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On Friday, October 7, U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy stated, “The California marijuana industry is not about providing medicine to the sick, but is a pervasive for-profit industry that violates federal laws.” The medical marijuana industry has been stigmatized as being useless by our government, but has been proven otherwise by several research studies throughout our history. These research studies prove medical marijuana to be both useful in the medical field as well as a lucrative addition of medicine to extend a healthy lifestyle. One of the many improvements that medical marijuana can provide is the treatment of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

Dr. Margaret Haney, an Associate Professor of Clinical Neuroscience at Columbia University, wrote a study titled “Dronabinol and Marijuana in HIV-Positive Marijuana Smokers: Caloric Intake, Mood, and Sleep” in 2007. The study was placebo-controlled within-subjects and evaluated a range of behaviors, including: eating topography, mood, cognitive performance, physiologic measures, and sleep. In comparison to the patients using the placebo, marijuana smokers increased daily caloric intake and body mass in HIV-positive patients. There was also little-to-none evidence of discomfort in marijuana smokers, as well as presented a lack of impairment on cognitive performance. While dronabinol and marijuana had similar effects, marijuana resulted in being a more useful medicine because it also improved ratings of sleep. The conclusion that this data suggests is that HIV-positive marijuana smokers had substantial and comparable increases in appetite, leading to a higher percentage of food intakes. There also were not any adverse effects that patients felt from marijuana, in which it is evident that marijuana only has positive effects on patients that have been longing for a medicine that can aid their pain and anguish.

In 2004, Diane Prentiss published an article in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes called “Patterns of Marijuana Use Among Patients with HIV/AIDS Followed in a Public Heath Care Setting.” The article concentrates on the usefulness of marijuana as a medicine and cautions patients to not self-administer. HIV patients that smoked marijuana reported benefits including: a relief of anxiety and/or depression (57%) and an improved appetite (53%). The researcher warrants the use of marijuana as a medicine that has “potential to improve quality of life and health care outcomes among patients with HIV/AIDS.” Because there is not a cure for AIDS, the research results suggest the usefulness of medical marijuana for patients that are in need of relief from anxiety or need an increase in their appetite to at least make their symptoms minimal in their day-to-day activities. Until we find a cure for the disease, medical marijuana is one of the few medicines that helps ease the AIDS symptoms.

Professor Donald Abrams of Clinical Medicine at the University of California San Francisco wrote an article in 2003 titled “Short-term Effects of Cannabinoids in Patients with HIV-1 Infection: A Randomized, Placebo-controlled Clinical Trial.” It focused on the short-term effects of medical marijuana, in which they found that “patients receiving cannabinoids (smoked marijuana and marijuana pills) had improved immune function compared with those receiving placebo. They also gained about 4 pounds more on average than those patients receiving placebo.” This is yet another scientific research study that supports medical marijuana to help AIDS patients deal with their struggles. Not only does this study prove that medical marijuana “improved immune function,” but it also helped increase patients’ appetite as well.

These three research studies prove the usefulness of medical marijuana for patients of AIDS. Although the medicine can be used for several other conditions as well, these research findings validate marijuana as an innovative and efficient medicine.

-David A 

Sources Cited

Abrams, D. (2003). Short-term effects of cannabinoids in patients with hiv-1 infection: a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial.Annals of Internal Medicine,139(4), 258-266.

Haney, M. (2007). Dronabinol and marijuana in hiv-positive marijuana smokers: caloric intake, mood, and sleep.　Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes,　45(5), 545-554.

Prentiss, D. (2004). patterns of marijuana use among patients with hiv/aids followed in a public heath care setting.　Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes,35(1), 38-45.