"Cannabis indica must be looked upon as one of the most important drugs of Indian Materia Medica."
- Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894-95
"Out
of a total of 1,193 European and Native witnesses before the
Commission, little less than two-thirds refer to the use of hemp drugs
by the Vedanti and Yunani schools of native physicians and native
doctors generally...If the number of witnesses who speak of this use in
each province may be taken as approximately indicating its extent, then
it would appear that the medicinal use is well known throughout India."
- Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894-95
“In general, we are seeing CBD products be helpful for things like pain — especially related to arthritic-related pain — fibromyalgia, migraine . . . endometriosis, pelvic pain, period pain,” said Dr. Sherry Yafai, a board-certified emergency medicine physician, cannabis specialist, and medical director at The ReLeaf Institute in Los Angeles
“We are seeing a huge spike in CBD hemp-based products usage in both the pediatric and the elderly populations, and for good reason. Those are both populations that historically we don’t have great medications for treatment of significant diagnoses such as autism, cerebral palsy, pediatric seizures, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, ALS,” Yafai added.'
Despite claims by some that marijuana has yet to be subject to adequate scientific scrutiny, scientific interest in cannabis has increased exponentially in recent years. In 2020, researchers worldwide published a record 3,500+ scientific papers on the subject of cannabis, according to data compiled by the National Library of Medicine and PubMed.gov. So far this year, scientists have published over 3,600 papers. In all, PubMed now cites over 38,000 scientific papers on the topic of cannabis.'
What are the requirements of a good universal medicine?
The requirements are as follows:- Ideally, one medicine to treat the widest range of illnesses.
- The medicine should, preferably, be preventive in nature rather than reactive.
- The medicine should act on various body systems and organs effectively, without causing damage to those systems and organs or other surrounding biological systems.
- The medicine should be internally administer-able in a variety of ways such as through ingestion in solid, liquid or vapor form.
- The medicine should be externally administer-able to various parts of the body as oils, lotions, creams or ointments.
- Its safety profile should be high i.e. its use in varying doses should be such that the lethal to effective dosage ratio is very high. The risk of overdosing should be minimal.
- It should be possible to safely administer the medicine to persons of all ages
- It should be possible to safely administer the medicine to persons of all body constitutions.
- The medication should be very affordable, in fact, it being available for free is the ideal.
- The medication should be very accessible irrespective of where in the world the patient is.
- The long term usage of the medication should not pose any threats or dangerous side effects to the individual's well being.
- It should be compatible with other medications, or food and drink, that the individual is likely to consume.
- The medication should not render the individual unable to perform the daily actions required for survival and livelihood. i.e. impairment should be minimal.
- The medication should have been tried and tested over sufficiently long periods of time, by a suitable diverse patient base, as proof of its reliability and safety.
- The medication should not be highly addictive. People should not develop a dependency on it and can stop its usage without suffering severe, adverse effects.
- The manufacture, processing and disposal of the medicine should be sustainable and should not harm the environment.
The state of medicine today
The state of medicine in the world today is as follows:- To treat even a single condition, a person needs to take a cocktail of medications. A person with more than one medical condition is likely to be consuming more than a dozen medications almost every day.
- Most medications are reactive and not preventive.
- Most medications target very specific areas of the body. They cause harmful side effects to unintended parts of the body, especially the liver, kidneys and digestive system, due to their toxic nature.
- The administration of the medicine quite often requires medical supervision.
- Most medicines are specific in terms of their method of usage i.e. a medication for external purposes cannot be ingested and vice versa.
- Medications suitable for a particular age group are mostly not suitable for other age groups.
- Some medications only work on a specific type of body constitution.
- The safety profile of most of these medications is very low i.e. the lethal to effective dosage ratio is very low. This means that the margin of error in going from a correct dose to a lethal overdose are very high. This is the case even for medicines listed as essential in the WHO list.
- Most of these medications are incompatible with each other, and mixing them, especially when people suffer multiple medical conditions as they commonly do, can often be disastrous.
- The long term usage of nearly every one of these medications is associated with complicated and serious side effects.
- Each and every one of these medications is quite expensive. Their combinations result in astronomical medical bills for the individual, making these medications affordable to only a very small percentage of people worldwide, either the wealthy or those covered by medical insurance schemes.
- Most of these medications are highly inaccessible, limited in availability to the specific regions where they are manufactured by a few companies and distributed, while the majority of the world goes without it.
- Most of these medications also last only for a short number of years before their effectiveness reduces, or they are pulled out of the market, because of findings related to their harmful side effects, or a newer medication is introduced by the same company or its competitor.
- These medications taken in combination, and sometimes as standalone, are so powerful that they render the patient incapable of performing normal day to day functions at least till their effects wear off. i.e. impairment levels are high.
- Most medications are fast tracked through research and pilot trials and introduced in the market, without proper understanding of their adverse effects, because of an urgency in cornering market share, thus raising big questions about their safety and reliability, and the objectives of the manufacturers and promoters.
- Many medications are highly addictive, and build a huge dependency in the patient who needs to take them nearly every single day, and in some cases more than once a day. Stopping their usage, even for short periods of time, can even result in death.
- The industries that create these medications damage the environment in all stages of the process of manufacture, processing and disposal. They, most often, use unsustainable amounts of natural resources for their existence.
Medical Conditions for which cannabis is suitable
Cannabis is an extremely versatile generic universal medicine that meets all the above requirements of what a good universal medicine should be. It has been recognized as beneficial for more than two dozen medical conditions in the US. If we look at the medical conditions for which cannabis is prescribed as
medicine, in US states and European countries where cannabis has been
legalized for these purposes, we find a number of conditions that
include, as well as are different from, those in 19th century India.
Some of the conditions are - intractable epilepsy, seizure disorders,
severe nausea, severe or chronic pain, cachexia (wasting syndrome),
anorexia, hospice or palliative care, terminal illness, sickle cell
anemia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Crohn’s disease,
Huntington’s disease, neuropathies, damage to the nervous tissue of the
spinal cord, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis/Lou Gehrig’s disease, HIV/AIDS, cancer, traumatic
brain injury (TBI), chronic renal failure requiring dialysis,
spasticity, muscle spasms, cramping, appetite loss, severe vomiting,
hepatitis C, glaucoma, pain lasting longer than two weeks, autism,
ulcerative colitis, Alzheimer’s disease, neural-tube defects, idiopathic
pulmonary fibrosis, neurodegenerative diseases, dyskinetic and spastic
movement disorders, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Tourette’s
syndrome, fibromyalgia, arthritis, lupus, diabetes, obstructive sleep
apnea, spasmodic torticollis (cervical dystonia), inclusion body
myositis, anxiety, migraines, muscular dystrophy, chronic pancreatitis,
Ehler’s Danlos syndrome, nail-patella syndrome, Lennox-Gestaut syndrome,
Dravet syndrome, spinocerebellar ataxia, syringomyelia, Tarlov cysts,
Sjogren’s syndrome, post-concussion syndrome, neurofibromatosis,
myasthenia gravis, myoclonus, hydrocephalus, hydromyelia, interstitial
cystitis, CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome type II), dystonia,
fibrous dysplasia, causalgia, chronic inflammatory demyelinating
polyneuropathy, Arnold-Chiari malformation, epidermolysis bullosa,
mitochondrial disease, decompensated cirrhosis, osteogenesis imperfecta,
cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, post herpetic neuralgia, post
laminectomy syndrome with chronic radiculopathy, severe psoriasis and
psoriatic arthritis...Communicable and infectious diseases
Among
communicable and infectious diseases, for which cannabis was used in India until the end of the 19th century, we find the use of cannabis for
remittent fever, ague, cholera, malaria, dysentery, syphilis, gonorrhea
and hydrophobia, both as prophylactics and treatment. One witness states
that "I have been informed of cases in which attacks of intermittent
fevers (ague) have disappeared by a single process of smoking
ganja—cases I mean of jungle fevers, in which the administration of even
large doses of quinine have failed to ward off the attacks or in
districts in which quinine is not obtainable." Numerous witnesses speak about the use of cannabis, in places of wet conditions and "bad water", by soldiers, mendicants, and the working and labouring classes, to keep infectious diseases and epidemics at bay. The fact that cannabis was analgesic, anti-inflammatory, sedative, diuretic, diaphoretic, digestive,
carminative, and disinfectant, among other things, may have contributed
to its popularity in these places. Admitting that cannabis may be
useful in treating or warding off infectious and epidemic diseases, the
Commission states that "There are also many cases where in tracts
with a specially malarious climate, or in circumstances of hard work and
exposure, the people attribute beneficial effects to the habitual
moderate use of these drugs; and there is evidence to show that the
popular impression may have some basis in fact."
Non-communicable diseases
The
use of cannabis for the treatment of non-communicable diseases in India until the end of the 19th century,
involving numerous body systems, was even more extensive. The following
kinds of non-communicable diseases used cannabis for treatment and
medicine:
- Diseases of the nervous system - headache, hysteria, neuralgia, sciatica, delirium tremens, muscular rheumatism, brain fever, paralysis, mania
- Diseases of respiratory system - hay-fever, asthma, bronchitis, and coughs, burning symptoms in phthisis
- Diseases of the digestive system - flatulence, diarrhea, dyspepsia, piles, prolapsus ani, to regulate salivation, for irritability of the bladder, piles, fistula of anus, dysentery, for stricture and ulcers, to moderate excessive secretion of bile
- Diseases of the urinary and reproductive system - diabetes, impotency, stricture, spermatorrhea, hydrocele, incontinence of urine, swellings of the testicles, orchitis, cramps, gleet, in impotency on account of its supposed aphrodisiac power, uterine affections such as loss of blood from uterus, dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia, strangulated hernia, gout, to restrain seminal secretions, and as a diuretic
- Skin diseases - scabies, guinea-worm, fresh wounds and sores, inflammations and cure of erysipelas, pruritus, and boils. An oil prepared from bhang and other ingredients is prescribed in white leprosy, for catarrhal and skin diseases,
- As an antidote - against the poisons of fish and scorpions, poisoning by orpiment
- As a parasiticide - it was used for ear-aches caused by the presence of worms, guineaworms, applied to the head as a wash removes dandruff and vermin, and for treating tetanus. The ashes of burnt charas were said to be used for sciatica and worms.
- As an anodyne/analgesic - for allaying neuralgic pains, rheumatism, and gout, to allay pain in the chest and sides, "to relieve burning symptoms in phthisis," erysipelas, as an anaesthetic in dentistry, etc.
- As an anti-bacterial in the treatment of tetanus
Beside all the above, hemp drugs were also stated to be prescribed in diseases of the heart, brain and spleen.
In CH. X. Effects - General Observations, Report Of The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893-94, the following information is to be found.
- 461. In discussing the diseases treated, we may take first diseases of the nervous system. Witnesses refer to the use of the drugs in the treatment of "brain fever," cramps, convulsions of children, headache, hysteria, neuralgia, sciatica, and tetanus. In certain of these diseases, e.g., convulsions of children, neuralgia, and tetanus, the use of hemp preparations has also been advocated by European practitioners.
- 461. The late Sir W. B. O'Shaughnessy, of Calcutta, appears to have been the first to use hemp resin in tetanus. He found that in many cases it effectually arrested the progress of the disease, but in the hands of others equally good results were not always obtained. O 'Shaughnessy explains this by the fact that the use of hemp is so universal among the lower classes, that it is only in those patients who are not habituated to it that beneficial effects are likely to ensue when the drug is administered medicinally. The treatment of tetanus by the inhalation of ganja smoke has also been recommended.
