USA TODAY: People who use marijuana for medicinal purposes in states where it is legal are being penalized by the federal government because pot is still illegal under U.S. law.
At Denver unemployment offices, medical users fired for failing a drug test are denied unemployment benefits, says lawyer Kimberlie Ryan, who represents some of those applicants.
In California, Jim Lacy, 60, who has an arthritic hip and uses medical marijuana for pain relief, says he has had his stash confiscated and been threatened with arrest at Border Patrol checkpoints near his Jacumba home… (more)
Must we continue with the “medical use of marijuana” excuse for getting stoned? Lets just admit that a lot of Americans want to smoke dope. The question is how do we change our laws to accommadate what the public wants.
A pharmaceutical product, Marinol, is widely available through prescription. It comes in the form of a pill and is also being studied by researchers for suitability via other delivery methods, such as an inhaler or patch. The active ingredient of Marinol is synthetic THC, which has been found to relieve the nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy for cancer patients and to assist with loss of appetite with AIDS patients.
Reference: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000403
EDITOR:
Comparisons to medical marijuana
Main article: Medical marijuana
Dronabinol is known to produce mild side effects similar to cannabis.[citation needed] Many scientists[who?] believe that dronabinol lacks the beneficial properties of cannabis[clarification needed], which contains more than 60 cannabinoids, including cannabidiol (CBD), thought to be the major anticonvulsant that helps multiple sclerosis patients;[67] and cannabichromene (CBC), an anti-inflammatory which may contribute to the pain-killing effect of cannabis.[68] Others have countered that the effects of all of cannabis’s cannabinoids have not been completely studied and are not fully understood.[citation needed]
It takes over one hour for Marinol to reach full systemic effect,[69] compared to minutes for smoked or vaporized cannabis.[70] Some patients accustomed to inhaling just enough cannabis smoke to manage symptoms have complained of too-intense intoxication from Marinol’s predetermined dosages. Many patients have said that Marinol produces a more acute psychedelic effect than cannabis, and it has been speculated that this disparity can be explained by the moderating effect of the many non-THC cannabinoids present in cannabis. Mark Kleiman, director of the Drug Policy Analysis Program at UCLA’s School of Public Affairs said of Marinol, “It wasn’t any fun and made the user feel bad, so it could be approved without any fear that it would penetrate the recreational market, and then used as a club with which to beat back the advocates of whole cannabis as a medicine.”[71] United States federal law currently registers dronabinol as a Schedule III controlled substance, but all other cannabinoids remain Schedule I, except nabilone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabinol