“Marijuana should be available to all patients who need it to help them undergo treatment for life-threatening illnesses. As long as therapy is safe and has not been proven ineffective, seriously ill patients (and their physicians) should have access to whatever they need to fight for their lives.”
– The New England Journal of Medicine; August 7, 1997
“There is evidence to suggest that the therapeutic use of cannabis or of substances derived from it for the treatment of certain medical conditions may, after further research, prove to be helpful.”
– The Report of the Expert Group on the Effects of Cannabis, British Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, 1982
“Consumer Reports believes that, for patients with advanced AIDS and terminal cancer, the apparent benefits some derive from smoking marijuana outweigh any substantiated or even suspected risks. In the same spirit the FDA uses to hasten the approval of cancer drugs, federal laws should be relaxed in favor of states’ rights to allow physicians to administer marijuana to their patients on a caring and compassionate basis.”
– Consumer Reports: Marijuana as Medicine; Consumer Reports magazine, May 1997; ConsumerReports.org
“During his [Prince Charles’] annual visit to the Sue Ryder Home in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, he asked Karen Drake, who has MS: ‘Have you tried taking cannabis? I have heard it’s the best thing for it.’”
– Prince Ponders Medicinal Value of Cannabis, The London Times, Dec. 1998
“When pure and administered carefully, [cannabis] is one of the of the most valuable medicines we possess.”
– Sir Russell Reynolds, Queen Victoria’s personal physician, writing about using cannabis to treat menstrual cramps, The Lancet, Britain’s medical journal, 1890
“Medical marijuana? I fully support it, absolutely. Who is government to tell someone if they have AIDS or cancer, what they should be taking?”
– James “Jesse Ventura” Janos, 38th governor of Minnesota, responding to a question asked by a University of St. Thomas political science student, 2001
“The chief opposition to the drug rests on a moral and political, and not a toxicologic, foundation.”
– The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, 1987
Because using marijuana too much can make some people lazy, there are those who would probably agree that regular use of marijuana is not a wise practice. However, there are many people who can benefit from marijuana.
For thousands of years marijuana has been used as a medicine throughout the world. Mention of it has been found in ancient Chinese writings.
In the 1560s a Portuguese book mentioning the medicinal uses of cannabis was published. Titled Drugs and Medicinal Matters of India and of a Few Fruits, the book was written by Carcia Da Orta, and was also translated into Chinese. After his death the Catholic Church in Portugal ordered the book burned because it was found that Da Orta was a Jew. In Martin Booth’s excellent book, Cannabis: A History, he tells how Da Orta’s book was saved and published in English, French, Italian, and Latin. Another Portuguese book mentioning the medical uses of cannabis followed, this one written by Cristobal Acosta and titled A Tract about the Drugs and Medicines of the East Indies. As Booth explains, the publication of those two books was followed by other books over the next 150 years distorting what was said in previous books. Such has been the history of cannabis, people saying one thing, and others saying the opposite, and/or taking things out of context – sometimes on purpose to serve an agenda.
By studying the writings of George Washington, it is clear that he kept a separate amount of hemp growing that produced a sticky resin, which could easily be translated to mean that he grew his own medicinal crop of hemp’s sister plant. At that time, what we now call “marijuana” was used for headaches and other ailments just as we use sleeping aids, painkillers, and aspirin today.
In his journal notes from his Mount Vernon plantation, Washington wrote in May 12-13, 1765 that he had “Sowed hemp at muddy hole by swamp.” On August 7, 1765, he wrote that he “Began to separate the male from the female plants.” On August 29, 1766, he wrote that he was, “Pulling up the hemp. Was too late for the blossom hemp by three weeks or a month.” In other words, he was trying to make sure to separate the male plants from the female plants, which would result in a stickier female plant. The reason a person would want the sticky female plant that grew away from the male plants is that the unfertilized female plant contains the substances that get you “high.”
