Marijuana as Medicine

[Michaelangelica]

Marijuana as Medicine

Perhaps the strongest argument for legalisation lies with the medical uses of cannabis. The British government is on the cusp of allowing its use to treat painful conditions, and in America an eminent medic has come out in favour. Professor Lester Grinspoon from Harvard Medical School believes that cannabis "is likely to be seen as a wonder drug of the 21st century."

Cannabis is widely known for its medicinal ability to ease a host of serious conditions:
# cancer: cannabis can suppress nausea brought on by chemotherapy
# AIDS: it can increase appetite and prevent weight-loss
# glaucoma (an eye condition): cannabis can relieve eye pressure
# muscular pain: it can ease muscle spasms and period pains


In the 19th century, cannabis was widely used to relieve muscle spasms and rheumatism. Even Queen Victoria was given it by her doctor to ease her period pains.

It was the invention of the syringe towards the end of the century that marked an end to its widespread medicinal use.

Injecting drugs meant they could take effect a lot faster. Cannabis cannot be dissolved in water, so it can't be injected.

Only recently have scientists began to scrutinize the chemical more closely, and have started to conduct clinical trials to test its medical effects.

Relief for multiple sclerosis sufferers
There are a total of 85,000 people suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS) in Britain. This incurable debilitating disease manifests itself with a host of symptoms:
# balance problems
# muscle weakness and spasms
# incontinence
# pain
# tremors

Although pharmaceutical drugs are available to MS sufferers, the condition is difficult to control. Clinical tests performed by the Multiple Sclerosis Society showed that most patients responded positively to cannabis. The drug especially alleviated spasms, pain, tremor and increased bladder control.

In addition, a postal survey was conducted amongst patients self-medicating with cannabis in the UK and the USA. More than 90% reported a beneficial effect on their condition. Unfortunately, many patients end up obtaining cannabis illegally.

Legal high
Doctors have been allowed to prescribe capsules containing THC, the main active ingredient of cannabis, for years. Nabilone - a synthetically manufactured copy of THC - was licensed in 1982 for prescription use against nausea caused by chemotherapy.


However, some patients complain of the same side effect that many people state as the drug's main recreational attraction - it gets you stoned. Due to the complex relationship between THC and receptors in the brain, researchers haven't yet managed to separate the active medical ingredients from the brain-bending ones.

Cannabis aerosols
Patients taking the drug in capsule form are unable to control the dose as they can with careful inhaling. So the pharmaceutical industry has started developing THC aerosols and inhalers that don't harm lungs. This makes it easier for patients to control their dose and prevents them from getting too disorientated
.
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment

[Michaelangelica]

Marijuana, the wonder drug

Lester Grinspoon The Boston Globe
Published: March 1, 2007

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts: A new study in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine that we still need "proof" of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.

The study, from the University of California at San Francisco, found that smoked marijuana was effective at relieving the extreme pain of a debilitating condition known as peripheral neuropathy.

Marijuana, the wonder drug - International Herald Tribune

Since the 1920s, supporters of marijuana prohibition have exaggerated the drug's dangers. In different eras, different claims have gained prominence, but few have ever been abandoned. Indeed, many of the "reefer madness" tales that were used to generate support for early anti-marijuana laws continue to appear in government and media reports today.

Exposing Marijuana Myths - A Review of the Scientific Evidence

[Boerseun]

Originally Posted by Lester from the Globe

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts: A new study in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine that we still need "proof" of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.

The study, from the University of California at San Francisco, found that smoked marijuana was effective at relieving the extreme pain of a debilitating condition known as peripheral neuropathy.

First of all, medicine in the sense implied here have not existed for 5,000 years. Only a few centuries ago in Western Europe, the entrials of animals were still consulted to determine the cause of a patient's sickness, and the cure. Honestly, I don't care what 'medicine' thinks of mariuana, if that's the kind of medicine you're talking about.

The second point, that smoked mariuana is effective at relieving extreme pain, is more valid and useful, simply because it can be tested. But then we have to ask ourselves: The physical workings of mariuana simply plays around with the neurons and the synapses. It does absolutely bugger-all to the cause of the pain, and only serves to desensitize the smoker. This should come as absolutely no earth-shattering surprise. In such extreme cases of pain, morphine is used regularly. Morphine is also addictive, and there are rules and regulations against the free distribution of morphine for that very same reason. I don't see anybody running around protesting the legalizing of morphine. Now why would that be?

I'm not in disagreement with the legalizing of mariuana, not at all. The fact that we deem it illegal creates an artificial black market of an easily come by drug that serves as a stepping stone, or a point of entry, if you will, of the criminally inclined to the underworld. Legalize it, and the bottom will fall out of the market. Then mariuana usage can be attacked via the same methods that tobacco smoking is attacked. Which is just dandy with me. But if we want to legalize it, we should do it for the right reasons - not because of some misplaced notion of weed being the end-all and be-all of all wonder drugs.