- 461. Hemp drugs are also stated to be prescribed in diseases of the heart, brain, spleen, in rheumatism, gout, and delirium tremens, and they are also used in the treatment of scabies, guinea-worm, and boils. An oil prepared from bhang and other ingredients is prescribed in white leprosy, and bhang smoking is stated to be used against the poisons of fish and scorpions.
- 465. The use of the drug as an ecbolic is also mentioned. According to Stillé and Maisch (National Dispensatory), there is evidence to show that Cannabis appears capable, directly or indirectly, of causing uterine contraction, as in many cases of uterine hæmorrhage, and it is also said to cause contraction in the pregnant uterus with as much energy as ergot, but with less persistent action
- 465. The tonic, digestive, stimulant, antispasmodic, astringent, and alterative effects of the drugs are mentioned by some witnesses. It is probably on account of the supposed hæmostatic effect that powdered charas is used as an application to cuts to check bleeding and induce healing, and possibly the use of the drugs in menorrhagia is based on similar reasoning. In this connection, however, it is interesting to note that Dr. R. L. Dey, a medical officer of the Eastern Bengal State Railway, in 1866 reported the successful treatment of a number of cases of obstinate menorrhagia with tincture of Indian hemp and liquid extract of ergot, although he could obtain no benefit from the use of ergot administered with sulphuric and gallic acids and other hæmostatics.
- 466. The following are some of the minor cases to which ganja is applied. Occasionally the drug is burnt as a disinfectant and used in lieu of carbolic acid. It is also applied to sores for healing, and ganja ash is used to stop ulceration. By singers the drugs are used to clear the throat; and they are also alleged to possess vermicide properties.
- 470. The use of these drugs to give staying-power under severe exertion or exposure or to alleviate fatigue is very largely in evidence. Here it is ganja especially which is credited with these beneficial effects. For ganja is far more extensively used than bhang by the labouring classes. The latter is mainly used by persons like the Chaubes of Mathra, who are very frequently referred to, and professional wrestlers. Gymnasts, wrestlers and musicians, palki-bearers and porters, divers and postal runners, are examples of the classes who use the hemp drugs on occasions of especially severe exertion. Fishermen and boatmen, singhara cultivators working in tanks, dhobis and night watchmen, mendicants and pilgrims, are named as among those who use them under severe exposure. All classes of labourers, especially such as blacksmiths, miners, and coolies, are said more or less generally to use the drugs as a rule in moderation to alleviate fatigue. In this connection a reference to Dr. Cunningham's experiment described in Vol. III Appendices is interesting.
- 472. There are a few other effects of a beneficial character which are referred to by certain witnesses. They are, however, of a less important character and less generally contemplated than those which have been already considered. Thus the drugs are said to be used sometimes to prevent insomnia and to relieve anxiety, as the consumer of alcohol sometimes takes a "night cap before going to bed" or a glass of wine when he is of heavy heart. The drugs are said to be cheering in their effects, and to be prized by many on this account. The drugs are said to be used to produce concentration of attention not only by fakirs, but also by such tradesmen as jewellers doing very fine work.
Here is a list of the medical properties that witnesses attributed to cannabis in the course of the Commission's study - anti-inflammatory, analgesic/anodyne, anaesthetic, diuretic, stimulant, sedative, intoxicant, aphrodisiac, disinfectant, antiphlegmatic/expectorant, tonic, antispasmodic, astringent, haemostatic, purgative, ecbolic, digestive,
prophylactic, laxative, hypnotic, refrigerent, antiperiodic,
soporific, parturifacient, antidote, diaphoretic, carminative, excitant,
heating.
Methods of cannabis administering to patients
Cannabis,
as plant medicine, can be administered in multiple ways, internal or
external, to effectively target the source of a disease. Given is
tremendous safety profile, it can be administered to every individual
profile, irrespective of age, gender or health condition. The Hemp
Commission's report provides an idea of its versatility in reaching
diseased parts of the body, internal and external, be it as leaves,
flowers or resin. Bhang as a cold infusion prepared from the powdered
leaves; or as a confection or "moduks" especially in the treatment of
nervous debility or to treat children; as a local application in the
form of poultice; and sometimes the finely-powdered leaves are used as a
snuff; ganja and charas, rarely used internally, mixed with tobacco for
inhalation; ganja unmixed for fumigation; seeds, rarely used as
medicine, were a source of oil used as a rubefacient, as was ganja
prepared with other ingredients; powdered leaves or flowers was
recommended as an external application to fresh wounds and sores; and
for causing granulations in the case of ulcers; a poultice of the boiled
roots and leaves of cannabis was used for discussing inflammations and
cure of erysipelas, and for allaying neuralgic pains; powdered leaves
consumed checked diarrhea, cured the malady named pitao, and moderated
excessive secretion of bile; hemp smoke, as an enema, was used to treat
strangulated hernia and as a cure for hemorrhoids (piles); the leaves
were used as an antidote in poisoning by orpiment; the leaves made a
good snuff for deterging the brain; the juice of the leaves, applied to
the head as a wash, removed dandruff and as a parasiticide; drops of the
juice thrown into the ear allayed pain and destroyed worms and insects;
in treatment of scabies, ganja was fried in mustard oil, and the oil
applied to the sores; bhang leaves are put inside a cloth and warmed in
slow fire, and used for dry fomentation; to cure itches, sometimes,
ganja was used mixed with coconut oil; in orchitis, a warm bhang
poultice of the dried leaves was applied on a warm fig leaf was
recommended to be bandaged over the testicles; and in hydrocele a
similar poultice is spread on a castor-oil leaf.
Today, in
places where medical, and sometimes recreational, cannabis is legalized,
we see the same wide range of its mode of administering for a wide
variety of diseases. Food, beverages, tinctures and pills are used for treating illnesses related to the digestive, reproductive and urinary systems. Cannabis is smoked, or inhaled in vapor form, to treat illnesses of the head, neck and lungs. Cannabis is used in oils, topicals and creams to treat injuries and diseases to the external parts of the body, such as skin. Cannabis leaves, flowers, resin and oil from seeds are all used for these preparations.
Demographics for whom cannabis is suitable
Cannabis was truly general medicine for universal healthcare in 19th century India.
It was key to the health and well-being of the labouring and working
classes, the poor, the wandering religious mendicants of all religions,
the elderly, women, children, and the indigenous communities,
and tribes. With no prohibition or coercive regulation, the plant grew
freely everywhere and was widely accessible to all who needed it, be it
human, animal, bird or insect. Besides the fact that all ages and all
classes of people has consumed cannabis over thousands of years, the
universal beneficial action that it has on the body and mind is evident
from the varied body systems that were treated for diseases with
cannabis - the brain and nervous system, the respiratory system, the digestive and excretory system, the reproductive system, the skin
and tissues, as well as the immune system. Compare this with today's
scenario, where to treat one medical condition, one must take an array
of medicines, and most medicines are suitable only for certain age
groups, and either internal or external use. Even the slightest
deviation in usage with today's synthetic pharmaceutical medicine can
prove fatal.
Cannabis's safety profile i.e. the ratio of safe
dosage to lethal dosage was put at something like 1:40000 by Lester
Grinspoon, the Harvard physician who advocated for its legalization
after the death of his son from cancer. This means that death from
overdose on cannabis is practically impossible, with one having to
consume more than 40000 times the effective dose for cannabis to prove
fatal. Compare this safety profile with that of alcohol,,
which could be as low as 1:6, or with the current rage in pain
management, fentanyl, which could be as low as 1:2. Most synthetic pharmaceutical
medications, that large numbers of individuals consume daily, would be
in the range of 1:4-10, i.e. if one consumed even four times the
prescribed dosage, it would lead to death. Many of today's synthetic pharmaceutical
medication consumers would die if they just stopped their daily intake
for a few days, such is their dependency on it. The safety profile of
cannabis disproves the perception amongst the ruling and upper classes,
then and today, that excessive usage of cannabis is harmful, and even worse, the perception of some that even moderate use is harmful.
Elixir of the working and labouring classes
India's
working and labouring classes effectively ran on cannabis. It is said
that as much as 50% of these classes consumed cannabis to relieve
fatigue, for stamina, to sleep, to fight diseases, increase appetite and
digestion, to improve concentration, and for relaxation and
intoxication. The working and labouring classes, along with the
indigenous communities and the poor, constituted then, and still does,
the majority of India's population, something like 70%. Witnesses state
that the classes that consumed cannabis, as medicine or tonic, included weavers,
potters, carpenters, masons, wrestlers, lattials, milkmen, day
labourers, palki-bearers, postal runners, coolies, syces, boatmen, and
ticca garhi drivers, haris, kahars, agriculturists, malis, mistris,
blacksmiths, cooks, confectioners, professional musicians, chandals,
soldiers, constables, field labourers, camel-drivers, merchants,
brokers, clerks, shopkeepers, artisans, fishermen, singhara cultivators
working in tanks, dhobis and night watchmen, jewellers, sculptors,
blacksmiths, stonemasons, dyers, etc.
It is interesting
to note that those from the middle class, i.e. merchants, brokers,
clerks, shopkeepers, preferred bhang, much like the ruling and upper
classes. Ganja and charas were mostly used by those from the "lower
classes", and hence slowly gained the reputation of being low-class
drugs used by bad society, when in fact it is ganja and charas that have
a higher concentration of the medicinal cannabinoids, and hence need to
be taken in smaller quantities than bhang to prove effective. This bias
towards bhang over ganja and charas by the ruling and upper classes,
and the middle classes, eventually led to the belief among these classes
that bhang was an altogether different drug than the ganja or charas
used by the lower and working classes, when in fact, they are just the
leaves, flowers and resin of one and the same cannabis plant. So, here
we have evidence of how the discriminatory class system was even applied
to the cannabis plant, widely called Siva's herb, and the alleged lower
classes of the plant i.e. flowers and resin were made untouchable. This
discrimination is very much in force today and governs the world's cannabis laws. If Gandhi called the untouchable classes of Indian society as Harijan,, then we must now call ganja and charas as Sivapathri.
From
the categories of persons who consumed cannabis, as stated by witnesses
to the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1895, one can get an idea of the importance of cannabis to
these populations that worked under adverse conditions like heat and
damp, and performed strenuous tasks, mostly for the ruling and upper
classes. It is strange that the ruling and upper classes should choose
to take away the very elixir that enabled their labourers to work well
for them consistently. The absurd bias against cannabis, and also the
workers who used it, come out clearly in the witness responses. Many
witnesses cite that ganja and makes a man lazy and arrogant, talking
back to the upper classes, which is something that neither the ruling or
the upper classes wanted.
The Commission states that - "The
use of these drugs to give staying-power under severe exertion or
exposure or to alleviate fatigue is very largely in evidence. Here it is
ganja especially which is credited with these beneficial effects. For
ganja is far more extensively used than bhang by the labouring classes.
The latter is mainly used by persons like the Chaubes of Mathra, who are
very frequently referred to, and professional wrestlers. Gymnasts,
wrestlers and musicians, palki-bearers and porters, divers and postal
runners, are examples of the classes who use the hemp drugs on occasions
of especially severe exertion. Fishermen and boatmen, singhara
cultivators working in tanks, dhobis and night watchmen, mendicants and
pilgrims, are named as among those who use them under severe exposure.
