Marijuana: Pharmacology and Therapeutics Part One

[Herb Fellow]

Marijuana: Pharmacology and Therapeutics Part One
Dr. Phillip Leveque

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - Marijuana/Cannabis at one time was the most prescribed medicine in the United States. It was prescribed for more than one hundred medical conditions. Why it was made illegal is still not understood.

It was resurrected as legal medicine in 1998 in California and has been legalized in eleven other states. About 400,000 patients have permits to grow and use marijuana/cannabis now and the number of permits for use seem to increase at least 10 percent per year.

In the meantime, the US government estimates at least 10 million people are using it daily. About 750,000 people are arrested each year for using it.

IT HAS BECOME THE MOST VERSATILE DRUG OF THE 21ST CENTURY.

I have stated above that it has been and is now effectively used for about 100 medical conditions. The top three are pain, spasm and nausea/vomiting. It will require at least three more articles to cover this subject adequately. The next goes to the table of medical conditions.

TABLE ONE

Medical Conditions Relieved by Marijuana/Cannabis as allowed under Oregon state law:

1. ALZHEIMER'S RAGE (agitation related to Alzheimer's disease)

2. CACHEXIA

3. CANCER

4. GLAUCOMA

5. HIV+/AIDS

6. NAUSEA

7. SEVERE PAIN

8. SEIZURES (including but not limited to epilepsy)

9. Persistent muscle spasms, including but not limited to those caused by multiple sclerosis

TABLE TWO

Medical Conditions Found by California Medical Marijuana Doctors

MENTAL ILLNESS - SCHIZOPHRENIA (pro and con articles have been reported)

OBSTETRIC PROBLEMS (dysmenorrheal, morning sickness, uterine bleeding, and antimiscarriage)

ARTHRITIS, OSTEO- and RHEUMATOID ASTHMA (while not burning cannabis) ADDITION, CHLORAL HYDRATE ADDICTION, ETC. (and probably tobacco addiction).

TUMORS (blockade of a carcinogenesis enzyme)

WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS OF ALCOHOLISM, MORPHINISM, *******

CROHN'S DISEASE/INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE

AIDS WASTING SYNDROME

DEPRESSION

DEGENERATIVE NEURAL DISEASES

EATING DISORDERS/ANOREXIA

EPILEPSY/SEIZURES

GLAUCOMA

INTRACTABLE BREATHLESSNESS

MIGRAINE

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

NAUSEA AND VOMITING PAIN, of all types

PHANTOM LIMB PAIN