[ Closed ] I've left the building... (Page 1 of 2)

I have no idea where to post announcements of any kind anymore, max. Old Forums is where I posted a couple of announcements--probably unseen. That's what's missing--an announcement forum.   And F! the federal crime thing. If you don't transport it back, I guess you'll be okay. I hope it helps what ails you.

Interestingly enough, cannabis for medical purposes is legal in 26 states to varying degrees. I spoke at length with my neurologist yesterday and he poo-pooed the whole pot thing as a conspiracy by the NORMAL folks and pot-heads to promote the use of cannabis purely for recreational purposes and money making.  When I returned home I researched medical cannabis and read that the brain naturally creates endocannabinoid as a response to inflammations, and the phrase, "Cannabis is essentially a good drug with a bad reputation" pretty much summed up the views from neuro & psychopharmacologists. And, cannabis is non addictive. And, I, like a typical multiple slcrosis sufferer, although I am a CIDP sufferer, might be called Mr. Inflammation.

The bad rap that cannabis is the gateway drug to cocaine and beyond is a position stated by the law & oder contingents, and from their point of view that is logical, and perhaps necessary in many way, but few of which have anything to do with cannabis as a medicine. However, the scientific/medical point of view, within brain & body research and statistics, seems to me to carry much more credence then the judicial and sociological points of view.

I'm in a totally different realm of pain then most people experience in there entire lifetime. I say 'explore' cannabis, just as I would, at this point in my physical degeneration of muscles and nerves  "explore" the potential benefits of opioids. However, when I stated this to my neurologist, I was told that opioids were last resort because of the addictive effects, but he expressed more fear, and a seemingly unnatural disdain for cannabis. Was it out of ignorance, or not knowing the present state of scientific and medical investigations of cannabis? I've learned that neurologists can be wrong and they do make mistakes. Nevertheless, he may be correct in his experience and frame of reference. But Hawaii, it seems to me from living here for 40 years, has a lower and middle class work force in the tourist trade that relies on illegal cannabis to carry them through the hum-drum and limiting structures of this work environment that may have influenced his pov and professional life and times here. I mean for the majority of workers her3e who live 24/7 in a resort, how does one "resort" themselves on a very limited income, in a place that has the highest prices in America, and on a land mass of only 700+ square miles, with much of it impenetrable jungle (but the location most illegal cannabis is grown).

Apparently there are many different organic compounds within cannabis, with CB1 & CB2 being the effector compounds that either produce a euphoric sensation or reduce inflammation (and thereby reduces pain) and other body response to cellular stresses, with Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) being the main euphoric compound of the 70 different cannbinoids. The shame of this is that over 400 compounds exist in this plant that may contribute to many aspects of good health and good medicine.

Until I explore and experiment I won't make a judgement as to cannabis' positives or negative qualities.  I am only interested in a derivative of cannabis called CB2, which, apparently has little or no euphoric qualities, but numerous medical properties.

Cannabis regulation is a 'hot potato' subject for writers, both fiction & non-fiction because of the tremendous sociological impact and even more so, the financial impact on state government tax revenues. That the typical disaffected 18 year old male takes refuge in cannabis may change when/if cannabis become a product like alcohol for either recreation or medicine uses.

I now live at a constant 4 level pain, 24/7/365, on a 1-10 pain scale, and yet I take the maximum doses of some very powerful pain killers already. To me, the entrenched medical & judicial establishment maintains and retains prejudices that deny me a possible relief and therefore a fuller life. When discussing this topic I see fear in people's eyes and strong reactions, a shying away from this subject, and yet I am driven by my pain to find relief.

In writing a novel, or other works of art, I think a person is also exploring, searching for solutions to pains and problems of self and society. Perhaps if this were an expansive forum for progressive writers this subject might be placed in a sub-forum entitled, "What drives the artistic urge?" I say this urge to create is our way to seek relief from the pains of one's past life and to better understand and deal with the good & bad times, to pass on the knowledge of experience. And to 'explore' is as natural to me as eating and breathing and walking and typing on and on and on...

What an excellent essay, max! Now copy and paste in essay form for review.

I always find it funny to think that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson attempted to sell marijuana for profit and were unsuccessful. In the end, they kept it for themselves...you know..for hemp, to keep their slaves clothed. As I understand it, there is no real proof that they smoked it, but I've never really been close with the people who write the history books. Sometimes, and this could entirely be my own paranoia, but sometimes I think historians fudged a bit to hide things that might be considered...embarrassing.

The worst part about marijuana in my opinion was that it was controlled by drug cartels and unscrupulous characters that kidnapped and murdered entire families to till their crops and sell their products. I believe the corruption was more evident in Prohibition, but marijuana had a tendency to remain in the background. Legalization and a somewhat-controlled method of distributing the drug was long overdo. The only reason, and again this is my opinion, it became a so-called "gateway" drug had to do entirely with those that controlled it.

It's like going to the doctor and he says, "oh, you liked the Acetaminophen...well...have you tried it with codeine? It's bit more expensive, but you'll sleep like a baby."

If your doctor has a conscience, he'd only suggest the codeine if its necessary...not just to make a profit. Hopefully that made sense...

