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MyHealthNewsDaily
Smoking marijuana may improve some symptoms of multiple sclerosis, a new study suggests.
Patients with multiple sclerosis in the study had less muscle tightness, also called spasticity, and less pain after they smoked marijuana, compared with after they took a placebo.
Spasticity is a common symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS) and can cause exaggerated reflexes, spasms and problems walking. Existing medications can ease spasticity, but they cause side effects, and not all MS patients are helped by them.
However, patients in the study experienced short-term decreases in their abilities to pay attention and concentrate after they smoked marijuana. Patients also reported feeling "high" after smoking marijuana, and two patients withdrew from the study because they felt uncomfortably high.
More research is needed to confirm the findings and to investigate whether lower doses of marijuana may have similar benefits with fewer adverse effects, said study researcher Dr. Jody Corey-Bloom, professor of neurosciences and director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at the University of California, San Diego.
The study is published today (May 14) in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Improved symptoms
Previous studies have suggested marijuana use may have benefits for MS patients, but most have investigated oral forms of the drug, including mouth sprays and capsules. In addition, most studies have asked patients to report changes in their symptoms, rather than having a researcher objectively assess them.
In the new study, Corey-Bloom and colleagues evaluated 30 MS patients, 19 of whom were female, and more than half of whom needed walking aids.
Participants were randomly assigned to receive treatment with a marijuana cigarette or a placebo cigarette, which did not contain delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient of marijuana. Participants smoked a marijuana cigarette once a day for three consecutive days under the supervision of a researcher. Eleven days later, participants repeated the procedure, but this time, they switched treatment groups so that everyone received the marijuana cigarette and placebo at some point in the study. On average, participants smoked four puffs of their cigarettes at each session.
Shortly after each treatment session, the researchers assessed participants with a test specifically designed to measure spasticity.
After smoking marijuana, participants experienced a 30 percent reduction in spasticity, compared with when they smoked the placebo cigarette, Corey-Bloom said.
However, patients did not see improvements in the time it took them to walk 25 feet. And 45 minutes after their sessions, participants experienced a small but significant decrease in scores on tests designed to measure attention and concentration.
Participants were not told whether they recieved a placebo or a true marijuana cigarette, more than half correctly guessed the sessions when they were given marijuana.
Marijuana prescriptions?
The researchers are not advocating marijuana prescriptions for MS patients, Corey-Bloom said. They undertook the study to investigate whether anecdotal reports from MS patients about the benefits of marijuana smoking held up under the scrutiny of science. "I'm not a proponent for marijuana smoking at all," Corey-Bloom said.
Although cannabis may one day be used to treat spasticity in MS patients, delivery through a marijuana cigarette is "probably not the way that it would be done," because of the side effects patients experience, said Dr. Nicholas LaRocca, vice president of health care delivery at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, who was not involved in the study. "The majority of people with MS experience cognitive changes at some point in their lives," LaRocca said. "We don’t want to add any additional cognitive deficits with treatment," he said.
Researchers are currently investigating other treatments for spasticity, including exercise and Botox injections. "We need to continue to explore all of those possibilities, because any given person with MS may respond better to one [treatment] than another," LaRocca said.
Because many studies have not found a benefit of marijuana for MS patients, and because the new study was small, it's important for researchers to replicate the findings, said Dr. Karen Blitz-Shabbir, director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Manhasset, N.Y.
Marijuana cigarettes have disadvantages compared with oral forms of the drug, including potential effects on the lungs and problems with administrating a controlled dose, Blitz-Shabbir said.
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I agree 100%
This is not new news. It has been known for at least ten years that marijuana helped both spasicity and the associated pain of MS. MS patients have long been able to obtain THC capsules by prescription. The problem, as I understand it from two MS patients is that the capsule form does not work very well. According to them most MS patients who get legal THC capsules then trade them to people for smokable marijuana which helps much more. The THC is then put onto regular cigarettes so that it can be smoked openly. In a strange twist both of the MS patients I knew would smoke a cigarette under any circumstances.
