Medical Marijuana and Aspirin
by: Mark Sircus Ac., OMD
Medical News - December 8, 2003
The House of Lords in England has made its inquiry into calls for laws to be changed that would permit the medical use of cannabinoids, and to permit the medical use of cannabis itself. Canada, one of the largest most conservative nations on earth has legalized it, as have several states in the US for medicinal purposes. The winds of globalization are blowing in the direction of legalization but law is not the issue here, intelligent medicine is. It's highly ironic, looking back, that the lone opponent to the criminalization of marijuana in 1937 was a representative of the American Medical Association (AMA) who said "it would seem worthwhile to maintain its status as a medicinal agent." Again over AMA objections, marijuana was removed from the American pharmacopoeia in 1941, and any hope for further research or legal medical use of it came to an end.
U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey has said, "There is not a shred of scientific evidence that smoked marijuana is useful or needed." Yet according to Dr William Notcutt, a consultant anaesthetist, self-medication with cannabis for pain is now common, and has said, "Advising on its use can be part of the pharmacological management of pain nowadays." Dr Fred Schon, a neurologist, described the apparently dramatic improvement obtained by self-medication with smoked cannabis resin by an MS patient who had developed a severe and disabling abnormality of eye movements." Despite statements from bigwigs like McCaffrey there is scientific evidence that cannabinoids possess pain relieving properties and quite a bit of clinical evidence to support its medical use.
Marijuana is known to be one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man and was used many years ago by pharmaceutical companies. Marijuana has a wide variety of therapeutic applications that includes relief from nausea and increase of appetite, reduction of inner eye pressure in Glaucoma patients, reduction of muscle spasms; and relief from chronic pain. In AIDS marijuana can reduce the nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite caused by the ailment itself and by various AIDS medications. In Cancer it can stimulate the appetite and alleviate nausea and vomiting, which are common side effects of chemotherapy treatment. And in Multiple Sclerosis marijuana can limit the muscle pain and spasticity caused by the disease, as well as relieving tremor and unsteadiness of gait. It has also been suggested that Cannabis could be very effective in treating anorexia.
Marijuana today falls under the medical category of self-medication; similar to over the counter medications where no doctors order or prescription is necessary. "Marijuana is the safest therapeutically active substance known to man, safer than many foods we commonly consume," said DEA Judge Francis L. Young. Because marijuana began to lose its role in medicine with the development of aspirin, which displaced it as a routine painkiller, it is appropriate to compare the two. Inexpensive and often well-tolerated drugs can work wonders in many people and cut their medical costs dramatically. Both aspirin and marijuana fit this bill nicely but five hundred to one thousand people die each year in the United States from aspirin, (and thousands more from other similar nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). In the United States, more than 100,000 people with osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis are hospitalized every year for gastrointestinal problems caused by NSAIDs--and at least 16,500 of them die from internal bleeding. Aspirin is very useful, but it has many side effects and therefore must be used carefully. Like most powerful drugs, an overdose of aspirin can be fatal. According to Frederick Matsen III, MD "The most common side effects of aspirin are heartburn and other symptoms of stomach irritation such as indigestion, pain, nausea, and vomiting. The stomach irritation may lead to bleeding from the stomach, which may cause black stools. A few people develop asthma, hay fever, nasal congestion, or hives from aspirin. Aspirin sometimes affect the normal function of the kidneys, or they can cause fluid to accumulate in the body." Aspirin is the most widely consumed drug in the world, with Americans gulping down 29 billion pills a year.
The acute toxicity of cannabis and the cannabinoids on the other hand is very low. According to House of Lords (UK) Report on Cannabis for Medical Purposes, "no-one has ever died as a direct and immediate consequence of recreational or medical use." That makes marijuana the safest drug in the world, safer than Bayer Aspirin. Next time you get sick and need some symptom relief you might think of taking something simple and safe like marijuana before you go out and spend your money on a dangerous product produced by a company like Bayer, which has a corporate history darker than you would ever want to imagine. In the final analysis it is interesting to note that the safest most widely available drug in the world is illegal while much more dangerous ones are available over the counter.
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