Science Could Change the Game for Med-Marijuana

Reliance on science for legal arguments not only rhymes but has a side-effect. Once science changes what we know or can do, the old argument whithers. Medical marijuana shows this point. Assuming one agrees that there is a medically sound reason to prescribe marijuana for pain and other ailments, the medical marijuana movement has some traction. Get high; get better. But what happens to all those collectives and the people who want to get high, well to get high, when someone finds a way get the medicinal effect without the high? As Wired reports, pot’s “palliative properties appear to come from a substance called cannabidiol (CBD), which some research has shown to have anti-inflammatory advantages. CBD is non-psychoactive, meaning it barely binds with the brain’s receptors. As a result, people can ingest it without getting high.” Thus treatments for “chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, and to stimulate the appetite of patients undergoing chemotherapy” could be had if someone isolated the CBD part but reduced the THC which gets people high. Turns out Tikun Olam in Israel is doing just that.

Lesson: Yes, you may need a theory plus facts to justify your arguments. If medical marijuana is about helping people with the ailments above they should embrace the new strain. If there are other ailments only THC can address, that will fuel the movement too. But if the whole thing is about saying let folks get high because they disagree with current drug policy, it is time to rally the non-medicine-based arguments.

4 thoughts on “Science Could Change the Game for Med-Marijuana

  1. Given that THC has already been approved by the FDA as an anti-emetic (trade name Dronabinol), it would seem that the question of THC’s medical efficacy is well settled.

  2. I am a legal, medical user and believe me it is NOT about getting high–it’s about pain relief! Cannabis has replaced more that 25 man made chemical poisons for me–and it will for you too, regardless of your choice of injestion.

  3. Got three words for you. Alcohol, tobacco, caffeine. Nothing medicinal about those, their only use is a change in attitude, usually not for the better. I guarantee more people will die today from these legal substances, than the next hundred years of cannabis use. If people want to get high they will, just keep the medicine safe. Like susanne above, mmj released me from the bond of over twenty man made poisons. Grow your own and bind with them. Just being near the flowers puts me at ease. Cbd is now the best anti inflammatory I use. Ask yourself this, why do people smoke cigarettes if they don’t get you high and you know they will kill you?

  4. Huh, thanks for the THC clarification. It would seem that the approved drug to which you refer is a pill, not inhaled by smoking marijuana, correct?

    As for not about getting high, please know I do not question that there are many who use marijuana for medical reasons. There seem to be many who do not. Parsing the issue may require better acceptance of the medical aspect so that it is closer to the way other medicines are regulated. As I write, it occurs to me that of course other prescriptions are abused. Nonetheless, the blessing of the doctor, pharma, conduit may make this one easier for society to grasp and allow.

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