Medical Marijuana Research
The latest in medical marijuana research… or is it “selling pills” in disguise?
Research exploring new ways of exploiting the full medicinal uses of cannabis while avoiding unwanted side-effects will be presented to pharmacologists on July 15 by scientists attending the Federation of European Pharmacological Societies Congress, EPHAR 2008.
A big part of “avoiding side effects” is using a vaporizer, and I really hope these doctors go into how effective vaporizers are at delivering the active ingredient THC (plus many other cannabinoids) without the bad side effects of “smoking.” Part of the negative campaign against medical marijuana touts the effects of “smoking cannabis.” By using a vaporizer you minimize all of the carcinogenic effects of burning the plant matter. As medical marijuana supporter, I support the use of vaporizers over smoking the cannabis.
Cannabis is a source of compounds known as cannabinoids, one of which, THC — the main chemical responsible for the ‘high’ — has long been licensed as a medicine for suppressing nausea produced by chemotherapy and for stimulating appetite, for instance, in AIDS patients.
Don’t forget Migraine 
More recently, the cannabis-based medicine Sativex was licensed both for the symptomatic relief of neuropathic pain in adults with multiple sclerosis and as an adjunctive analgesic treatment for adult patients with advanced cancer. Sativex contains approximately equal amounts of THC and the non-psychoactive plant cannabinoid, cannabidiol.
While a company putting out pills that use THC to relieve pain is good in a way in that it will help people. The problem with much of this research is that it seems as if instead of just promoting the use of cannabis as medicine, these doctors are actually aiming to fund “drugs” made from marijuana, so they can patent, market, advertise, and profit from the sales. However, medical marijuana goes much deeper than that.
One of the best things about medical marijuana is it can be grown relatively free of charge - no need to pay extremely high costs of THC-based pills from the drug store. Some of these pills costs $20 and up a piece! Patients need to take at least 5 a day, and a prescription of twenty pills would be $500+ - for a 4 day supply? Sorry, but you can by a bag of legal medical cannabis for cheaper than that. At that price you can see why the drug companies want in on this “cannabis medicine” so bad.
Allowing a person to grow their own medical marijuana will eliminate this huge profit-driven pouncing on sick patients. This strikes at the heart of this debate regarding “how many plants a patient can grow?” In order to get the same amount of THC as a prescription of Sativex or Marinol, a patient needs 71 ounces for 2 months. This has been discussed already, this proves that states or counties only allowing six plants is not enough - a patient needs at least 10g a day - a patient who uses daily can easily go through 20g of medicine in a day. Not to mention many cancer patients choose to “cook” the cannabis into brownies or something edible to help them eat or fight off nausea. This easily consumes 10g-20g in a day.
These companies want to push their own agenda which is actually selling medications for the pharmaceutical companies that fund this research.
I do not aim to detract from the research, but one must note how the “brand names” of these “marijuana pills” constantly come up in the research vs all-natural medicinally grown Humboldt, California pot. Pills created in a lab made from synthetic THC do not contain the “many other cannabinoids” that actually work together in combination with each other to provide the pain relief associated with medicinal cannabis. THC is not the only active ingredient in cannabis, and the drug companies cannot synthesize them all for pill-form. The cost of these medicines make them not readily available when compared to the low cost of growing for yourself, or even just buying from a medical marijuana dispensary.
“THC works by targeting molecules in our bodies called cannabinoid receptors” said Roger Pertwee, Professor of Neuropharmacology at the University of Aberdeen, who is co-chairing the cannabis symposium.
“So some current research is focused on designing drugs that only target cannabinoid receptors in the part of the body relevant to the disease in question and not the receptors in the central nervous system involved in the unwanted effects of cannabis.”
We don’t just need “drugs” designed for patents - we need the plant itself to be allowed to be grown by patients and caregivers. Do not let the pharmacies and drug companies weasel their way into the patients pocketbook.
Cannabis and cannabinoids directly affect the pain in our body.
A further approach to avoiding the psychoactivity caused by THC involves harnessing the body’s own cannabis, called ‘endocannabinoids’.
“We don’t have cannabinoid receptors just in case we come into contact with plant-derived chemicals that activate them but rather because we have our own molecules that do this,” said Christopher Fowler, Professor of Pharmacology at Umea University, in Sweden, and co-chair of the meeting.
“The neat thing about endocannabinoids is that they are often produced only when we need them, such as when our bodies are damaged in some way; pain, for example, leads to a release of endocannabinoids in a region of the brain that is involved with pain control.
Our body seems naturally designed to work with cannabinoids.
“The problem with this natural protective ‘endocannabinoid system’ is that it is too short-lived to be of great benefit — enzymes in our bodies quickly breakdown or metabolise the endocannabinoids negating their effect. It’s a bit like a bathtub without a plug — the water is turned on but rapidly disappears down the plughole. This suggests an immediate target: block the plughole and the water will stay longer.
“Since the release of endocannabinoids is local, levels in other parts of the brain, stay low. This approach is under intense investigation and programmes for the development of new drugs targeting pain and possibly other disorders such as anxiety and depression are currently underway.”
I can vouch for the relief of anxiety that cannabis gives. Marijuana definitely works against panic attacks and anxiety in general, allowing people like myself to function more naturally in society. It does not make us “dopeheads” it actually lets us live a better life.
Again, what I noted most about this research is the promotion of patented drugs and not actually just cannabis as medicine. Beware the wolves in sheep’s clothing. They come promoting the use of “THC” in pill form, not really cannabis as a whole plant. They come ready to market, and profit millions of dollars from insurance companies funding the prescriptions.
As long as the drug companies never stop patients from growing their own natural organic medicine, I guess they can put out whatever pills they want to.