Medical Marijuana

Medical marijuana is where cannabis and its product cannabinoid by the recommendation of a doctor or a health expert are used as for herbal therapy or as a medicine. Cannabis has for many year been used as a drug, in the history of humankind cannabis since the medieval times has been used for quite some time to health very many illnesses. The extent to which cannabis has been used as a drug has been disputes by many. There has been a lot of disputes opposing the research conducted over the drug and also most government fearing for its abuse have been reluctant in accepting the medicinal qualities of marijuana. Marijuana has well documented and researched beneficial effects of this drug.

The use of cannabis in history can be traced in communities such as in ancient Taiwan and China where more than 10,000 years ago they used cannabis as a source of fiber, It was used as food. Cannabis is still one the 50 fundamental herbs that are used in the traditional Chinese medicines. Cannabis is used by the Chinese to treat various conditions. It was also used in Ancient Egypt, Ancient India, and Ancient Greece among other ancient communities (Boire, 13).

Some of the beneficial effects of this drug include reduction of vomiting and nausea among patients, the drug is also beneficial as it helps the AIDS and patients who have undergone chemotherapy in the stimulation of hunger so that they can eat since they have reduced or no appetite at all. It is also well known in treating glaucoma effectively and it can be very useful and used as an aesthesia by helping to relief pain (U.S. House of Representative, 96)

Some synthetic cannabis products have been used as prescriptive drugs in very many countries. This cannabis products used as prescriptive drugs are Marinol and Cesamet. Marinol is used as a drug in Canada and United States of America and Cesamet is used as a prescriptive drug in Mexico, United Kingdom, Canada and also in the United States of America (Mathre, 21). These prescriptive drugs are administered through several ways that include drinking or eating of the extract, or where the drug is made as a capsule and taken that way. The drug can also be administered by where dried buds are smoked just like a normal cigarette. The drug is also known to be administered by vaporization of the drug.

Cannabis for recreational or entertainment use is illegal in most countries in the world. It is a criminal offence to grow and consume marijuana in most countries but some countries have legalized it use as a medicine. Medical use of cannabis has remained a very controversial thing all over the world. some of the countries that have legalized the use of cannabis for medical purpose include; Italy, Israel, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Finland, Canada and Portugal.

In the U.S. the Attorney General Eric Holder declared that the federal drug authorities will cease targeting users of medicinal marijuana where the specific states allowed it to be used. 14 states in America have since gone forward to legalize by sanctioning itno law the use of marijuana for medical purposes. In California the rules do not limit conditions and does not state the patients who qualify for the drugs neither does the law require that consume the drug require to register to any organization, the law also does not give of how the drug should be administered to the users.

Medical cannabis has been well researched and found that it can be used in the treatment of such conditions and effects such as insomnia, weight loss which is unintentional, lack of appetite, vomiting, nausea and premenstrual syndrome that affects women. It is also well known and has been established to help medically in treatment of movement disordes, asthma, glaucoma and neurogenic pain.

Also though not conclusive, use of cannabis as a medicine can help in treating  the inflammatory bowel disease, migraines as well as fibromyalgia as well as other related illnesses. It has also been found that it can greatly help in relieving of some symptoms of multiple sclerosis as well as injuries in the spinal chord this is achieved by it showing the properties of antispasmodic and helping the muscles to relax as well as helping in increase of appetite to those who are not feeling well.

Some studies have shown that cannabis can be used medicinally in treating those who have a problem with alcohol abuse, arthritis, mental disorder, gliomas, hepatitis, epilepsy, digestive disease, depression, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, morning sickness as well as post traumatic stress and many other conditions and illnesses.

Scripps Research Institute in California has conducted a research that claims that Alzheimer can be marijuana can cure the illness through its active ingredient in THC which the research says that THC prevents formation of deposits in the human brain causing Alzheimer disease. There has also been a surprising research that has found out that the smoking of Marijuana does not cause lung cancer and other pulmonary obstructive diseases but it protect those who smoke tobacco from getiing this dangerous diseases. This says that smoking cannabis does not result in lung cancer. A Jamaican study indicated that people who will smoke cigarettes or tobacco and later smoke marijuana mildly or moderately are better off and their life is enhanced by the cannabis they have smoked (Sanabria, 270)

In 2006 Tashkin, et al showed that non tobacco users who used marijuana are more likely not or have a lower chance of getting lung cancer or malignancies of the head or neck and head. The result supported even the users who have used marijuana for a long time and also among the users who are heavy users. Tashkin is a marijuana expert and has studied it for more than 30 years. He claims that "...It's possible that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in marijuana smoke may encourage apoptosis, or programmed cell death, causing cells to die off before they have a chance to undergo malignant transformation...". He claimed that this would be crucial in fighting lung cancer and this would be more effective for heavier users of marijuana. Therefore this shows a positive effect of marijuana in the fight against cancer which is one of the diseases that has greatly affected humans for very many years.

THC which is one of the constituents of marijuana has been found to reduce the growth of tumors in humans. This in it reduces the risk of lung cancer by half and is also able to reduce the risk of the lung cancer spreading. It is claimed that THC can be used to help in the treatment of lung cancer.

Breast cancer is a terminal illness that has affected millions of people across the globe, it is an illness that has killed many men and women and left other traumatized after going through the chemotherapy and radiotherapy after they were discovered to have the cancer. Cannabidiol one of the constituents of marihuana has been discovered to have the ability to stop the breast cancer from affecting to other parts of the body. This is believed will lead to introduction to an alternative to chemotherapy that is not as severe as chemotherapy is to the patients it is applied on. Chemotherapy is very painful and has lots of adverse side effects such as hair loss, causing one to be infertile among other side effects. But the use of cannabidiol in treating brain cancer will be less painful and less side effects (California Pacific Medical Centre Research Institute, 2007). The research claims that marijuana will work by its activity of blocking Id-1 which causes metastasis that is the spread of the cancer cells from the tumor which was the original site.

Cannabis can be used medicinally in helping patients with the HIV virus. It is well known that cannabis can be used to increase the body appetite of humans thus individuals with the HIV/AIDS usually have problems when eating due to their low appetite. Hence when patients with these problems are administered with marijuana, with less discomfort can be able to eat food well and will not experience their cognitive performance being impaired by the drug. It is also known that patients with AIDS go through a lot of pain due to the opportunistic diseases that affect someone who has AIDS. The use of marijuana by these patients who are in deep pain greatly helps in reduction of neuropathic pain if it is added to a patients pain management cure, it will be very effective in helping the patient in pain relief. Most patients who have AIDS also suffer psychologically and are easily affected by physical disability, stress, their poor quality of life and bad mood, marijuana helps the patients in improving of all this and thus helping them to be at ease with the illness and also with the environment. These uses will not have any adverse effects on the patient (Russo, 17).