The chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration said that smoking pot has “never been shown to be safe or effective as a medicine.” That is actually false, though; although there is not much information on the topic, many studies have shown that smoking marijuana has medical benefits and some mild side effects. Chuck Rosenberg spoke to reporters when the DEA released its 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment. CBS News says that Rosenberg is not too happy with the idea that weed is considered to be medicinal. Here is what he has to say:
“What really bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also medicinal — because it’s not. We can have an intellectually honest debate about whether we should legalize something that is bad and dangerous but don’t call it medicine — that is a joke… There are pieces of marijuana — extracts or constituents or component parts — that have great promise. But if you talk about smoking the leaf of marijuana — which is what people are talking about when they talk about medicinal marijuana — it has never been shown to be safe or effective as a medicine.”
Firstly, it is not right to sat that “smoking the leaf of marijuana” is “what people are talking about” when referring to medicinal marijuana. There are actually some approved forms of the drug that come in pill form and do not need to be smoked or inhaled. Secondly, even the smoked form of marijuana has been found to be safe as well as effective as medicine; people don’t like to consider this thought, though, because only a few studies have indicated that; a review and analysis that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in June looked at 79 trials, but smoked marijuana was only reviewed in a few of them. Even though it is a small amount, it is unfair to say that there is no evidence.
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