Pill vs. Pot

Recently the state of Illinois has thrown its hat into the medical marihuana ring. Not only that, CNN medical correspondent and doctor, Sanjay Gupta, announced he was wrong about the benefits of medical weed. This has sparked new debate over the issue and I'm sure the potheads will find a way out of their parent's basements to rally around the cause. 

I will not say that cannabis is bad for people. Cancer patients, multiple sclerosis, and HIV/AIDS patients can no doubt benefit from its use to ease the side effects from their treatment. But why are we advocating smokable weed when it comes to a medical issue. People who smoke weed take in more tar and carbon monoxide than cigarette smokers do. We have entire movements trying to ruin big tobacco and there are people promoting smokable marihuana for "health" reasons?  Doesn't make sense to me. 

Their is a pill for everything these days and there is a pill for this. It's called Marinol and it is a much safer way to give these folks what they need. Granted it does take a little longer for the effect to set in but it does the job. 

Now I'm happy to say that I'm a moderate liberal and I'm usually for doing what makes us happy. In this case I think we are headed down a slippery slope to recreational weed. So I say to lawmakers, have the guts and make the move. Don't hide behind the sentiment that you are helping patients when you don't even pay your bills to doctors and pharmacists. The "medical" tag on marijuana doesn't fly when there is a pill that does the same thing. 

http://www.drugs.com/mtm/marinol.html