New Studies Destroy the Last Objection to Medical Marijuana (AlterNet)

[marmar]

New Studies Destroy the Last Objection to Medical Marijuana
By Bruce Mirken, AlterNet. Posted May 2, 2007.

New research on "vaporization" has demonstrated that all those fears about the ill effects of smoking marijuana are 100 percent obsolete.

Anyone who advocates for medical marijuana sooner or later runs into arguments about smoking: "No real medicine is smoked." "Smoking is bad for the lungs; why would any doctor recommend something so harmful?" It's a line of reasoning that medical marijuana opponents have used to great effect in Congress, state legislatures, and elsewhere. Indeed, the FDA's controversial 2006 statement opposing medical marijuana was couched in repeated references to "smoked marijuana."

But new research demonstrates that all those fears of "smoked marijuana" as medicine are 100 percent obsolete.

The smoking argument was the closest thing to a scientifically meaningful objection to medical marijuana. While marijuana smoke, unlike tobacco, has never been shown to cause lung cancer, heavy marijuana smoking has been associated with assorted respiratory symptoms and a potentially increased risk of bronchitis. That's because burning any plant material produces a whole lot of substances such as tars, and carbon monoxide that are not good for the lungs.

Nevertheless, inhalation is clearly the best method for administering marijuana's active components, called cannabinoids. Cannabinoids such as THC are fat-soluble molecules that are absorbed slowly and unevenly when taken orally, as in the prescription THC pill Marinol. This means that Marinol typically takes an hour to two hours to work, and dose adjustment is nearly impossible. Patients often report that when it finally kicks in, it hits like a ton of bricks, leaving them too stoned to function.

For that reason, The Lancet Neurology noted a few years ago, "Smoking has been the route of choice for many cannabis users because it delivers a more rapid 'hit' and allows more accurate dose titration." Because the effect is nearly instantaneous, patients can simply take as many puffs as they need, stopping when they've achieved the needed effect without excessive intoxication.

So far, no pharmaceutical product -- not even Sativex, the much-touted marijuana spray now marketed in Canada -- achieves this combination of rapid action and simple, accurate dose adjustment. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/51277/

[papau]

1. not quite true - current THC (euphoric high ) is 3 times 80's level & can cause Skizoid - need CBD

in a balance. CBD, which reduces anxiety but does not produce the euphoric high of THC, seems the good guy in the smoke.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070430/ts_nm/cannabis_psychosis_dc;_ylt=AlSGCgAeruoOpt7QQkXCcThg.3QA

Brain scans pinpoint cannabis health risk By Ben Hirschler
Mon Apr 30, 10:30 AM ET



LONDON (Reuters) - Brain scans showing how cannabis affects brain function may help explain why heavy consumption of the drug triggers psychosis and schizophrenia in a small number of people, scientists said on Monday.

Psychiatrists are increasingly concerned about the mental health impact of smoking large amounts of modern super-strength marijuana, or skunk, particularly among young people.

Until now, the mechanism by which cannabis works on the brain has been a mystery but modern scanning techniques mean experts can now detect its impact on brain activity.

Professor Philip McGuire and Zerrin Atakan of London's Institute of Psychiatry said their work using magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, showed patients given the active cannabis compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) had reduced function in the inferior frontal cortex brain region.

This area is associated with controlling inappropriate emotional and behavioral responses to situations.

"What THC seems to be doing is switching off that part of the brain, and that was associated with how paranoid people became," McGuire told reporters.<snip>

[Lost4words]

2. believe it if you want, I dont!

sound like a big pharma positioning statement to me. Why dont you go have another beer.

[papau]

4. No beer - very bad for gout - I support total legalization - but the CBD sound like a positive need

n/t

[ShortnFiery]

3. No, it's Amphetamines not Psychedelic drugs that make people PARANOID and DANGEROUS.

If you want to talk about danger to society, it's Cocaine and Meth-Amphetamines that pose the greatest danger.

