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Thank for sharing your comment Anonymous. Your point is well taken about some patients not well tolerating Marinol.

According to a 2002 pharmacology textbook, a tiny amount of smoked or vaporized cannabis allowed for nearly instant pain management while Marinol took more than an hour to provide relief. Patients also complained about Marinol's unpleasant side effects. Patients said the prescribed dosage provided a "too-intense intoxication" (more acute psychedelic effect) than cannabis, as you stated.

To make this point, in a November 2005 Mother Jones article, Mark Kleiman, director of drug policy analysis at UCLA's School of Public Affairs said that drug policymakers had hoped that Marinol would be a godsend [because] "it wasn't any fun and made the user feel bad," so it could be approved without any fear that it would be a pill patients would "doctor-shop" to get and little chance it would penetrate the recreational market. Once approved Marinol could "then used as a club with which to beat back the advocates of whole cannabis as a medicine."

It seems prudent that the medical marijuana argument should be settled through scientific exploration rather than through myth and fantasy. If it does have benefits as proponents claim, patients should be empowered to hear all options and make informed decisions about their medical treatment.

September 25, 2010 - 9:16am

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