Assignment -

Choose one of the following questions to address.

Case Study: Medical Marijuanna

In 2004, Montana became the eleventh state to approve the limited use of marijuana for medical purposes. Previously, voters in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington had also approved the medical use of this drug. However, the use of marijuana as both a psychoactive substance and a medicine is not new.

Marijuana comes from the dried leaves and flowering tops of the hemp plant, Cannabis. As far back as the mid-1800s, both French and English medical literature reported the use of marijuana for such ailments as "spastic conditions, headache, and labor pains." Hashish, the concentrated resin from the flower of the hemp plant, was readily available in U.S. pharmacies until the Harrison Act in 1914, which attempted to regulate the traffic of opium. Somehow, by implication, the use of marijuana also came under regulation, although it is neither an opiate nor a narcotic. Virtually all use of the drug declined until the 1960s, when it became a popular recreational drug for the generation known as the baby boomers.

The medical use of marijuana revived during the 1970s. In 1975, a small study at the Sidney Farber Cancer Institute published an article revealing that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a substance found in marijuana, could effectively lessen the nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. Marinol, a pill form of synthetic THC, has been available in the United States since 1986. THC is also used to treat glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, and weight loss associated with AIDS. However, few wide-range, controlled studies on humans have been reported.

In 1990, the first Cannabis receptor gene was cloned at the National Institute of Mental Health. The gene was found in rat brain tissue. The amino acid sequence of the protein receptor was named CB-1. When THC binds to a CB-1 receptor, the drug's effects are produced. Scientific studies show that this system of cannabinoid (marijuana) receptors is involved in the coordination of movement, short-term memory, and regulation of mood and emotion.

In 1993, yet another receptor for THC was found at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. This receptor was named CB-2 because it was not found in rat brains but in macrophages from the spleen.CB-2 receptors have since been found on immune cells as well.

Questions -

1. How would a "controlled" study be conducted in terms of human medical treatment? Why do you think many controlled studies of the effects of THC on humans have been conducted?

2. Besides what was mentioned in the article, what are some other possible benefits and/or problems associated with the use of medical marijuanna?

3. Why might pharmaceutical companies want to make an artificial, oral form of THC available?

4. Do you think the U.S. government should relax current regulations on the growth of the marijuana plant? Why or why not?

Attachment:- Assignment Files.rar