“If seed hemp and marijuana plants cross-pollinate, the resulting seed produces plants with THC levels in between the levels found in the parent plants. Growers of either plant should want to prevent this, and use a known genetic variety to grow each new crop.”
– March 2008 Reason Foundation Study on Hemp, Illegally Green: Environmental Costs of Hemp Prohibition. Policy Study 367, by Skaidra Smith-Heisters
While Washington’s diary entries are mentioned in many books that point out the clear evidence that Washington knew what he was doing to grow the sticky female plants, it isn’t clear what he was going to do with the plants. We do know that cannabis was a common medicine. In other words, Washington got high. He may have done it for headaches, or for his aching and well-known dental situation, or for a number of reasons, including for relaxation, contemplation, and/or socialization, or to better enjoy his time with Martha.
Thomas Jefferson wrote that he smoked hemp to relieve his headaches. Anyone who knows anything about hemp knows that smoking industrial hemp doesn’t relieve headaches, nor does it get you high. But, smoking a well-bred female plant that was kept away from the male plants, and that was grown to the point of having sticky resin, is what gets you high, and what relieves headaches.
As a popular medication and intoxicant during the 1830s, cannabis was taxed in Britain. As mentioned earlier, an Irish doctor named William Brooke O’Shaughnessy who worked at the Medical College of Calcutta, India, wrote and taught about the medical uses of cannabis. In the 1840s O’Shaughnessy worked with a London pharmacist named Peter Squire to create a medicinal extract of cannabis that was named Squire’s Extract. It was sold in pharmacies as a pain reliever. A similar extract named Tilden’s Extract was sold in the U.S. In the 1850s cannabis was added to the European pharmacopoeias. It was also added to the United States Pharmacopoeia.
From the middle of the nineteenth-century until the 1930s, American doctors gave cannabis to their patients who were suffering from various ailments such as headaches, nausea, and insomnia. Drug companies sold various extracts of cannabis and it became a very common medication for a variety of uses. It was during these years that cannabis was suggested as an alternative to alcohol for those who had become addicted to drinking.
One man, Frederick Hollick, claiming to be a doctor, sold cannabis extract as a secret aphrodisiac for married couples. His 1851 book, The Marriage Guide, contained mail-order information for those wanting to purchase his marriage aid.
Then, in 1937, the U.S. marijuana tax made cannabis much less available for doctors. In the 1940s cannabis was removed from the United States Pharmacopoeia. Taking its place were patented synthetic chemical drugs that could be taken in pill form, or injected into the blood stream via hypodermic needle. Highly addictive opiate drugs, which are water soluble, were used for many of the applications formerly covered by cannabis extracts. These patent drugs also made more money for the pharmaceutical companies and the doctors who prescribed and treated their patients with them.
Marijuana is currently being used illegally under federal law, but legally under state laws, as an effective therapy for helping cancer patients cope with pain and by AIDS patients suffering from AIDS-related wasting syndrome. Marijuana relieves stress; combats the muscle spasms and pain associated with multiple sclerosis; helps to relieve the pain of arthritis and fibromyalgia; and reduces the elevated eye pressure associated with glaucoma. It also reduces the nausea and vomiting experienced by patients who are undergoing chemotherapy. Marijuana stimulates the appetite, which is helpful for people who have diseases or disorders that cause them to become dangerously thin. Marijuana often quickly reduces the temporary blind spots experienced during episodes of migraine and ocular migraine. Dr. Gregory T. Carter of the University of Washington School of Medicine has found marijuana to be helpful for those with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).
In 1992 William Devane discovered that the brain produces a cannabinoid-like neurotransmitter that has biological and behavioral effects similar to THC. This neurotransmitter also provides pleasant sensations and appears to be utilized by the body to control pain. He gave it the name anandamide. Ananda is a Sanskrit word that translates to the English word bliss. The THC in cannabis docks with the same cell receptors as anandamide. The receptors where both anandamide and THC dock were discovered in a 1984 study lead by Miles Herkenham at the National Institutes of Health. They found that the receptors are predominantly found on cells of the cerebral cortex and hippocampus regions of the brain, but also in the basal ganglia, in the spinal chord, and in the testes. The part of the brain where pain is modulated, the rostral ventromedial medulla, is one area that is particularly receptive to the substances in marijuana. Because there are only a certain number of receptors, this provides a situation where a person can’t overdose on THC and it can’t interfere with the vital life support functions (but it can increase heart rate, making it a potential problem for those with cardiovascular disease).
