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14 What's wrong with all the prescription drugs we have? (Hemp)




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This article is from the Hemp / Cannabis / Marijuana FAQ, by Brian S. Julin verdant@twain.ucs.umass.edu with numerous contributions by others.

14 What's wrong with all the prescription drugs we have? (Hemp)

They cost money and are hard to make. In many cases,
they do not work as well, either. Some prescription drugs
which marijuana can replace have very bad, even downright
dangerous, side-effects. Cannabis medicines are cheap,
safe, and easy to make.

Many people think that the drug dronabinol should be used
instead of marijuana. Dronabinol is an exact imitation of
one of the chemicals found in marijuana, and it may actually
work on a lot of the above diseases, but there are some big
problems with dronabinol, and most patients who have used
both dronabinol and marijuana say that marijuana works
better.

The first problem with Dronabinol is that it is even harder
to get than marijuana. Many doctors do not like to
prescribe dronabinol, and many drug stores do not want to
supply it, because a lot of paperwork has to be filed with
the Drug Enforcement Administration. Secondly, dronabinol
comes in pills which are virtually useless to anyone who is
throwing up, and it is hard to take just the right amount of
dronabinol since it cannot be smoked. Finally, because
dronabinol is only one of the many chemicals in cannabis, it
just does not work for some diseases. Many patients do not
like the effects of dronabinol because it does not contain
some of the more calming chemicals which are present in
marijuana.

``Marijuana, The Forbidden Medicine'' by Lester Grinspoon M.D. and
James B. Bakalar pub. Yale University Press New Haven, 1993.

 

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