I didn't see anything in the article that talked about the CBD content of the reefer. Different strains or even the same strain grown/harvested differently can have different ratios of THC vs CBD and other cannabaliods (spelling?) and can have different effects medically and in getting someone high.
stupid, stupid government.
Patients also reported feeling "high" after smoking marijuana,
Really? how odd.......
So here's the deal. I have long said that pot should be legal. It's completely stupid that it has such a stigma when alcohol is much worse for you, short and long term, as someone state earlier. The problem is that what DON'T high people have? MOTIVATION! What do people with MS (and other chronic illnesses) need? MOTIVATION! The point is that you get a short term quality of life improvement at the expense of throwing in the towel. I'm sure people don't want to hear it... GET OFF YOUR ASS AND WORK FOR IT! No one said life was fair - stop waiting for a magic bullet and work on things that are scientifically proven to work. Nutrition. Exercise. Rest. Stress reduction. Happiness. Motivation. As an MS sufferer, I can tell you that they absolutely do work. You need to have some willpower and stay with it over time. It takes a lifestyle change.
There's absolutely no black market for Marinol. Trade perfectly good cannabis for Marinol? That's just plain laughable. Some people will believe anything.
This absurd War on Drugs was out of hand a decade ago and at this point it is completely lost. How long do the sane Americans have to wait around for the flat-Earth ilk to evolve intellectually and politically?
There is not a single rational reason to keep pot illegal and a huge list of profound reasons to legalize it. What we see here is corrupt government, corrupt politics and a corrupt economy. Of course it is always corrupted to the favor of some super-rich corporate interest that ironically are the same puppet-masters of the prohibition on Cannabis.
The Cannabis plant scares the hell out of big pharmaceutical companies because pot is superior to so many profitable prescription drugs and pot has no negative side effects. The Cannabis plant scares the hell out of paper and pulp companies since hemp is wonder fiber. It scares textile companies, farmers, investors and fat-cat interests in a range of competing industries. Pot grows incredibly fast and requires little or no fertilizer or watering to grow like crazy - it's incredibly strong roots hold topsoil and help reclaim spent land - it is an environmental superhero plant as well.
Outlawing pot also scares the hell out of prisons and lobbies for professions that get rich churning citizens through the courts on drug charges.
This War on Drugs has nothing to do with health or social policy and it never did. This has everything to do with a concerted multi-front campaign to outlaw what may be the single most valuable and versatile plant known to human kind and all for greed. Not only does it not make economic sense to outlaw this plant but it robs people of the beneficial effects of the plant, and there are many. When ingested by eating or vaporizing there are minimal if any negative side effects of pot unless it is heavily abused, and even then any negative effects when the use of the drug is stopped. Pot is NOT physically addictive and there is no withdrawal like alcohol or tobacco. Finally, and probably the most obvious reason the prohibition of pot is wrong is because it's none of your business if I or anyone else wants to use pot! The basis of our society is Liberty and the pursuit of happiness - both of which pot serves extremely well.
I agree Overlord...I have MS and know the healing qualities of this medication, but suffer the pharmaceutical companies recommendations to my Neurologist about what is "Best" for my condition! It has never been about the effects of THC but all the FAT CAT Corps that would fall due to a replacement of a miracle resource that could change this world in MANY ways!!!
Two out of thirty test participates dropped out because they felt too high, apparently they were able to recognize their own tolerance limitations without any emergency room treatment.
Touche` taxpayer.
This is great, as I hate getting the Monkey $hits
Ten-million medical marijuana users have been telling us this for decades.
It can also work wonders on depression, ADHD, certain psychoses, post-chemo nausia, and a number of other issues as well.
