Should a 7-Year-Old Use Medical Marijuana?

One of Oregon's youngest medical marijuana patients, who suffers from leukemia, stirs controversy.

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Maia Szalavitz summarizes the medical complexity in Time:

The American Academy of Pediatrics...opposes the use of marijuana to treat young children, citing its addictive potential and the many unknowns about how it may affect developing bodies. The Institute of Medicine (IOM), a scientific group of experts consulted by Congress, analyzed the available data and since 1999 has acknowledged that certain legitimate medical uses of marijuana are worth additional study. While the panel noted that many effective treatments already exist to relieve nausea and cancer pain, it recognized that for some patients who may not respond to these therapies, the components in marijuana may be helpful. The group’s main objection to the drug was its use in smoked preparations, which is not an issue in this case.

The IOM’s report highlights the need for much more research into understanding medicinal uses of marijuana—including for which symptoms or conditions it might be most effective, and for which patients. Those concerns are magnified when it comes to treating children like Comstock, who often are not included in clinical trials because of their young age, and who may have many more years to contend with any possible side effects of the drug. Some experts point out that not all of marijuana’s components, and their effects on the body, have been studied, not to mention well understood. Without more research, both doctors and parents will continue to face the difficult decision of giving youngsters a compound and hoping it will do more good than harm.

As Allan Badiner recently wrote on AlterNet , the healing potential of marijuana is largely untapped, and often requires more sophisticated means of extraction than smoking. Nonetheless, the benefits of marijuana’s lesser-known compounds, like CBD, may be the most remarkable. “Researchers Sean D. McAllister and Pierre Desprez, who conducted studies of CBD's effect on cancer cells for California Pacific Medical Center, suggest that these non-psychoactive compounds from the cannabis plant might, in short order, render chemotherapy and radiation distant second and third options for cancer patients,” wrote Badiner.

In the end, how people feel about a 7-year-old child's medical marijuana use may depend upon which research they have read.

Kristen Gwynne covers drugs at AlterNet. She graduated from New York University with a degree in journalism and psychology.