ABSTRACT:
Marijuana, the common name for Cannabis sativa, is a widely distributed hemp plant whose dried flowering tops and leaves have been used for medicinal purposes for 12,000 years by some estimates (1). The article by Malfait et al. (2) in this issue of PNAS is relevant to the question of whether such traditional uses of marijuana could be clinically justifiable today.
Contemporary discussions of the medical value of marijuana must be undertaken within a larger cultural, legal, and political context (Workshop on the Medical Utility of Marijuana, National Institutes of Health,http://www.nih. gov/news/medmarijuana/MedicalMarijuana.htm). The perceived behavioral and addictive effects of marijuana led to its prohibition from nonmedical uses by most states, taxation at the federal level, and eventual removal from the U.S. Pharmacopoeia in the 1930s and 1940s. Nonetheless, smoking of marijuana cigarettes continued and became the recreational drug practice of choice as well as a virtual rite of passage for young people during the Vietnam era. Some people who suffered chronic debilitating illnesses observed that marijuana eased some of their symptoms. A movement grew to redefine marijuana as a neglected, but valuable, therapeutic tool. Today, that movement has been subsumed under a more general advocacy for a whole spectrum of complementary and alternative health approaches (3).
Complementary and alternative medicine entails the use of unconventional diagnostic, preventative, and therapeutic approaches including acupuncture, chiropractic manipulation, homeopathy, and magnets, few of which have been tested according to rigorous scientific standards. Herbal and other botanical products are key components of many alternative health approaches. Numerous preparations are marketed in the United States as nutritional supplements with such promises as combating fatigue, restoring mental balance, warding off respiratory infections, losing weight, and relieving the pains of arthritis.
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