Medical Cannabis Discussion

[WillBrink]

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/isra...il/2018/06/06/

Read the whole article as it is very informative

Interesting read. I see people are extremely sensitive to any perceived changes in their access to MM in Israel too

[Averageman]

That article would seem to explain just how far big Pharma is willing to go to remove any possible access to marijuana.
There are numerous examples of people having positive results for themselves and their children. So why is using the marijuana and marijuana oil being objected to?
At some point, you are either free or you aren't.
You'll notice the article doesn't talk about banning any other synthetic drugs, just marijuana. So follow the money for your answer as to why there would be pressure for people to comply.

[WillBrink]

That article would seem to explain just how far big Pharma is willing to go to remove any possible access to marijuana.
There are numerous examples of people having positive results for themselves and their children. So why is using the marijuana and marijuana oil being objected to?
At some point, you are either free or you aren't.
You'll notice the article doesn't talk about banning any other synthetic drugs, just marijuana. So follow the money for your answer as to why there would be pressure for people to comply.

They lobby hard to keep it illegal, while filing patents on components in cannabis. They're not anti marijuana per se, just anti what ever cuts into their bottom line. What we will see are overly expensive cannabis based treatments for a variety of aliments, cancers in particular. This company - who also filed patents for CBD use on this form of cancer - just did a phase II clinical on Gliomas:

The study showed that patients with documented recurrent GBM treated with THC:CBD had an 83 percent one year survival rate compared with 53 percent for patients in the placebo cohort (p=0.042). Median survival for the THC:CBD group was greater than 550 days compared with 369 days in the placebo group. THC:CBD was generally well tolerated with treatment emergent adverse events leading to discontinuation in two patients in each group. The most common adverse events (three patients or more and greater than placebo) were vomiting (75%), dizziness (67%) nausea (58%), headache (33%), and constipation (33%). The results of some biomarker analyses are still awaited.

“The findings from this well-designed controlled study suggest that the addition of a combination of THC and CBD to patients on dose-intensive temozolomide produced relevant improvements in survival compared with placebo and this is a good signal of potential efficacy,” said Professor Susan Short, PhD, Professor of Clinical Oncology and Neuro-Oncology at Leeds Institute of Cancer and Pathology at St James’s University Hospital and principal investigator of the study. “Moreover, the cannabinoid medicine was generally well tolerated. These promising results are of particular interest as the pharmacology of the THC:CBD product appears to be distinct from existing oncology medications and may offer a unique and possibly synergistic option for future glioma treatment.”

Cont:

https://www.gwpharm.com/about-us/new...t-study-glioma

[ALCOAR]

Being in Alabama, and given the fact that the world's foremost expert on reefer madness ( Jeff "Pot needle" Sessions ) is from here, I've literally grown up seeing friends, and many other young people have their life's essentially ruined, or at least seriously halted or impeded due to a gram or less of marijuana. My old cop homeroom teacher from HS bragged numerous times about arresting citizens after collecting seeds and stems from the carpet liners of cars....remember it wasn't all to long ago when the entire weed universe was made up of very low quality Mexican brick marijuana that was sold only by cartels, and underworld elements. It's only been within the last cpl decades that we've seen indoor sensi type high quality marijuana that is needed to make many of the actual medicines. Before the medical laws, all marijuana was shrouded in misinformation, and a nationwide police force that funded whole departments, courts, and even city infrastructure projects with petty misdeamenor marijuana possession charges. In Alabama still if you get caught with a roach, your most likely going to the drunk tank for few hours til the person makes the $500-1000 bond. Then they go to court and pay upwards of $1000 in fines, and sadly many young kid's parents end up spending a few grand on an internet graduated lawyer that is just one more part of the machine who works more for the State, City, etc. than he does for the client. After court, all marijuana possession charges get kicked to a drug court/testing program that costs anywhere from $10-25 per pee test, and lastly the court usually orders younger people to pay for, attend, and ultimately graduate from a Life Skills class. Many courts on top of all of that SOP above, will make the "offender" go to 5-10 NA/AA classes and have the class's sponser sign off on the attendance. Putting non addicts in a group of heavy addicts is extremely detrimental to both parties. It's disrespectful for someone to go to those meetings just to get a signature. I'm always reminded of the scene in Half Baked......where dude on Full House stands up at a N/A meeting where Chappele admits to being addicted to marijuana, and he says..."ya'll ever **** **** for marijuana"


Anyways, the wall is surely coming down now...once big money gets involved, nothing can stand in the way, not even the archaic puritan morality police. The Vice industry has been fighting against devil's lettuce as long as Ive been alive, and I'm sure even longer.

To me this says everything.....These are primary monetary contributers or funders of The Partnership for a Drug Free America:


Partnership for a Drug Free America
Sources of Funding from 1988-91
Extracted from Federal Tax Returns
(figures are approximate)
PROVIDED BY Washington Hemp Education Network

Pharmaceutical Firms
J. Seward Johnson, Sr. Charitable Trusts --- $1.1 million
Du Pont --- 125,000
Proctor and Gamble Fund --- 120,000
Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation --- 115,000
Johnson & Johnson --- 100,000
Merck Foundation --- 85,000
Hoffman-LaRoche --- 75,000
Tobacco and Liquor Firms
Phillip Morris --- 125,000
Anheuser-Busch --- 100,000
RJ Reynolds --- 100,000
American Brands --- 100,000

http://www.druglibrary.org/SCHAFFER/library/pdfa1.htm

[Averageman]

And if you told some folks in Alabama that they weren't free and lived under an oppressive quasi Police State they might be ready to fight you about it.

I dunno, but every hope I had for the future as an 18 year old High School Senior has pretty much been trashed.
We had a shot at fixing this, we blew it.

