The answer to the headline question, Is Marijuana A Medicine? (January 18, 2010), is no. To characterize smoked marijuana as a medicine implies that it is safe. Smoke is neither safe nor effective as a delivery system for any medicine. Moreover, unlike approved medicines, there is no regulation of the manufacturing process, distribution chain, quality or purity of the product. In contrast, synthetic THC has been readily available for prescription by any physician since 1985.

Anna Nicole Smith. Heath Ledger. Michael Jackson. What common bond do these celebrities share? The answer is found not in how they lived, but how they died — prescription drug overdose.

Cannabis, psychopathology, respiratory pathology, psychosis, depression, chronic bronchitis, chronic asthma, genotoxicity, oncogenesis

Relief from pain. In some people, prescription pain relievers also cause euphoria or feelings of well being by affecting the brain regions that mediate pleasure. This is why they are abused. Other effects include drowsiness, constipation and slowed breathing. [...]

When a person smokes a cigarette, the body responds immediately to the chemical nicotine in the smoke. Nicotine causes [...]

Anabolic steroids are a group of powerful compounds closely related to the male sex hormone testosterone. Current legitimate medical uses include treatment of certain kinds of anemia. [...]

A class of drugs that enhance brain activity. Prescription stimulants were used historically to treat asthma, obesity, neurological disorders, and a variety of other ailments [...]

Prescription medications that act as central nervous system depressants. Barbiturates are prescription sedatives or “sleeping pills” and benzodiazepines are prescription “tranquilizers.” [...]

Opium can cause euphoria, followed by a sense of well-being and a calm drowsiness or sedation. Breathing slows, potentially to the point of unconsciousness and death with large doses. [...]

Morphine is an opiate, derived from the poppy plant. It is classified as a narcotic and is commonly prescribed to manage pain. [...]