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The Medicinal aspects of Cannabis

MelonyR

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Oct 7, 2011
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Hello! I would like to get any input from your wealth of knowledge about the medicinal qualities of marijuana. I didn't really want to discuss the political or social aspects of using/legalizing cannabis, as there are other forums to do just that. I however, am a medicinal patient, and have a prescription for weed.

There are quite a few ailments that allow a person to get a prescription in my state (OR), and perhaps even more when you look at California. I actually question whether cannabis has any medical benefit for many of these, and there had been little study in the US to address these issues, yet they allow it to be prescribed for many things.

An article in my local paper got me to thinking about this, and why there are no legal medical studies other than the one at University of Mississippi in the US. Again, I don't want to enter into the politics of this, just the medical implications. Here is a link to Elvy's story.

http://theworldlink.com/news/local/article_ba5d9c0c-97ee-55f8-933a-55c9803fd820.html

Pain: I don't believe for a minute that cannabis helps much with pain, at least not anywhere near as good as say codone (or similar drugs) for example, so if I had pain, I would prefer an opiate, as they work. I know there are some studies that show cannaboids can relieve some pain, but not nearly as good as the opium derivatives.

Depression: As far as depression goes, I don't see much benefit it smoking weed, as it just makes me more depressed, yet some doctors are prescribing cannabis for this. It's a well known fact that most people that smoke weed will get a little "paranoid", this can't possibly be good for depression in my opinion.

Schizophrenia: I knew a man once that tried treating his schizophrenia with cannabis, he ended up naked in a goldfish pond killing all the fish with a bowie knife. He even carved the word coy (misspelling of Koi) in the siding of the house after his killing spree. Needless to say, he went to jail and then back to the mental ward and back on his real medication. How would any doctor would prescribed cannabis and allow this is beyond me...it almost seems like malpractice.

Appetite: Well this one is a no-brainer. I have never met a person that uses cannabis that doesn't want to clean out the refrigerator. I have never had cancer, but have had several friends that used cannabis during their chemo and it works better than magic. It probably could have saved Karen Carpenter's life too, I don't think you can out think the munchies, they just have their own mind.

Epilepsy: I don't really have any knowledge about how cannabis could stop a neurological disorder, but I am open to learning.

Glaucoma: I have it, and the weed works. It can be proven scientifically. My eye pressure drops when using cannabis. See the link above.

Asthma: This one seems counter intuitive, I'm open to learn.

I guess what gets me, is why can this drug be prescribed for some things that it has absolutely no chance of helping. I mean, even in the states that allow medical cannabis, you still have to pay a real MD to get a prescription, don't these doctors have to have any standards? Are there any doctors here that can explain this counter intuitive situation?

(hope that's not too long)
 
I am not certain how the prescription works. I know just about anyone can get a prescription for the smallest of symptoms in California and Oregon.

I know cannabis works well with dropping blood pressure. It also dilates the bronchial passages. I'm not sure if this is dependent upon smoking it or if other methods of ingestion are viable.

Most of all, cannabis is a miracle drug for chemo and aids patients unable to eat, the appetite and sense of well being and peace is a potent combination. It also directly inhibits the region of the brain responsible for vertigo and nausea. I've found it's great for hunger pangs where you're so hungry you can't eat and your stomach hurts. Even without eating anything, the effects seem to calm the discomfort.

Things like depression I've seen work differently in people and in myself. As a teenager it was a miracle drug for my mood swings and my panic attacks and anxiety, but as I got into my twenties this changed. It never caused depression but it did aggravate my anxiety. One can't shake the feeling you're doing something wrong. I wonder at how much of it is psychosomatic.

After I started getting panic attacks in my later twenties(unrelated to the cannabis), I had to stop smoking completely, though I only used on occasion the last five years or so.

I have friends in states where it's prescribed by doctors who use it for supposed pain relief, but I've never found cannabis does anything for pain beyond distraction.
 
In my experience cannabis does very very little of the things claimed by the medical marijuana industry. Enjoyable, but useless.
 
In California they are issuing Doctor's "recommendations" for any and every "aliment" imaginable. If you can imagine it and keep a straight face long enough to pitch it to the Doc, he'll write you up for it (and for $99 every six months).

If you want to know the truth about medical marijuana, just ask the Doc what aliments it is contraindicated for.

The answer of course is, zero.
 
MelonyR said:
I guess what gets me, is why can this drug be prescribed for some things that it has absolutely no chance of helping. I mean, even in the states that allow medical cannabis, you still have to pay a real MD to get a prescription, don't these doctors have to have any standards? Are there any doctors here that can explain this counter intuitive situation?

(hope that's not too long)
Click to expand...

