ABSTRACT

For a variety of reasons, cannabis, or marijuana is the most controversial illicit drug in use today. Its defenders maintain that marijuana is harmless, or at least less harmful than other drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, while its more virulent attackers claim that it causes numerous sequelae, including birth defects more horrendous than those that resulted from thalidomide use. Much rhetoric has been expounded by both sides of the controversy. Unfortunately, even though there is ample evidence that cannabis is a dangerous substance, the extreme claims from both ends of the spectrum have tended to cloud the clinical reality of marijuana use, pharmacology and neurochemistry.