Warns Against Medical Marijuana - Eurad

Not only has "medical" marijuana no proven medical purpose it also gives a wrong message about the dangers of drugs, she says.

- Marijuana has been legalized in some states for medical use in the US. However, a general increase of marijuana use has been revealed, believed to be influenced by medical-marijuana policies, says Besseling, who is referring to studies by NIDA- the National Insitute on Drug Abuse in the US.

Increased use

Wilson Compton, the director of NIDA's division of epidemiology, services and prevention research,  says that "the impact on broad social attitudes and behaviors could be shifted by that kind of media exposure and advertising". Such a shift in attitudes would most likely lead to increased abuse.

The risk-group most vulnerable is teens.

Voters in California said no to cannabis legalization in 2010 with a surprisingly solid majority. People said no because legalization would put the young at greater risk, not less.

Read more here: California says no

Teens are vulnerable to permissive attitudes towards marijuana, generating increased teenage use of marijuana and addiction.

The rate of eighth-graders saying they have used an illicit drug in the past year jumped to 16 percent, up from last year's 14.5 percent, with daily marijuana use up in all grades surveyed, according to the 2010 Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF).

Read more here: New US survey shows increase in teen cannabis use

 "People are deceived"

- Medical marijuana is deceiving people. We do not recommend tobacco cigarettes as medicine either. If one substance from tobacco or cannabis can be found useful for the health, the medical world will need to eliminate all the other harmful ingredients and produce a safe drug with few addictive components and few harmful side effects. This medical drug then needs to be tested and approved by current medical standards, says Besseling.

Read more here: The harm done by cannabis

- Today, patients inhale all the other dangerous components which are found in these drugs. That is risky and addictive.Medical pot deceives people, given that marijuana is an addictive and dangerous drug, says EURAD's President.