Con
“There is no scientific evidence that the effect of marijuana in diminishing pain is related to any specifically identified analgesic effect. That it unequivocally does produce a short-term CNS [central nervous system] euphoria, which alleviates some pain centrally, best explains its mechanism for both reducing pain short-term during the period of influence as well as causing the euphoria associated with addictive drugs of abuse. Additionally, there is no scientific evidence that long-term use of medicinal marijuana is either effective or safe for the treatment of chronic pain… [T]here are many analgesic medications available to patients and physicians that have been proven and established in the practice of medicine, through sound scientific clinical research, to be more effective and safer for the treatment of chronic pain than medical marijuana.”
May 2013