Legalization of Medicinal Marijuana in Australia: A Brief Overview

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women makes them want to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and others. It is a drug that causes insanity, criminality, and death -- the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”

With such a misrepresentation of marijuana throughout history, there is no surprise that there is still such caution exercised surrounding the use of the drug for medicinal purposes.

Despite this, the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes dates back thousands of years, with the first recorded use dating all the way back to 2737 B.C. in China, to treat various illnesses such as gout, rheumatism, malaria and menstrual cramps (Bushak, 2017). There are also more recent instances of the use of cannabis for pain relief, with George Washington using hemp in the mid 1700’s for tooth aches, and even UK Queen Victoria using the drug to assist with menstrual cramps, muscle spasms and epilepsy (“History of Medical Cannabis”, 2015).

In actual fact, cannabis was not prohibited in Australia until 1938, when the word ‘marijuana’ was introduced to Australia by the US Bureau of Narcotics and was sensationally described as an ‘evil sex drug’ (Jiggens, 2008). Prior to this, cannabis had been a well-known drug and use was widely accepted in Australia for decades. Jiggens (2018) also argues that the ‘War on Drugs’ was developed for reasons of social control, as opposed to health reasons, which raises further questions against the oppositional stance of legalizing medicinal marijuana.

THE PHARMACOLOGY OF MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

Marijuana is comprised of over 60 pharmacologically active cannabinoids (Hill, 2015). There are varying effects that cannabinoid compounds can have on the CB1 and CB2 receptors in the brain, which in turn, can create varying pharmacologic responses in patients. The patient’s response is dependent on both the formulation of the strain of cannabis and the patient’s characteristics (Borgelt, et al. 2013). While Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) has been proven to induce psychoactive effects in patients, with strains high in THC often provoking feelings of anxiousness, cannabidiol (CBD) has been proven to modulate these effects. Cannabis induced psychosis is also less likely to occur with cannabis that his high in CBD content. In addition to this, there are many beneficial medicinal uses for this cannabinoid.

There are a range of cannabinoids which have been discovered to provide therapeutic and medicinal benefits, including CBD, CBDA and CBC, however CBD is currently the most elucidated cannabinoid in terms of providing relief to patients suffering from medical conditions. It is able to be used as an antipsychotic to alleviate symptoms of schizophrenia, and is also able to be used as an anti-addiction agent in order to relieve cravings for more detrimental substances, such as amphetamines, opiates and cocaine. Furthermore, there have been a number of trials which examined the effect of CBD on children which suffer from treatment resistant forms of epilepsy (McGregor, 2015). The cannabinoid has displayed promising anticonvulsant properties, as was discussed earlier in the study regarding young girl, Charlotte.

Despite the proven effectiveness of this treatment, there are still many opposed to the prescription of medicinal cannabis to paediatric populations, due to fears that use may result in detrimental medical, psychological and cognitive side effects. There are arguments that the use of marijuana can alter brain development and have negative effects on the structure and functioning of the brain (AAP, 2016). In saying this however, some experts would argue that the same could be said for other medications which are currently being used to fight nausea and pain in children suffering from cancer, or antipsychotic drugs which are used as long-term treatment for childhood mental illness. In addition to this counterargument, it has been proven that the prevalence of addiction to marijuana is often substantially lower than addiction rates of other opioid drugs. These drugs are also known to cause symptoms of withdrawal, nausea and vomiting, all of which are not a risk factor with the use of medicinal marijuana. In fact, the CBD cannabinoid has been demonstrated to reduce these symptoms, which frequently occur as a side effect of radiation or chemotherapy (Szalavitz, 2012).

MEDICINAL MARIJUANA VS OVER THE COUNTER MEDICATIONS

Recent studies have shown that chronic pain sufferers get more relief from symptoms by using cannabis, as opposed to other over the counter medications and prescription opioids such as codeine and morphine. A study undertaken in Australia examined 1,514 participants who suffered from chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) and found that 16% of these participants had used cannabis for pain. In addition to this 16%, a further quarter of participants reported that they would opportunely use the drug for pain relief if granted access to it (Degenhardt et al., 2015). This research is critically important, given the lack of safe and effective long-term pain treatments, and also the rise in accidental deaths caused by overdose of prescription pain medications. Professor Degenhardt (2015) suggests that this study raises important questions in regards to why there is not further investigation into not only the medicinal benefits of marijuana, however, also of the negative side effects of over the counter medications, such as patient dependence.

There also oppositional arguments which define cannabis as a ‘gateway drug’ and correlate the use of it with alcohol, cigarettes and the abuse of other illicit substances, such as methamphetamines and cocaine. Alternatively, Nadelmann (2016), discusses the primary connection between the use of marijuana and other illicit substances to predominantly involve the nature of the market, as opposed to the nature of the high, therefore suggesting that the legalization of marijuana will not influence users to transition to abusing other substances. He uses the Netherlands as an appropriate example, providing the quasi-legal and regulated stance on marijuana as a model, and identifies that use is less prevalent in the Netherlands than it is in the United States, and that those who do consume marijuana are actually less likely to use other illicit substances, despite the pro-cannabis stance that the country holds.

In conclusion, it is hard to dispute the many therapeutic and medicinal benefits of legalising marijuana. The stigma surrounding this drug remains, due to the long history of demonization and misrepresentation, however the abundance of research and evidence in support of medicinal marijuana is unable to be dismissed. While there are still risks associated with misuse and the potential for addiction, this does not greatly differ