A Pharmacist's Review Found Cannabis Had Low Addiction Potential and Clinical Promise for Multiple Conditions | Research

The takeaway

A pharmaceutical review concluded marijuana causes dependence but has little addictive power compared to cocaine, alcohol, heroin, and nicotine, and shows clinical promise for glaucoma, nausea, pain, spasticity, MS, and AIDS wasting.

Read this if you want a balanced pharmaceutical assessment of cannabis risks and therapeutic potential.

Marijuana's addictive power ranked below cocaine, alcohol, heroin, and nicotine

What the researchers found

This review from a pharmacist's perspective assessed marijuana across pharmacology, risks, and therapeutic potential.

For risks: acute intoxication featured euphoria, short-term memory loss, sensory enhancement, and impaired linear thinking. Depersonalization and panic attacks were adverse effects. Chronic high doses might cause subtle cognitive impairments of unknown duration. Marijuana was flagged as a risk factor for underlying mental illness.

For dependence: marijuana caused dependence but compared to cocaine, alcohol, heroin, and nicotine, it had "little addictive power" and produced only mild withdrawal symptoms.

For therapeutic potential: clinical promise was identified for glaucoma, nausea and vomiting, pain relief, spasticity, multiple sclerosis, and AIDS wasting syndrome.

The review concluded with a balanced position: as a recreational drug, marijuana posed dangers particularly to adolescent development; as a medical drug, it should be available for patients who do not respond to existing therapies.

Why it matters

Coming from a pharmaceutical perspective, this review provided a notably balanced assessment at a time when most publications took strong positions either for or against medical marijuana. The comparison of marijuana's addiction potential to other substances was particularly useful for contextualizing risk.

The numbers in context

Six conditions with clinical promise: glaucoma, nausea/vomiting, pain, spasticity, MS, AIDS wasting. Addiction potential ranked below cocaine, alcohol, heroin, and nicotine.

How the study worked

Literature review using MEDLINE searches with multiple therapeutic and pharmacological search terms, supplemented with interviews of cannabinoid researchers.

What this study cannot tell us

A single-author review without systematic methodology. The characterization of cognitive impairments as "subtle" may understate effects found in subsequent research. The comparison of addiction potential is qualitative rather than quantitative.

How to read the evidence

A literature review supplemented by researcher interviews. Provides useful synthesis but without systematic methodology.

When this study was published

Published in 1998. Several of the therapeutic applications identified have since been studied in controlled trials with varying results.

The bigger picture

The comparative addiction framing, placing marijuana alongside rather than apart from legal substances, influenced subsequent policy discussions. The conditional recommendation for medical access (patients not responding to other therapies) became a common position in medical guidelines.

Questions still open

Have the six therapeutic applications been validated by subsequent controlled trials? How has the addiction potential assessment held up with modern research? Should medical access depend on failure of other treatments?

Common questions

How addictive is marijuana compared to other drugs?

This review ranked marijuana's addictive power below cocaine, alcohol, heroin, and nicotine, noting it produces dependence but only mild withdrawal symptoms.

Should marijuana be available as medicine?

The review concluded it should be available for patients who do not adequately respond to existing therapies, while noting recreational use poses risks to adolescent development.

Read the original research

Analysis of the medical use of marijuana and its societal implications.

Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association (Washington, D.C. : 1996), 38(2), 220-7

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Citation

Taylor, H G. (1998). Analysis of the medical use of marijuana and its societal implications.. Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association (Washington, D.C. : 1996), 38(2), 220-7.