I've had the opportunity to know quite a few "pot heads" (regular smokers of marijuana) over my lifetime. The worst I can say about them is NOT that they are paranoid but that they are "sedate" and some of them are downright amotivational. The foregoing is NOT a DANGER to society.

Hitler's SS were known for taking amphetamines to "hype" their kills. Somehow I don't think a few bong hits would have had the same effect. :eyes:

This so called "breech from reality" is the latest in a long line of disinformation campaigns used to discredit the medicinal value of marijuana. The only truism is that it has the effect of a psychedelic (altering perception of time and space). However, I've known a few Dean's list daily pot users who have mastered the art of "state dependent learning" ... that is they can go to class and function "normally" immediately after taking a bong-hit and attending class within a half hour.

No, the only TRUE alteration that I've noted from pot smokers reports: 1) Music sounds a hell of a lot better; 2) It can take an hour to go to the bathroom OR return from the kitchen; 3) a bag of chips does not stand a chance of surviving the hour. The foregoing and THE FACT that it is DUI to be driving while stoned (dangerous) are the only effects.

BTW cops know how to spot potheads: They are the ones who forget to turn on their headlights after stopping at a gas station at night; and are often driving 20 mph UNDER the speed limit. ;)

[papau]

5. The last paragraph sound like me - without meds! - I agree the Maynard Krebs is the type I

remember -

this does look like real science

This study is a continuation of a year 2000 report that said:

"The vulnerability-stress-coping model of schizophrenia suggests possible interpretations of these findings (twice as many - 15% of smoking group vs 7 % of non smoking control group) - . Group 1 might suffer from the chronic deteriorating influence of cannabis reducing the vulnerability threshold and/or coping resources. Group 2 consists of individuals which are already vulnerable to schizophrenia. Cannabis misuse then is the (dopaminergic) stress factor precipitating the onset of psychosis. Group 3 uses cannabis for self-medication against (or for coping with) symptoms of schizophrenia, particularly negative and depressive symptoms. These patients probably learn to counterbalance a hypodopaminergic prefrontal state by the dopaminergic effects of cannabis. The implications of these very preliminary results include issues of treatment and prognosis, but replication studies are needed.

[marmar]

6. "it's Cocaine and Meth-Amphetamines that pose the greatest danger"

Yup.

[Hestia]

7. Dispelling of the Cannibis & Psychosis Myth

Cannabis and psychosis

Dr Philip Robson, Director of the Cannabinoid Research Institute, is an expert on the therapeutic potential of the components of cannabis. In 1996 he was commissioned by the Department of Health to carry out a critical review of the relevant scientific literature and in 1998 was called on to submit both written and verbal evidence to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee investigation into cannabis.

Dr Robson says that although cannabis is a drug that has a 5,000 year history of use by humans, the amount of really carefully gathered scientific information about it is relatively limited in humans. He is interested in the potential of cannabis as a medicine for a wide range of medical conditions. He doesn't say that it is a wonder drug but simply that it probably has a place in modern therapeutics, alongside existing standard medicine. He is convinced that "in the future there will be a role for cannabis-based medicines in areas of medicine alongside the standard medicines which are not performing as the patient deserves at the moment."

The following is an edited transcript of Panorama's interview with Dr Robson in which he answers questions about cannabis and mental illness.



What is cannabis, what are the active ingredients?
I think it's a fascinating plant and it's one that historically has been very useful to humans. I think it's very important that we don't throw it away just because it's now a pariah drug as a result of its recreational use... It's a wonderfully interesting hotchpotch of hundreds of different chemicals, more than 60 of which in fact, are unique to the plant, they're called cannabinoids. THC is the best known of all, that's the psychoactive one that recreational smokers treasure.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/panorama/4104702.stm

[Wolfetone]

8. Almost all drugs have side effects

And marijuana's side affects pale in comparison to many others. Marijuana should be legalized for medical patients and I also think that it should be legalized in general.

[Wolfetone]

9. BTW

I don't use marijuana and I haven't tried it in over a decade.