A fresh wave of study and innovation among scientists and cannabis advocates seeks to solve a central dilemma: In Colorado and other states, first came the approval of marijuana as medicine. Next comes the challenge of proving its effectiveness, the Denver Post reports. The newest research leaves little doubt that marijuana — or at least its chemical components — has promise in alleviating symptoms of some ailments, while also making clear that the drug is not without its drawbacks, some potentially serious.
What is less certain is whether Colorado's medical-marijuana system of dispensaries and caregivers — where commitment to scientific rigor and compassionate patient care is largely voluntary — can maximize that treatment potential for the benefit of patients. Some dispensaries keep detailed patient records and embrace scientific testing in the hopes of providing patients with what works best. Medical-marijuana users report other dispensaries seem interested in just slinging snazzy weed, regardless of a patient's needs or ailments. (One ad on Craigslist: "Licensed caregiver looking to trade for Widespread Panic tickets.") The mainstream medical community questions whether any system that uses a raw plant as medicine can be optimally effective. Instead, conventional drug researchers see promise mostly in harvesting marijuana's ingredients for more traditional medicines and avoiding consumption methods like smoking that can hurt patients' health.
Posted by LDude
Monday, July 05, 2010 08:20
When the government creates a prohibition on a plant that has been enjoyed by humans for thousands of years this is what happens. Of course the Medical MJ programs are being used as a cover for recreational use BY SOME, why not ? ,wouldn’t you ? Anyone who has studied Cannabis use and the governments prohibition on it knows that our government has used lies and misinformation to create the War on Drugs, gee imagine that a government lying ????
ASK OBAMA if ,when he smoked Marijuana, was it for Health reasons or Recreational ?? If it is good enough for the President then it is good enough for the rest of us.
The answer is total decriminalization of Cannabis for Adult use, do it for the mental health of our country, otherwise we continue the lies, the lies from the government that can put a citizen in jail, and the lie that some use to protect themselves from such laws….STOP THE MADNESS.
Posted by RevRayGreen
Monday, July 05, 2010 03:50
Make It Legal Make It Green/WHEN 10,000 PEOPLE MAIL $4.20 TO THE IOWA BOARD OF PHARMACY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjH61Gw_AcI
I also have Mutliple Sclerosis, it?s not supposed to be fun, it?s not about getting high? it?s about living, walking, working, voting, parenting.
I have used marijuana every day for 6+ years since the diagnosis, take no prescription medicine, AND live in Iowa.. home to NO MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW, only two residents who get marijuana from Uncle Sam’s GOV’T IND PROGRAM.
Posted by R. Millard Hume
Sunday, July 04, 2010 11:59
More traditional medicines? Cannabis has been used for centuries. What’s more traditional than that? A government mandated, regulated, big business approach?
Posted by Common Sense Police
Sunday, July 04, 2010 08:14
There would be no doubts about marijuana as medicine, or the best way to use it, if the federal government and officers of the law weren’t propagandizing American citizens and profiting from its prohibition. Marijuana prohibition has ruined this country to the detriment of most and the benefit of a very evil few. Most prohibitionists are simple sheeple who don’t know better, the blame lies squarely with the federal government, law enforcement, and every single president to serve since prohibition began.
Posted by The Weekly Weed » Blog Archive » New Research Tries To Prove Medical Marijuana’s Effectiveness
Sunday, July 04, 2010 03:11
[…] What is less certain is whether Colorado’s medical-marijuana system of dispensaries and caregivers — where commitment to scientific rigor and compassionate patient care is largely voluntary — can maximize that treatment potential for the benefit of patients. Some dispensaries keep detailed patient records and embrace scientific testing in the hopes of providing patients with what works best. Medical-marijuana users report other dispensaries seem interested in just slinging snazzy weed, regardless of a patient’s needs or ailments. (One ad on Craigslist: “Licensed caregiver looking to trade for Widespread Panic tickets.”) The mainstream medical community questions whether any system that uses a raw plant as medicine can be optimally effective. Instead, conventional drug researchers see promise mostly in harvesting marijuana’s ingredients for more traditional medicines and avoiding consumption methods like smoking that can hurt patients’ health. Source : The Crime Report […]
Posted by New Research Tries To Prove Medical Marijuana’s Effectiveness – The Crime Report : JunctionGuru4U.Com
Sunday, July 04, 2010 01:48
[…] New Research Tries To Prove Medical Marijuana's EffectivenessThe Crime ReportThe newest research leaves little doubt that marijuana — or at least its chemical components — has promise in alleviating symptoms of some ailments, …Medical-marijuana advocates seek society's approvalDenver Postall 9 news articles » […]
Posted by Anthony
Sunday, July 04, 2010 01:46
re: “Instead, conventional drug researchers see promise mostly in harvesting marijuana’s ingredients for more traditional medicines and avoiding consumption methods like smoking that can hurt patients’ health.”
