I would observe that cannabis use tends to be associated with a certain culture that lends itself pretty well to preconceived notions, and has done so since at least the 60’s.
Well before that with “refer madness” (1936) which was a concerted effort by tobacco companies and others who saw as they saw it as competition and the general prohibition attitudes of the time assisted with that:
The use of cannabis for medicinal uses goes back thousands of years. Yes, associating it with certain culture does lends itself to preconceived notions, but that’s why we as thinking people have to approach the topic objectively and without preconceived notions per comments in the OP.
Heh heh. Reefer Madness. What a hoot. They were trotting that flick back out even when I was in college in the late 60’s.
That said, approaching the cannabis topic objectively and generating unbiased data free of preconceived notions is the great challenge on this subject, and one that to date remains completely unmet. In the absence of real data, preconceived notions will prevail, right or wrong.
Indeed, and once entrenched, very difficult to dislodge regardless of ever mounting evidence. There’s a number of topics/issues like that sadly.
Respectfully, Will, I don’t see any mounting evidence. I just see more and more anecdotes. It’s going to take evidence to dislodge entrenched preconceived notions. I certainly support studying it, but I am suspicious that the reason we’re not seeing evidence is that there is indeed a lack of efficacy with this particular drug.
It would seem that eventually common sense would prevail. Regardless of the obvious medical benefits for cancer patients, seizures, etc., cannabis is much less dangerous than alcohol which is perfectly legal. We spend way too much money and time on marihuana enforcement as it is now. You are always going to have some who abuse, but we see the same problem with alcohol. I don’t use either, but I also don’t want to keep anyone else from using it responsibly. I believe you will see widespread legalization within the next ten years.
Respectfully doc, how much have you been looking into it recently?
I’d say your prior comments on the scheduling/legal issues - in addition to the entrenched preconceived notions - is the major driver as to why it’s heavy on anecdotes (some of which do come from clinical experience vs stoners simply claiming it makes X feel better) and low on solid published data we need to make educated and informed decisions regarding cannabis and various compounds found within.
I agree, but wanted to keep it narrowed to potential medical uses vs devolving into a classic debate on if it should be legal for all casual uses which tends to go south quickly and is actually a different discussion in my view. Your mileage may vary.
Not much. Find me some randomized prospective studies published in peer-reviewed literature, or a good meta analysis. My review of PubMed, which I undertook wearing my administrative hat developing institutional policy, indicates medical marijuana to be almost a total wasteland of level 1 evidence.
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Fwiw, this was published last week in the NEJM.http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1407304
Note “Dr. Devinsky reports receiving grant support from GW Pharmaceuticals and Novartis” As mentioned in the OP, this is an intensive area of research right now for pharma the endocannabinoid system is such an extensive area to target.
What were their conclusions?
Sorry hmac, I do not have a subscription to NEJM so cannot read the whole article.
That’s just it, though. Suppose it is only a placebo effect; so what? If people smoke grass and feel their pain alleviated, that’s preferable to the known addiction risk of opiates.
I thought this an interesting thread bump topic:
What causes runners “high” It’s not what you may think…
Homing In on the Source of Runner’s High
We’ve probably all heard someone exclaim, “Ah, my endorphins are kicking in!” at the end of a good run. Endorphins are famous for supposedly producing “runner’s high,” that fleeting sense of calm and euphoria that engulfs many of us after a satisfying workout.
But in fact, endorphins may be unfairly hogging the credit for making workouts enjoyable, according to an enlightening new experiment with animals. The findings suggest that endorphins have little to do with runner’s high. Instead, that euphoric feeling may be the product of a completely different but oddly familiar substance — the body’s own endocannabinoids, the chemicals that, like the cannabinoids in marijuana, lighten mood.
Endorphins first became a household word in the 1980s, when researchers found that blood levels increased after prolonged exercise. This finding made sense. Exercise can cause discomfort or pain, and endorphins are the body’s self-produced opiates, with pain-relieving properties much like morphine.
From that discovery, it was a short step to believing that endorphins must also produce the pleasurable mental sensations that many people feel after exercise.
But there is a substantial problem with that idea, and it involves the substantial-ness of endorphins. They are large molecules, too big to pass through the blood-brain barrier. They might staunch pain in the muscles, but they wouldn’t have effects directly inside the brain, where any high would originate.
Cont:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/homing-in-on-the-source-of-runners-high/
“endocannabinoids”
Love that word! Thanks for building my vocab.
There are some double blind, peer reviewed articles out there in the British and Canadian Journals of Medicine out there that I will try to dig up after work that show cannabis’ effectiveness on pain, especially when coupled with opiates. It seemed to make the opiates work better.
As someone who has had a lifetime of pain, (over 20 operations including 4 total hip replacements, and I’m in my 40’s) and for years was on 120mg morphine and 40mg oxycontin, I can only give you my experience with cannabis. It completely screwed me up in middle/high school, and I went from straight A’s to D’s and F’s. Later in life it helped me get off the opiates completely, made it possible for me to have a normal life, and go back to college. Plus I was less of an asshole like I was on opiates.
Smoking it didn’t stop the pain, in my experience, it just made it so my mind wouldn’t obsess over it. Eating it however was a different story, I was like the tin man who just got oiled up. Eating it absolutely decreased my pain and didn’t fuzz up my brain as much. I had to discontinue use years ago when I started getting above trig in college, it just didn’t allow my brain to function at that level. If they found a way to get the benefits from it without it affecting my concentration, and it was legal, I would be on it like white on rice.
just my .02c and experience with it.
A few very close friends of mine have benefitted from marijuana. A buddy, who was a helo crew chief in the AF, fell off an UH-60 breaking his back. Numerous surgeries, oxycontin, other hardcore drug patches, etc. and he was a strung out, depressed mess, in lots of pain. Marijuana helped him get off the narcotics, helped relieve his pain, and he’s good to go now. He still smokes pot, says it helps his back, helps him sleep, and I’m cool with that.
Another great friend of mine uses it to deal with his Chron’s. It works far better than any of the prescribed medicines he’s used for the past 20 years.
Anecdotal? Yup. But if they say it helps them that’s good enough for me. Besides that, America, freedom, and owning your own body, are all good enough reasons for me.
FYI info to pass onto your buddy: he may get better effects on pain and mood with far lower risks due to smoking by using the various standardized for endocannabinoids oral products being produced.
I will definitely pass it along. Thanks Will.