A 1982 study conducted by the British Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs published as the Expert Group on the Effects of Cannabis Use, the study said there was evidence that cannabis and substances derived from it may prove to be beneficial.
When a number of states were legalizing medical marijuana, the U.S. attorney general during the Clinton administration, Janet Reno, held a press conference announcing that the federal government would review records and revoke the registration of any physician who “recommends or prescribes schedule 1 controlled substances.”
Reno was talking about rescinding the federal license to prescribe prescription drugs from doctors who prescribe marijuana for cancer patients, AIDS patients, glaucoma patients, and others. The doctors were also warned that their practices would be excluded from the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
In October 2002 the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the government cannot revoke a doctor’s license to prescribe controlled substances when the doctor has recommended marijuana to patients. The Justice Department argued that the doctors were interfering with the War on Drugs by suggesting that their patients may find relief through marijuana. The court ruled that the policy of the Justice Department was interfering with the free-speech rights of doctors and patients. The court upheld a two-year-old court order prohibiting the government from revoking a doctor’s license to dispense medicine. The ruling was hailed as a victory for free speech, for doctors, and for patients’ rights.
“An integral component of the practice of medicine is the communication between doctor and a patient. Physicians must be able to speak frankly and openly to patients.”
– Chief Circuit Judge Mary Schroeder
Doctors should not have to prescribe marijuana. What would work, and get them out of the loop of prescribing marijuana, would be to allow them to give a patient a signed document indicating the diagnosis of the patient. Any patient with certain diagnoses that fall under those health conditions known to benefit from the use of marijuana should be able to go to a compassion club or pharmacy to have a medical marijuana prescription filled. The document should also work as a legal document indicating that the person can legally obtain, possess, and grow a certain amount of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Churches that have endorsed legalizing medical marijuana:
• Episcopal Church
• Presbyterian Church
• Progressive National Baptist Convention
• Union for Reform Judaism
• Unitarian Universalist Association
• United Church of Christ
• United Methodist Church
Ironically, while the government continues to deny marijuana to people who need it, there is a prescription pill containing a concentrated synthetic form of delta-9-THC, one of the active forms of THC in marijuana. This expensive prescription drug is called Marinol made by Solvay Pharmaceuticals of Marietta, Georgia. This synthetic chemical drug has been approved for use in the treatment of people suffering from weight loss associated with AIDS and the nausea associated with cancer chemotherapy.
Chemists had been working since at least the 1880s to create a patented cannabis extract. In 1895 a cannabis extract was made by chemists named Easterfield, Spivey, and Wood at the University of Cambridge. But their extract never caught on. With Marinol, a company finally succeeded. 2004 sales of the drug amounted to about $78 million.
“The [pharmaceutical] drug companies want control, rather than just a ban, for they know the medicinal benefits of marijuana. They have attempted to substitute synthetic derivatives for the raw herb, because the raw herb cannot be patented, meaning they can’t make money from it.”
– Why Marijuana Should Be Legal, by Ed Rosenthal & Steve Kubby with S. Newhart; Green-Aid.com/EdRosenthal.htm
While some patients say that Marinol is effective in doing what it is meant to do, many people who have taken Marinol say that it is too strong, takes much longer to take effect, and does not provide the same feeling as that gained from smoking or vaporizing marijuana. One reason for this is that marijuana smoke or vapor contains some other natural chemicals that don’t exist in Marinol. THC is only one of more than 50 cannabinoids in the cannabis plant and any one of them may be beneficial to certain health conditions. Marijuana that is inhaled into the lungs puts THC directly into the bloodstream, while Marinol must be absorbed by the digestive system before it has an effect, which may take hours. (For those who smoke marijuana, consider using a cannabis vaporizer instead of a pipe or joint.)