All classes of labourers, especially such as blacksmiths, miners, and
coolies, are said more or less generally to use the drugs as a rule in
moderation to alleviate fatigue." Fishermen believed that by the use
of ganja their powers of diving and remaining under water could be
increased. Cannabis was said to be of great use for work that required
great concentration, such as the work of jewelers, sculptors, artisans,
etc.
Mind medicine
What
I believe is the most important medical benefit of cannabis, what makes
it the most popular global intoxicant and medicine, is something which
appears to be consistently ignored by policy makers and medical experts.
This is the role of cannabis as the world's best mind medicine. It
could be the healing that it brings to the body that subsequently brings
mental well being, or vice versa, or both through simultaneous action
on body and mind. Its mental effects, immediate when smoked or inhaled, delayed when ingested as an edible, are profound.
It calms the mind, exhilarates and stimulates it, heightens the senses,
sparks creativity, taking one to a state of increased awareness of
oneself and one's surroundings. Cannabis, as mind medicine, besides
increasing concentration and mental focus, is described in ancient
medical texts as "warming circulation, brightening eyes, alleviating depression and creating exhilaration." Some of the descriptions in medical texts include "cause
cheerfulness, colour to the complexion, excite imagination into the
rapturous ideas, cheer intellect, deterging the brain, induces
costiveness, sharpens the memory," etc. It is aptly described as a 'brain detergent'
by a source in the Indian Hemp Commission report because it appears to
cleanse one's perception, revealing the reality of the world for what it
is.
For me, cannabis is the entheogen par excellence. The
strong association of cannabis with Siva, the god of tantra, yoga and
asceticism, only further strengthens the bond between the herb and
followers of these ways of life. It is not only the followers of Siva,
but also religious Sufi mendicants of Islam, Sikhism and Buddhism, who
used cannabis to keep their minds on the spiritual nature of life. The
feeling of oneness with all things, the sense of divinity in oneself
and in all things, the here and now aspect of cannabis, is
unmistakable. It is easy to reach the last three states described by
Patanjali in his ashtanga yoga - states of dharana or steady state of
mind, dhyana or pinpoint focus, and samadhi or merging with the eternal
spirit, with cannabis. This is the predominant reason why spiritual
mendicants revere the herb. These persons, who surrendered all their
wealth and possessions and chose to lead a life in pursuit of
spirituality, faced adverse conditions, undertook arduous journeys and
often lived with very little food, clothing or shelter. Cannabis was
consumed to steady and focus the mind, and to meditate on the eternal
spirit, besides being used to relieve fatigue, ward of diseases and
allay hunger. Cannabis did not cost anything in the past. It was freely
available everywhere. Spiritual mendicants never ran short of cannabis,
their spiritual fuel. If ever they ran out of cannabis, society would
consider it a privilege to offer them the divine herb. You can imagine
the great hardships the spiritual mendicants faced when their herb was
initially regulated, made more and more expensive, and then finally
completely prohibited by the ruling and upper classes, not just the
British, but the Indians who claimed themselves to be followers of
Mahadeva, the great god, whose favorite herb it was said to be. The only
persons with free access to the herb were, the ones who wore the colors
of the ruling and upper clases, while those who did not suffered the
same fate as the rest of society. This is still the case, in fact
increasingly more so.
In today's world, we see clear evidence of
the mind medicine aspect of cannabis when we consider that it is
increasingly being used to treat deadly brain cancers, such as gliablastoma, epilepsy, and injuries caused to the brain from traumatic brain injury, and brain damage from the abuse of alcohol and deadly synthetic drugs, such as cocaine and methamphetamine.
At the time of the Hemp Commission's report, many western physicians
believed that the use of cannabis caused lesions in the brain, similar
to the use of alcohol or dathura, and that cannabis compounds were
alkaloids that accumulated in the brain, creating lumps of tangled brain tissues, responsible for dementia.
However the experiments by Dr Cunningham on rhesus macaques using
cannabis and dathura, revealed on autopsy that cannabis created no
physical damage to the brain whereas dathura and alcohol
left the brain seriously damaged. Current science has just started to
discover the workings of the endo-cannabinoid system, which is found
extensively in the brain,
and the cannabinoids in the cannabis plant, as well the interactions
between the two. Some of the world's leading intellectuals and artists,
like Carl Sagan and Bob Dylan for example, have long advocated the mind
medicine aspect of cannabis.
Some of the leading causes of mental health issues are depression, anxiety, stress and insomnia,
together attributing to easily over 60% of global mental health issues
today. Cannabis was used to treat all these conditions in the past, not
just as prescribed by native physicians, but also as a way of life among
the general population. The consumption of cannabis, much like tea or
beer today, ensured that people, in general, led balanced, healthy
lives. Today, besides pain management, the leading reasons why cannabis
is consumed today, as well as medically prescribed, are anxiety, stress, depression, and insomnia. The alternatives to cannabis now available for these conditions are lethal synthetic pharmaceutical
drugs, each capable of causing more dangerous mental health issues than
the ones the patient had to start with in the first place, such as
addiction and suicidal tendencies. To top it all, these dangerous
synthetic pharmaceutical drugs are mostly available only to the ruling
and upper classes all over the world, whereas the majority of the
world's people have had their mental health medicine taken away, the
herb par excellence that was accessible to all and could be grown at
one's home. Oh yes, the ruling classes have made available alcohol,
another leading cause of mental health issues, besides also creating a
market for dangerous illegal synthetic drugs of increasing complexity
and lethal potency.
Medicine of the poor
The
main users of cannabis, especially as ganja or charas, were the poor,
consisting of the labouring and working classes, mendicants - religious
or otherwise, and the indigenous and tribal communities. These together
comprised the majority of India's population, while the elites formed a
minority, as they do everywhere and always. India's social and cultural
fabric was composed largely of the poor, as it still is now, who had
used cannabis for thousands of years in an unbroken tradition, giving
rise to India's rich and diverse cannabis culture. The rich, those who
used cannabis that is, preferred it in the form of bhang, which they
considered refined and harmless, even beneficial, unlike ganja or
charas, which they viewed as the harmful drug of the lower classes. This
bias towards the leaves of the plant, and opposition to the flowers and
resin of the plant, is a bias that runs even today. This bias is what
has led to the prohibition of ganja and charas, whereas bhang is
considered legal, not just in India, but also in the 1961 Single
Convention Treaty that forms the basis of global anti-cannabis drug laws
today. The reason behind this, I believe, is that the rich who are
indulgent and ignorant, have mostly reached their position, through the
exploitation of nature and the poor. Many of the ruling and upper
classes who oppose cannabis do not come from a tradition of cannabis
usage, having often migrated to India
in more recent times than the endemic populations. For these ruling and
upper classes cannabis as bhang, is an indulgence, just like opium and alcohol.
It is not an essential part of their existence, as medicine and
intoxicant, as it is for the poor. When the rich indulge in cannabis,
through their decadent lifestyles, they create the image that cannabis
is harmful. The whole myth that cannabis causes insanity was largely
created and propagated by the ruling and upper classes, in India and all
over the world, using false data.
The importance of cannabis to the poor, who used it to allay hunger, relieve fatigue, cure themselves of diseases, for digestion,
to recreate and to lead a healthy life can be gauged from the classes
of persons who consumed cannabis, as mentioned above, as well as some of
the statements made in the Hemp Commission's report. The Commission
states that "They [hemp drugs] are said to be used by the poor and on
occasion by others to alleviate hunger when sufficient food is not
obtainable." The Commission also admits, grudgingly, that "The
truth seems to be that while, no doubt, these drugs are more commonly
consumed merely as stimulants than from any clearly defined idea of
their beneficial results, yet they are popularly believed to have (if
moderately used) some such beneficial results as have been above
described. Moderate consumers believe this, and would feel a sense of
deprivation if they were unable to obtain what they regard as a
beneficial stimulant. This deprivation would be more felt among the
poorer classes than among the wealthier, whose tastes lead them to more
expensive luxuries. It is the poorer people and the labouring classes
who as a rule use these drugs for the purposes indicated. They are
admittedly as a rule moderate consumers. They do not seem to exceed in
the use of hemp so frequently as in the use of liquor." One witness
states that fifty percent of the labouring and working classes used
cannabis, while nearly all religious mendicants, across all religions,
used it.
The irony of cannabis legalization today is that it is
only the rich nations, who propagated cannabis prohibition in the first
place, who have access to it through legalization. Even among rich
nations that have legalized cannabis in dome form, it is mostly the
elite and upper classes within these nations who have access and can
afford the legalized cannabis.
Medicine for the elderly
Today, in places where cannabis has been legalized for medical or recreational use, the elderly comprise the fastest growing age demographic of cannabis users. The elderly are replacing synthetic pharmaceutical drugs, including opioids, with cannabis to treat various aging relation health conditions such as anxiety, stress, depression, loss of appetite, nausea, for digestion, pain and insomnia,
to name a few. The Commission's 19th century report shows that this is
not a new phenomena. One of the witnesses, Assistant Surgeon, J. E.
BOCARRO, Lecturer, Medical School, Hyderabad (Sind), states that "I
have personally examined a large number of those between the ages of 40
and 60 years, and have found them to be not only sound in all their
internal organs, but also of good bodily frame. Further, what might
appear to be a strange thing is that most of them have even preserved
good vision. Cataractous condition of the lens is, I observe, an
uncommon thing among those who take bhang in moderation." Another
witness states that "There would seem to be a very general use of bhang
in moderation as a stimulant and digestive by the middle classes,
especially in advancing years."
Today, the elderly who
benefit from cannabis are the elderly among the rich and elite classes
all over the world, who can access and afford the legal cannabis
available in wealthy nations like the US, Canada, Germany Australia and
Israel. For the majority of the world's elderly, it is the same story as
that of the poor.
Medicine for children
Today, we find that some of the chief arguments against cannabis legalization is that it is harmful for children, and that children will become addicted to it. Both these false myths are perpetrated in parallel with ensuring that alcohol and tobacco is legal, and that plenty of dangerous synthetic, legal and illegal, pharmaceutical medications are around for children to abuse. The fact that cannabis is used today to treat epilepsy, ADHD, cancer and autism in children is rarely mentioned. When we look at cannabis use as medicine for children in the 19th century, we see that it has always been used to treat nausea, diarrhea, convulsions and restlessness in children. Not just its sedative and anti-spasmodic properties, children benefit from many of its other properties, including its analgesic, expectorant, prophylactic, digestive, diuretic, refrigerant, diaphoretic properties. Cannabis, as medicine, was typically given to children in the form of sweetmeats. The multiple modes through which it can be administered, and its high safety profile, means that cannabis is one of the most ideal medicines for children suffering from numerous medical conditions. The fact that the child has to consume one herb, instead of a plethora of dangerous chemical compounds, should have been sufficient to make it available universally.
Unfortunately, children today face increasing anxiety, stress, depression, insomnia
and attention deficiency at mental levels probably unseen in the
history of humankind. They also face physical threats in the form of
malnutrition, degradation of their environment and lifestyles. The
world's children suffer the same problems of accessibility and
affordability to medicine that the poor and the elderly face. The
unlucky few, who can access or afford the dangerous and expensive
synthetic pharmaceutical medications, belong to the ruling and upper
classes. Where cannabis has been legalized for recreational use, in about 23 US states and Canada, it has been found that cannabis usage rates among children actually came down, thus disproving the myth that legalization will cause increased consumption among the under aged.
