marijuana reduces pain
Re: "Facts
on medical marijuana are stubborn things, too," Oct. 24
Author Joseph Summerill is correct to
assert that "facts ... are stubborn things." So stubborn, in
fact, that he chooses to ignore them completely.
Summerill alleges, "The undisputable
facts, however, are that there are no sound scientific data
supporting the medical value of marijuana." The website PubMed
Central, the U.S. government repository for peer-reviewed
scientific research, disagrees. In fact, a simple word search on
PubMed using the keyword "marijuana" reveals more than 2,100
published papers in peer-reviewed journals just this year alone.
Of course, not every one of these
papers pertain to the substance's therapeutic potential. But
many do.
For example, the results of a series of
randomized, placebo-controlled Food and Drug
Administration-approved clinical trials performed by regional
branches of the University of California demonstrated that
inhaled cannabis holds therapeutic value that is comparable to
or better than conventional medications, particularly in the
treatment of multiple sclerosis and neuropathic pain. These
findings were publicly presented to the California legislature,
and also appear online here:
http://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/images/pdfs/CMCR_REPORT_FEB17.pdf.
Further, the UC findings paralleled those previously reported by
no less than the American Medical Association's Council on
Science and Public Health, which declared, "Results of short
term controlled trials indicate that smoked cannabis reduces
neuropathic pain, improves appetite and caloric intake
especially in patients with reduced muscle mass, and may relieve
spasticity and pain in patients with multiple sclerosis."
Those are the facts, Mr. Summerill.
It's time to stop denying them.
Paul Armentano
Washington
D.C. schools
need curriculum reform
Former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle
Rhee's attempt to both motivate and measure good teaching was
doomed to fail from the start because the one-size-fits-all
send-em-all-to college K-12 curriculum does not address the real
needs of the 50 percent of students that are
learning-challenged. These students do not need courses in
Shakespeare, advanced algebra or cellular biology. They need
instead the basics of reading and writing, basic financial
skills, communication skills, social skills, job skills and a
large assortment of apprentice programs from which to learn a
vocation. They also need a good program of physical fitness and
sports.
Back in the early 1970s W. Edward
Deming discovered that most automobile reliability problems are
"designed in" and not the fault of the workers building the
cars. Detroit didn't listen, Japan did. The result -- Japan
instituted continuous quality improvement and all but wiped out
the American automobile industry. The problems of our school
system are very similar -- they are designed in and not the
fault of incompetent teachers. That is something Rhee never
understood -- nor does the teaching guild. Not until there is
curriculum reform will our schools do well for all of the
students.
Richard C. Kreutzberg
Bethesda
Obama
administration should be watched
Re: "Energy
Department rewrote the law to aid Solyndra," Oct. 21
The Solyndra scandal clearly
demonstrates that the Obama administration can carry out its
radical, anti-taxpayer policies in the open with little
resistance from a feckless Republican leadership and, more
importantly, with the assistance of a complicit media that fails
in its job to inform the American public.
Michelle Dufay
McLean
