What if Pot Were a Pharmaceutical Drug?

Let's play a game for a minute. Let's say that Big Pharma has released a new line of medication that, they say, can treat almost any condition. Although there isn't much evidence to back its use for anything besides nausea and anorexia, they recommend it to treat everything from cancer and epilepsy to depression and anxiety. They even say it's safe for kids and suggest giving it to kids with autism to control their tantrums. Pregnant women take it and so do nursing moms, even though the risks of this are unknown. Doctors are given kickbacks for prescribing it, and it spreads like wildfire.

But, soon after it hits the market, it's clear that it has some serious side effects. A lot of people say it makes them sleepy or dissociated. Although widely prescribed as a treatment for anxiety disorders, most patients find that it causes panic attacks in people susceptible to them. It becomes famous for causing paranoia. Some people using it experience delusions and hallucinations. Others make irresponsible and reckless decisions they would not ordinarily make. Some people experience full-blown psychosis that becomes chronic and are later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. It seems to increase the risk of suicide, especially in teens, and driving after taking it proves to be dangerous. It also acts as a powerful appetite stimulant and causes unwanted weight gain in many people using it. Long-term, people taking the medication show decreased IQ and higher rates of some forms of cancer. People who are unhappy with the side effects try to quit, but, for some, it is psychologically addictive.

In the end, the American Medical Association, American Society of Addiction Medicine, and American Academy of Pediatrics reach a consensus that the risks of this drug are greater than the benefits. They say that the evidence of benefit is small and that the risks are unacceptably high.

Surely, in this situation, the crunchy community would be up in arms about how dangerous it was for the FDA to ever approve a drug with so many side effects and so few benefits, and how horrible the physicians were for prescribing it with so little evidence. So why is it that, when the drug in question is pot, so many people are willing to wave aside all the side effects and risks? Why is it that, when the people recommending it are laymen and not doctors, it is assumed to be safer and more effective than prescription alternatives?

Despite what it may sound like, I'm not a Reefer Madness type. I smoked enough weed in one summer to last a couple of lifetimes; I'm not a stranger to it. I support the legalization of recreational marijuana and, hey, if someone gets a medicinal benefit from it, that's fine too. I understand that it is no more harmful than tobacco or alcohol and I don't think that banning it entirely is a good solution. However, it's worrisome to me that the crunchy community so overwhelmingly supports medicinal marijuana even though it would not support the use of a pharmaceutical drug with the same side effects and the same very limited number of benefits.

We can't ignore the risks of marijuana. It's not poison-- smoking it one time, or even regularly, probably won't kill you. But if you're unlucky enough, or stupid enough, you could be one of the people who gets in a wreck while driving high. Or you could be one of the many people who experiences the onset severe depression or anxiety after using it. (I was one of those people and found that my mental health improved dramatically after I stopped smoking.) Or, worse, you could be one of the people who develops schizophrenia or bipolar disorder after smoking it for the first time. That's not common, but it happens: we can't ignore science just because it makes us uncomfortable. More likely than any of these things, though, you could become one of the many people who gets high all the time and turns fat, lazy, and stupid as a result.

All of these risks exist-- some of them to a greater degree- with alcohol, and that's why I don't have an issue with recreational marijuana use. If you want to light up because it's fun, I don't see a problem with it. What I see a problem with, is people encouraging each other to smoke weed for medicinal purposes, when they would never recommend a prescription drug that caused the same number of side effects and risks. Unless you'd also tell your friend to pop a prescription medication that would likely make him hungry, sleepy, and unable to safely drive, it's time to stop suggesting that everyone use pot as a DIY treatment for every medical condition in the world.