Marijuana Treatment Called Fallacy

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Filed at 6:06 a.m. EST

By The Associated Press

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) -- A person with glaucoma would have to smoke a marijuana cigarette every two hours -- about 4,000 a

year -- to experience any medical benefits from the drug, according to new research.

In a study published Thursday in the Archives of Ophthalmology, ophthalmologist Keith Green, a Medical College of Georgia

researcher, attacks ``the fallacy that marijuana is of any value at all in the treatment of glaucoma.''

Voters in Alaska, Arizona, Oregon, Nevada and Washington last week approved measures allowing use of marijuana for

medical reasons. Those reasons include reducing side effects of cancer chemotherapy to treating glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a degenerative eye disease that affects between 2 percent and 3 percent of people and is more likely in those with

a family history of the disease.

The normal eye maintains a constant pressure of fluid, but glaucoma causes a chemical change that blocks the outflow, Green

said. That leads to increased pressure that can lead to blindness.

Chemicals in marijuana called cannabinoids do seem to help improve the outflow in about 60 percent of the people who try it.

But the pressure builds back up within four hours, Green said.

In order to keep the pressure down, a person would have to smoke a joint every two hours, he said.

``Smoking a joint a week is not going to cure glaucoma,'' said Green.

Advocates for medical marijuana say even temporarily alleviating the pressure is better than doing nothing.

``Should these patients suffer so?'' asked Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana

Laws Foundation.