Doctors: Pot Can Cure All That Ails You

 

Philip Rhie/Guardian

Potheads clinging religiously to their medical-marijuana cards can rest assured: UCSD’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research released a study on Feb. 11 confirming weed as a legitimate medical treatment.

According to J.H. Atkinson, co-director at CMRC, cannabis can significantly improve quality of life for patients suffering neuropathic pain — or, pain caused by damage to the nervous system from spinal-cord injuries or diseases like diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

“The major findings were that for chronic neuropathic pain, cannabis gave a good foundation — or good pain relief — that is roughly on par with the relief given by standard treatment,” Atkinson said.

The findings are backed by five clinical trials and four pre-clinical studies (meant to test a product’s safety before use on humans). In these trials, subjects with either HIV-related or neuropathic pain smoked cannabis cigarettes, or joints, at varying concentrations.

“Fifty percent of the patients in one trial had a pain reduction of 30 percent or more, and that 30-percent reduction is known to be clinically important because it’s associated with a better quality of life,“ Atkinson said.

According to Atkinson, chronic pain is a serious affliction for those suffering long-term diseases, and can prevent them from carrying out everyday activities. For example, patients with multiple sclerosis experience disabling pain and muscle spasms, which could eventually deprive them of their ability to walk.

“[One of the] findings was with the specificity of multiple sclerosis,” Atkinson said. “Cannabis provided moderate pain relief for the muscle spasms.”

The study demonstrated that cannabis was just as effective as painkillers or pain relievers in treating neuropathic pain. In addition, the trials revealed that marijuana’s efficiency does not depend on how much tetrohydrocannabinol — the main active component of cannabis — the patient consumes.

“Low doses of cannabis were just as effective as higher doses,” Atkinson said.

In a second study, healthy subjects were injected with capsaicin — the “hot” ingredient in chili peppers — to induce pain after the subjects had smoked cannabis cigarettes. The results proved a narrow therapeutic range for concentrations of THC: While low doses of THC did not alleviate the effects of the capsaicin, higher doses actually increased the amount of pain subjects felt.

“There is a narrow therapeutic window — that is, a concentration of THC in the bloodstream — that was therapeutic, whereas all concentration above or below that amount were not,” Atkinson said.

This finding suggests that the use of cannabinoids as a pain reliever is complex, and does not follow the mechanism of known pain relievers such as morphine or aspirin.

The participants were unknowingly given cigarettes with or without THC to control for the placebo effect — a phenomenon where subjects convince themselves they are feeling less pain just because they think they have consumed medicine. The studies showed a significant reduction in pain with THC compared to the placebo.

The use of cannabis as a therapeutic substance has been contested in both the scientific and political communities due to its strong psychological effects, and relatively unknown physiological ones.

THC alters perception, cognitive control, emotions, memory and other psychological aspects. It can also cause anxiety, paranoia and increased susceptibility to psychosis.

Due to the toxic and carcinogenic wastes emitted from cigarettes, the smoking of joints also has obvious health risks, including lung and heart diseases.

A cleaner alternative to a joint or a bong known as a “volcano” vaporizes cannabis with heat to release its THC — which can then be inhaled without the carcinogens and toxic wastes from cigarettes.

Though vaporizer trials have not been completed, preliminary CMCR studies show that vaporizers allow for the same amount of THC to circulate the system as marijuana cigarettes.

“We found that the concentration of THC was very comparable — a vaporizer did just as well to deliver THC as a cigarette,” Atkinson said.

Politically, the use of cannabis — whether through cigarettes or a vaporizer — has been highly contested since the federal Marihuana Tax Act first made the drug illegal in 1937.

Currently, policymakers like Michele Leonhardt, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, worry that dispensaries — pharmacies that specifically distribute medical marijuana — would open the door to more widespread use of illegal drugs.

Though medical marijuana is illegal under federal law and the DEA frequently raids dispensaries, 12 states — including California — allow dispensaries to distribute cannabis to those with medical-marijuana cards. These cards, which can be prescribed to a patient by a physician, state that the patient needs marijuana to help treat symptoms like pain or insomnia.

Because THC remains in fat cells for approximately one month, policymakers are also concerned about marijuana’s effects on driving ability. Studies at the Lakehead University in Ontario have shown that cannabis impairs motor skills.

Though UCSD scientists controlled the exact amount of THC in the cigarettes they administered, Atkinson said that doctors at dispensaries do not know the concentration of THC in the goods they distribute, which makes it difficult to prescribe. As the study shows, too much THC can actually increase pain.

“I do not think that you can take our results and apply them directly to what is available to the streets or in dispensaries,” Atkinson said.

Readers can contact Nisha Kurani at [email protected].

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