And for weekend recreational use, it's far less damaging than a case beer, a bottle of whiskey, or Uncle Jed's home-made moonshine. Sure, stoners might want to jump in the car and go somewhere, but unlike alcoholics, they're too lazy to do so.
It's time to legalize and tax marijuana, and pay off the war debt W. left us with, Obama has compounded, and will either continue to compound, or Romney will sell to the Chinese until they own everything that was ours.
Agreed. And lets not forget that legalization would instantaneously defund 70% of the drug cartel's revenue. Murder rates in Latin America would plummet.
Plus, our law enforcement could actually spend time working on crimes where there is a victim.
Myth. No money to be made taxing weed. Why would I buy something (and pay taxes), if I can grow it for free in my backyard?
That's exactly the reason weed will not be legalized. Ever.
I wish it weren't so.
.....because big pharma has to figure out how to make a bunch of money off of it. Like zupercram said, it can be grown in your backyard easily. But it sure would help hold down medical care bills for low income folks who suffer from MS or other maladies. Or just want to get high instead of drunk. Big alcohol would never go for it either.
Zuper, I think your argument is pretty weak. You could be growing chickens or pigs or whatever to eat, but you go to the supermarket to buy your meats, no? There will always be a marketplace for marijuana for people who have no interest in producing their own. And I know of what I speak, I have my license here in Colorado, and could legally grow my own, but it's never going to happen when I can just walk into the nearest shop and pick a world-class bud right off the shelf. It's like a dream come true, I must say.
@Zupercram - people can grow almost ALL their food in their back yards, but yet they continue to go to the grocery store. Why? Because they are too lazy to do so. So your argument falls flat on its face. It's way past time to Legalize and Tax...
Ray Butt & Lebourreau - I get it. What you're saying about supermarkets and food makes total sense to me. I'm just relaying to you the fears of our moronic politicians. You're making very rational arguments for the politicians who think irrationally.
zupercram,
There will always be people who choose to pay to have someone else do the work for them rather than produce it themselves. As a few other posters mentioned food production- most people are more than capable of growing at least some of their food for themselves, yet choose not to- because its easier to purchase food at the grocery store. There are no laws restricting gardens, people are free to grow their own food at home if they so wish. But its a lot of hard work, and growing high quality medicine isn't the easiest thing to do in the world.
The same argument is valid for alcohol. Why aren't there more homebrewers in this country, and why isn't Anheuser-Bush out of business? Because people purchase alcohol, despite being more than capable of brewing it themselves. There are some people who are simply better at producing these types of goods.
Holland was collecting more than 1/2 a billion Euros per year in taxes before they decided they didn't need all that money.
In the last two years California has pocketed 1/4 of a billion dollars in sales tax alone which was collected by that State's authorized medicinal cannabis vendors, until the Federal government decided that they didn't need all that money.
It is absurdity in the extreme to argue that something which has been done is impossible.
In our culture of instant gratification the argument that people would put the effort, foresight, and 3-6 months of their time instead of just buying it is beyond stupid. Most people don't even choose to enjoy cannabis in quantities large enough to make the effort worth their while.
Because it's illegal. That's like saying why should I work when I can just get my .38 and go down to the bank.
Anybody could probably grow some crappy ditch weed in their yard, but if you want quality stuff that takes time, money, effort and a lot of know how. You've got pests, disease, nutrients and a whole lot of other little issues that can screw your crop up. Also what if the government simply charged people a fee if they wanted the right to grow. Something like $500 per year to grow up to 10 plants.
I'll even come back with pure logic here...
Why aren't people growing tobacco in their back yards?
Why don't people brew their own beer?
Or distill their own liquor, or ferment their own wine?
As shown above, it is a lot of hard work, takes up a good deal of time, and not everyone has the aptitude for things like horticulture, brewing, distilling or vintering.
