Marijuana.com

Suetaz

I thought I'd post this here for a good 'beginner' article for anyone that is just learning about medical Marijuana. It gives a good general overview of medical Marijuana.


Marijuana As Medicine

Health and Nutrition

The legal status of smoking Marijuana for medical purposes is cloudy, but will it someday be used to treat Alz-heimer’s disease, obesity, or pain?

Marijuana best known and most often used as is recreational drug, but its history as a medicine goes back hundreds of years. In the 19th century, Marijuana extract dissolved in alcohol was a popular home remedy. Queen Victoria may have been a user: By some accounts, her doctor prescribed it to relieve her menstrual pain.


Pot science and industry

Marijuana for medicinal purposes has made a comeback today, thanks largely to patient advocacy groups and activists in the U.S. demanding for the legalization of Marijuana for all purposes. Cancer patients and their families were the first to push for it. Many found that smoking Marijuana was the only way to relieve the severe nausea from chemotherapy. Then AIDS advocacy groups swung into action, arguing that smoking Marijuana was the best way for some patients to treat weight loss, muscle wasting, and loss of appetite. Partly because of these efforts, nine American states have passed laws legalizing Marijuana for medical use.

Meanwhile, researchers have been slowly deciphering the complicated biochemistry that underlies Marijuana’s effects. It’s been almost a hundred years since scientists first isolated cannabinoids, the chemicals in Marijuana that give people a euphoric "high." The main one is tetrahydrocannabinol, usually referred to simply as THC. In the 1980s, researchers discovered THC receptors on cells in the brain and immune system. At about the same time, they isolated endogenous cannabinoids, molecules the body produces naturally that act like THC and "switch on" some of the same receptors it does. Together, these findings showed how the human body is biologically programmed to respond to Marijuana. Moreover, the cannabinoids and their receptors seem to play a role in a wide array of brain and other functions, including short-term memory, mood, muscle coordination, pain, nausea, and appetite. Marijuana may have a counterculture image, but research into the cannabinoid system is pretty straightlaced these days as researchers look for compounds to exploit these myriad effects.


Taking a toke vs. a pill

If you’re using Marijuana for a medical reason, smoking may offer some advantages. The THC is rapidly absorbed, so it takes effect in minutes. Smoking also allows people to monitor the effect as they are using the drug. In addition, some experts — and many users — believe that burning the plant material may release compounds other than THC that are themselves healthful, or perhaps critical to the effectiveness of THC.

Yet it’s also clear that inhaling Marijuana smoke into your lungs can be harmful. Studies have shown that it’s capable of damaging lung and other respiratory system tissue, just like cigarette smoke. Research hints at connections to lung cancer.

One way around the problems with smoke is to isolate the THC in Marijuana and take it as a pill. The chemical has been available in this form since the mid-1980s as a perfectly legal but prescription-only drug called dronabinol. A synthetic compound similar to THC called nabilone is sold as a pill in Britain and Canada.

Dronabinol was initially approved to treat nausea in cancer patients; later, treatment of weight and appetite loss in AIDS patients was added. But it isn’t used much by cancer patients these days, in part because better antinausea drugs have come along. AIDS patients use it more often, but the side effects can be a problem. Instead of experiencing a pleasant high, dronabinol can leave some people feeling upset and disoriented. Research suggests that people who’ve had some experience with Marijuana are less likely to be troubled by these side effects. Lowering the dose and taking that drug before bedtime may help reduce them.


Other smokeless alternatives

Because of the drawbacks of smoked Marijuana and oral THC, researchers and patients are investigating alternative delivery systems. Some people, including recreational users, in the U.S. already use vaporizers that heat Marijuana rather than burn it. The inhaled vapor contains THC and presumably other compounds — good news for the "whole herb" believers — but not the harmful substances in smoke. Some companies are testing THC-based products that are sprayed in the mouth or put under the tongue, on the theory that they’ll be absorbed more efficiently than a swallowed pill. One sublingual (under-the-tongue) formulation is in Phase 3 trials as a therapy for multiple sclerosis, cancer-associated pain, and sleep disturbances. Another interesting possibility is a THC-based suppository.


Looking for the smoking gun

All of the legal wrangling about medical Marijuana has been about the smoked version, but the bulk of the medical research in this area has been on THC pills and related compounds. It is easier for investigators to control dosing that way. Moreover, drug companies and other groups have an interest in paying for that kind of research.

But as a result, it’s difficult to construct a case for smoking Marijuana for medical purposes with the usual sources: studies in peer-reviewed journals, randomized clinical trials, and meta-analyses. Instead, advocacy groups have relied on testimonials from individual patients and appeals to the principle that patients, if even a small minority, shouldn’t be denied access to something that relieves pain and suffering. A 1999 Institute of Medicine report on medical Marijuana gave it a qualified endorsement, saying that short-term (six months or less) use of smoked Marijuana should be considered for patients with debilitating symptoms, such as intractable pain or nausea.