What kind of “more traditional medicines” are they referring to? Chemical reproductions of compounds that occur naturally in cannabis? That’s the answer to everything, right? “We can’t patent a plant, so let’s make it illegal so we can synthesize it through highly addictive and harmful chemicals in a pill and make billions.”
This only further illustrates the greed, immorality, and ignorance of the medical community.
Posted by madmatt6773
Sunday, July 04, 2010 01:38
Of course “conventional drug researchers” don’t see “a raw” plant as effective medicine. They work for big pharma and don’t want people being able to grow their own medicine for next to nothing. They want to patent a new man made medicine to make their employers money and earn themselves a nice big bonus in the process. Cannabis need not be smoked, it can be vaporized or eaten. But of course the prohibitionists like to leave that out.
1. If cannabis has no medicinal values explain the following: US Patent 6630507 – Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants; issued October 7, 2003. (Actually there are ~30 patents pertaining to this). Why is NIDA supplying “medicinal marijuana” in the form of rolled joints to four American citizens? Why does the AMA call for the rescheduling of cannabis from a schedule I substance to a schedule II substance? Why does David Krahl PhD, the former Deputy Director of Drug Free America Foundation call for the legalization/regulation of medicinal “marijuana”?
2. Natural THC with the empirical formula C-21 H-30 O-2 bad (I) but synthetic THC with the empirical formula C-21 H-30 O-2 good (III).
3. Cannabidiol Enhances the Inhibitory effects of delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol on Human Glioblastoma Cell Proliferation and Survival
California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco.
4. Cannabinoid Action Induces Autophagy-Mediated Cell Death Through Stimulation of ER Stress in Human Glioma Cells
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I, School of Biology, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain.
5. Marijuana Use Associated With Higher Functioning In Schizophrenics
Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, the Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Princeton University
6. Why is hemp illegal to cultivate?
7. What is lurking about in the cannabis plant that makes it so dangerous? Better yet, what in the cannabis plant is more dangerous than the daughter elements of Uranium-238 found in tobacco?
Posted by Buzzby
Sunday, July 04, 2010 01:25
“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 a supervised routine of medical care. … The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record.” ~Ruling of Drug Enforcement Administration Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young, “In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling,” See Marijuana, Medicine & The Law, Volume II, R.C. Randall, ed., (Galen Press: Washington, D.C.), 1989, p. 440.
Prior to the invention of lab-made medications, cannabis was the primary medication for many ailments. The first recorded medical use of cannabis was 5,000 years ago. In the US, hundreds of OTC medications had cannabis extract as the main ingredient. Cannabis has been proven safe by 5,000 years of use without a single fatal outcome. It’s an herb. Instead of the FDA trying to treat it like the chemicals men invent, it should simply be legalized for use by any adult who wishes to do so. By far, the most dangerous thing about cannabis is the possibility of becoming entangled in the criminal justice system.
Posted by O. B. Server
Sunday, July 04, 2010 01:10
re: “The mainstream medical community questions whether any system that uses a raw plant as medicine can be optimally effective.”
a) The “mainstream medical community” is, essentially government, and/or government controlled through accreditation, licensing, taxation, and other means of strangling competition.
b) The rest of us question whether any system that uses arrests, jail, and prison as medicine can be optimally effective.
Unless jailings for pot are really Rx for police, prosecutors, prison guards, and politicians who are blinded by power, paycheck and career. Then your pot prohibition prison prescription makes more (monetary) sense.