Medicinal Marijuana

Tue, 14 Feb 2017 11:59:41 +0000

Perhaps our headline, legalize weed, was a little flippant, while the subject itself is of very serious nature.

We entirely agree with the recommendation by Zambia Medical Association (MAZ) president Dr. Aaron Mujajati for the legalization of medicinal use of marijuana. This is a self-evident, scientific and non-controversial approach to the initiative.

We however totally oppose his suggestion that this initiative should be subjected to an indaba. That move might thwart this brilliant suggestion.

With the type of bigots at the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) who count their success in the number of innocent villagers they  imprison for social use of  marijuana, any discussion of this nature is bound to be, uninformed, emotional and at worst a platform for pontification.

Their argument is that Marijuana as a psychotropic drug affects the central nervous system by impacting mood, thought, perception emotion and behavior.

This is exactly what alcohol does and more, but it has never been banned.

The case for medicinal marijuana has already been made internationally with 28 states in the United States of America allowing its use in various forms.

The medical case is on all fours. There is no need for further debate.

A report of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) commissioned by the United States Government noted that the profile of cannabinoid drug effects suggested that there were promising properties for treating wasting syndrome in AIDS patients.

It cited nausea, appetite loss, pain, and anxiety and all afflictions of wasting, as symptoms that could be mitigated by marijuana.

The report noted that although some medications were more effective than marijuana for these problems, they could not equally be effective in all patients.

In the United Kingdom the first Cannabis based prescription medicine, Sativex was launched in 2010. This is a mouth spray approved to treat spasticity in patients with Multiple Sclerosis.

In the United States of America another drug Marinol, a synthetic version of delta-9-THC, which appears naturally in the marijuana plant, was approved for use in 1985.

These are among the many, many uses to which cannabis has been put to use in many developed countries while we are still engrossed in an emotive and sterile debate bent on ensuring that Marijuana remains of the “dangerous” list.

This demonization debate, cheered on by the DEC has seen prisons filled with victims and more recently young school children caught in dragnets organized by this Government institution which is totally impervious to international developments.

While most developed countries have moved to decriminalize aspects of cannabis use,  our Government  stance is hardening to near paranoid levels even though no serious case has been made to  consider marijuana to be more dangerous than alcohol whose deleterious effect are well documented.

From all statistics more people die from alcohol abuse while many others suffer permanent “impairment” from using alcohol, which is very readily available and whose production is legalized.

Let the medical profession proceed without any undue retrograde proponents of ignorance.