Our Troubled Relationship with Pot

In an undisclosed, secret location somewhere in the UK, sinsemilla towers over the heads of scientists. Lush green buds fill the entire hangar-sized greenhouse. All for a hospital in East Anglia –home of one of the most extensive marijuana research projects in the world.

Their research boils down to this:

Sativex, a pure extract of pot, packaged in a pharmacy-friendly spray bottle. Prescribed users spray the medical-grade Bob under their tongues.

Of course, GW Pharmaceuticals has reasonable medical arguments for the spray – the mucosa of the mouth absorbs the drug faster than the digestive system and has the added benefit of not irritating the lungs.

Really, though, their success – including Canadian approval of the drug – is less a matter of function than form. If it looks like medicine, consumers – or, perhaps more importantly, activists – are more likely to see it as medicine.

5.5% of adults (26+) admit to using recreational drugs. Roughly the same percentage admit to abusing prescription drugs. And, then, of course, there’s the ubiquity of alcohol.

Nonetheless, we crusade against pot. I won’t make the same arguments you’ve read a thousand times – like the social costs of alcohol or poor education or abuse or AIDS vs most recreational drugs. But, I will say, this – if conservatives reject medical marijuana when it’s in a joint or a brownie, but accept it when it look like their valium or nose spray, just exactly what are we crusading against? Lifestyles or appearances or drugs?

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In the end, though, the sanitized version isn’t so different from sticking it in your pipe and smoking it … From the product brochure given to Canadian doctors:

Like all medicines, SATIVEX may cause side effects in some patients. They may include dry mouth, feeling sick, discomfort and stinging in the mouth, tiredness or drowsiness, confusion, dizziness of faintness, disorientation, poor concentration and/or impaired memory, hallucinations or strange ideas, a feeling of unreality, feeling abnormal or drunk, feeling people are against you and a feeling of general happiness or a ‘high’ (easy laughing, heightened awareness). Other side effects may include diarrhea, rapid heart bear, increase in appetite and falls.

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More news in brief?

• Total U.S. spending on poppy eradication and other antidrug efforts in Afghanistan last year: $780,000,000
• Amount it would have cost to purchase the country's entire 2004 poppy crop: $600,000,000

Comments

[Mike]

As I understand it, it's not the delivery method of the evil mary jane that's at issue. It's the regulation or non-regulation of a hallucinogen which, when misused, can lead to a large number of physical and social ills. See http://imdb.com/title/tt0028346. ;-)

[Douglas Nerad]

Ah yes, the lifestyle choice is all that matters! Be free to do whatever you like so long as it conforms with some idea of what is normal. Don't ask what that is, though, because I've no idea. Einstein's theory of relativity applied to everyday life...