“The active ingredient in Marinol, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is only one of the compounds isolated in marijuana that appears to be medically beneficial to patients. Other compounds such as cannabidiol (CBD), an anticonvulsant, and cannabichromine (CBC), an anti-inflammatory, are unavailable in Marinol, and patients only have access to their therapeutic properties by using cannabis.
Patients prescribed Marinol frequently complain of its high psychoactivity. This is because patients consume the drug orally. Once swallowed, Marinol passes through the liver, where a significant proportion is converted into other chemicals. One of these, the 11-hydroxy metabolite, is four to five times more potent than THC and greatly increases the likelihood of a patient experiencing an adverse psychological reaction. In contrast, inhaled marijuana doesn’t cause significant levels of the 11-hydroxy metabolite to appear in the blood.”
– National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NORML.org
There are other drugs available containing synthetic forms of substances found in marijuana, and there are more being developed. Some are pills, others are sprays and inhalants.
The International Cannabinoid Research Society is made up of over 400 researchers looking at the various substances contained in marijuana and exploring the “therapeutic opportunities” of the substances. In addition to fostering research, the ICRS works to get financial support from government and private agencies to support research and development of drugs based on the findings.
At the annual symposium of the ICRS in 1999 the British company GW Pharmaceuticals announced their research into treating multiple sclerosis with cannabis substances. Since then the company has raised hundreds of millions for funding, including from private investors, from a 2001 stock offering that brought in $48 million, and from a $65 million licensing fee with Bayer, the German pharmaceutical company.
The British government exempted GW from an international treaty forbidding the production of illegal drugs, gave GW permission to grow marijuana in greenhouses, and allowed them to test their products on human subjects. By doing all of this the company was able to develop their Sativex whole plant cannabis spray that they call “a novel prescription pharmaceutical product derived from components of the cannabis plant.” GW is allowed to grow up to 30 tons of marijuana per year.
Although Sativex was developed for multiple sclerosis-related neuropathic pain, it can be prescribed “off-label” by doctors for other illnesses. The first country to approve its use was Canada in April 2005.
A medication in spray form can be better than a pill because some people have problems swallowing and keeping down pills. A cannabis spray that is absorbed by the mucous membranes of the mouth also is a good alternative for those who don’t like to smoke. Another advantage to Sativex is that it contains compounds from the cannabis plant that are not included in the pills like Marinol, and some of those interacting compounds are what benefit patients. Some patients who have used it say that Sativex has a horrible taste.
A hepatitis C patient in Canada was one who was prescribed Sativex “off-label.” Although his experience with the drug lasted only five days, he found that marijuana in its natural form provided him with more relief of the nausea and loss of appetite he experiences in relation to his condition.
“If I didn’t have access to a safe and consistent source of whole-plant, organic cannabis, or if I found myself in a situation where smoking might be inappropriate or otherwise impossible, I would certainly consider Sativex a far superior alternative to Marinol or Cesamet [Nabilone].
Ultimately, I will continue to use cannabis in its raw form for a number of reasons, including a personal philosophy that sees me choose to eat an orange rather than taking vitamin C, and a general disinclination to using pharmaceuticals if they can be avoided. Additionally, the raw-plant, organic cannabis grown by the Vancouver Island Compassion Society appears to be more effective in controlling my nausea and increasing my appetite than Sativex; and possibly because of my ample experience with smoked-ingestion, I find it more predictable than GW’s product. I consider Sativex not as a replacement for smoked-ingestion or for raw cannabis, but rather as another ‘strain’ and yet another viable option for medical users, many of whom might never want to smoke their medicine, or to purchase therapeutic products from anyone but a pharmacist.”