The feds vs. state law

In the American states where medical Marijuana has been legalized, it remains a federal crime to purchase, prescribe, or even possess the drug. So even in states where medical use of Marijuana is decriminalized for medical purposes, people have been prosecuted under federal law for possessing or using it.

The U.S. Supreme Court has already reviewed two cases concerning medical Marijuana. In 2001, the court ruled that claims of medical necessity couldn’t exempt on Oakland, Calif., "cannabis buyers’ cooperative" from federal drug laws. But last year it let stand a lower court decision upholding the right of doctors to recommend Marijuana for medical purposes. The lower court had said that doctors have a First Amendment right to discuss Marijuana with patients.

Now the court has agreed to hear a third case. Federal agents seized Marijuana plants grown by a California woman, Diane Monson, who smoked the drug to relieve back pain. Monson and a woman with brain cancer — who says Marijuana relieved her pain and restored her appetite — sued in federal court, arguing that homegrown Marijuana for personal, non-commercial use is not covered by federal drug laws. A lower court agreed with them, but the Bush administration appealed to the Supreme Court.

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marji1

I'm very thankful to you for posting this full article. I wanted people to see at least this part of it(possibly being like me at times, seeing allot of reading to be done at once with concentration and feeling too overwhelmed to read it).

I'm 53 years old and knew how helpful Marijuana could be when I was in highschool. I didn't have anything to do with it for many years. Our society has tainted how we feel about it and our use of it so much that even now when I have an OK from the state I live in to grow and use it, I'm still convincing myself at times that it's OK and I deserve to feel better by the use of it. As I learn more I'll try to share more of my knowledge also. It might help you to know I've been a nurse for many years.(I've not worked for a year and don't plan to work in nursing again.)

Let's remember we all deserve the best quality of life.

Service in Light

NeoArcadian

Also thanks for posting it.

Ever since I was 9 years old the cartilage in my jaw has been slowly getting ripped apart because of the way I chew. Around the age of 12 the jaw started to hurt me and make me chew oddly.

Last year the pain in my jaw was bad to the point of not being able to ignore it. I went to the dentist and had my entire mouth examined. I was diagnosed with DJS (Degenerative Jaw Syndrome) and was told that if I didn't get it taken care of now I would have to have my entire jaw replaced by the time I am 18.

Just a side note. Jaw replacment surgery is the second most painful surgery availible and costs around 250,000 dollars to get done.

Anyway, I am now 16 and the pain of the jaw keeps me up at night. Add to that insomnia and you've got one bad combination. I started smoking at the age of thirteen, young and stupid but now it helps, and back then I smoked marijuana purely for recreational purposes.

Now I smoke it both for medicinal purposes and recreational purposes. I have gotten to the point that I have to smoke up just before bed or I can't sleep because of the pain. The worst part is that my jaw is never going to fully heal once they fix it, with braces and correctional wires, so I will most likely have this pain for the rest of my life.

Also, I am immune to most pain killers. I have taken many perscription and non-perscription medicines to get rid of the pain but none of them even phase it. Either way, I support the full legalization of marijuana in every way shape and form but until that happens I think medical marijuana really needs to be legalized.

I think it is absolutely rediculas that the government is withholding such a woderful thing from the people that really need it.

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"Hammered like a blacksmith, Stoned like a mountain." ME.

SacredNaCl

Some folks have a very hard time metabolizing many of the pain killers, a fair percentage has a deficiency in the P450 enzyme system which makes using pro-drug pain killers like codeine, oxycodone, and hydrocodone substantially less effective. Even morphine is converted into M6G & M3G and some people also lack the enzyme for that one as well. You may be one of those people based on what you have said. In which case, I wouldn't give up them entirely as other agents do exist. You might try discussing with your doctors fentanyl, which is not a pro-drug, doesn't have any active metabolites (though norfentanyl still needs to be removed by your body) and can be delivered in a manner very handy for jaw pain - in a sucker called Actiq. It's also available in a time-released skin patch called Duragesic.

There is also an enzyme test battery they can run to see how deficient you are in various P450 enzymes. This may be a good idea to have run as about 75% of prescription drugs work through this system and not knowing could cause some severe adverse effects in terms of clearing them from your body or making them ineffective.

I'm still wondering what took them so long to develop things like Sativex. It's been well known that if you adjust the Ph, you can make THC lipopholic and administer it in sprays or have it be absorbed through the cheek. I suppose the testing involved to insurance a standardized extract would be fairly extensive, but this doesn't seem to stop them from making other standardized extracts. Once you have that part of the battle, it's merely adjusting the Ph and finding a delivery vector that isn't disagreeable or irritating to the user (perhaps saline?). I'm not sure that this is real innovation though, such extracts existed in the 1920's an 1930's.