cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Has Legitimate Therapeutic Uses! 





Marijuana Has Legitimate Therapeutic Uses! 
Posted by FoM on February 23, 1999 at 08:33:47 PT

"Federal authorities should rescind their prohibition of the medical use of marijuana for seriously ill patients and allow physicians to decide which patients to treat. The government should change marijuana's status from that of a Schedule I (prohibited) drug ... to that of a Schedule II drug ... and regulate accordingly." 
It is clear from available studies and rapidly accumulating anecdotal evidence that marijuana is therapeutic in the treatment of a number of serious ailments and is less toxic and costly than many conventional medicines for which it may be substituted. In many cases, marijuana appears more effective than the commercially available drugs it replaces. The best established medical use of smoked marijuana is as an anti-nauseant for cancer chemotherapy. During the 1980s, researchers in six different state-sponsored clinical studies involving nearly 1,000 patients determined smoked marijuana to be an effective anti-emetic. For the majority of these patients, smoked marijuana proved more effective than both conventional prescription anti-nauseants and oral THC (marketed today as the synthetic pill, Marinol). Scientific and anecdotal evidence also suggests that marijuana reduces pain and suffering in other serious ailments. For example, it alleviates the nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite experienced by many AIDS patients. Furthermore, the National Academy of Sciences and others suggest that marijuana reduces intraocular pressure in patients suffering from glaucoma, the leading cause of blindness in the United States. Clinical and anecdotal evidence also points to the effectiveness of marijuana as a therapeutic agent in a variety of spastic conditions such as multiple sclerosis, paraplegia, epilepsy and quadriplegia. Animal studies and carefully controlled human studies support marijuana's ability to suppress convulsions. Many patients and older Americans use marijuana therapeutically to control chronic pain. Recent studies performed by researchers at the University of San Francisco and elsewhere demonstrate that compounds in marijuana modulate pain signals in much the same way as morphine and other opiates. Between 1978 and 1996, legislatures in 34 states and the District of Columbia passed laws recognizing marijuana's therapeutic value. Twenty-five of these laws remain in effect. The Missouri General Assembly passed a Senate Concurrent Resolution in 1994 calling on the federal government to end "prohibitions against the legitimate and appropriate use of marijuana in medical treatments." Voters in Alaska, Oregon, Nevada and Washington have adopted initiatives exempting patients who use marijuana under a physician's supervision from state criminal penalties. Arizona and California have passed similar initiatives. These laws do not legalize marijuana or alter criminal penalties regarding the possession or cultivation of marijuana for recreational use. Nor do they establish a legal supply for patients to obtain the drug. They merely provide a narrow exemption from prosecution for defined patients who use marijuana with their doctor's recommendation. Until Congress amends federal law to legalize prescriptive access to marijuana, states like Missouri have an obligation to protect patients using medical marijuana from state criminal prosecution. Paul Armentano is the publications director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in Washington, D.C. All content © 1999 The Kansas City Star 
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on February 24, 1999 at 09:55:19 PT
So Very True!
Your words echo so many of our feelings! They must see soon. This must stop! Cannabis is a therapeutic, medicinal herb that probably has so many different qualities but they won't spend any time testing it! This society has a revulsion for smoking, period. I do understand about tobacco but if Cannabis in it's pure form helps a person with nausea from having to swallow down tons of protease inhibitors, then let it be! If it helps with muscle spasms from MS, then let it be! if it helps a person to relieve the pressure from advancing glucoma, then let it be! We need this war of economics to stop because that is all it could possibly be! Peace, FoM! 
FoM's Freedom Page
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Comment #1 posted by Dr. Ganj on February 23, 1999 at 22:40:51 PT
Medical benefits of marijuana
People curious about some of medical marijuana's palliative properties should check the link below. Too many people, for centuries, have been using this magnificent plant, and finding out the same thing: It works. Yes, it really works, and keeping it scheduled in the same category as heroin and PCP, is wrong. Cocaine, methamphetamine, and morphine can *ALL* be prescribed by U.S. doctors, but marijuana can not. Does that make sense? Of course not. So why is this so? Let's explore this further.Cocaine can be used by a physician, usually an ophthalmologist, during eye surgery to constrict blood vessels. Methamphetamine can be prescribed by a doctor in treatment of severe obesity.Morphine is used to control chronic pain.All these drugs have the same thing in common: They work, but can all be abused, so they are carefully controlled. Marijuana works too, and should be placed in the same category as these drugs: Schedule II.What's so difficult about that? Doctors can prescribe cocaine, methamphetamine, & morphine, but not marijuana!Folks, there is something really wrong here, and it's time we changed the laws. It's time to rally & vote this plant into our legal lives again. It started with prop 215 in California, and it's going to be finished when all the 50 states have legally available marijuana! It can happen if we register to vote, sign petitions, demonstrate, and make each vote count. You can make a difference! What is at stake here is our freedom. The alternative is continued urine tests, random searches, fines, and jail sentences. Trust me, I know, and I want my freedom! Enough is enough!         See you all at 4:20 on April 20th.         Dr. Ganj
http://www.ukcia.org/medical/pain.html
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