– Phillipe Lucas’ 5-day Sativex Trial; Daily Report and Conclusions. In his report Lucas mentions a self-made product called VICS Cannamist. For more information on this product, see the Web site of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society; TheVICS.com.
While the U.S. government funds cannabis research with the goal of finding things that are wrong with it, pharmaceutical companies and other researchers are working to develop synthetic prescription drugs that can do what marijuana does best for patients. Much of this cannabis research is done to create drugs that can bring hundreds of millions of dollars to the drug companies. In 2006 the international cannabinoid prescription drug market was estimated to be about $1 billion.
It is an odd situation where marijuana is outlawed by a government that says it is of no medical benefit, yet patients can get a prescription for a drug based on marijuana. But if marijuana remains illegal, then the pharmaceutical companies can make money from the patented drugs based on cannabis. This is one scenario that people often mention when they say that drug companies want to keep marijuana illegal so that the same drug companies can reap hundreds of millions in profits. Perhaps it is no coincidence that pharmaceutical companies donate large amounts of money to political campaigns, and spend lots more money on political lobbying.
As the benefits of medical marijuana finally become widely known and accepted, and the pharmaceuticalization of marijuana continues, law enforcement is put in the bizarre situation of supporting the biggest pot dealers of all, the pharmaceutical companies. They do this by allowing only prescription pot in pill or spray form while outlawing the use of the natural substance the drugs are based on – even when patients with the whole plant substance can very easily get a prescription for the pharmaceutical drug.
Could the drug companies be hiring people who understand America’s marijuana drug laws to keep these laws in place so that the drug companies can guarantee their market share? GW has at least made some very interesting choices in whom to hire in the U.S. Look at a few facts, and judge for yourself:
It is interesting that to help win U.S. approval for Sativex, in 2005 GW hired Andrea Barthwell for an advisory board role. As a doctor, she has promoted herself as an addiction medicine specialist. She served as a U.S. deputy director in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. In that position, which she held from 2002 to 2004, she worked under the main drug czar, John Walters. She was against medical marijuana while she was President Bush’s advisor on issues relating to medical marijuana. During that time she called medical marijuana “medical excuse marijuana.” She also said, “The people who are advancing marijuana as a medicine are perpetuating a cruel hoax that exploits our compassion for the sick… They are using patients’ pain and suffering in an attempt to change America’s drug control policy. Marijuana is a crude plant product that most definitely is not a medicine.” She also said, “Even if smoking marijuana makes people feel better, that’s not enough to call it a medicine.” Huh?
But then Barthwell became employed by a company producing a medicine containing the substances in marijuana. After she switched jobs she sounded as if she were defending medical marijuana – or, at least the liquefied form of it that is being sold by her employer, which will be very financially rewarding for her employer. Maybe she just likes the money they are paying her to do what they want her to do. It’s a very old profession.
“Having this product available will certainly slow down the dash to make the crude plant material available to patients across the country.
Comparing crude marijuana to Sativex is like comparing a raging forest fire to the fire in your home’s furnace. While both provide heat, one is out of control.”
– Andrea Barthwell, Los Angeles Times, April 20 2005
It’s not like Barthwell didn’t know what she said. She’s a doctor. What she said when she worked for the Bush administration is on public record. She worked against medical marijuana, working to deny ailing patients from having a medicine that could relieve suffering. Then she began working for a drug company that sells what amounts to liquid marijuana that is expensive and that is likely to make many hundreds of millions of dollars for her employer. But suddenly medical marijuana is okay with her. But don’t call it marijuana. It’s Sativex. Maybe what matters most to her is which one puts money in her pockets.
“Sativex is for all practical purposes liquid marijuana, so the question of whether marijuana is medicine has been settled. The only question is what form people use, and that’s best left to doctors and patients.
…In practical terms, Sativex is to marijuana as a cup of coffee is to coffee beans.”
– Bruce Mirken, Marijuana Policy Project; April 2005
GW also has hired John Pastuovic to handle U.S. public relations. In 2000 Pastuovic worked as a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign in Illinois. In early 2005 he also worked to oppose passage of medical marijuana legislation in Illinois.
