Look, we all know at this point that marijuana has medical properties. Okay. It's been established. But it's not a panacea...it doesn't get rid of a cold, wipe your nose, cook your dinner and bring you your pipe and slippers after a long day at work.
People
have to use pharmaceuticals from time to time, and if there are adverse reactions (that occur in varying percentages of patients), then that's a choice you have to make. Just because marijuana isn't accepted as a medicine doesn't mean that a prescription for pills is the lowest thing you can do. I mean, Christ, the medicines that have been developed by laboratories have extended the average lifespan (I know acne isn't a life-threatening thing) by 20 years in the past century.
And I've said it before in a medical marijuana thread, but if you look objectively at the side effects of marijuana as listed on Erowid of all places, the effects look like those of just about any prescription available.
- nausea, especially in combination with alcohol, some pharmaceuticals, or other psychoactives
- coughing, asthma, upper respiratory problems
- difficulty with short term memory during effects and during periods of frequent use (Ranganathan M, D'Souza DC, Psychopharmacology, 2006)
- racing heart, agitation, feeling tense
- mild to severe anxiety
- panic attacks in sensitive users or with very high doses (oral use increases risk of getting too much)
- headaches
- dizziness, confusion
- lightheadedness or fainting (in cases of lowered blood pressure)
- paranoid & anxious thoughts more frequent
- possible psychological dependence on cannabis
- clumsiness, loss of coordination at high doses
- can precipitate or exacerbate latent or existing mental disorders
Get off the guy's case. He knows what he's doing, and if he feels the benefits outweigh the potential risks, the more power to him.