Medicine for women
The Hemp Commission states erroneously that women
were not significant consumers of cannabis. This is because the
Commission sought its information from the largely male population of
the ruling upper class administration, and from cannabis retail outlets
and public places where upper class men gathered to drink bhang. The
only segment of women
that the Commission found using cannabis significantly were the
prostitutes, who were the only women among the working and labouring
classes that the Commission or its witnesses heard about. These women
consumed cannabis for the very same reasons that the other sections of
the working and labouring classes consumed it, which was to relieve
fatigue, to sleep and to ward off diseases when working in adverse
conditions, especially sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhea and
syphilis. This lopsided perspective of women's consumption of cannabis
paved the way for the myth that all women who consume cannabis are
immoral, one of the key propaganda measures used to dissuade women from
using cannabis.
Women are likely to have consumed cannabis nearly as much as men, because all the benefits that men derived from cannabis women
also did. Not only that, there are women specific medical conditions
for which cannabis is beneficial, as revealed by witnesses in response
to the Hemp Commission's questions. These include "many uterine
affections", including "loss of blood from uterus, "relief in protracted
labour pains", "dysmenorrhœa", "menorrhagia", "cramps", "lohiwa (a
disease of women of daily menstruating blood instead of at the menses
time)". The ecbolic, parturifacient, and haemostatic properties of
cannabis were especially suited for women. The fact that nearly every
house in some places had at least one cannabis plant, and the ease with
which cannabis can be consumed as edibles or beverages, shows how
integrated it was with the whole household and society, and not just its
male members. It is not necessary for a woman to smoke cannabis like
men do, she can just as easily combine it with her cooking and consume
it, or apply it as oils and butter to her body, thus being discrete
because a patriarchal society discriminates against her for cannabis
use.
Today, women
are coming out more in the open with their cannabis consumption in
places where cannabis has been legalized. Women use cannabis for
medicine, recreation, wellness and food and many new cannabis businesses
are created and run by women. Many women have become cannabis
entrepreneurs and leaders in the cannabis industry. Some of the leading
global cannabis advocates are women.
Yet, in a largely patriarchal world, the narrative still dominates that
the only women who consume cannabis are loose women. Once again, the
story of women
in the world, by and large, is the same, or even worse than that of the
elderly, the poor and children, because it is even more difficult for a
woman to access or afford cannabis, if she does not belong to the
ruling and upper classes. Even if she does belong to the upper classes,
the patriarchal societies of the world are quick to punish and shame her
in full public view so that she does not influence other women to be
more free. Woman is the nigger of the world, eh John?
Treatment of diseases in animals
Man was not the only animal whose diseases were treated with cannabis. We find that traditional Indian medical practitioners used cannabis for treating cows, bullock, buffalo, horses, sheep and elephants. The use of cannabis for treating animals was so pervasive that the Hemp Commission states "Regarding the use of hemp drugs in the treatment of cattle-disease, out of a total of 1,193 witnesses, one-half give no information; and of the rest rather over one-half speak to the use of bhang alone, while the remainder speak generally of the use of both ganja and bhang." It also states that "This use of the drugs is in evidence in all provinces, though naturally to a less extent in Bombay and Madras than elsewhere, and least of all in Burma. Among the diseases for which hemp drugs are prescribed in native veterinary practice for cattle, horses, sheep, and occasionally elephants may be mentioned colic, bowel-complaints, diarrhœa, sprains, constipation, cow-pox, foot-and-mouth diseases, hoof disease, pneumonia, affections of the throat, colds and coughs, quinsy, and rinderpest. Ganja is used to extract worms in foot-sore diseases of cattle and to remove intestinal worms, and is also burnt to disinfect sheepfolds. A very common use of the drugs is as a tonic to produce condition, to make oxen fleet of foot, to relieve fatigue, and to give staying power. Bhang is sometimes used to increase the flow of milk in cows, and also to stupefy them when they refuse to be milked. The drug is occasionally given to mares shortly before being covered, and it is also used after delivery. Bhang mixed with salt is given to cattle as preventive against purging, to which they are generally subject from feeding on the young shoots of grass sprouting during the early part of the monsoon." Cannabis appears to have been commonly used for indigestion and heat apoplexy among cattle, administered with molasses to horses and ponies to remove stomach complaints and to refresh them after hard labour.One witness makes an interesting statement regarding the effect that cannabis appears to have on herbivorous and carnivorous animals by stating that "With regard to the diseases of cattle, the hemp plant, particularly its leaves, were used externally for rheumatism, fresh wounds and sores, and internally for tetanus and hydrophobia; and the effects are more salutary in the case of Grassominivorous animals without any unpleasant after-consequence, as the intoxicating effect of the drug is less perceivable in them than in the carnivorous group." Ganja was also rubbed over the tongues of the bullocks to sharpen their appetite. The tongues of cattle refusing to eat are rubbed over with powder made of ganja, saffron and salt. Ganja mixed with grain and pounded gives strength to cattle, and is believed to keep them in good condition. It was used for mules and horses suffering from asthma and cold. Ganja leaf (not dried) is given to cows and buffaloes which withhold milk. It then gives milk. It seems to serve the purpose of carbolic acid. A horse, after a bath, was sometimes given a pill consisting of patti, turmeric and molasses.
In Burma, the community known as Karens cultivated large quantities of ganja for sale to timber traders (Thitgaungs), who use it as medicine for elephants. A witness states that "Every one possessing elephants is bound to keep ganja." Another witness states that "When an elephant suffers from agunbai, the symptoms of which are trembling of the body, hasty perspiration, sores in throat and excessive warmth in the body, native doctors prescribe bhang. If not attended to immediately, the elephant dies within three hours. The administration of bhang with other medicines thrice cures the animal. When the elephant becomes must and lustful and does not eat, bhang with other medicines proves very effective. A camel can be cured of tetanus by giving him on three alternate days—bhang a quarter seer, sugar one seer, oil one-and-half seer. Bhang is sometimes given to a horse in the ease of stomach-ache or for removing fatigue." In Burdwan it was habitually given to the Raj Bari elephants as a tonic.
Findings from modern studies regarding cannabis as universal medicine
Regarding the effectiveness of cannabis for symptom relief, one study says that - 'By 1 hour postconsumption, 96.4% of people had experienced symptom relief with an average symptom intensity reduction of -3.85 points on a 0 to 10 visual analog scale (SD=2.45, d=1.85, P<0.001). Symptom relief was statistically significant at 5 minutes and increased with time. Among product characteristics, flower and concentrates yielded the strongest, yet similar results; products labeled as Cannabis indica underperformed those labeled as Cannabis sativa or hybrid; and joints were associated with greater symptom relief than pipes or vaporizers. In sessions using flower, higher tetrahydrocannbinol and lower cannabidiol were generally associated with greater symptom relief (eg, within 5 min).'
Situation today
Related articles
The following list of articles taken from various media speak about the above subject. Words in italics are the thoughts of yours truly at the time of reading the article.“In general, we are seeing CBD products be helpful for things like pain — especially related to arthritic-related pain — fibromyalgia, migraine . . . endometriosis, pelvic pain, period pain,” said Dr. Sherry Yafai, a board-certified emergency medicine physician, cannabis specialist, and medical director at The ReLeaf Institute in Los Angeles
“We are seeing a huge spike in CBD hemp-based products usage in both the pediatric and the elderly populations, and for good reason. Those are both populations that historically we don’t have great medications for treatment of significant diagnoses such as autism, cerebral palsy, pediatric seizures, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, ALS,” Yafai added.'
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/30-percent-adults-are-interested-cbd
Despite claims by some that marijuana has yet to be subject to adequate scientific scrutiny, scientific interest in cannabis has increased exponentially in recent years. In 2020, researchers worldwide published a record 3,500+ scientific papers on the subject of cannabis, according to data compiled by the National Library of Medicine and PubMed.gov. So far this year, scientists have published over 3,600 papers. In all, PubMed now cites over 38,000 scientific papers on the topic of cannabis.'
https://norml.org/blog/2021/11/01/new-norml-book-summarizing-hundreds-of-studies-assessing-the-safety-and-efficacy-of-cannabis-for-patients-now-available-on-kindle/
'Results: Overall, cannabinoids were perceived to be efficacious across all genders and ages, and no significant differences were found among product forms, ingestion methods, or gender groups. Although all strain categories were perceived as efficacious, predominant indica strains were found to reduce insomnia symptomology more than cannabidiol (CBD) strains (estimated mean difference 0.59, SE 0.11; 95% CI 0.36-0.81; adjusted P<.001) and predominant sativa strains (estimated mean difference 0.74, SE 0.16; 95% CI 0.43-1.06; adjusted P<.001). Indica hybrid strains also presented a greater reduction in insomnia symptomology than CBD strains (mean difference 0.52, SE 0.12; 95% CI 0.29-0.74; adjusted P<.001) and predominant sativa strains (mean difference 0.67, SE 0.16; 95% CI 0.34-1.00; adjusted P=.002).
Conclusions: Medicinal cannabis users perceive a significant improvement in insomnia with cannabinoid use, and this study suggests a possible advantage with the use of predominant indica strains compared with predominant sativa strains and exclusively CBD in this population. This study emphasizes the need for randomized placebo-controlled trials assessing the efficacy and safety profile of cannabinoids for the treatment of insomnia.'
https://www.jmir.org/2021/10/e25730
'Results. A total of 351 patients were located, and 319 completed the questionnaire. Mean age was 46 ± 12 years, 76% were female, 82% had fibromyalgia, ~9% had mechanical problems, ~4% had inflammatory problems, ~4% had neurological problems, and ~1% had other problems. The average monthly consumed dose of MC was 31, 35, 36, and 32g, with mean pain level reduction of 77%, 82%, 83%, and 57%, and mean sleep quality improvement of 78%, 71%, 87%, and 76% among patients with fibromyalgia, mechanical, neuropathic, and inflammatory problems, respectively. Mean THC and CBD contents were 18.38% ± 4.96 and 2.62% ± 4.87, respectively. The THC concentration, duration of MC consumption, and MC consumption dose had independent significant correlations with pain reduction while only the duration of MC consumption had an independent significant correlation with sleep quality improvement. Conclusions. MC had a favorable effect on pain level and quality of sleep among all spectrums of problems at the rheumatology clinic.'
