cannabisnews.com: Mainstream Science Leery of Medicinal Pot Use Mainstream Science Leery of Medicinal Pot Use Posted by FoM on May 20, 2001 at 08:37:34 PT By Rick DelVecchio, Chronicle Staff Writer Source: San Francisco Chronicle How medicinal is pot? For Kathy E., a mother of four in Sonoma County, cannabis makes the difference between misery and a life that is merely uncomfortable. "It gives me relief now," said Kathy, who suffers from a chronic immune system disorder that for 15 years clouded her days with flu-like symptoms. "I do just enough to where I feel better. It gets me just to the level where I can function." But for Dr. Shan Lin, who tends to patients with the eye disease glaucoma, marijuana's benefits in reducing the short-term, damaging pressure inside the eye do not outweigh its negative effects, such as depressing patients' nervous systems. "We have new treatments for glaucoma, including eye drops and surgery," said Lin, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of California at San Francisco. While ailing patients defend smoking pot as a way ease the symptoms of a range of diseases, scientists say conventional drugs properly given can achieve the same or better results. The debate continues in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week that a federal anti-drug law makes no exception for seriously ill patients in California who use pot for health reasons. But one thing is clear: Nobody knows precisely why marijuana brings the relief that its users insist they get. And patients say the synthetic drugs currently in use, most of them in pill form, are poor alternatives for the natural thing. Long-term studies are being done to determine how the ingredients in cannabis soothe nausea and ease the pain from cancer and multiple sclerosis. Scientists are questioning whether the therapy of users such as Kathy could be replicated in a larger population that included people who, unlike her, have not smoked cigarettes and have not used marijuana as a recreational drug. Although wary of cannabis, the medical establishment is exploring the possibility that a limited number of patients could use the drug for short periods under close supervision, and preferably administered through a drug delivery system other than smoking. The case for medicinal marijuana owes much to the testimony of patients in extremis, such as those with AIDS, terminal cancer, acute pain that does not respond to drugs and, like Kathy, chronic ailments against which conventional medicine offers few powerful remedies with mild side effects. Advocates say pot is not a drug but an herb that contains 400 chemicals acting together. It is easily administered through inhalation and acts more quickly than pills. In Kathy's case, marijuana's major attributes are that it acts fast and is not taken through her highly tender stomach while both relieving her pain and stimulating her appetite. "The marijuana seems to have a way of really getting deep inside to where I can at least function," she said. Critics of marijuana as medicine note that it sedates many people and prompts anxiety in some others. Furthermore, many patients are averse to smoke of any kind. An alternative legal drug, a pot derivative called dronabinol, which is marketed as Marinol, has been around since 1985 to fight nausea associated with chemotherapy and AIDS-related weight loss. But cannabis users say they should still be allowed to have marijuana. "People describe a different kind of high," said Janet Joy, who directed a 1999 study of medical marijuana for the national Institute of Medicine. "They react more positively to the marijuana high than to the Marinol high." Cannabis patients also like the herb because they are able to control the dose, said Mary Lynn Mathre, editor of "Cannabis in Medical Practice." Mathre is a member of a group called Patients Out of Time and a consulting nurse at the University of Virginia Medical Center. She said pot users believe the whole plant is better medicine than any derivative. "It's the other chemicals in the plant that help the natural cannabinoids get into the system," Mathre said. "That's one of the reasons they say they prefer an herb rather than Western medicine wanting an active ingredient. It's almost like vitamin C: You'll get a better quality vitamin C from an orange." For more information on medical marijuana from patients' viewpoints, see -- http://medicalcannabis.com/ For scientific reports on medical marijuana: Go to -- http://www.nih.gov/news & http://www.nap.edu/books/0309071550/html Complete Title: Medical Marijuana - Mainstream Science Leery of Medicinal Pot Use - Patients Claim Unique ReliefSource: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Author: Rick DelVecchio, Chronicle Staff WriterPublished: Sunday, May 20, 2001 Copyright: 2001 San Francisco Chronicle Page A - 3 Contact: letters sfchronicle.comWebsite: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/Related Articles:The Role of Cannabis - Politics Ahead of Sciencehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9802.shtmlThe Role of Cannabis - Real Agenda Nipped in Budhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9801.shtmlThe Role of Cannabis - Snuffing Out Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9800.shtmlNerves Need Marijuana-Like Substance http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9799.shtml END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #1 posted by J.R. Bob Dobbs on May 20, 2001 at 09:29:08 PT Read the book! And if you're looking for more information on how to grow medical marijuana, check out Todd McCormick's book, available from the link below in downloadable PDF format absolutely free! How To Grow Medical Marijuana [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: