The Good Side of Marijuana II

          In my previous blog I mentioned how a baby, age two at the time, underwent chemotherapy for a stage four brain tumor and recovered miraculously due to the doses of marijuana his father was giving him. Though medical marijuana has the ability to treat patients after undergoing chemotherapy and help for a full recovery, medical marijuana also has medical properties to treat patents for other serious mental and physical body issues – attention deficit disorder, the prevention of HIV from spreading, multiple sclerosis, autism, etc. For example, medical marijuana is used in some situations to help patients with autism.

            Autism is a general disorder, which deals with brain development and can vary in degrees such as difficulty with social interactions, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors (Autism Speaks, 2013). Although being diagnosed with autism allows an individual to excel in certain areas such as visual skills, music, math and/or art, autism doesn’t have a cure and can cause serious physical health issues. Luckily, for some patients diagnosed with autism, medical marijuana can be used to help the autism’s symptoms. In specific cases, autism can be very deadly to those with eating disorders.

            Not long ago, Joey Perez, a ten-year-old boy diagnosed with autism, had trouble eating because of the disorder and didn’t look like there was a way to help him (Brownstein, 2011). He weighed around forty-six pounds at the time Joey Perez’s mother, Hester-Perez, did some research and found a doctor that helped kids with autism, using medical marijuana. While Hester-Perez, at the time, was up to trying any type of treatment to save her young boy, who was first introduced to marijuana by eating edibles to help his appetite. Edibles are marijuana infused snacks or treats that is an alternative way to get the affects marijuana has, opposed to smoking it. Although Joey Perez was taking numerous amounts of drugs everyday for his autism, before using marijuana, the marijuana infused edibles help him build up an appetite. Because the marijuana infused edibles gave Joey Perez such an appetite, he no longer had trouble eating. Marijuana helped Joey Perez’s autism significantly enough to save his life. 

            Like Cash Hyde, mentioned in my previous post, Joey Perez was given a certain dosage of marijuana to help his medical issue. Joey Perez and Cash Hyde were both young boys and were given doses of marijuana, which saved their lives. The common thing in both cases was that both parents of the children were giving them a certain amount of marijuana orally, opposed to giving their children marijuana sporadically; Joey Perez was given an edible every two or three days. Marijuana is a drug for a reason and should not be abused, which is why people view marijuana as a negative, illegal drug. Marijuana will always be used for personal and medical use, but the more medical marijuana is shown to treat specific issues, the more people will start to see the benefits to marijuana. Even though marijuana may have negative short term affect, a consistent dose of medical marijuana can significantly make a difference on ones health

Why is Marijuana Good? I

          How many times have you heard good things come from being high off marijuana? Not much, because people don’t really hear the benefits to marijuana use. Marijuana use isn’t beneficial and I am not saying that everyone should use it, but there are some medical benefits that can come from marijuana use. Medical marijuana dispensaries have been set up throughout the United States in select states, where marijuana recommended patients can buy medicinal marijuana for their medical conditions, just like a person would refill their prescription at a pharmacy. And using these medical dispensaries, people can use marijuana in different ways to benefit from the medical affects – aids hunger, anxiety, pain relief, depression, etc. (Shim, 2014).

            Marijuana is usually recommended to people who are recovering from chemotherapy, pain and/or depression but there are some cases where medical marijuana has saved lives. Though it isn’t common marijuana use can save the life of another human being, from past evidence, there was a controversial incident where Cash Hyde, a two-year-old at the time, was given marijuana by injecting doses into Cash’s feeding tube by his father, Mike Hyde, but without the doctors consent (Caulfield, 2011). After finding out Cash had a stage four brain tumor, doctors thought Cash would most likely die. Cash, living in Montana where medical marijuana is legal, was given medical marijuana to help Cash eat and relieve the pain. Cash recovered from the brain tumor and the chemotherapy, and was credited to the marijuana oils given to Cash by his father.