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/prm/2021/1756588/
When the time to sleep finally came, I clocked 10 hours of shuteye, something I haven’t done in years. No cold sweats, no meltdowns, no emergency room visits—just relaxation, a quiet mind, and a seriously deep rest.'
https://www.leafly.com/news/health/i-ate-10-times-more-thc-than-i-planned-heres-what-happened
https://www.eurekaselect.com/193013/article
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/9/4294
By 1 hour postconsumption, 96.4% of people had experienced symptom relief with an average symptom intensity reduction of -3.85 points on a 0 to 10 visual analog scale (SD=2.45, d=1.85, P<0.001). Symptom relief was statistically significant at 5 minutes and increased with time. Among product characteristics, flower and concentrates yielded the strongest, yet similar results; products labeled as Cannabis indica underperformed those labeled as Cannabis sativa or hybrid; and joints were associated with greater symptom relief than pipes or vaporizers. In sessions using flower, higher tetrahydrocannbinol and lower cannabidiol were generally associated with greater symptom relief (eg, within 5 min).'
https://journals.lww.com/jcge/Abstract/9000/The_Effectiveness_of_Common_Cannabis_Products_for.97442.aspx
65 primary articles (18 clinical, 47 pre-clinical) were reviewed. Several randomised controlled trials showed hempseed pills (in Traditional Chinese Medicine formulation MaZiRenWan) improving spontaneous bowel movement in functional constipation. There was also evidence suggesting benefits in cannabis dependence, epilepsy, and anxiety disorders. Pre-clinically, hemp derivatives showed potential anti-oxidative, anti-hypertensive, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-neuroinflammatory, anti-arthritic, anti-acne, and anti-microbial activities. Renal protective effects and estrogenic properties were also exhibited in vitro.'
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0245471
No medicinal value?
Dravet syndrome, Spinocerebellar ataxia, Syringomyelia, Tarlov cysts, Sjogren’s syndrome, Post-concussion syndrome, Neurofibromatosis, Myasthenia gravis, Myoclonus, Hydrocephalus, Hydromyelia, Interstitial cystitis, CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type II), Dystonia, Fibrous dysplasia, Causalgia, Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, Arnold-Chiari malformation, Epidermolysis bullosa, Mitochondrial disease, Decompensated cirrhosis, Osteogenesis Imperfecta, Cerebral palsy, Cystic fibrosis, Post Herpetic Neuralgia, Post Laminectomy Syndrome with Chronic Radiculopathy, Severe Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis, Intractable epilepsy, Seizure disorders, Severe nausea, Severe or chronic pain, Cachexia (wasting syndrome), Anorexia, hospice or palliative care, Terminal illness, Sickle cell anemia, Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Crohn’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Neuropathies, Damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord, Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/Lou Gehrig’s disease, HIV/AIDS, Cancer, Traumatic brain injury (TBI), Chronic renal failure requiring dialysis, Spasticity, Muscle Spasms, Cramping, Appetite loss, Severe Vomiting, Hepatitis C, Glaucoma, Pain lasting longer than two weeks, Autism, Ulcerative colitis, Alzheimer’s disease, Neural-tube defects, Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, Neurodegenerative diseases, Dyskinetic and spastic movement disorders, Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Tourette’s syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Arthritis, Lupus, Diabetes, Obstructive sleep apnea, Spasmodic Torticollis (cervical dystonia), Inclusion Body Myositis, Anxiety, Migraines, Muscular dystrophy, Chronic pancreatitis, Ehler’s Danlos Syndrome, Nail-patella syndrome, Lennox-Gestaut syndrome...
https://www.leafly.com/news/health/qualifying-conditions-for-medical-marijuana-by-state
'I once kicked a junk habit with weed. The second day off junk I sat down and ate a full meal. Ordinarily, I can't eat for eight days after kicking a habit.' - Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953
'It would seem that junk is the only habit-forming drug. Cats cannot be addicted to morphine, as they react to an injection of morphine with acute delirium. Cats have a relatively small quantity of histamine in the blood stream. It would seem that histamine is the defense against morphine, and that cats, lacking this defense, cannot tolerate morphine. Perhaps the mechanism of withdrawal is this: Histamine is produced by the body as a defense against morphine during the period of addiction. When the drug is withdrawn, the body continues to produce histamine.'
- Junky, William S Burroughs, 1977, originally published in 1953
'Cannabidiol (CBD) is an illegal drug with no redeeming value. It is also a useful prescription medicine for epilepsy, with considerable potential for treating numerous other conditions. And it is a natural dietary supplement or ‘nutraceutical’ with countless evangelists in the health and wellness community. Although contradictory, all three statements are true from different perspectives, and clinical researchers are frustrated.'
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02524-5
'The technological provenance of cannabinoids might not matter as much to the pharmaceutical sector, where consumers tend to be less averse to genetic engineering. But according to Ethan Russo, director of research and development at the International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute in Prague, biochemically derived cannabinoids, even when mixed and matched into therapeutic formulations, will probably never equal the botanical synergy of the hundreds of molecules that are found in cannabis.
The existence of this ‘entourage’ effect is not universally accepted. But to Russo, “The plant is nature’s design for this panoply of chemicals”.'
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02525-4
'The stereotypical image of a cannabis smoker is someone who sprawls on the sofa for hours surrounded by a haze of smoke and half-eaten snacks. The scene is played up for laughs in films, but social psychologist Angela Bryan thought it could be cause for concern. After all, cannabis is known to increase appetite and aid relaxation, which might put people at risk of health conditions such as obesity, says Bryan, who is at the University of Colorado Boulder.
But digging into health trends revealed the opposite. Nationwide US studies report that, compared to non-users, cannabis users actually have a lower prevalence of obesity.'
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02529-0
'Proponents and doubters agree that further research, including double-blind clinical trials, is needed to confirm whether the entourage effect exists and, if so, to understand how it works. “That way, you are taking out bias and expectation,” Wilson-Poe says.'
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02528-1
'And no matter the outcome, the study will do little to curb people selling CBD products. If the pudding does do something, CBD oil brands will have a paper to add to their marketing arsenal. If the special puddling doesn’t do anything for people with chronic pain, it will be easy to ignore; manufacturers can easily word claims about products’ benefits vaguely enough to avoid out-and-out false advertising. But more importantly, once something is in the public imagination as being useful, it’s hard to oust it. CBD has benefited from early studies that suggest legitimate uses from pain management to anxiety to insomnia. It doesn’t matter much that these are typically small, and often in rodents. There’s also the simple fact that it comes from marijuana; that it would do something positive seems logical, in the same way that buying face creams boasting antioxidants seems logical, even though they may only wind up being present in trace amounts. One only really has to note that a product has CBD in order to sell it. '
https://slate.com/technology/2019/09/unfortunately-the-cbd-horse-is-pretty-definitively-out-of-the-barn-so-to-speak.html
'With 332% growth year-on-year and $52 million in sales, cannabidiol (CBD) has taken the top spot as the best-selling herbal supplement in the natural channel, according to the 2018 HerbalGram Herb Market Report by the American Botanical Council.'
https://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Article/2019/09/23/CBD-supplement-sales-rocket-to-take-top-spot-in-the-US-natural-channel
https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/nba-insider-tom-haberstroh/marijuana-and-nba-erasing-stigma-and-healing-league
'The report's author concluded: "[T]his case demonstrates how the patient was able to significantly benefit from the introduction of medical cannabis into her mental health intervention for the treatment of vertigo and a generalized anxiety disorder. In this case, the benefits for the 88-year-old patient using medical cannabis as a treatment in the both the short term and longer-term far outweighed the potential risks that may require consideration for children or adolescents."'
https://norml.org/news/2020/04/23/case-report-88-year-old-patient-reports-cannabis-improves-symptoms-of-anxiety-vertigo
'The oral administration of cannabis-based products is associated with improvements in autistic patients with self-injurious behaviors and co-morbid epilepsy, according to data published in the journal Seminars in Pediatric Neurology.
A pair of investigators affiliated with the Tufts University School of Medicine described their clinical experience working with children and young adults with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) who had consumed either cannabis or hemp-based products. Among subjects with ASD-associated aggression, 60 percent reported improvements following treatment. Among subjects diagnosed with both ASD and epilepsy, 91 percent reported some improvement in seizure control.'
https://norml.org/news/2020/07/16/study-cannabis-based-products-may-ease-symptoms-in-autistic-patients
'“The evidence described in the present systematic review indicates that CBD is a promising adjunct therapy for the treatment of cocaine dependence due to its effect on cocaine consumption, brain reward, anxiety, related contextual memories, neuroadaptations and hepatic protection as well as its anticonvulsant effect and safety,” the study authors concluded.
“The clinical administration of CBD leads to a reduction in the self-administration of cocaine and, consequently, the amount of the drug consumed. Moreover, the reward induced by cocaine is blunted by CBD treatment.”'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/cbd-is-a-promising-therapy-in-treating-cocaine-misuse-meta-study-finds/
'The non-medical use of tramadol is of particular concern among young people in many countries in that subregion. For example, a cross-sectional study among 300 young people in western Ghana found that while the majority (85 per cent) of respondents knew someone who misused tramadol, more than half of the young people interviewed had used tramadol themselves for non-medical purposes, and one third of the users reported misusing 9–10 doses of tramadol per day. Another qualitative study from Ghana reported curiosity, peer pressure and iatrogenic addiction as the three main factors for initiation and continuing non-medical use of tramadol, while perceived euphoria, attentiveness, relief from pain, physical energy and aphrodisiac effects were mentioned as some of the reasons for continuing non-medical use of tramadol.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf
'At the global level, Germany was the second largest consumer of opioid pain relievers, with an estimated 28,862 S-DDD per million population per day for medical use in 2017, followed by Austria, Belgium and Switzerland. In Germany, the number of pharmaceutical opioids overall and the number of people receiving opioid treatment have increased over the past few decades; in most instances, prescriptions were given for non-chronic cancer pain. A review of scientific literature from Germany published between 1985 and 2016 showed that out of the 12 studies reviewed, 6 studies reported a prevalence for patients with medical use of any opioid for long-term treatment of non-cancer chronic pain ranging from 0.54 to 5.7 per cent, while four studies reported a prevalence for patients with medical use of opioids at 0.057 to 1.39 per cent of the population' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf
'There is a great incentive for trafficking organizations to expand the fentanyl market: the large associated revenues. Compared with heroin, the production costs of single-dose fentanyls are substantially lower. For instance, it may cost between $1,400 and $3,500 to synthesize 1 kg of fentanyl, which could bring a return of between $1 million and $1.5 million from street sales. For comparison, 1 kg of heroin purchased from Colombia may cost $5,000 to $7,000,99 around $53,000 at the wholesale level in the United States and around $400,000 at the retail level in the United States. With fentanyls, the logistics for supply are also more flexible because fentanyls can be manufactured anywhere and are not subject to the climatic conditions or the vulnerable conditions required for the largescale cultivation of opium poppy.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf
' Overall, in 2018 overdose deaths attributed to synthetic opioids, comprising mainly fentanyls, accounted for nearly half of the total overdose deaths in the United States. Among the reasons for the high number of overdose deaths attributed to fentanyls are their often small lethal doses relative to other opioids: fentanyl, for example, is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine, and carfentanil may be as much as 10,000 times more potent than morphine for an average user. A lethal dose of carfentanil for a human can be as low as 20 micrograms.
The rapid expansion of fentanyl use in the United States is also visible in the data on seizures and the drug samples analysed, with a considerable increase since 2014 in the number of samples identified as fentanyl. In 2018, fentanyl accounted for 45 per cent of the pharmaceutical opioids that were identified in different samples, while oxycodone accounted for 14 per cent' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf
'Currently, as lot of clinical trials are underway, CBD demonstrates remarkable potential to become a supplemental therapy in various neurological conditions. It has shown promise in the treatment of neurological disorders such as anxiety, chronic pain, trigeminal neuralgia, epilepsy, and essential tremors as well as psychiatric disorders. While recent FDA-approved prescription drugs have demonstrated safety, efficacy, and consistency enough for regulatory approval in spasticity in multiple sclerosis (MS) and in Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut Syndromes (LGS), many therapeutic challenges still remain. In the current review, the authors have shed light on the application of CBD in the management and treatment of various neurological disorders.'