“Doctors and patients should decide what medicines are best. Ten years ago, I nearly died from testicular cancer that spread into my lungs. Chemotherapy made me sick and nauseated. The standard drugs, like Marinol, didn’t help.
Marijuana blocked the nausea. As a result, I was able to continue the chemotherapy treatments. Today I’ve beaten the cancer, and no longer smoke marijuana. I credit marijuana as part of the treatment that saved my life.”
– James Canter, cancer survivor, Santa Rosa, California; in rebuttal to argument against proposition 215, the medical marijuana bill that is now law in California
One of the problems with prescription drugs meant to provide the relief that natural marijuana provides is that they may not contain all of the beneficial substances that exist in whole marijuana, including substances that are not psychoactive and that may play a role in balancing and metabolizing the others. There are dozens of forms of THC and several dozen different cannabinoids contained in marijuana. Any one of these substances can be what benefits someone experiencing a certain health condition. Taking a synthetic prescription drug that is based on only one form of the substances naturally present in marijuana may not help the patient, and may lead to more problems.
“Marijuana is an effective medical treatment and is neither an addictive nor a gateway drug.”
– Institute of Medicine, 1999
“For decades, politicians have said that marijuana has no proven medical value while scientists have been denied the ability to prove otherwise.”
– Rick Doblin, Ph.D., president and founder of the MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies). Founded in 1986, the MAPS is a membership-based nonprofit research and educational organization that assists scientists to design, fund, obtain approval for and report on studies into the risks and benefits of MDMA, psychedelic drugs and marijuana. The MAPS has had two Federal Drug Administration-approved studies blocked by the National Institute of Drug Abuse; MAPS.org
The Drug Enforcement Administration continues to claim that marijuana is not a medicine while at the same time denying scientists and medical researchers access to marijuana for research purposes. As mentioned earlier, the U.S. government produces marijuana at the University of Mississippi where the plants are grown under supervision of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It is a monopoly on the only marijuana in the country that is grown for research purposes.
On February 13, 2007, the DEA’s own Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner “recommended” that University of Massachusetts-Amherst professor Lyle Craker be allowed to grow marijuana for government-approved studies for developing prescription medicine and to evaluate marijuana in smoked or vaporized form for the purpose of establishing Federal Drug Administration guidelines. Judge Bittner, who is in a position appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice, ruled that it is in the public’s interest for the DEA to grant Craker to have a Schedule 1 license with the purpose of growing marijuana for research without depending on the University of Mississippi supply. Thirty-eight Congressional representatives along with a number of medical, public policy, religious, and scientific organizations voiced support for Craker’s challenge to the DEA.
“Given its narrow confines, Bittner’s recommendation makes sense. It has no bearing on the DEA’s licensing of researchers, which would remain in place, nor would it remove the burden of proof on scientists who want access to research-grade marijuana. It would merely prevent situations in which, the judge noted, legitimate researchers who have completed all due diligence are still refused access to research samples [of marijuana].”
– Los Angeles Times editorial, Not Enough Marijuana: Federal officials should allow competition in growing the drug for needed studies on its medical use, May 31, 2007
Judge Bittner’s ruling was the result of a six-year fight by Craker, the MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), and the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) to allow scientists access to research marijuana, or to allow the researchers to produce their own marijuana. In his response to the ruling, Craker said, “This ruling is a victory for science, medicine, and the public good. I hope [DEA] administrator [Karen] Tandy abides by the decision and grants me the opportunity to do my job unimpeded by drug war politics.”
However, the ruling by Bittner is a recommendation, not a requirement. It is an opportunity for the DEA to stop its obstruction of scientific-based medical research on cannabis. (For more information, access: http://www.MAPS.org/mmj/dealawsuit.html)
“For patients who do not respond well to other medications, short-term marijuana appears to be suitable in treating conditions like chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, or the wasting caused by AIDS.”
