Medical Marijuana From A to T

Jacob Sullum | September 13, 2006

NORML's Paul Armentano reviews recent scientific research on the medical benefits of cannabis, from A (Alzheimer's disease) to T (Tourette's syndrome). His report leaves out the more familiar uses of cannabis, such as treatment of nausea and chronic pain, focusing instead on potential applications you may not have heard of.

Comments

|9.13.06 @ 6:04PM|#

ya wanna end this bullshit once and for all? Herself, the smarter 2/3s of this operation has been sayin this fer years: get 20k pre menstrual Wimmins to mass at the Capitol Bldg, sayin pot eases pre monstral cramps & the accompanying savage, dangerous mood swings. . ANYTHING! the pols will say...
Once these nitwits get THAT message, jackin up folks for smokin this plant will fade like the German- American Bund.....

|9.13.06 @ 7:12PM|#

"As it is, medical marijuana is just a thinly disguised ruse to get high"
Point being???

|9.13.06 @ 7:23PM|#

Chad: You don't have to smoke pot.

You can also eat it, or vaporize it(THC evaporates at a lower temperature than the cellulosic material burns).

Really, claiming 'smoking is bad, mmm'kay' is a long dead argument against medical marijuana.

Gene Berkman|9.13.06 @ 7:26PM|#

Advocates of marijuana as a medicine support development of Cannabis extracts that can be inhaled as a vapor, taken as a pill or in a liquid preparation. But research on such new forms of administering medical cannabis is restricted by the federal governments refusal to allow research.

GW Pharmaceuticals has developed an oral spray to administer medical marijuana, but it had to do the research in the UK because of the restrictive climate in the USA. Funding for GW Pharmaceuticals is from US investors, and this shows again that US government policy is hurting our domestic economic development.

|9.13.06 @ 8:16PM|#

Scientific American - Mind just did an article on endocannabinoids and how they work in the brain. The latest research seems to indicate that marijuana can reduce stress and anxiety.

With psychiatry expanding the difference between feeling good and curing a disease gets blurred.

|9.13.06 @ 9:54PM|#

Forget medical marijuana and medical nicotine. I'm holding out for medical khat.

|9.13.06 @ 11:31PM|#

Copy and paste this link, it'll be worth it...

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/us/2006/09/13/ford.me.flat.daddies.wvii

Warren|9.14.06 @ 1:24AM|#

Grand Chalupa,
Not worth it, not on topic, not fresh.

|9.14.06 @ 2:46AM|#

I'm blown away that mary jane can aid with all those ailments. I only ever smoked it to get high.

Of course I don't smoke it any more since its 146 times more deadly than it used to be. I think I died 3 or 4 times while smoking it in college. It must REALLY kill ya now.

|9.14.06 @ 3:52AM|#

I have always believed in legalizing marijuana, but am not to supportive of the co-called "medical marijuana".

As much as I hate the DEA I have to admit they have a point when they say we already have medical marijuana, it's an FDA approved pill called marinol. It's a schedule 3 controlled substance, which means the doctor can phone it in to the pharmacy for you, unlike a schedule 2 controlled substance which means the doctor has to write the prescription on paper.

By the way, how come there's not a "medical opium" movement ? Opium is superior to cannabis as a medicine. I should have a card from my doctor allowing me to grow my own poppy's.

When I see how much alcohol is available in our society and how the government eradicates cannabis, coca and poppys it reminds me of a gigantic Indian reservation. It's like the white man came and pulled out all the plants and then built liquor stores so that we may all drink fire water.

|9.14.06 @ 9:04AM|#

Dope may help in the treatment of a certain type of Tourette's syndrome, but it's clearly established that marijuana has it's own "Stoners' Tourette's".

Symptoms include an overwhelming compulsion to utter "Dude" "Whoa!" and/or "Man", giggling uncontrollably and then forgetting what one was laughing about, and the compulsion to declare situations or hypotheticals as "deep", "heavy" or just plain "fucked up".

|9.14.06 @ 9:18AM|#

Not entirely true. If nausea were the condition you were trying to treat with marijuana extracts, it wouldn't be much of a help if you kept throwing up your Marinol tablets, would it? Smoking it would make a lot more sense than trying to swallow it.

Agreed, there are definite advantages to inhalational drug delivery. However, an even more preferable solution to smoking, in my view, would be a metered-dose THC inhaler (or THC+ any other therapeutically relevant cannabinoids).

The patient wouldn't have to light anything, wouldn't have to hold a puff of smoke in the lungs (THC aerosol would be absorbed quickly -- no need for long breathhold), would be less likely to have a vigorous cough (which could itself cause vomiting), wouldn't have to pack a bowl in the vaporizer or the pipe, or roll a joint, which could be used anywhere without stinking up the hospital room or living room or hospice room or whatever.

|9.14.06 @ 2:55PM|#

Medical use vs. trying to "just get high"? Why differentiate? Aren't both pallative? Why doesn't anyone address the obvious psychological benefits? All we ever hear are the physical benefits. If there were no psychological effects this plant would never have been scheduled. Realize that the psychological effects are as important, if not more so than the physical effects.