By Richard Cowan, Publisher, MarijuanaNews.com
In the United States and throughout the Western world, patients with HIV and AIDS have been the driving forces behind the effort to legalize the therapeutic use of cannabis.
For over 20 years the HIV/AIDS community has been aware of pot's medical utility—despite consistent denials from their elected officials regarding the plant's efficacy. In recent years clinical studies have added credence to what were once only anecdotal claims.
For example, a study published this summer in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes reported, 'Smoked marijuana … has a clear medical benefit in HIV-positive [ patients ] by increasing food intake and improving mood and objective and subjective sleep measures.'
The study appeared only months after investigators at the University of California's Pain Clinical Research Center reported in the journal Neurology that inhaling cannabis significantly reduced HIV-associated neuropathy compared to placebo.
Previous studies point other benefits as well. For instance, clinical trial data published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2003 reported that cannabis use by HIV patients is associated with increased CD4/T-cell counts compared to non-users. A separate study published in JAIDS in 2005 found that HIV/AIDS patients who report using medical marijuana are 3.3 times more likely to adhere to their antiretroviral therapy regimens than non-cannabis users.
As a result, various surveys from North America now show that between 25 and 37 percent of HIV/AIDS patients report having used cannabis medically. Were cannabis to be formally legalized as a medicine, no doubt this percentage would grow much higher.
Unfortunately, despite the efforts of patients, most Americans with AIDS still do not have safe access to cannabis. This situation must change.
Tragically, the people who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of World AIDS Day ( W.A.D. ) cannot expect the world AIDS community to speak out for their need for cannabis. On the contrary, the United Nations, the very organization that is at the center of W.A.D. has other—much more powerful—subsidiaries, the International Narcotics Control Board and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which are committed to the total elimination of cannabis! Ironically, the 'stigma' attached to the medical use of marijuana is being promoted by the same organizations that claim to be helping people with AIDS.
The UNAIDS.org Web site says, 'The campaign for universal access to life saving drugs for HIV and AIDS, started originally by grassroots AIDS activists, is today a major focus of attention of UN agencies and others influential organizations at national and global levels.' Yet it is these very same organizations that spend millions to demonize cannabis and maintain the criminal laws that prohibit even the sickest patients from accessing its therapeutic benefits.
Unless and until the world AIDS community demands that the interests of the sick and dying take precedence over the so-called drug war, millions will continue to suffer needlessly at the hands of those claiming to help them.
Richard Cowan was National Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws ( NORML ) from 1992 to 1995. For the last ten years he has published MarijuanaNews.com . A life-long libertarian, he is the author of several controversial articles published in William F. Buckley, Jr.'s National Review magazine, including 'Why Conservatives Should Support the Legalization of Marijuana' ( 1972 ) and 'Why Conservatives Should Support Gay Rights' ( 1986 ) .