No, the doctors don't have much standards..pretty much anyone can get a script. But the fact is that most of the medical problems you listed, can effectively be treated with marijuana.

The side effects of cannabis are benign compared to that of some pain killers and antidepressants. So why would you take those meds, when cannabis gets the job done?
 
re: Schizophrenia, using cannabis for this just seems all sortsa wrong, since it can accelerate Schizophrenia's onset.

otherwise, i really don't know. I have friends who use medicinally. They seem to feel it helps, though I have no idea if it's just the placebo effect.

Regardless, even though I don't smoke it, it should be legalized.
 
ApolloGnomon said:
In my experience cannabis does very very little of the things claimed by the medical marijuana industry. Enjoyable, but useless.
Click to expand...

Cannabis was in the British Pharmacopoeia until the 1930's so it must have had some uses.
 
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I can't really speak to most of the claimed medical purposes, only in it's help for nausea and appetite. I work at a cancer hopsital and have had patients express to me how much it can help with that.

I also can tell you that when I was in rehab for anorexia, marijuana was used by many of the people in treatment there, both because it increased appetite, but also because it lessened the anxiety that is associated with eating.

I'm not sure with bulimia though. I can see how it could actually make things worse, i.e. the munchie effect may encourage bulimics to binge (followed by purging).
 
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Used occasionally, it is effective in getting out of a creative rut or writer's block.
Not sure about the medicinal aspects.
It may help some people overcome worse addictions.

It may benefit society by keeping kids amused with fairly benign activity. Without it, they'd be stealing hub-caps.
 
It also benefits society by decreasing ambition. There are therefore fewer civil wars.
 
In a couple years when I'm done with my current "gig" (see avatar) I plan on going in to a "caregiver" complaining about "Attention Surplus Disorder."

I gotta tell ya, I haven't played any Mario in years. I can't wait for Nintendo to be fun again.
 
Robrob said:
In California they are issuing Doctor's "recommendations" for any and every "aliment" imaginable. If you can imagine it and keep a straight face long enough to pitch it to the Doc, he'll write you up for it (and for $99 every six months).

If you want to know the truth about medical marijuana, just ask the Doc what aliments it is contraindicated for.

The answer of course is, zero.
Click to expand...

Well this is most certainly false. As can be noticed by a quick look through the list of studies that Georg posted. In my personal case, my intraocular eye pressure can reach close to 25 without medication, and I only have one good eye. My doctor has never cared that I used cannabis rather than pharmaceutical treatments, personally the cannabis seem to work better.

I do agree that many of the doctors are writing prescriptions for ailments that cannabis will do nothing for, but that is the way the states made the rules.

Georg said:
List of clinical studies and case reports here.

Some positive, some negative.
Click to expand...

Thanx for that great link. I will spend some time reading through that. I was a little surprised that there are quite a few studies being carried out in the States. I wasn't completely sure if they were using cannabis or an analog in all of them though, I will read more at home tonight.

dogjones said:
It also benefits society by decreasing ambition. There are therefore fewer civil wars.
Click to expand...

This is probably why the occupy wall street protest took so long to get going. ;)
 
Its quite hilarious, these hoops we jump through to save face, where there is none to save.

Is it too radical to suggest, that overall, human health is dependent upon diversions and alternate states of awareness?

The medicinal value of marijuana is that it gets people stoned.
Some like that; some don't.

I can't help but find the debate upsetting because we seem to be so willing to cave in to oppressive laws and justifications for them.

Pot has value because it gets you high. Same with ethanol, though a very different high. Imagine if all the folks on this forum had to justify their use of ethanol as something medicinal. Alcohol is tolerated (legal and then some) because it affords a departure from sobriety and the heavy hand of consensus and morality...and even science and health.

The debate is too lame.
What about lsd?

I bet it has all manner of medicinal uses.

Like, tripping.
 
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It is quite annoying to see cannabis promoted as a panacea for everything from cancer to dirty toenails. I think that people who do this would be best served by putting the bong down.

Many claims have been addressed here. I'll just address one. I haven't seen cannabis promoted for general pain but only certain types of pain, such as headaches. Since headaches are notoriously sensitive to vasoconstriction and vasodilation, it doesn't seem to me too extraordinary a claim.
 
Perhaps pot has no value other than getting people stoned.
Maybe it is vaguely useful for other stuff.

One thing is for certain:

Marijuana use isn't going to go away.
Because, when used as directed, it gets people high.

We can embrace that, or not.
Do we need more justification to permit its use?
Making its use a criminal offense has been successful in making lots of criminals.
Which, of course, creates jobs in law enforcement; lawyering; prison guards; etc.

Land of the free; home of the brave.

(garf)
 
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