Throughout The United States medical marijuana is being legalized, with 20 states now allowing treatment with the drug. One of the most recent experts to voice his support for medical marijuana use is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta.
The two chemicals in marijuana whose medicinal properties stand out most are cannabidoil (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). One of the main problems with The U.S. Government’s current research on marijuana is that only 6% of the tests are interested in learning about the drug’s medical properties and potential future usage.
Recently, research, modern and from a long time ago, has surfaced to reveal that there are a lot more ailments that could be treated effectively with marijuana. For example, glaucoma is a eye disease which causes loss of vision and damage to the optic nerves in one’s eyeballs. According to The National Eye Institute marijuana decreases intraocular pressure inside the eye.
An even more striking study suggests that smoking marijuana may reverse the damage done on the lungs by tobacco. The study, published in The Journal of The American Medical Association in 2012, gives evidence that marijuana doesn’t do damage to lung tissue.
Dravets Syndrome, a severe disorder which causes daily seizures as well as very severe developmental delays, is also treatable by marijuana’s active chemicals. Despite its effective usage by families such as the Figi family, whose 5 year old daughter went from having 300 seizures a week, to one every now and then, after using medical marijuana, The Drug Enforcement Agency doesn’t support it. In fact, in some states parents who self medicate children with Dravets or similar seizure inducing diseases, can find themselves the subjects of a Social Services investigation and may have their child taken away.
There is ongoing debate about whether or not marijuana use increases or decreases society. Some users report that the drug improved their mood and allowed them to relax, while on the other hand some people reported high dosages increased anxiety and paranoia.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) has many painful symptoms but according to one Canadian study the THC in marijuana bind to receptors on muscles and nerves and relieves pain. The same type of chemical reactions may occur to help with other muscle spasms too, as well the discomfort associated with arthritis.
It can be used to treat the autoimmune disease Systemic Lupus Ertyhematosus, or simply called Lupus, a somewhat common disease in The United States in which the body starts attacking itself for reasons that remain unknown. Some chemicals in marijuana seem to calm the immune system down, a good thing for those struggling with Lupus but perhaps not when it comes to other illnesses that rely on the immune system’s quick response.
Although it’s not a straight forward health benefit marijuana prompts creativity in the brain, specifically marijuana allows the brain to access those isolated regions that can prompt new ideas. Verbal fluency, the ability of the speaker to find and utilize new words when describing things, seems to especially increase with marijuana. However, short term memomry is not as good while high.
Lastly, marijuana can help people struggling with other addictions such as alcoholism since it is not an addictive drug but can often act as a replacement for a few drinks. The debate as to whether marijuana should be studied more for its medicinal properties continues to go on throughout the country, and hopefully will be a topic in the upcoming presidential elections.