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10072-020-04514-2
'Results With this systematic review, we can conclude that its therapeutic application in areas such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and in the relief of some cancer patient’s symptoms is promising. Its apparent anti-tumour activity in various types of cancer is of increasing scientific interest as current treatments in these situations are scarce.
Conclusion The future of cannabis therapy is getting closer. It is therefore necessary to study and develop new synthetic analogues of THC, with better separation between therapeutic and side effects. Scientific advances show that Cannabis sativa is a treatment option for many conditions. With this systematic review we can conclude that its therapeutic application in areas such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and in the relief of some symptoms in cancer patients is promising. Its apparent anti-tumour activity in various types of cancer is also of increasing scientific interest.'
https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article-abstract/30/Supplement_2/ckaa040.015/5862080
'Results: On average, 95.8% of users experienced symptom relief following consumption with an average symptom intensity reduction of –3.76 points on a 0-10 visual analogue scale (SD = 2.64, d = 1.71, p <.001). Symptom relief did not differ by labeled plant phenotypes (“C. indica,” “C. sativa,” or “hybrid”) or combustion method. Across cannabinoid levels, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels were the strongest independent predictors of symptom relief, while cannabidiol (CBD) levels, instead, were generally unrelated to real-time changes in symptom intensity levels. Cannabis use was associated with some negative side effects that correspond to increased depression (e.g. feeling unmotivated) in up to 20% of users, as well as positive side effects that correspond to decreased depression (e.g. feeling happy, optimistic, peaceful, or relaxed) in up to 64% of users. '
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7309674/
To market a house cleaning product as good, one of the things to ensure is that one's own house is clean. This applies to vaccines as well. You can't stake a strong claim for anti-Covid medicine sitting on top of the global Covid charts. This is not the Olympics. To strengthen your claim, you need to get off the charts. The Chinese have done it fast, in and out in a flash, setting off the global race. France, Germany, Turkey and Iran have done it. Spain, Italy and UK are doing it, replacing their positions with Peru and Chile and staking their claims to the magic vaccine. The US, Brazil, and India, sitting pretty on top, are starting to resemble sitting ducks. Their hydroxychloroquine gambit seems to have failed, a move too fast too soon, even though their leaders continue to promote it by self medicating. They need to slide off the charts, but its not so easy to start going down suddenly when you have upward momentum. Especially with China supplying the test kits, medicines and PPEs to propel the climb with promises of a quick buck. The Chinese appear to have played masterfully, winning both at home, with all dissent quelled, and abroad, selling its Covid products...the old one two, eh Xi? Everybody else is playing catch up now trying to secure vaccine rights. Which pharma promises the biggest cash prize? WHO's refereeing? All have achieved the (primary?) goal of stunning and tightening control over the restless public..for now at least...
Jul 8, 2020, 3:01 PM
'Authors reported: “Results of this analysis indicated that compared to older adult non-users, older adult cannabis users had lower BMI at the beginning of an exercise intervention study, engaged in more weekly exercise days during the intervention, and were engaging in more exercise-related activities at the conclusion of the intervention. Although preliminary, these findings suggest that it may be easier for older adults who endorse using cannabis to increase and maintain their exercise behavior, potentially because cannabis users have lower body weight than their non-using peers. At minimum, the evidence suggests that cannabis use does not hinder older adults’ ability to engage in physical activity, to participate in a supervised exercise program, or to increase their fitness as a result of physical activity.”'
https://norml.org/news/2020/07/09/study-history-of-cannabis-use-associated-with-lower-bmi-greater-exercise-frequency-in-those-age-60-and-older
'Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a multifactorial, pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder defined by the core symptoms of significant impairment in social interaction and communication as well as restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior. In addition to these core behaviors, persons with ASD frequently have associated non-core behavioral disturbance (i.e. self-injury, aggression), as well as several medical comorbidities. Currently, no effective treatment exists for the core symptoms of ASD. This review reports the available pre-clinical and clinical data regarding the use of cannabis and cannabidiol (CBD) in the treatment of core symptoms, non-core symptoms and comorbidities associated with ASD. Additionally, we describe our clinical experience working with children and young adults with ASD who have used cannabis or CBD. At present, pre-clinical and clinical data suggest a potential for therapeutic benefit amongst some persons with ASD and that it is overall well tolerated. Further research is required to better identify patients who may benefit from treatment without adverse effects.'
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1071909120300449
'Results of the experiment indicated that the two cannabinoid-infused mouthwashes significantly inhibited the growth of bacteria—on par with the chlorhexidine. The two over-the-counter mouthwashes, meanwhile, had little to no detectable effect.
“Cannabinoids (CBD / CBG) infused mouthwashes together with other natural key ingredients shows promising bactericidal activity in vitro against total-culturable aerobic bacterial content in dental plaque,” the study says, “with efficiency equivalent to or better than that of the gold standard (0.2% chlorhexidine).”'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/cbd-infused-mouthwash-works-better-than-regular-products-industry-study-shows/
'“Compared to older adult nonusers,” says the study, out of the University of Colorado at Boulder, “older adult cannabis users had lower [body mass index] at the beginning of an exercise intervention study, engaged in more weekly exercise days during the intervention, and were engaging in more exercise-related activities at the conclusion of the intervention.”
In other words, not only were adults over 60 who used marijuana generally in better shape than their peers who abstained from cannabis, they were also more responsive to an assigned four-month “exercise intervention trial”—essentially a regimen of physical activity prescribed by a clinician.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/lazy-stoner-stereotype-smashed-by-study-finding-marijuana-consumers-exercise-more/
Dementia behaviour improvement, dialysis patient appetite improvement...
'Tikun Olam, Israel’s veteran medical cannabis company, maintains a robust medical research program which draws from its detailed database of tens of thousands of patients, and extensive clinical research collaborations with academic and medical partners. I recently spoke with Lihi Bar-Lev Schleider, director of Tikun Olam’s research department, about studies the company has been involved in with a focus on older adults.
In our conversation, Schleider described the results of a prospective study on the safety and efficacy of medical cannabis in the elderly, conducted in collaboration with Soroka Medical Center, and recently published in the European Journal of Internal Medicine. The study evaluated the response to medical cannabis of patients over 65 with conditions including cancer and its associated pain and treatment side-effects, neuropathic pain and Parkinson’s disease, among others.'
https://www.forbes.com/sites/abbierosner/2019/03/04/new-medical-cannabis-research-from-israel-older-adults-dementia-and-dialysis/
'Formulation of C. sativa as syrup using efficient carriers improves the pharmacological activity of the crude extract. SMBs[sodium metabisulphite] and EDTA[ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid] significantly enhance the stability of the syrup with no observable biochemical and hematological changes in treated animals'
https://www.tjpr.org/admin/12389900798187/2019_18_2_11.pdf
'There are differences between how THC and CBD are absorbed orally than when inhaled. “The way the circulation works, the first place [ingested cannabis] is going to go to is the liver: it’s called first pass effect,” explains Dr. Carolina Landolt, rheumatologist at the Summertree Medical Clinic.
When smoked or vaporized, cannabinoids directly enter the bloodstream through the lungs. When ingested, THC and CBD pass through the liver and are metabolized by enzymes before entering the bloodstream. “The liver is what breaks down a lot of other medications,” said Landolt. “There’s something called the hepatic metabolism.”'
https://www.leafly.com/news/health/considerations-before-ingesting-edibles
'Key findings
From baseline to 6 months post-treatment, SF-36 scores showed: reductions in total pain (P < 0.03); improvements in the physical component (P < 0.02); vitality (P < 0.03); social role functioning (P < 0.02); and general health state (P < 0.02). No changes in role limitations (P = 0.02) due to emotional state (e.g. panic, depression, mood alteration) were reported. Monthly reports of psychoactive adverse effects showed significant insomnia reduction (P < 0.03) and improvement in mood (P < 0.03) and concentration (P < 0.01).
Conclusions
These data suggest that a cannabis galenical preparation may be therapeutically effective and safe for the symptomatic treatment of some chronic diseases. Further studies on the efficacy of cannabis as well as cannabinoid system involvement in the pathophysiology are warranted.'
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijpp.12514
'The analysis is based on 2016 data from the 15 states that reported the reasons given for using marijuana. Researchers compared the symptoms and conditions with a comprehensive review of the scientific evidence: a 2017 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
About 85 percent of patients’ reasons were supported by substantial or conclusive evidence in the National Academies report.'
https://www.leafly.com/news/health/science-backs-most-medical-cannabis-treatment-study-finds
With global legalization and normalization, the cost of cannabis should continue to drop especially in the home grown raw plant form making it greatly cost effective for the billions that choose this path.
'Notwithstanding limitations, this is the first published CEA (cost-effectiveness analysis) of inhaled cannabis for any condition. The results of our analysis indicate that should long-term consequences and efficacy be similar to what has been observed in published trials, smoked medicinal cannabis is a useful tool from a cost-effectiveness perspective for the treatment of chronic neuropathic pain. Judicious use of medicinal cannabis alongside standard therapy agents may be particularly beneficial to patients with refractory pain and to active cannabis users. Our findings are concordant with clinical experience and published guidelines that recommend consideration of cannabis for patients nonresponsive to initial treatment.'
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/can.2018.0027
'Republican Representative Doug House's legislation would add dozens of medical conditions to the list of those that qualify patients to use medicinal cannabis.
They include asthma, ADD, bipolar disorder, Parkinson's disease, and traumatic brain injury.'
https://www.kark.com/news/politics/bill-filed-to-expand-medical-marijuana-access-in-arkansas/1702477978
'Opioid addiction, autism, general anxiety, chronic anxiety, depression and insomnia were selected Wednesday for more study as qualifying conditions for medical marijuana in Ohio.
A committee of the Ohio State Medical Board met in Columbus to select those conditions as Ohio prepares for the first sales of medical marijuana, perhaps as early as next week.'
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/01/09/ohio-study-more-ailments-medical-marijuana/2529672002/
Many Indian individuals especially the wealthy and economically powerful rush to the US to get treated in the top medical institutions there when they face debilitating and life threatening diseases and illnesses. In this sense, wealthy Indians hold the US medical system in the highest esteem. Yet when many in these top medical institutions are starting to endorse ganja as a potential means of treatment for various diseases Indians by and large, including the wealthy and powerful as well as medical bodies, seemingly unaware of the changes happening there, continue to ignore ganja and use the same medications that have been reported as failures in the US especially opioids.This is when India as a country possesses possibly some of the world's finest strains of ganja...
'Others requested medical marijuana for autism, migraines, lupus, severe acne, hyperthyroidism and arthritis. Two petitions asked the board to consider adding opioid addiction as a qualifying condition, as New York and Pennsylvania did last year.
Tessie Pollock, spokeswoman for the State Medical Board, said board lawyers are reviewing the petitions, and they will make recommendations to a committee set to meet Wednesday in Columbus. The committee will vote on which petitions will get more review by medical specialists for the various conditions and experts in medical marijuana programs in other states.
The committee then will make a recommendation to the full Medical Board by June 30 on which conditions to add to the qualifying list.'
