I’m watching it now on CNN, and I’ll tell you, marijuana has proven medicinal properties that I had no idea about.
I’m sold. I’m now convinced that marijuana has properties to treat a number of ailments. To me, this is a medicinal breakthrough. I had no idea of the efficacy to treat everything from pain to seizures. It’s quite astounding.
I don’t smoke myself anymore; it makes me antisocial. But damn, Sanjay (a respected doctor) is really presenting a case for medicinal marijuana.
My 85 year old mother suffers mostly from back pain from 4 cracked vertebra. She’s very sensitive to any type of prescription pain relief. In that it makes her feel lousy in other ways.
She also has terrible sciatica. Now, I’m not sure if it’s psychosomatic, or if it really helps, but she uses a MJ infused lotion for both.
She doesn’t smoke it, and never would. I’m going to buy some more for her and put it in her x-mas stocking.
Getting authority to do research is throttled by the FDA and the DEA, who’s official positions on MJ are that it has no medicinal value, so scientific research is always going to be lacking until the Federal Laws change. A University can’t just set up a marijuana trial without running afoul of the Federal Government.
I haven’t seen the series, just ads for it, but I believe a fair amount of it takes place in countries not the United States, where research is legal. The question becomes how long the US medical community is going to turn up its nose at research done in other countries.
One of the ingredients, cannabidiol (CBD), effectively stopped one little girl from having many hourly seizures. She went from a wheel chair to normal life after consuming daily marijuana that was specifically grown to be high in CBD.
Sure, one anecdotal example, but the results were immediate and completely undeniable.
Watch the series. There are a number of other cases where it also seems undeniable that there are properties of marijuana that truly do treat and abate a number of ailments.
I think many of the claims of medical utility are suspect. Some of them are likely true, it’s certainly not an inert substance, but recent coverage of the benefits of marijuana seem to be a pendulum swing reaction. I didn’t notice much attention to it’s main advantage, it gets you stoned.
When the majority of states now recognize medicinal value, the “Bah! Bullshit claims! Untrue! Call me back when you have PROOF!!!” response starts to look pretty knee jerk.
Or else the medical use is a thinly disguised excuse because the states aren’t ready to come right out and legalize it for recreation.
State recognition does not establish medical utility. Double-blinded studies under controlled conditions with reproducible results establish medical utility.
There are several well established uses of marijuana for medical purposes. All of them are palliative as far as I know. It should be legalized for medical purposes based on existing evidence, but not necessarily for unproven curative benefits. It should be legalized for recreational usage because it’s a great way to have fun.