Sure, there's going to be some people who do grow their own. I've brewed my own beer, made my own wines, and even distilled my own liquors. I tried my hand at growing tobacco too. My beer was lousy. My liquor bordered on paint thinner, and my tobacco was sadly lacking in both taste and quantity. My wines however... I'll put a bottle of my best merlot up against the best France or Napa Valley have to offer - except they will consistently out-produce me year after year, after year, simply because I do not desire to be a full-time vintner. I have a job I enjoy, and my wine-making is at most an interesting hobby.
So while I've little doubt I could grow a plant or two that might knock Cheech and Chong off their bhongs, I would be completely content to hop down to my local state-store and pick up a pack of joints instead.
This backwards country will never legalize pot and the only way the A.M.A will ever endorse it is when it is offered in the form of a pill. As far as medical marijuana goes, virtually all patients use a vaporizer instead of smoking it. Admit it, pot is good for what ails you!
Your comment is totally laced with inaccuracies and assumptions, I can only guess you read that somewhere.
@Ray Butt - And yet, no one has liked your comment yet, while several people have agreed with BooCoo's statement...
Ray Butt, I fail to see how you and boocoo disagree. It sounds to me as if he is LAMENTING the fact that it will never be legalized. Your other post made me believe you were for legallization. Just saying. He isn't arguing that it shouldn't be legal. He is commenting on the stupidity and greed of a certain percentage of our politicians. Also he points out that it has amazing health benefits when used responsibly, something it seems you both agree on.
Montel Williams showed that over 20 years ago. The government will never give up their rediculous stance. I've vowed, if ever called for jury duty, to never convict for a drug offense. Jury nulification. It's the only hope we have. And I'll be happy to spend my retirement with free housing, food and medical care coutesy of our penal system because I will not bow to the rediculous laws concerning marijuana. It alleviates the symptoms of depression, glucoma, parkinsons, cancer treatment, and the list just goes on. I've been watching study after study for the past 40 years. It doesn't matter. The liquor lobbies consider it a direct threat to their sales and will keep it illegal forever. The NRA and manufactureres of police eqipment consider legalizing pot a threat to their bottom line and their lobbies won't permit. The for profit penal systems get rich off pot users. They will never permit it to be legalized. Screw them all. Let the government support me for the rest of my life.
It won't happen. Drug offenders plead out. No lawyer is going to go to trial on a drug charge due to the gravity of the evidence presented: Look! We have the drugs right here! And no prosecutor is going to prosecute unless they have that evidence.
This is why prosecutors loooooove drug charges. The evidence, i.e. the drugs themselves, virtually guarantee a conviction or plea deal. On the other side of the coin, it's also the reason police and prosecutors drop the ball so often on violent crimes. Violent crimes don't come with neatly pre-packaged convictions and require an investigation (beyond simply finding drugs in someone's possession). Too much risk in making their conviction rate go down. With violent crimes, you need witnesses (who cooperate) or forensic evidence (costly to obtain). Also, the police are too scared to apprehend violent offenders and would rather break the balls of some bellboy with a joint in his sock.
Marijuana is a preventive medicine also.....shhhh don't tell.
Vivix may also relieve symptoms of MS and may go a lot further than that...at least, that's what I hear people say who've used it as such.
Patients also reported feeling "high." You think?!?!
A good friend of mine finds that MJ is the only thing that helps her sleep, but our archaic, draconian laws make it fraught with danger. The whole drug war is a waste of time, money and resources. In addition, what right does the government have to tell adults what they can and can't put in their body? It's pure hypocrisy, out of the right wing especially, which argues for personal liberty -- what they mean is corporate liberty to exploit and abuse in the name of profits. It can't be because it's dangerous or they'd have banned cigarettes long ago, and it can't be because one gets high or they'd have banned alcohol -- and look what happened when they tried.
Anyone who doesn't believe this world is the world of falsehood has to look no further than this debate.
