All Pills, No Thrills
October 7th, 2008 by Alex
As an au naturale kind of guy I’m not a huge fan of Marinol – the commonly prescribed, synthetic form of THC.
In Michigan, where the state is about to vote on medical marijuana legalization, one doctor is going on record as saying the pill just doesn’t work, which is why medical marijuana is so important to those seeking relief.
Dr. Elaine Chottiner, the section head of Hematology and Oncology at Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, let this quote drop:
If Marinol worked, nobody would care about legalizing marijuana.
She said absorption is probably one reason the drug doesn’t work as well, since it takes longer to digest and incorporate a compound into the bloodstream than it does to smoke it. Also, Marinol contains only one of marijuana’s 66 compounds.
The main point is relief for the patients, and although the clinical trials of Marinol showed relief for certain kinds of chemotherapy, it is not applicable to all.
In less than a month, November 4th to be exact, Michigan voters are going to decide on the merits of legal, medical cannabis use. Let’s hope the opinions of people in the know help influence their votes.
