Humans have been using cannabis since they realized its restorative potential back in 2900 BC by the Emperor Fu Hsi of the ancient Chinese empire. Fu Hsi believed that the plant contained Yin and Yang (inverse or opposite strengths that complement each other to back all characteristic frameworks). Nearly two hundred years later, Shen Nung, the father of old Chinese pharmaceutical set up the recuperating benefits of the plant, and since then, it has been strategically utilized to treat a wide cluster of sicknesses and pains. By the 20th century, numerous countries, including America, has banned the use and ownership of cannabis in most capacities.From 1850s to 1930s marijuana became famous for recreational purposes.
As the admissions of this substance expanded over time, The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 enacted that it is a Schedule 1 Drug. So normally contentions stirred encompassing the medicinal utility of cannabis. Even so, The United Kingdom, Canada, and several European countries have approved nabiximols (Sativex®), a mouth spray containing THC and CBD. It treats muscle control problems caused by MS, but it isn’t FDA-approved (Sastre). Medical marijuana should be legal across the country because it is a safe treatment, safe alternative, lowers the prescription of opioids, and helps patients deal with certain symptoms.
There has not been one single case of an overdose on cannabis, ever. Cannabis has an exceptionally tall evaluated deadly dosage, comparable to smoking roughly 1,500 pounds in 15 minutes, a physical inconceivability. Researchers have had to assess the LD50, or Deadly Dosage for 50% of the human populus, since it has never been illustrated. This puts cannabis in a class that stands alone, since indeed moderately secure drugs such as headache medicine have a deadly measurement. One of marijuana’s most noteworthy focal points as a medication is its exceptional security.
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It has a small impact on major physiological capacities. There’s no known case of a deadly overdose; On the premise of other animal tested models, it assesses the proportion of deadly to successful measurements as 40,000 to 1. By comparison, the proportion is between 3 and 50 to 1 for secobarbital and between 4 and 10 to 1 for ethanol. Cannabis is additionally much less addictive and less susceptible to drug abuse than many drugs used as muscle relaxants, hypnotics, and analgesics. The chief genuine concern is the impact of smoking on the lungs. Cannabis smoke does indeed carry more tars and other particulate chemicals than tobacco smoke.
But the quantity smoked is much less, particularly in therapeutic and medicinal utilization, and once cannabis is a transparently recognized medication, arrangements may be found; eventually an innovation for the inward breath of cannabinoid vapors may be created. DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge, Francis Young, in reaction to an appeal to reschedule cannabis beneath government law concluded in 1988 that, “In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume… Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within the supervised routine of medical care.” (Americans for Safe Access)
Furthermore, marijuana has shown its ability to help patients deal with symptoms and help with appetite issues and pains that go along with certain illnesses and conditions. As with all treatments, claims of viability is to be fundamentally assessed and tended to with caution. Right now, the two primary cannabinoids from the cannabis plant that are of therapeutic intrigue are THC and CBD. THC can increment craving and diminish sickness. THC helps diminish pain, irritation (swelling and redness), and muscle control issues.
Medical cannabis can be used to alleviate certain symptoms related to cancer and its treatment. Studies have shown that medical marijuana can help alleviate symptoms like pain, nausea and decreased appetite, and we do see cases where medical marijuana can help patients cope with these cancer-related symptoms. The foremost common use for medicinal cannabis within the United States is for pain relief and control. Whereas cannabis isn’t solid sufficient for extreme pain (for example, post-surgical pains or a broken bone), it is very successful for the unremitting pain that has a hold over millions of Americans, particularly as they get older (Russo).
Lots of its appeal is that it is clearly more secure than sedatives (it is inconceivable to overdose on and much less addictive) and it can take the role of NSAIDs such as Advil or Aleve, in case individuals are not able to take them due to issues with their kidneys or ulcers or GERD. Specifically, cannabis shows up to ease the torment of different sclerosis, and nerve pain in common. Typically a zone where few other choices exist, and those that do, such as Neurontin, Lyrica, or sedatives are profoundly steadying. Patients claim that medical pot permits them to continue their past exercises without feeling totally out of it and separated.
Along these lines, cannabis is said to be a phenomenal muscle relaxant, and individuals swear by its capacity to reduce tremors in Parkinson’s. It has, too, been championed for its effectivity for fibromyalgia, endometriosis, interstitial cystitis, and most other conditions where the ultimate common pathway is unremitting pain. Cannabis is additionally utilized to combat nausea and it can utilize the unwanted loss of weight to treat glaucoma (Bridgeman and Abiza). An exceedingly promising region of inquire about is its use for PTSD in veterans who are returning from combat zones. Numerous veterans and their advisors report extreme change and clamor for more thinks about, and for a releasing of administrative confinements on its consider.