[WillBrink]

Excellent article and vid on an observational study that found THC/CBD lead to a major reduction of opiod use to some getting off opiods totally in a group of cancer patients.

Will medical marijuana replace opioids in war on cancer?

"Medical marijuana is still a controversial topic when it comes to doctors recommending it to their cancer patients. According to new research published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, less than 30 percent of oncologists surveyed felt knowledgeable enough about medical marijuana to make recommendations."

and

"Twenty-five patients with chronic opiate use were given the cannabis-laced syrup every four-to-six hours and were allowed to use their opioids only for break through pain.

"We showed that there was a significant decrease from almost 75 percent across the board, with six patients completely getting off their opiates, which was stunning in a four-week period of time," Spirtos said.

Although Spirtos' research seems promising, the oncology community may not be ready to accept marijuana as a substitute just yet.

"We need a lot more research to clearly state whether or not medical marijuana can treat cancer pain as effectively as opiates,” Epstein said. “I think it’s a helpful adjunct to pain medicines, [but] I do not think there are data to suggest or even show that they are just as good."

Cont:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2018/0...on-cancer.html

[WillBrink]

Neuropathic Pain (From Spinal Cord Injury and Disease) and Cannabis. This study found cannabis effective where other traditional treatments failed. This was a human, placebo, cross over trail, so as mentioned early in this thread, data derived from gold standard methodology is appearing with ever greater frequencies as expected:

An Exploratory Human Laboratory Experiment Evaluating Vaporized Cannabis in the Treatment of Neuropathic Pain From Spinal Cord Injury and Disease.

J Pain. 2016 Sep;17(9):982-1000.

Abstract

Using 8-hour human laboratory experiments, we evaluated the analgesic efficacy of vaporized cannabis in patients with neuropathic pain related to injury or disease of the spinal cord, most of whom were experiencing pain despite traditional treatment. After obtaining baseline data, 42 participants underwent a standardized procedure for inhaling 4 puffs of vaporized cannabis containing either placebo, 2.9%, or 6.7% delta 9-THC on 3 separate occasions. A second dosing occurred 3 hours later; participants chose to inhale 4 to 8 puffs.

This flexible dosing was used to attempt to reduce the placebo effect. Using an 11-point numerical pain intensity rating scale as the primary outcome, a mixed effects linear regression model showed a significant analgesic response for vaporized cannabis. When subjective and psychoactive side effects (eg, good drug effect, feeling high, etc) were added as covariates to the model, the reduction in pain intensity remained significant above and beyond any effect of these measures (all P < .0004). Psychoactive and subjective effects were dose-dependent. Measurement of neuropsychological performance proved challenging because of various disabilities in the population studied. Because the 2 active doses did not significantly differ from each other in terms of analgesic potency, the lower dose appears to offer the best risk-benefit ratio in patients with neuropathic pain associated with injury or disease of the spinal cord.

PERSPECTIVE:

A crossover, randomized, placebo-controlled human laboratory experiment involving administration of vaporized cannabis was performed in patients with neuropathic pain related to spinal cord injury and disease. This study supports consideration of future research that would include longer duration studies over weeks to months to evaluate the efficacy of medicinal cannabis in patients with central neuropathic pain.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27286745

[WillBrink]

I have mixed feelings about this, some of which was covered in related posts a pages or so back:

U.S. approves first marijuana plant-derived drug for epilepsy

(Reuters) - The U.S. health regulator approved GW Pharmaceuticals Plc’s epilepsy treatment on Monday, making it the first cannabis-based drug to win approval in the country and opening floodgates for more research into the medicinal properties of cannabis.

The drug’s approval permits its use in patients aged two years and older with Dravet Syndrome (DS) and Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome (LGS), rare childhood-onset forms of epilepsy that are among the most resistant to treatment.

“This approval serves as a reminder that advancing sound development programs that properly evaluate active ingredients contained in marijuana can lead to important medical therapies,” said Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.

The drug, Epidiolex, is made up of cannabidiol (CBD), one of the hundreds of molecules found in the marijuana plant, and contains less than 0.1 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component that makes people high.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g...-idUSKBN1JL299

[WillBrink]

This generally conservative traditional establishment gives a fair and balanced opinion on the topic:

"The most common use for medical marijuana in the United States is for pain control. While marijuana isn’t strong enough for severe pain (for example, post-surgical pain or a broken bone), it is quite effective for the chronic pain that plagues millions of Americans, especially as they age. Part of its allure is that it is clearly safer than opiates (it is impossible to overdose on and far less addictive) and it can take the place of NSAIDs such as Advil or Aleve, if people can’t take them due to problems with their kidneys or ulcers or GERD.

In particular, marijuana appears to ease the pain of multiple sclerosis, and nerve pain in general."

Some good advice for docs I thought:

"My advice for doctors is that whether you are pro, neutral, or against medical marijuana, patients are embracing it, and although we don’t have rigorous studies and “gold standard” proof of the benefits and risks of medical marijuana, we need to learn about it, be open-minded, and above all, be non-judgmental. Otherwise, our patients will seek out other, less reliable sources of information; they will continue to use it, they just won’t tell us, and there will be that much less trust and strength in our doctor-patient relationship. I often hear complaints from other doctors that there isn’t adequate evidence to recommend medical marijuana, but there is even less scientific evidence for sticking our heads in the sand."

Cont:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/...-2018011513085

[Hmac]

Some good some good advice for Dr. Grinspoon: “Instead of exhorting doctors to embrace and authorize schedule I (illegal) drugs for their patients, spend your efforts and your influence getting cannabis off of schedule I”.

I hope he’s smart enough to see that that is the obvious place to start.