Since raw marijuana is not a medicine, why do some people want to “medicalize” it?

  • The claim that smoking marijuana is medicinal is a tactic to further the agenda to legalize all drugs.
    Source: Drug Enforcement Administration, “It's also important to realize that the campaign to allow marijuana to be used as medicine is a tactical maneuver in an overall strategy to completely legalize all drugs. Pro-legalization groups have transformed the debate from decriminalizing drug use to one of compassion and care for people with serious diseases. The New York Times interviewed Ethan Nadelman, Director of the Lindesmith Center (now called the Drug Policy Alliance), in January 2000. Responding to criticism from former Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey that the medical marijuana issue is a Trojan-horse for drug legalization, Mr. Nadelman did not contradict General McCaffrey. "Will it help lead toward marijuana legalization?" Mr. Nadelman said: "I hope so." Dave Fratello, Reason, March 1998. Fratello was communications director of Americans for Medical Rights, a group that sponsored medical marijuana initiatives. “Changing state laws on medical marijuana tends to put the right issues into play and the right people on the defensive…. It raises questions about the nature of drug prohibition and the rationality of its enforcers and attracts allies who may ultimately be persuaded to support more radical change.”
  • Many individuals who claim to “need” marijuana to treat pain and other non-descript ailments simply wish to use marijuana recreationally.
    Source: Richard Cowan, Remarks, Conference Celebrating 50th Anniversary of the Discover of LSD, 1993. Cowan was then National Director of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Cowan until recently was on the Board of Directors of the NORML Foundation, “Medical marijuana is our strongest suit. It is our point of leverage which will move us toward the legalization of marijuana for personal use.”
  • The “medicalization” of this harmful substance has caused truly ill people to refuse proper medical care, thinking that because marijuana makes them “feel better” that they are becoming well. Crack and heroin make people feel better, but they would never be suggested as medical treatment.
  • Sheer financial gain - there is a great potential to make a lot of money through the sale of marijuana medically or otherwise. Tobacco was once thought to have medical value also and it made a select group of men very wealthy at a great cost to society. “We created Prop. 215 so that patients would not have to deal with black market profiteers. But today it is all about the money. Most of the dispensaries operating in California are little more than dope dealers with store fronts.” Source: Rev. Scott Imler, Co-Founder of Prop. 215, California’s Medical Marijuana Law Alternatives Magazine Fall, 2006 Issue 39