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/01/04/ohio-considers-more-conditions-qualify-medical-marijuana/2481844002/
'Currently, only Texans diagnosed with "intractable epilepsy" are allowed to use cannabis that contains low levels of the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Menéndez's bill would dramatically expand this law by legalizing medical marijuana for Texans with certain other debilitating conditions, including cancer, glaucoma, HIV, Alzheimer's, PTSD, autism or chronic pain, nausea and muscle spasms'
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas-legislature/2019/01/03/texas-marijuana-advocates-get-fired-decriminalize-pot-2019
We wanna pop those pills and inject those poisons because we can't tolerate anything from a burp to a fart and we expect those around us to show better judgement and discrimination when they are presented with similar situations and end up making similar destructive choices. If we insist on medication, why not instead choose some herb...make a chutney or a drink or smoke it. There's hundreds of herbs and thousands of years of human trials behind most of them. We won't get any more delusional than we currently are. In the process we'll probably clear, among other things, our perspectives and give nature a respite...one way or the other....
'Voters approved a constitutional amendment in November allowing medical marijuana in Missouri.
The measure allows patients with cancer, HIV, epilepsy and other conditions access to marijuana. It also permits use by veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/missouri-to-start-taking-medical-marijuana-business-application-fees-jan-5/
'According to the committee, the law should authorise the use of the plant in cases of severe pain, for certain types of epilepsy, as part of ancillary care for cancer patients, in certain “palliative situations” and for the muscular contractions linked to multiple sclerosis.'
https://www.france24.com/en/20181213-france-study-reccomends-legalising-therapeutic-cannabis
'Oklahoma broke the mold with its new medical marijuana program: The state has no numerical cap on business licenses, and doctors are free to recommend MMJ for any condition they deem appropriate.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/oklahoma-medical-marijuana-market-business-competition-fierce/
The 21 qualifying conditions for medical marijuana in Ohio - AIDS, HIV-positive status, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, epilepsy or another brain-seizure disorder, fibromyalgia, glaucoma, hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis, chronic/severe/intractable pain, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, sickle cell disease, spinal cord disease or injury, Tourette syndrome, traumatic brain injury
'The Enquirer set out to determine how many Ohioans could be eligible for medical marijuana under the 21 qualifying conditions from the Ohio Department of Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and private nonprofits that raise money for medical research. For many diseases, the numbers of patients are estimates, since the government does not track patient counts for every ailment. The conclusion: About 3.5 million Ohioans deal with at least one of the qualifying conditions. Ohio's population is 11.66 million'
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/07/18/3-10-ohioans-eligible-medical-marijuana-card/784017002/
Minnesota's list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana - intractable pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, sever and persistent muscle spasms, cancer, seizures, obstructive sleep apnea, inflammatory bowel disease, autism spectrum disorder, terminal illness, Tourette syndrome, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, ALS, Crohn's disease, Alzheimer's disease
Pennsylvania's list of medical conditions qualifying for medical marijuana - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, autism, cancer- including remission therapy, Crohn's disease, damage to the nervous tissue of the central nervous system (brain-spinal cord) with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity and other associated neuropathies, dyskinetic and spastic movement disorders, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Huntington's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, intractable seizures, multiple sclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, neuropathies, Opioid use disorder for which conventional therapeutic interventions are contraindicated or ineffective or for which adjunctive therapy is indicated in combination with primary therapeutic interventions, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, severe chronic or intractable pain of neuropathic origin or severe chronic or intractable pain, sickle cell anemia, terminal illness.
' In particular, I would really love to see anxiety, depression and ADHD added,” Spaar said. '
https://triblive.com/state/pennsylvania/14367032-74/pennsylvania-to-consider-more-conditions-that-should-qualify-for-medical-marijuana
'Pioneering Israeli cannabis researcher Raphael Mechoulam noted the entourage effect in cannabis in a 1999 article in Natural Products Journal.
“This type of synergism may play a role in the widely held view that in some cases, plants are better drugs than the natural products isolated from them,” Mechoulam wrote.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/entourage-effect-marketing-by-cannabis-companies/
Both the Indian allopathy and ayurvedic streams of medicine are likely to release their versions of proprietary pharmaceutical drugs based on the plant at some point...can we also please legalize the plant for adult recreational use for the people who prefer the plant in highly affordable home grown natural form? Plants are much better drugs in their natural form than the products derived from the individual components of the plant.
'On Nov. 25, the Central Council For Research in Ayurvedic Sciences, a research body under India’s AYUSH ministry of traditional medicine, announced positive results from the first clinical study in India on the use of cannabis as a restorative drug for cancer patients.
“In the pilot study conducted earlier this year, cannabis leaves-based drugs have been found effective in alleviating pain and other symptoms in cancer patients post chemo and radiotherapy,” the council’s director general Vaidya K S Dhiman told the Press Trust of India.'
https://qz.com/india/1474267/modis-ayurveda-push-may-promote-marijuana-use-in-india/
'Dr. Bisasor-McKenzie alluded to the Report of the CARICOM Regional Commission on Marijuana 2018, which states that access to medical marijuana should be facilitated for qualifying conditions in which there is clear evidence of its therapeutic benefits and for debilitating life-threatening conditions that are intractable to treatment, and where there is evidence of possible benefits.
“These include patients on chemotherapy with nausea and vomiting, glaucoma, asthma, anorexia and weight loss in AIDS, cancers, anorexia nervosa, chronic and neuropathic pain, multiple sclerosis, sleep disorders and some neuropsychiatric disorders” she outlined.'
https://jis.gov.jm/health-ministry-supports-conditional-use-of-cannabis-for-research-and-meidicinal-purposes/
The symptoms that marijuana helps alleviate are the ones showing up on withdrawal. Stopping your daily cup of tea or coffee is likely to produce similar symptoms...
'Approximately two-thirds of the sample (67.8%) reported at least one moderate or severe withdrawal symptom. The most commonly observed symptom was sleep difficulties (50.3%), followed by anxiety (27.8%), irritability (26.7%), and appetite disturbance (25.2%).'
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871618307786
'Even before medical marijuana is available to treat the 21 conditions already approved by the state, Ohioans are asking for more ailments to be added to the list.'
https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/petitions-seek-expand-list-conditions-approved-for-medical-pot/uGSTAplARHixyC5CTd7vyK/
'Connecticut regulators added another ailment to the list of conditions that can be treated with medical cannabis, bringing the total number of conditions to 31 for adults.
The state’s Regulations Review Committee decided chronic neuropathic pain associated with degenerative spinal disorders should be included on the list.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/connecticut-adds-another-condition-to-medical-marijuana-treatment-list/
'The board voted to recommend the state add severe pediatric autism to the list of ailments for which Iowans may legally purchase medical marijuana products. But the board declined patients’ requests to also add attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and ganglioglioma, which is a type of brain tumor.'
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2018/11/02/iowa-medical-marijuana-board-thc-limit-medpharm-cbd-cannabidiol-autism-pain-ptsd-cannabis-pot-ptsd/1850109002/
https://norml.org/marijuana/fact-sheets/item/faqs-about-cannabidiol-cbd
Out of the 85+ individual cannabinoids found in marijuana, only one of them produces an intoxicating, psychoactive effect: our good pal delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.
'In the US, 28 states plus Washington DC have legalised medical marijuana in some form. An analysis has shown that compared with other states, those regions spent less money on prescriptions through Medicaid – the healthcare programme for people on low incomes – for five conditions sometimes treated with cannabis between 2007 and 2014. These conditions were pain, depression, nausea, psychosis and seizures.'
https://www.newscientist.com/article/medical-cannabis-vendors-must-stop-making-bogus-health-claims/
'Much additional research is needed to determine the effects of cannabis on athletic performance. The endocannabinoid system was discovered in the 1980s, and each year since this discovery we learn more about cannabinoid pharmacology. Clearly, cannabis induces euphoria, improves self-confidence, induces relaxation and steadiness and relieves the stress of competition. Cannabis improves sleep and recovery after an event, reduces anxiety and fear and aids the forgetting of negative events such as bad falls and so forth. Cannabis increases risk taking and this perhaps improves training and performance, yielding a competitive edge. Cannabis increases appetite, yielding increased caloric intake and body mass. Cannabis enhances sensory perception, decreases respiratory rate and increases heart rate; increased bronchodilation may improve oxygenation of the tissues. Finally, cannabis is an analgesic that could permit athletes to work through injuries and pain induced by training fatigue.'
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3717337/
'When we reviewed its medical uses in 1993 after examining many patients and case histories, we were able to list the following: nausea and vomiting in cancer chemotherapy, the weight loss syndrome of AIDS, glaucoma, epilepsy, muscle spasms and chronic pain in multiple sclerosis, quadriplegia and other spastic disorders, migraine, severe pruritus, depression, and other mood disorders. Since then we have identified more than a dozen others, including asthma, insomnia, dystonia, scleroderma, Crohn’s disease, diabetic gastroparesis, and terminal illness. The list is not exhaustive.'
http://rxmarijuana.com/old_medicine.htm
'One of marihuana's greatest advantages as a medicine is its remarkable safety. It has little effect on major physiological functions. There is no known case of a lethal overdose; on the basis of animal models, the ratio of lethal to effective dose is estimated as 40,000 to 1. By comparison, the ratio is 3-50 to 1 for secobarbital and 4-10 to 1 for alcohol.'
http://rxmarijuana.com/jama.htm
'The years of effort devoted to showing that marihuana is exceedingly dangerous have proved the opposite. It is safer, with fewer serious side effects, than most prescription medicines, and far less addictive or subject to abuse than many drugs now used as muscle relaxants, hypnotics, and analgesics.'
http://rxmarijuana.com/testimony.htm
'Lester Grinspoon was asked by the Institute of Medicine to be one of the official reviewers of the report which they ultimately issued as Medical Use of Marijuana: Assessment of the Science Base.'
http://rxmarijuana.com/iomreview.htm
Recently, research into the use of psychedelics like psilocybin, ayahuasca, LSD and MDMA, for the treatment of depression, addiction, PTSD, trauma from cancer, etc. has been making the news. Psychedelic therapy is a one time intervention under the guidance of an experienced person. This one time dose is generally sufficient to heal the subject. I, for one, am a firm believer in the healing power of psychedelics and wouldn't hesitate to try natural ayahuasca, psilocybin, and mescaline though I am averse to pharma psychedelics like LSD and MDMA. So are psychedelics the answer to man's psychological issues? Well, yes and no. Natural psychedelics like psilocybin and ayahuasca are found in specific geographical areas. Pharma psychedelics like LSD and MDMA require, well, pharma involvement. Also, with psychedelics, the experience needs to be highly controlled. Psychedelics are accessible and affordable for only a small percentage humans. A truly far reaching medicine has to be accessible and affordable to the majority. It has to have a very safe dosage profile, be versatile for multiple disease conditions and require minimum human involvement in its manufacture. The one healing medicine that comes closest to being truly universal mind medicine is cannabis and hence it should be given top priority and focus.
'Of the 1,800 people surveyed, more than two-thirds listed relaxation and pain relief as their main reason for consumption.'
https://newfrontierdata.com/marijuana-insights/canadians-find-comfort-cannabis/
'To a scientifically inclined physician based in India, cannabis – or Indian hemp – was a prime candidate for investigation. It was popular as a means of intoxication, but local doctors also valued it as a treatment for a range of ailments. In 1813, one of O’Shaughnessy’s predecessors reported somewhat sniffily on the intemperate habits of those who indulged in the various preparations. But O’Shaughnessy believed cannabis would make a useful addition to Western medicine and decided to put it to the test.'
