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Medicinal Benefits
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Medical Marijuana
Testimonials
is a site WAMM sponsors chalk full of individual success stories from both
doctors and patients.
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Marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically
active substances known. No one has ever died from an overdose, and it has a
wide variety of therapeutic applications:
- Relief from nausea and increase of appetite;
- Reduction of intarlobular ("within the
eye") pressure;
- Reduction of muscle spasms;
- Relief from chronic pain.
Marijuana is frequently beneficial in the
treatment of the following conditions:
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Marijuana is frequently beneficial in the
treatment of the following conditions:
-
AIDS. Marijuana
can reduce the nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite caused by the ailment
itself and by various AIDS medications.
- Glaucoma.
Marijuana
can reduce interlobular pressure, thereby alleviating the pain and slowing --
and sometimes stopping -- the progress of the condition. (Glaucoma is
the leading cause of blindness in the United States. It damages vision by
increasing eye pressure over time.)
-
Cancer.
Marijuana
can stimulate the appetite and alleviate nausea and vomiting, which are
common side effects of chemotherapy treatment.
-
Multiple Sclerosis.
Marijuana can limit the muscle pain
and spasticity caused by the disease, as well as relieving tremor and
unsteadiness of gait. (Multiple sclerosis is the leading cause of
neurological disability among young and middle-aged adults in the United
States.)
- Epilepsy.
Marijuana
can prevent epileptic seizures in some patients.
-
Chronic Pain.
Marijuana
can alleviate the chronic, often debilitating pain caused by myriad
disorders and injuries.
Each of these applications has been deemed
legitimate by at least one court, legislature, and/or government agency in the
United States.
Many patients also report that marijuana is
useful for treating arthritis, migraine, menstrual cramps, alcohol and opiate
addiction, and depression and other debilitating mood disorders.
Marijuana could be helpful for millions of
patients in the United States. Nevertheless, other than for the seven people
with special permission from the federal government, medical marijuana remains
illegal!
People currently suffering from any of the
conditions mentioned above, for whom the legal medical options have proven
unsafe or ineffective, have two options:
- Continue to suffer from the ailment itself; or
- Illegally obtain marijuana -- and risk
suffering consequences such as:
- an insufficient supply due to the
prohibition-inflated price or scarcity;
- impure, contaminated, or chemically
adulterated marijuana;
- arrests, fines, court costs, property
forfeiture, incarceration, probation, and criminal records.
Background
Prior to 1937, at least 27 medicines containing
marijuana were legally available in the United States. Many were made by
well-known pharmaceutical firms that still exist today, such as Squibb (now
Bristol-Myers Squibb) and Eli Lilly. The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 federally
prohibited marijuana. Dr. William C. Woodward of the American Medical
Association opposed the Act, testifying that prohibition would ultimately
prevent the medicinal uses of marijuana.
The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 placed all
illicit and prescription drugs into five "schedules" (categories). Marijuana
was placed in Schedule I, defining it as having a high potential for abuse,
no currently accepted medicinal use in treatment in the United States, and a
lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision.
This definition simply does not apply to
marijuana. Of course, at the time of the Controlled Substances Act, marijuana
had been prohibited for more than three decades. Its medicinal uses forgotten,
marijuana was considered a dangerous and addictive narcotic.
A substantial increase in the number of
recreational users in the 1970s contributed to the rediscovery of marijuana's
medicinal uses:
- Many scientists studied the health effects of
marijuana and inadvertently discovered marijuana's astonishing medicinal
history in the process.
- Many who used marijuana recreationally also
suffered from diseases for which marijuana is beneficial. By fluke, they
discovered its therapeutic usefulness.
As the word spread, more and more patients
started self-medicating with marijuana. However, marijuana's Schedule I
status bars doctors from prescribing it and severely curtails research.
This information is courtesy of
2003
The Medical Marijuana Briefing Paper
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