Either way, I'm glad you were able to get access to it in this way, rather than the other. Good luck, Max!

Mr. Bell: Since December, 2014, the Federal Government has lifted the ban on medical marijuana. See the following:]

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-med … story.html

~Tom

That omnibus spending bill bars the Justice Department from spending money to prevent states or the District of Columbia from implementing laws allowing medical use of marijuana; it is still against federal law to possess marijuana for any reason just as it is against federal law for an alien to enter or remain in the U.S.A. without a valid visa. What we have is the "supremacy" of federal law by a federal government that does not respect the rule of law.

And if anybody favors taking down the Confederate flag in Columbia S.C, he should also advocate armed invasion by federal troops of those 26 pothead states that are in rebellion against federal Supremacy.

Wow! This has degenerated into a political stew pot. I happen to agree with Johnnie. I also think we should get over all the BS about the Confederate flag, I also dare anyone to try to take my .357. I also think Obamacare is a farce of the highest magnitude. This started out as an encouragement to max to seek whatever means he needs for his ailment. Why has it spiraled into the cesspool of politics?

(About Charles)  lol is this guy for real ? Aside from the fact that you have avoided logical response to any, perfectly valid, argumentations against your perfectly invalid viewpoint, your aversion to providing any real, logical argumentation of your own, and your logical fallacy of providing correlation as causation in the worst manner imaginable, that last post was utterly ridiculous. The entire point of a governing body is to govern, not to control. And the entire reasoning behind that governance is to asist maintaining a liveable, positive experience for the people it governs. When people, especially within the governing body, forget that is their true purpose, we run into problems. So, what we have here is not a governing body that does not respect the rule of law, but a governing body that, in this small way (which we need more of), is trying to respect the people it governs.

In addition to this, there is the letter of the law, and there is the spirit of the law. When one adheres stringently to the letter of the law, even when the spirit of the law no longer matches the letter of the law, we run into problems. Some laws were designed by corprations in regards to maintaining corporate profits. This is one of them. If you dont believe me, look into the origins of its banning. The spirit of the law is to reduce crime and things that harm the people, but the letter of the law is STILL maintaining corporate profits. The goal of the governing body should not be using tax money that comes from the people to subdue the very people it was created to protect, much less over antiquated, douchetastic laws that have screwed over many without good cause and kept many people from maintaining an enjoyable life devoid of chronic pain, especially when its alternatives are all far worse than it on the body, are addictive, and sold at a ridiculous markup by, you guessed it, corporations. If it leads to good people getting screwed over when they have done no real harm, than I question whether its supporters the good guys, or the bad guys. It is easy to egotistically believe that we are right in everything we do, but it is a LOT harder to question what we do and decide for ourselves. To enforce a negative thing for the sake of a letter is still a negative thing. So, if one were a thinking man, one should ask oneself if ones beliefs are truly right, or if they are simply following ideologies without question or logical thought. One should never ally oneself with a belief that they, deep within themselves, do not feel is right, regardless of the letters comprising anything.

And, no, I am not a user of the substance we are discussing in any capacity. So, no, this isnt an argument made by a biased person.

Max, latest data condensed:

Medical marijuana is currently legal in 23 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. From state to state, marijuana is approved for a variety of conditions, including but not limited to epilepsy, arthritis, nausea, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis, cancer, glaucoma, Crohn’s disease, chronic pain, and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“States recommend use for 20 to 30 conditions when many of those conditions have little or no evidence,” says Kevin P. Hill, MD, MHS, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Substance Abuse Consultation Service at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. “There’s a tremendous need for evidence-based guidance on medical marijuana, and I can tell you from speaking both nationally and internationally that physicians and patients alike are clamoring for practical advice,” Hill, the author of Marijuana: The Unbiased Truth about the World’s Most Popular Weed, tells Yahoo Health.

A series of studies and articles published today in JAMA offer some answers to questions that have been on the minds of doctors, legislators, and the public: What conditions or symptoms can medical marijuana help relieve, and to what extent? What are the side effects, and how common and serious are they? And what does this mean for patients suffering from chronic conditions, and for the doctors treating them?

Research Supports Some Uses of Medical Marijuana

One of the studies released today is the most comprehensive analysis of research on medical uses for cannabinoids (the active chemical compounds in marijuana) to date. It included 79 different trials, collectively involving more than 6,400 participants. In addition, all of the studies included in the analysis were randomized controlled trials (the gold standard of research quality) that compared cannabinoids with a placebo (sugar pill), usual care, or no treatment.

It’s important to note that most of the studies in the analysis did not ask patients to inhale marijuana, which contains more than 60 different cannabinoids. Instead, participants took cannabinoid medications, which deliver one or two of the chemicals. Dronabinol, for example, is a synthetic form of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting and to help underweight AIDS patients gain weight.

“We only identified two studies on inhaled marijuana which might be a reflection of the legal status,” says study author Penny F. Whiting, PhD, senior research fellow at the University of Bristol in the UK. “In addition, it is easier to control the dose when studying synthetic drugs than to herbal plants that are administered by inhalation.”

