Put the Harms of Marijuana in Perspective

Patients are finding relief from such difficult-to-treat conditions as chronic pain, anxiety, insomnia, nausea and pelvic pain

Letter to The WSJ.

"While reading Allysia Finley’s column “Marijuana Is More Dangerous Than Biden’s HHS Lets On” (Life Science, Jan. 22), I felt as if I were reading something out of the Nixon White House, at the dawn of the war on drugs, in the 1970s. It is true that cannabis has its harms. As a cannabis clinician, I avoid recommending cannabis for teen users, pregnant or breast-feeding patients and patients with a history of psychosis. I counsel patients to avoid smoking it in favor of edibles, topicals or tinctures, and to “start low and to go slow” with the dosage.

The results have been encouraging. Patients are finding relief from such difficult-to-treat conditions as chronic pain, anxiety, insomnia, nausea and pelvic pain. Often, the medicinal cannabis is less toxic than the conventional pharmaceuticals that the patient would have used otherwise. No wonder around 90% of Americans support legal access to medical marijuana. This support spans both political parties.

It is also important to note that the prohibition of cannabis has been an absolute disaster. There have been more than 20 million arrests for nonviolent cannabis possession over the past 50 years, disproportionately of Americans with dark skin. These arrests interfere with a person’s education, housing and employment. It is impossible to argue that the harms of using cannabis, especially among nonvulnerable individuals, has been more damaging than the criminalization of cannabis.

Peter Grinspoon, M.D.

Harvard Medical School

Auburndale, Mass."