Seems Pretty Medical To Me

          In my previous two blogs I mentioned how marijuana has medical properties that can either relieve pain and/or increase appetite, has saved the life of children suffering from mental and physical disabilities – a brain tumor and autism. I’ve already talked about the baby, Cash Hyde at the time, who recovered from chemotherapy with the help of marijuana oils and the ten-year-old boy, Joey Perez, who continues using marijuana edibles everyday to help with his autism (Caulfield, 2011). But are there any other diseases that can be treated with marijuana, that doesn’t deal with a child’s parents giving their children marijuana? If so, what other diseases are there? Multiple sclerosis (MS).

            Multiple Sclerosis is a disease, and like most diseases, the symptoms vary. MS is a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord resulting in loss of muscle control, vision, balance, and other senses, such as numbness. Multiple Sclerosis is when an individual’s immune system damages the nerves of their own brain and spinal cord – an autoimmune disease (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2012). I know, multiple sclerosis sounds painful, but one of the main affects marijuana has, is being able to relieve an individual from the pain that Multiple Sclerosis causes an individual. Unfortunately, Multiple Sclerosis does not have a cure, but has been studied over the years involving different types of treatment – marijuana and placebo pills.

What is Multiple Sclerosis?

            Although MS cannot be treated, scientists have made studies on MS patients by randomly providing the patients with doses of marijuana extract or placebo pills. This study involved giving the patients either the marijuana extract or the placebo pills for a two-week dose phase, ranging from five mg to twenty-five mg of tetrahydrocannabinol daily, along with a ten-week maintenance phase (Barnes,2012). The scientists that were performing the study were testing the Multiple Sclerosis patients for walking ability and the use of the medication, and by the end of the twelve weeks, the results of the study made on the patients came back significantly surprising. The results showed that the patients, given the cannabis extract (CE), showed the rate of relief from muscle stiffness after twelve weeks was twice as high with CE than with placebo, but that’s not all. The MS patients after four weeks and eight weeks also saw some relief in muscle stiffness.

            Even though marijuana has certain medical properties that are used to treat sick patients, marijuana will not cure an individual overnight. Marijuana, like all prescription drugs, should be taken given recommendation. If not otherwise told so, then the only reason for using marijuana is recreationally, which is not what marijuana should be used for if anyone wants to ever take marijuana as a medical drug, seriously. Although chemotherapy, autism and Multiple Sclerosis do not have much in common, marijuana can be used to treat such issues due to the symptoms that the patient is feeling. Marijuana can be used as treatment for many different things, based on its medical marijuana properties, but why do patients with disabilities feel the need to say no to drugs, when one of the number one cash crops has the ability to treat a patient’s illness? It’s like saying no to Advil because it’s a drug, but your head hurts. Plus, over time, there has never been a recorded death due to the overdose of marijuana, unlike prescription pills (Denoon, 2003).