It wasn't the right wing that started the prohibition of mind altering substances. That would be the temperance movement of the 19th and 20th centuries. That was a very LEFT wing idea. It was the religious members of the right wing that had co-opted the fight in the sixties in protest of the hippie lifestyle. I wish the right wing would live up to their claims of being about small government and freedom. They spend all their time nowadays deciding who can legally have sex with who and under what circumstances. They worry about military spending when a tithe of our military could send any modern invader packing. They fight abortion, and that's admirable. But they also fight birth control which would, in at least some of the circumstances, negate the need for an abortion. Most of all, they delight in telling us what we can put in our bodies and all the while they are crucifying the other side of the aisle for trying to dictate nutrition for the school kids. It is beyond ridiculous and beyond sane. For the record, the liberals are just as bad. We desperately need a third political party to keep these incompetent corporate puppets from deadlocking the system. People here should research Gary Johnson. He could give us a nation worth dying for again.
But every sperm is sacred!
I understand that it helps people who are legitimately ill and that's GREAT. However, it kind of bothers me when people try to justify the legalization by pointing out the good it does. Who cares?! It should be legalized because the government should not be able to legislate morality or what people put into their own body. Period.
Excellent point, I think it bothers people to the point of frustration because pot is actually the most valuable and versatile plant known to humanity. Yet here we are banning citizens from its' benefits. So, it's like adding insult to injury when something so important is banned for economic reasons under the banner of religious righteousness. This is that much more bitter considering we are supposed to be a secular country and not one bullied by the "Christian Moral" majority.
This is "old news". People have been ignoring the obvious. Pharma wants MS patients to buy their drugs, not grow the remedy in their own yards. DUH.
"Patients also reported feeling "high" after smoking marijuana, and two patients withdrew from the study because they felt uncomfortably high."
If cannabis that is high in CBDs was used, this would not be an issue;
Scientists at Temple University in Philadelphia who are exploring the medical benefits of cannabidiol (CBD), a marijuana compound that does not produce the high associated with THC, have found that it’s effective in helping prevent neuropathic pain.
CBD, the second major cannabinoid in pot after THC, has anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties, but no psychoactive effects, according to the scientists.
Duh.
Lets face it when your stoned if cures most anything so why not prescribe it for everyone to be fair. We all have something.
I'm grateful that you're not my doctor. I like my doctors to base their decisions on evidence, not hallucinations.
The DEA with help from NIDA are blocking FDA approval of marijuana by groups like MAPS.org. Why are we paying our own goverment to grow marijuana for testing if they won't allow any samples to be used for positive affects testing, and FDA approval? Looks like they're more concerned with protecting the last few middle income jobs that can't be outsourced, than they are with healt care of the community.
Why would anyone consider being high as undesirable side effects?
Does that mean my PC will crash less, the shortcut keys for cut, copy and paste will no longer be next to each other and the stupid "ribbon" will make sense when i'm stoned?
But the Federal Government claims marijuana has no medicinal value. Why would they lie? I'm so confused. ;P
The US Govt holds a patent on Medical Marijuana extolling it's beneficial properties.
Just check out US Patent 6630507 titled "Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants" which is assigned to The United States of America, as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The patent claims that -
The patent was obtained in October of 2003.
The drug czar is required by law to lie....
http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/drug-czar-required/
Now, let’s take as a simple example, the issue of medical marijuana. If the government finds that marijuana Has “currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States” or “accepted safety for use of the drug under medical supervision,” then by law, marijuana cannot remain in Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act, which would immediately legalize it for medical purposes.
But by law, the drug czar must oppose any attempt to legalize the use (in any form).
Therefore, despite the fact that there is extensive evidence of medical marijuana’s safety and effectiveness (including the fact that even the federal government supplies it to patients), and clearly the drug czar would know about all this information, he is required by law to lie about it.
The job description also means that since he must oppose any attempt to legalize, he has no choice but declare that the drug war is working, that legalization would fail, etc., regardless of any… facts.