[orbsycli]

As a medical marijuana patient for many reasons, I can say that some people on this Earth really need cannabis in their lives.

Some people don't.

In California, I am legally allowed to grow, posess, and smoke cannabis because I went to the doctors one day and explained to them everything, and they helped me.

To me, and millions of other people, it is a wonder drug. There's nothing like it.

I'm a very unstable person. (If you didn't know that one already)
I suffer from severe depression. I can be anorexic. Sometimes I get so anxious I can't even sleep.
I experienece a lot of disconfort in my intestines that I at first thought was an ulcer, but the doctors could never figure it out.

I blamed it on Kundalini syndrome, and stopped doing Kundalini yoga, and the pain suppressed but it's still there. .

Marijuana helps me eat. Helps me sleep. Marijuana makes me happy. It calms me down.

I know this might sound pathetic to some of you sober and beer drinkers out there,

but this plant gives me reason to live.

Without cannabis, I would live a really menacing, painful life.

I am so glad I discovered this wonderful plant with her beautiful buds.

Marijuana should not be illegal. It's illegal because of greed, and tradition, and Dupont, and popoganda, but I don't want to get into that story, it makes me sad.

Marijuana is pretty much legal in some states who support medical marijuana, like Caliofornia.

I can walk into "Cannabis Clubs" and buy marijuana.

There's even a picture of Bill Clinton with his card! Hah!

So, in conclusion, I know my body better than anything else in the world.
Marijuana is a divine medicine, and although it may be illegal in some places,
it's legal in others, because everybody just KNOWS otherwise.

Thank you

[Michaelangelica]

Amazing, humbling, post orbsycli
Thank you

I agree with a lot of what you say Boerseun
But
Herbal medicine has been used by Homo sapiens for c 60,000 years.
Chimps use herbal medicine; so the use of plants for medicine may go back even further into our primordial ancestory.

Morphine is a drug that is processed from the sap of a plant. In that process the 'medicine' becomes highly concentrated and toxic. It is physiologically addictive (eventually). It can kill, so no I would not vote for a free-for-all with supply of it.
I would however,vote for the registration and supply of heroin addicts under very strict medical supervision. This for a lot of reasons:- stopping the spread of blood born diseases, stopping police and public officials' corruption, emptying out our jails, reducing property crime, a greater possibility of rehabilitation and less deaths though inferior or adulterated (or sometimes too 'pure') opiates.

Too much paracetamol can kill too.

Our chemical armory against pain does not seem that good, although I think there are many herbs that could be investigated and I have written a little about the elsewhere but MJ seems to be a major player.

No pain-killer by definition "cures" a complaint. It just makes life a bit more bearable

Smoking anything burning is not good for you, (Including the smog of cities) but MJ does not kill you as quickly as opiate addiction.
Perhaps eating MJ dissolved in fats, such as butter in cookies, may be a better way to go.

From what orbsycli says, some people have very few choices.
At least you have an enlightened system in California. Here the law is getting 'fuzzier' by the minute.

[orbsycli]

For those who are legally allowed to consume THC:

URL removed by Admin. Come on Orb, this site clearly wasn't for people legally allowed to consume THC. You know better.

[Cedars]

They have introduced a Medical Marijuana bill here in Minnesota. The govenor has already proclaimed he will veto it, if it gets as far as his desk.

[Michaelangelica]

It's Been an 'All Out War' on Pot Smokers for 35 Years

By Paul Armentano, AlterNet. Posted March 22, 2007.

AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: It's Been an 'All Out War' on Pot Smokers for 35 Years

[Racoon]

I wouldn't classify/ register Marijuana as "medicine"
But I would legalize it to ease the burdens of Jails and prisons.

It should be taxed like evey other drug.
Yet it is not as Bad as cigarettes and second hand smoke

New Legislation on an old topic

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by Racoon

I wouldn't classify/ register Marijuana as "medicine"

It has a great number of medicinal uses.
Here is a link to links (!) both pro and con
Medical Marijuana - Master Reference
Amazon should have a few books on the subject too

This is from our "Liberal" federal government. This guy was just promoted this week too. No wonder kids don't believe the Government about drugs when they peddle crap like this.

Australia: Health Minister Says Marijuana as Dangerous as Heroin -- Calls for National Toughening of Laws 5/19/06
Australia: Health Minister Says Marijuana as Dangerous as Heroin -- Calls for National Toughening of Laws

Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Health Christopher Pyne announced Monday that all state and territorial governments had signed on to a federal plan to create a tough, uniform set of marijuana laws as part of a crackdown on cannabis.
Australia: Health Minister Says Marijuana as Dangerous as Heroin -- Calls for National Toughening of Laws