients needing marijuana cannot obtain it legally. Ideally, marijuana should be classified as a Schedule II controlled substance: a drug that can be prescribed by physicians for medicinal purposes. Advocates of medicinal marijuana are currently lobbying for the much-needed research required to persuade the FDA to change marijuana's classification to a Schedule II controlled substance. Unfortunately, those favoring expansion of the war on drugs, namely President Clinton and the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gen. Barry McCaffery, will neither provide funding nor advocate legislation that would expedite the research process (Zeese). .
Clinical trials evaluating the use of marijuana to control nausea and vomiting, to stimulate appetite, to treat glaucoma, and to control muscle spasms are extensive.
