{"id":433,"date":"2010-11-18T10:13:47","date_gmt":"2010-11-18T10:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/11\/the-ethics-of-medical-marijuana.html"},"modified":"2010-11-18T10:13:47","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T10:13:47","slug":"the-ethics-of-medical-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/11\/the-ethics-of-medical-marijuana.html","title":{"rendered":"The Ethics of Medical Marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>From the current issue of Time Magazine, in reference to who uses &#8220;medical&#8221; marijuana:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Colorodo health department records show that only 2% of registered [medical marijuana] patients had cancer; 1% had HIV\/AIDS. There were 94% who suffered &#8216;severe pain&#8217;&#8211;a catchall condition that can be entirely subjective and difficult for a doctor to measure or verify. Statewide, more than 70% of doctor recommendations were written by fewer than 15 physicians. Three out of four patients are men under 40. This patient profile&#8211;young males complaining of chronic pain-has been roughly the same in other medical-marijuana states like Montana and California.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I watched my mother-in-law die of cancer, and I would have gladly advocated for the use of medical marijuana to help her pain and nausea. But medicalizing a 25-year old man&#8217;s pot-habit not only seems like a farce to me, but also a potential danger&#8211;to the 25-year old and to the rest of us.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>So where does that leave me? Perhaps as an advocate for stricter laws surrounding medical marijuana. Certainly in support of actual medicine in-the-works that &#8220;has been effective for pain from MS spasms and cancer treatment without causing the marijuana high.&#8221; And once again aware that ethics and laws aren&#8217;t the same thing. &nbsp;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the current issue of Time Magazine, in reference to who uses &#8220;medical&#8221; marijuana: &#8220;Colorodo health department records show that only 2% of registered [medical marijuana] patients had cancer; 1% had HIV\/AIDS. There were 94% who suffered &#8216;severe pain&#8217;&#8211;a catchall condition that can be entirely subjective and difficult for a doctor to measure or verify.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-what-im-reading"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Ethics of Medical Marijuana - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/11\/the-ethics-of-medical-marijuana.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Ethics of Medical Marijuana - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From the current issue of Time Magazine, in reference to who uses &#8220;medical&#8221; marijuana: &#8220;Colorodo health department records show that only 2% of registered [medical marijuana] patients had cancer; 1% had HIV\/AIDS. There were 94% who suffered &#8216;severe pain&#8217;&#8211;a catchall condition that can be entirely subjective and difficult for a doctor to measure or verify.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/11\/the-ethics-of-medical-marijuana.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-11-18T10:13:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Ethics of Medical Marijuana - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/11\/the-ethics-of-medical-marijuana.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Ethics of Medical Marijuana - Thin Places","og_description":"From the current issue of Time Magazine, in reference to who uses &#8220;medical&#8221; marijuana: &#8220;Colorodo health department records show that only 2% of registered [medical marijuana] patients had cancer; 1% had HIV\/AIDS. There were 94% who suffered &#8216;severe pain&#8217;&#8211;a catchall condition that can be entirely subjective and difficult for a doctor to measure or verify.&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/11\/the-ethics-of-medical-marijuana.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-11-18T10:13:47+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/11\/the-ethics-of-medical-marijuana.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/11\/the-ethics-of-medical-marijuana.html","name":"The Ethics of Medical Marijuana - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-11-18T10:13:47+00:00","dateModified":"2010-11-18T10:13:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/11\/the-ethics-of-medical-marijuana.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/11\/the-ethics-of-medical-marijuana.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/11\/the-ethics-of-medical-marijuana.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Ethics of Medical Marijuana"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}