Though Mike Hyde, Cash’s father, was not given the permission to give his son medical marijuana, he fed Cash secretly, already knowing the affects marijuana has because Mike Hyde is actually recommended marijuana use for his attention deficit disorder. Without doctor’s consent, there is a lot of controversy to whether or not it was a good parenting decision, on Mike Hyde’s part. Though Cash’s father didn’t have permission to give his son marijuana oils, Cash is Mike Hyde’s own son, and should have a say on what his son can and cannot have. Given that Cash was most likely going to die, Mike Hyde saved his own son’s life and for that, there is something wrong? I don’t see much controversy between whether or not giving his son marijuana was a good parenting decision, because obviously feeding Cash marijuana oil did something right.

Marijuana has been seen as a drug used on the streets, more than it can be seen as a medical drug that can be used to treat patients. There are some benefits that can come from marijuana use, but it is hard to regulate the distribution of medical marijuana. From a friend’s experience, a medical marijuana recommendation, that can be used to buy marijuana at dispensaries, can be easily prescribed, even without having any medical issues. Because marijuana use is more used for recreation these days than for serious medical issues, people see marijuana as a bad thing. People today are even agreeing with the use of cannabis, if used for instances such as chemotherapy (Alice, 2012). If marijuana was used for more medicinal purposes than for its high feeling after being used, then marijuana may be able to be seen for its medical properties.

From A Seed To A Flower

            Do you know where medical marijuana first came from? And for those who have watched “Pineapple Express”, no, medical marijuana did not get banned the way according to the movie. Since I was a kid, I remembered most of what growing up meant was finding out a lot about my past and where I came from. I asked my parents about my ancestry and even until today I still ask my parents about the stuff I did as a kid that I maybe forgot. Just like every living person, marijuana also has a timeline of when it was discovered and first used.

            Marijuana, also known as cannabis, dates back to 2900 BC, when Chinese emperor Fu Hsi describes marijuana as a common and popular medicine, in the Marijuana Historical Timeline. Marijuana was first used medically. But not until 1500 BC was when the Chinese documented its first reference to marijuana in the Rh-Ya. The Rh-Ya is a missionary journal; the Chinese Pharmacopeia. In 1450 BC the popular plant must have spread worldwide, because the book of Exodus references Holy Oils made from six pounds of Kaneh-bosem, which was later identified by respected etymologists, linguistics, and botanists to identify the Kaneh-bosem as cannabis.

Hemp: Chinese

The Chinese Character for hemp, as shown above, was invented by Ts'ang Chieh in 2700 B.C. Hemp refers to the use of a cannabis plant for its strong fibers and hemp seeds; most commonly used for clothes and food.

Once marijuana became more and more popular, more cultures around the world have documentation of marijuana being used medically. Egyptians used cannabis for Glaucoma, inflammation, and enemas in 1213 BC; it is said that cannabis pollen was found on the mummy of Ramesses II who died in 1213 BC, and in ancient Egypt people could’ve gotten prescriptions for medical marijuana for Glaucoma, etc. In 1000 BC a drink containing Cannabis and milk was used in India to treat a wide variety of human maladies; the drink was called Bhang.

Fast forwarding to 1 AD, drug recipes were discovered along with ancient texts written by the Chinese that suggest cannabis was not a big deal back then. The Chinese symbol that was interpreted was “Ma”, which was the sign for marijuana as most people suggest. Most of what we know about marijuana’s past can be dated back to just the Chinese culture because of how much the Chinese have on Medical Marijuana.

Although China, which is half way around the world, was the first to discover marijuana, marijuana was brought to North America from 1600-1899 by the Jamestown Settlers, but was commonly known as hemp and was used as an important export at the time. At that time marijuana, or hemp, was used throughout the States and was even cultivated by popular historical figures such as George Washington, written in his diary, and Thomas Jefferson. Both were said to have cultivated the crop but there is no evidence of Jefferson smoking tobacco or cannabis. In the 1840’s marijuana became mainstream in the West, noted by a French Doctor who studied the affects of marijuana; marijuana suppressed headaches, increased appetite, and helped people sleep.

To this day marijuana is used worldwide and is rather seen in a negative way to others than in the positive, medical way that people in the past once saw marijuana. Now a day’s marijuana is used both recreationally and medically but is hard to regulate between government because of how illegal marijuana became. With the help of technology, marijuana use has changed significantly over time and has been altered even more to give people an even bigger “high”.