– John Benson, dean of the Oregon Health Sciences University School of Medicine, co-principal investigator on Institutes of Health study on medical benefits of marijuana; quoted in Institutes of Health press release, March 1999. The report stated, “We acknowledge that there is no clear alternative for people suffering from chronic conditions that might be relieved by smoking marijuana, such as pain or AIDS wasting.”
“One of marihuana’s greatest advantages as a medicine is its remarkable safety. It has little effect on major physiological functions. There is no known case of a lethal overdose; marihuana is also far less addictive and far less subject to abuse than many drugs now used as muscle relaxants, hypnotics, and analgesics. The ostensible indifference of physicians should no longer be used as a justification for keeping this medicine in the shadows.”
– Journal of the American Medical Association, June 21, 1995; Commentary; Pages 1874-1875
“Of all cancers, few are as aggressive and deadly as glioma. Glioma tumors quickly invade healthy brain tissue and are typically unresponsive to surgery and standard medical treatments. One agent they do respond to is cannabis.
Writing in the August 2005 issue of the Journal of Neurooncology, investigators at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute reported that the administration of THC on human glioblastoma multiforme cell lines decreased the proliferation of malignant cells and induced apoptosis (programmed cell death) more rapidly than did the administration of the synthetic cannabis receptor agonist, WIN-55, 212-2. Researchers also noted that THC selectively targeted malignant cells while ignoring healthy ones in a more profound manner than the synthetic alternative.
… Most recently, a scientific analysis in the October issue of the journal Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry noted that, in addition to THC and CBD’s brain cancer-fighting ability, studies have also shown cannabinoids to halt the progression of lung carcinoma, leukemia, skin carcinoma, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and breast cancer.
Emerging evidence also indicates that cannabinoids may play a role in slowing the progression of certain neurodegenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s Disease).”
– Cannabis and the Brain: A User’s Guide, by Paul Armentano, Senior Policy Analyst, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws/NORML Foundation, February 14, 2006; NORML.org
“California NORML has recently heard increasing reports that Marinol patients are being drug tested and denied employment for use of marijuana. In particular, we have heard from legal Prop. 225 patients who were denied jobs despite presenting Marinol prescriptions after being re-tested specifically for marijuana. Until recently, Marinol and marijuana were indistinguishable on the standard drug tests, so that patients with a Marinol prescription had a valid medical excuse under federal law for testing positive for marijuana.
However, special testing techniques have been developed that make it possible to distinguish the two by testing for non-standard cannabinoids that appear in marijuana but not Marinol. Until recently, these tests were expensive and rarely used except in high-profile criminal cases. However, it appears that they are now being routinely used by certain laboratories in cases where Marinol use is claimed. In particular, we have heard reports of such testing being used to disqualify Marinol-using Prop 215 patients by the transportation industry and by Walmart.
California NORML has accordingly altered its drug testing information to warn against relying on Marinol RXs as a screen for marijuana use: http://www.canorml.org/healthfacts/testing.tips.html.
There is of course no valid scientific or health justification for allowing patients to use Marinol but not marijuana. The only purpose is to enforce compliance with the law. It is a tribute to the power and influence of the drug testing industry that they have prevailed in foisting the costs of this unnecessary and obnoxious procedure on employers.”
– National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Labs Testing for Marijuana Use by Marinol Patients, by Dale Gieringer, Ph.D., Director, California Normal; Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008; http://www.NORML.org
If anyone is involved in growing medicinal cannabis, they should use only organic fertilizers and organic soils. Synthetic chemical fertilizers as well as soils enhanced with chemical fertilizers made from fossil fuels should not be used on a plant that is to be taken medicinally. Additionally, growers should not use pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, or fungicides. Any compost used should consist of organically grown plant substances mixed with organic soil. (See Ed Rosenthal’s book Marijuana Growing Tips. Also, access MarijuanaGrowing.com; IslandHarvest.ca; BioBizz.NL; and the Organic Materials Review Institute at OMRI.org)