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23831760-400-high-times-the-victorian-doctor-who-promoted-medical-marijuana/
'Assyrian manuscripts from the second millennium BCE recommended cannabis to “bind the temples,” and Ayurvedic preparations in the third and fourth centuries BCE were indicated for “diseases of the head” such as migraines. The prescription of cannabis was even recommended in ancient Greece, with Pedanius Dioscorides describing its use in his De Maternia Medica as a treatment for “pain of the ears.” Other citations documenting the use of cannabis for headache disorders arise from the ninth century in the Al-Aq-rabadhin Al-Saghir, the earliest known document of Arabic pharmacology.Further recommendations are found in Persian texts from the 10th and 17th centuries.Prominent physicians of the Middle Ages, including John Parkinson and Nicholas Culpeper, also recommended the use of cannabis for headache.
The reintroduction of cannabis to the West in 1839 began a century of its use as an effective treatment for headache disorders until its illegalization in 1937.Notable physicians who espoused the benefits of cannabis for headache disorders included John Russell Reynolds, the personal physician of Queen Victoria, American neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell, the president of the New York Neurological Society Edouard C. Seguin, William Gowers, a founding father of modern neurology,and Sir William Osler, often considered the father of modern medicine'
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5436334/
'Cannabidiol (CBD) and THC are typically the most concentrated chemical components of cannabis and are believed to primarily drive therapeutic benefit. Studies suggest improved clinical benefit and fewer adverse effects with a THC:CBD ratio of 1:1. Even though other cannabinoids were analyzed, results focus on THC and CBD.'
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2338239
'Current research indicates the phytocannabinoids have a powerful therapeutic potential in a variety of ailments primarily through their interaction with the ECS. CBD is of particular interest due to its wide-ranging capabilities and lack of side effects in a variety of neurological conditions and diseases.'
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5938896/
'Recently, it (marijuana) has been successfully utilized as an adjunctive treatment for malignant brain tumors, Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), multiple sclerosis (MS), neuropathic pain, and the childhood seizure disorders, Lennox-Gastaut and Dravet syndromes. In this review, we provide animal/human research data on the current clinical/neurological uses for CBD alone or with Delta9-THC, emphasizing its neuroprotective, antiinflammatory, and immunomodulatory benefits when applied to various clinical situations.'
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5938896/
'Using Beta-arrestin2 recruitment and cAMP accumulation assays, we recently found that the nonpsychoactive phytocannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) is an inverse agonist for GPR3, GPR6, and GPR12. This discovery highlights these orphan receptors as potential new molecular targets for CBD, provides novel mechanisms of action, and suggests new therapeutic uses of CBD for illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, and infertility. Furthermore, identification of CBD as a new inverse agonist for GPR3, GPR6, and GPR12 provides the initial chemical scaffolds upon which potent and efficacious agents acting on these receptors can be developed, with the goal of developing chemical tools for studying these orphan receptors and ultimately new therapeutic agents.'
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41401-018-0031-9
'Marijuana contains over 60 compounds which interact with cannabinoid receptors throughout the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. This is the proposed mechanism by which marijuana exerts its effects as an analgesic, appetite stimulant, anti-emetic, and motility modulator. Self-medication for the alleviation of GI symptoms with marijuana is common. Despite its pending legalization, there is a paucity of Canadian data that summarizes the patterns and motivations behind marijuana use amongst patients with IBD.'
https://academic.oup.com/jcag/article/1/suppl_2/180/4916622
'Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the major psychoactive component of marijuana (1 of more than 500 components, 104 of which are cannabinoids), crosses the placental barrier readily. Accumulating evidence in animals and humans indicates that prenatal exposure may be related to harm for the developing fetus and child. THC exposure can adversely affect the developing fetal endocannabinoid system.'
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2688303
'The New York State Assembly is considering a bill to add dysmenorrhea — the medical name for menstrual cramps — to the list of conditions for which doctors can legally authorize a patient to use medical marijuana. Under the state's law, only patients with the specific medical conditions named in the law can access medical marijuana in New York, according to Newsweek. Cancer, HIV and multiple sclerosis are among the conditions already on the list.'
https://www.livescience.com/59370-marijuana-period-cramps-dysmenorrhea.html
Balance is most important in everything...On another note, can we please immediately legalize recreational use of marijuana worldwide so that millions of humans can be studied willingly and voluntarily across multiple scenarios and strains of marijuana instead of continuing the inhuman use of mice as involuntary test subjects? Keeping the plant away from the ones who want it and forcing it upon the ones who don't want it is cruelty to both...
'The study "suggests that strains of cannabis with similar levels of CBD and THC would pose significantly less long-term risk due to CBD's protective effect against THC," study author Dr. Ken Mackie, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University, said in a statement.'
https://www.livescience.com/60348-marijuana-with-cbd-less-harmful.html
'The results show that "cannabis was the most tolerated and efficacious drug compared to previous RLS-specific medications the patients have already tried," Ghorayeb told Live Science. "Although I do not recommend the systematic use of cannabis, I would not go against patients with severe and refractory RLS who admit cannabis use."'
https://www.livescience.com/59464-marijuana-may-fight-restless-legs-syndrome.html
'This isn’t the first study to suggest that marijuana works better as a treatment option when a diverse range of its ingredients is present. There’s research going back to at least 1981 that seems to reinforce the theory.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/whole-plant-marijuana-entourage-effect-helps-patients-more-than-purified-cbd-study-finds/
'Under a law passed in 2015 and tweaked twice since then, Louisiana is allowing therapeutic cannabis to treat a long list of diseases and disorders, such as cancer, a severe form of cerebral palsy, seizure disorders, epilepsy and muscular dystrophy. Earlier this year, lawmakers added glaucoma, severe muscle spasms, intractable pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and Parkinson’s disease.'
https://apnews.com/89637c7abda94107a41f70c6ab1c044f
'The University of California San Diego’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research announced Tuesday the DEA approved plans to import capsules containing CBD and THC from British Columbia, Canada-based Tilray to study the drugs’ effectiveness in treating essential tremors that afflict an estimated 10 million people.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/feds-grant-uc-san-diego-cannabis-import-license-for-product-from-canadas-tilray/
'The number of patients with PTSD who were certified to buy cannabis more than doubled in the state’s fiscal year, to more than 4,000. That surpassed fibromyalgia, which had about 3,400 patients, and cancer, which accounted for about 2,500 patients. Those conditions ranked first and second last year.
The other most common qualifying conditions were spinal cord disease and injuries, followed by traumatic brain injuries and post-concussion syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.'
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-medical-marijuana-illinois-annual-report-20181004-story.html
'The first batches of legal medical marijuana may be available in Ohio as early as mid-November but the initial supply is expected to sell out almost immediately, according to state officials.'
https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/legal-medical-marijuana-may-available-ohio-next-month/7AsHINmvCYfEaxtHcODG4I/
'Under the new rules, those suffering chronic pain, severe epilepsy or nausea as a result of chemotherapy could be prescribed the drug by specialist doctors, this newspaper understands.'
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/10/06/medical-cannabis-available-prescription-within-month/
'In conclusion, the experimental and clinical use of CBD, a compound that does not produce the typical subjective effects of marijuana induced by delta9-THC, has clearly shown anxiolytic, antiepileptic, and antipsychotic properties, among other effects. Since the 1970s, a number of scientific articles showing the potential therapeutic effects of CBD in different animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders and some clinical trials have been published. Recent investigations on the new effects of CBD and its synthetic analogs and on the comprehension of the mechanisms of action of this compounds as well as a better understanding of the endocannabinoid system have emerged.'
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.02009/full
'For Lester Grinspoon, the new findings are gratifying but not surprising. Grinspoon, associate professor of psychiatry emeritus at Harvard Medical School, is the American godfather of medical marijuana. Now 86, Grinspoon used marijuana to treat his young son's chemotherapy-related nausea in the 1960s. He wrote a book about marijuana's benefits in 1971 and, after decades of research and controversy, continues to endorse them (see his Web site: RxMarijuana.com). He is pleased the nation at last appears to be catching up with him. “It's about time,” he says. He notes that before World War II, marijuana was listed as a medicine in the country's encyclopedia of drugs, the United States Pharmacopeia. “When marijuana is finally readmitted to the U.S. Pharmacopeia, a place it lost in 1942, it will be seen as one of the safest, least toxic, most versatile drugs of that whole compendium,” he predicts.'
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-medical-marijuana-s-chemicals-may-protect-cells/
'Several studies suggest that higher concentrations of CBD in marijuana may protect against the harmful effects of the drug, the authors said. This may be because CBD offsets some of the negative effects of THC, the researchers said.
However, the dose of CBD that's needed to counteract the negative effects of THC is not known, the authors said. So future studies are needed to examine marijuana products that have various ratios of THC to CBD and how these products affect cognition, psychotic symptoms and the development of addiction, the researchers said.'
https://www.livescience.com/58089-safer-marijuana-research.html
'Cannabis use may mitigate several of the well-described complications of Crohn’s disease among hospital inpatients. These effects could possibly be through the effect of cannabis in the endocannabinoid system'
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10620-019-05556-z
'Results
After adjusting for demographic and HIV-related covariates, THC-positive patients had significantly higher CD4+ and CD8+ counts than their THC-negative counterparts.
Conclusion
These results extend previous HIV-related immunity findings in an underrepresented group, and suggest that THC use does not reduce immune function as measured by CD count. Further research is warranted on the overall effects of THC on immune function in HIV positive patients.'
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871618308287?via%3Dihub
'However, emerging evidences suggest the role of cannabinoid receptors (CBRs) in curtailing the progression of PD by activating neuroprotective pathways. Hence, cannabinoid therapy could be a promising alternative to combat PD in future. In the present review we have discussed the potential role of CBRs in attenuating the key mechanisms of PD and how the existing research gaps needs to be bridged in order to understand the molecular mechanism of CBRs in detail.'
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0361923018306208
'Juicing marijuana is the easiest and most convenient and way to consume the nutrients found in raw cannabis. Juicing the leaves of raw marijuana extracts essential minerals, vitamins and antioxidants, including: Iron, Zinc, Calcium, Potassium, Selenium and Carotenoids
In terms of dosage, one suggestion is to consume 30g of fresh cannabis leaves per day.'
https://thecannabisindustry.org/member-blog-health-benefits-raw-cannabis/
Replacing seven pills of hopelessness with hope...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q-iN8LZ7Yo
Cerebral palsy added as a medical marijuana qualifying condition in Michigan..
https://www.michigan.gov/documents/lara/Final_Determination_Cerebral_Palsy_648817_7.pdf
- The top three reasons why consumers use cannabis are for relaxation (66%), stress relief (59%) and to reduce anxiety (53%). Nevertheless, small percentages use cannabis for a long list of reasons. including to improve their sleep, treat medical conditions, enjoy social experiences, and stimulate creativity.
- Four in 10 consumers – both medical and recreational – report using cannabis for pain management, reflecting the growing research on the efficacy of cannabis for pain management, and its potential to address the national epidemic regarding opioids.
- While joints and pipes remain the preferred way to consume cannabis for half the market (53%), demand for non-flower products (including concentrates, vaporizers, and edibles) has grown dramatically among consumers in both legal and non-legal markets.'
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