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MEDICINAL CANNABIS
Medicinal Cannabis
Chrissie Dvorak
Purdue Calumet University.
Medicinal Cannabis
Background, Medicinal Uses, Start of the Stigma, and Abuse Potential.
For centuries, cultures around the world have utilized plants and herbs to treat a
vast array of ailments. While the effects and benefits of these herbal remedies are
disputed, there are many that have been proven to have a significant and verifiable impact
on disease and afflictions. However, many of these herbs are often refined to allow for
large-scale pharmaceutical production, like aspirin derived from willow tree bark and
modern painkillers derived from the opium poppy. While these treatments are
commonplace and widely accepted, there exists another more stigmatic herbal treatment
that could provide humankind with a variety of benefits; the currently illegal substance
known as cannabis.
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MEDICINAL CANNABIS
Background
Most people are familiar with the traditional means of consuming cannabis, that
being the smoking of the plant’s flower. However, there exist a wide variety of methods
of consumption and preparations with different concentrations of the chemicals in
cannabis thought to have medicinal properties (Russo, 2011). The main therapeutic
components that occur naturally in cannabis, THC and CBD, are found in varying
concentrations in the many different strains, or varieties, of the plant (“Is Marijuana
Medicine?” 2014). These therapeutic chemicals, or cannabinoids, are also the main active
ingredients in the many different preparations that do not require the inhalation of smoke.
These preparations consist of edible THC- and CBD-containing foods, oils to be applied
to the skin, drinkable alcohol-based cannabis tinctures, as well as vaporization of plant
matter (Litchfield, 1991). A more recent development has resulted in synthetically
produced pharmaceuticals, like Marinol and Cesamet, which contain synthetic
cannabinoids (“Is Marijuana Medicine?” 2014).
Hippocrates, considered by many to be the father of modern medicine, said in his
Aphorisms, “For extreme diseases, extreme methods of cure, as to restriction, are most
suitable” (Coar, 1882).Though the use of medical cannabis may seem extreme, there are a
multitude of diseases whose symptoms can be alleviated by the use of the therapeutic
herb. According to the former US Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn Elders:
“The evidence is overwhelming that marijuana can relieve certain types of pain,
nausea, vomiting and other symptoms caused by such illnesses as multiple
sclerosis, cancer and AIDS -- or by the harsh drugs sometimes used to treat them.
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MEDICINAL CANNABIS
And it can do so with remarkable safety. Indeed, marijuana is less toxic than many
of the drugs that physicians prescribe every day (“Myths,” 2004).”
Cannabis’ main advantage over traditional medicines is its safety, as there is no known
case of lethal overdose. Another advantage that cannabis has over pharmaceuticals is that
it is far less addictive than many drugs currently prescribed for conditions that could be
alleviated with the use of cannabis, such as muscle relaxants, hypnotics, and analgesics
(Grinspoon, 1995). One of the main risks associated with cannabis use is its possible
negative effect on the lungs due to inhaling smoke. However, a study conducted in 2012
concluded that low and occasional use of cannabis had no negative effects on lung
function (Pletcher et al., 2012) Grinspoon (2006) wrote that there exist no cases of lung
cancer or emphysema caused by cannabis and suggests that those concerned with
possible negative effects make use of a vaporizer, a tool that allows patients to experience
cannabis’ therapeutic effects without the inhalation of smoke.
Start of the Stigma
Some think a stigma attached to marijuana started in 1971 when president Nixon
started the “war on drugs.” However, the stigma started long before that, and Isaac
Campo in Home Grown explores the stigmas attached to cannabis. The ideological roots
cannabis stigmatization can be traced to the colonial era in Mexico. The war on drugs is
commonly perceived to be the results of the U.S pressure into policies enacted south of
the border. The ideological conception that cannabis is dangerous emerged in Mexico
linking the substance effects to violence and madness from the Mexican cartels. When it
came associated with madness and violence, it was produced that marijuana also cause’s
mental illnesses. Cannabis was stigmatized not because the effects from consuming the
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MEDICINAL CANNABIS
plant, but from linking it to negative groups such as prisoners, and indigenous people.
When marijuana was linked to indigenous herbalism, and oriental traditions it was
perceived as activities that undermined modernity and development. Furthermore, since
marijuana was consumed by negative groups of people it was classified as savagery to
most. (Campo 2012) The stigma was created when it was attached to the wrong group of
people, and not because of the effects of consuming cannabis itself. However, the longer
the stigma was around, the more the scare tactics was used to spread false information
about cannabis. Films where made such as Reefer Madness, Marihana, and Assassin of
youth. These are just some of the films that highly exaggerates cannabis user as people
who have to portray symptom as if they have smoked methamphetamine. Commercials
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