As a future physician, I use some of my free time to do my own free research of medical news.
Things that I have found include new laws being passed, as well as research that could alter the way that we practice medicine in the future. One current trend is the debate over the legalization of marijuana. I am not one to make a decision without doing background research to find out more on the topic. What I found out about cannabis and other psychedelics actually caught me by surprise.
The government is regulating the use of psychedelic drugs by the general public and also by medical researchers, and the reasoning behind this is that we do not know enough about the drugs to be using them. However, here is where we fall into a circle of hypocrisy: we are not legally allowed to do open medical research on cannabis.
How can we find respectable research on cannabis use to treat medical conditions if we do not have the resources, funds and authority to conduct the research in the first place?
When I was shadowing a pediatrician here in Georgia in spring 2015, I saw him flipping through a PowerPoint presentation on cannabis oil. I was intrigued. He explained that he was meeting with Governor Nathan Deal later that week to discuss his own experience as a doctor with 40 years of experience in pediatric medicine and the effects and potential benefits he saw in the legalization of medical marijuana.
A few months later, medical marijuana was legalized, but only for a small list of medical conditions. Some parents who need cannabis oil to help their children with seizures are having to cross state borders to get what they need. Some parents are currently illegally growing marijuana and making the oil at home so that they can lessen their child’s suffering. Why is the medical miracle illegal?
“As someone who supports the legalization of marijuana, regardless of medical use, I fully support the use of any drug that can positively impact someone’s life,” said Kendall Cooper, a senior biology major and aspiring physician. He went on to explain that “if substantial research shows that the pros greatly outweigh potential cons and it is cost effective, I don’t see why it should not be used to treat illnesses.”
This brings us back to the circle of needing credible research to allow legalization of medical marijuana, but there is a strict ban on open research on medical marijuana.
It was less than a month ago that there was a tragic mishap in a clinical trial test conducted in France for a cannabis-based painkiller that was manufactured by a drug company. The trial left one man brain dead and five more with critical illnesses. Some people wonder how this could happen, but others say that since the participants volunteered for the study, the outcome should be approached with an objective attitude.
I think that science and research take great sacrifice, whether it be time, money, or life itself. We need to sacrifice something in order to make gains.
It was when I was reading “Complications” by Dr. Atul Gwande, M.D. that I realized that there is a common theme not only among drug research but rather in medicine and science. Nothing is clear as to how much scientists and doctors can do. There is so much uncertainty in medicine, and that is what scares some people.
“Medicine is, I have found, a strange and in many ways disturbing business,” Dr. Gwande said. “We drug people, put needles and tubes into them, manipulate their chemistry, biology, and physics…What you find when you get in close, however…is how messy, uncertain, and also surprising medicine turns out to be.”
We need to take action and conduct research on medical marijuana if we want to learn more about its effects. Allowing open use of medical marijuana will have its risks, but they are risks that need to be taken to take a step forward in advancement in medical treatment. In the inspiring words of the brilliant research physician Dr. Michael Engel, “Tomorrow’s advances will come from today’s learners.”