To get FDA approval of marijuana groups like MAPS.org have tried to get government grown samples from the DEA and are being blocked with the help of the NIDA. The obvious stonewalling (ten years and counting) looks like they are more into protecting the last few middle income jobs that can't be outsourced (their own), than the health of the community. Whay are they affraid of getting FDA approval of this product?
My gods what were they thinking?!? It should NEVER be smoked, but rather placed in an oral pill. *Shakes head* Researchers...
Share with us why you've decided on a pill in your expert medicinal opinion rather than one of the other myriad ways of delivery via methods that don't include smoking. Inhalation via vaporization is proven safe, less expensive, and preferred over smoking by patients by a margin of 7:1.
Oral ingestion isn't a reliable method because people have significantly different digestive tracts. Patients suffering from cachexia or severe emesis have a devil of a time even keeping a pill down. If a slower method of absorption is indicated suppositories are superior to oral ingestion but the problem of dose titration remains.
Other non-smoking methods of delivery include oromucosal, inhalers like asthmatics use, eye drops, and topical salves.
Perhaps a better idea would be to leave the doctoring to actual doctors. I know everyone on the Internet is a flippin' expert in medicine & science but those guys paid good money to go to college and medical schools so I think you shouldn't make them think they just wasted their money by jumping in and doing their job for free. But at least your advice is priced correctly, exactly what it's worth.
It also helps with the pain caused by degenerated discs. I take Baclofen and the pot is much more effective for the incredibly painful spasms that tighten my legs until I want to scream!
I have degenerative discs, 5 bad discs in my lower back. Two specialists told me if I have surgery i could end up in a wheelchair. I get cortizone shots 2-3 times a yr but don't like how it makes me feel. I have smoked marijuana since I was 15. I am 50 now and I still smoke once or twice a day. Smoking a hit or 3 relaxes my back so I can go out and do some work in the yard, without it i have constant spasms that make it impossible to do much at all. Illegal or not, I will continue to partake of this natural GOD given medical miracle. Google RUN FROM THE CURE as woodworker states further down and read how it cures cancer and other medical benefits. The reason it's illegal is pure greed by a few. If you had way to save a family member who has cancer, wouldn't you a least want the choice?
It's very useful for Crohns as well.
I could get a medical permit here in California, but since I work for the fed govern't, I can't use it. So instead the doctor prescribes a pill with a narcotic in it. go figure
MJ is a multi-molecule drug which presents a pain in the ass of the for profit Pharma industry which usually creates a synthetic and patents it. CBD interacts with many other active chemicals when smoked so CBD alone is not a cure all. Its the plants dynamics and how each substance within that works in conjunction with each other.
Here's an example of an MS patient getting relief from MJ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8_5Ebsjk8I
Butch, I understand your pain. I have back problems since a car accident in 06. I would love to be able to get relief but the legality of it in my state is a problem. So I take opioid pain killers that my doctor gives me and still suffer. I would love to try it. I know medical users of cannabis that get a lot of relief, and it isn't a made up thing. I am sure it would help me. But the fear of going to some cartel guy to get it or getting a record is too much. I will fight for legalization though. That is a noble goal. Maybe our politicians will tire of the constant flood of attention it gets and give in. Maybe not. At any rate, I will be voting for Gary Johnson this November, and probably campaigning for him as well. We need some good change.
Watch the Feds now trip all over themselves to dispute these findings. Heaven forbid they could ever admit that this "evil weed" has any medicinal value, as it would then have to be removed from the schedule 1 drug list.... those with no known medicinal or other use. I'm afraid the morons in charge would rather keep their heads up their rear ends and chew on lightbulbs than admit that they've been criminally, idiotically wrong about pot for all these decades.
Hey this is old, old, old, NEWS as anyone other then a DUMB FUX viewer knows...
A friend of mine with MS has been smoking pot for 30 years to help her. I could have saved them millions in studies to tell you that !