In 2010, analysts at Harvard University asserted that another of the drug’s uses and gains may really be decreased uneasiness, which would move forward the smoker’s temperament and act as a depressant in lower doses (Harvard Health Publishing). Medical cannabis is additionally detailed to assist patients enduring pain and wasting disorder in relation with HIV, as well as irritable bowel disorder and Crohn’s disease. Different from THC, CBD is the non-psychoactive part of marijuana, which does not make one “high”. These drugs aren’t well known for recreational utilize since they aren’t inebriating.
It may be valuable in lessening pain and inflammation, handling epileptic seizures, and could indeed help treat mental illness and addictions (Mack). The FDA affirmed a CBD-based fluid medicine called Epidiolex® for the treatment of two different kinds of extreme childhood epilepsy, Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. Numerous analysts, counting those financed by the National Organizing of Wellbeing (NIH), are proceeding to investigate the conceivable employments of THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids for therapeutic treatment.
For example, animal testing reults have portrayed that cannabis extracts may aid in destroying certain cancer cells and help shrink others. Results from one cell culture research with rodents shows that decontaminated extricates from whole-plant cannabis can moderate the development of cancer cells from one of the foremost important sorts of brain tumors. Studies on mice appeared to show that treatment with decontaminated extricates of THC and CBD, when utilized with radiation, expanded the cancer-killing impacts of the radiation (NIDA).
For many, the medicinal use of marijuana can be used as an alternative to the highly addictive opioids that have enslaved Americans in a very harsh cycle of addiction and recovery. Over 130 Americans lose their lives each day from opioid addictions. Over 42,000 Americans passed away in 2016 due to opioid use. This is very alarming.
Individuals from each side of the medical cannabis conversation concur that the medicinal purposes, security, and dosing of cannabis, so that it can be utilized for certain diseases, such as opiate addiction and constant pain. We presently have information on how to get to to cannabis through restorative cannabis dispensaries influences opioid use, and it has shown to be very optimistic. Two studies as of late distributed in JAMA Inside Pharmaceutical, the rate of opiate prescriptions is less in states in which medical cannabis laws have been passed and implemented.
Many of the approximately 40 randomized controlled trials that have tried whether cannabis and its chemical compounds, cannabinoids, diminish chronic pain have found that they work as an effective pain reliever, said Ziva Cooper, investigate director of the UCLA Cannabis Investigate Activity (Grinspoon). In 2014, a study done in JAMA Inside Medication gave more optimism that implementing cannabis legality might reduce the opioid emergency. The study examined the years 1999 through 2010, during which 10 states established medical marijuana programs. It compared changes in the rates of opioid painkiller deaths in states that have passed medical marijuana laws with those that had not.
The results showed that the laws were associated with an almost 25 percent decline in the death rate from opioid painkillers. Since the JAMA study was released, more studies have found similar results. One published a couple years ago at the Social Science Research Network concluded that counties with medical marijuana dispensaries have up to eight percent fewer deaths from opioid use among white men, and ten percent fewer deaths from heroin overdose (this is relevant because many who become addicted to opioids eventually turn to heroin because of its similar effect and its price being much cheaper than painkillers) (Frakt).
With legalization and use there may also come with unwanted side effects and consequences. Across the country, there has still yet not been nearly enough research on both the negative and positive sides of medical cannabis. While marijuana can work wonders for many patients, it is a fact that almost ten percent of those who use cannabis regularly, become addicted. This may sound alarming but the good news is that one cannot overdose on cannabis, unlike many other medicines prescribed by doctors everyday. It is just like many other medications, some unwanted side effects may occur.
This, however, should be studied and examined even furthermore in regards to the plants use and dosage. Another factor is that it can have side effects such as sedation, dry mouth, temporary short term memory loss, and a temporary increased heart rate. Almost all negative side effects can be easily monitored and handled once presented with its effects from patient to patient. Overall, more unbiased research should be conducted and studied so that cannabis can be optimized in its proven medicinal benefits and uses.
Medical marijuana has shown proven benefits across the board and should be legalized for medicinal purposes. The plant is safe to consume and is far less addictive than traditionally prescribed pills that could replace it. Data and research have shown through the years its ability to help patients with appetite issues, chronic pain, epilepsy and many other conditions and symptoms. Without legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes, many patients will lose access to a safe treatment and will have to turn to the black market for cannabis which can be dangerous for their own well being and might put them behind bars for simply seeking the treatment that they deserve.
References
- National Institute on Drug Abuse – What is the scope of marijuana use in the United States?
- NHS – Medical cannabis
- National Library of Medicine – Medical Marijuana: A Primer for Pharmacists
- MedlinePlus – Marijuana
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Marijuana and Public Health
- Medical News Today – What are the benefits of CBD oil?
- National Library of Medicine – Cannabis and neuro-inflammatory disorders: The endocannabinoid system in neural development, protection and degeneration
- National Library of Medicine – Cannabidiol in Anxiety and Sleep: A Large Case Series