Most of the research has been conducted on only a few conditions, with mixed results:

Nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy: Twenty-eight studies in total assessed the effects of cannabinoids on nausea and vomiting. Researchers were able to pool the data from three of them, and found that a significantly greater proportion of patients using cannabinoids experienced complete relief from their symptoms. Overall, 47 percent of participants taking cannabinoids said their nausea and vomiting went away, versus 20 percent of the placebo group.

“Although for some indications we had a relatively large number of studies, it was only possible to combine results for a small proportion of these for a small number of reported outcomes,” Whiting tells Yahoo Health. “This was because studies reported a wide variety of different outcomes, measured in different ways, and did not report the appropriate statistical results to allow us to include them in our meta-analysis.”

Chronic pain: Twenty-eight studies assessed cannabinoids for chronic pain due to conditions such as cancer, diabetes-related nerve damage, and fibromyalgia. Researchers were able to combine the data from eight of the trials, and found that cannabinoids significantly improved pain in a greater proportion of patients compared to a placebo. Participants also reported less subjective pain, on average, with the cannabinoids. The analysis concluded that there is “moderate-quality evidence” to support the use of cannabinoids for chronic pain.

Spasticity from multiple sclerosis or paraplegia: Fourteen studies examined the effects of cannabinoids on spasticity, a symptom of multiple sclerosis characterized by tightness and involuntary muscle movement. The analysis found that compared to a placebo, cannabinoids were associated with greater improvement in spasticity symptoms. However, the results were not statistically significant, meaning they could be due to chance.

Appetite stimulation in HIV/AIDS: Four studies looked at how cannabinoids affect weight gain in people with HIV/AIDS; all of them used the FDA-approved drug dronabinol (synthetic THC). The review concluded that there was some evidence that dronabinol is associated with increase in weight versus a placebo.

Limitations Highlight the Need for More Research

The review found little to no evidence for the use of cannabinoids in glaucoma, sleep disorders, Tourette syndrome, and social anxiety disorder. The studies on these conditions have all been small, Whiting explains. “This means that the studies may not have had enough power to detect differences between groups,” she says. “Further large, robust randomized studies should be conducted, especially in areas for which our comprehensive systematic review found no or very little evidence.”

Hill also makes the point that there are more than 60 different cannabinoids in marijuana, and research has studied only a handful of them. (Only two cannabinoid medications are approved by the FDA.) “There could be medical conditions for which a plant itself, with a combination of 60-plus cannabinoids, will outperform those two cannabinoids that we have,” he says.

“It’s very likely that we’re going to have new cannabinoids approved by the FDA within the next few years” for chronic pain, spasticity, and neuropathic pain, Hill says. “But right now because there are only two cannabinoids available, there is a place for medical marijuana.”

Side Effects Widespread, Some Serious

More than 80 percent of participants taking cannabinoids experienced one or more side effects, Whiting says. That’s compared to 62 percent in the control group. “Most of the side effects were mild,” such as dry mouth and drowsiness, Whiting says. About 6 percent of those in the cannabinoids group, however, reported serious side effects, such as vomiting or hallucination. (So did 4 percent of the people in the control group.)

“If you’re someone who is using marijuana daily over a long period of time, then we worry about addiction, cognitive difficulties, or worsening anxiety or depression. Those are the main concerns,” Hill says. “The reality is, if you’re going to take it regularly — as most people would if they were going to use it medicinally — then there is a significant side effect profile, and it becomes a risk-benefit discussion.”

Advice for Doctors and Patients

In a separate review released today in JAMA, Hill outlines some general guidelines for doctors and patients to follow regarding medical marijuana.

First, Hill says, patients considering using marijuana for a medical purpose should research reliable information and see their primary care doctor. “There’s a difference between talking with your doctor — somebody who knows you and has a history with you — as opposed to going to a specialty medical marijuana clinic,” he says. “I think unfortunately, in some of those clinics, the doctor-patient relationship doesn’t meet the same standard that it would in regular practice.”

Namely, he says, clinics tend not to offer the same level of follow-up care, which is important with any medication that has significant side effects.

The bottom line, Hill says, is that, “We need to do more of these trials. We need to make it easier to do these trials, and we need to do them so we can see whether or not there is evidence to support the use of medical marijuana for the conditions under which people have voted for it.”

Hope this helps.

Good luck, dags

I have no beef with the old and the sick taking whatever measures to get them through the rest of their lives, but broadening that issue into a greater political action without due consideration of all consequences is mistaken. (1) The push to legalize marijuana for medical reasons is 100% so that rich men can be made more rich off a scam --like the "immigration" issue is similarly a slavers' economic issue and not within a tiny sphere of feeling sorry for people stuck in rotten countries;  (2) you oughtn't simply ignore medical advice in order to obtain a placebo effect you will probably get; (3) political progressives on the socialist left talk about shared social responsibility when coercing an individual into government-supervised medical care while obviously in that same coercion create an autocratic medical decision-making process that excludes, virtually and really,  individual choice -- and that political leaning, which also instituted Jim Crow and Prohibition, for example, flags down every social-responsibility cause and ignores every individual-responsibility cause such as the examples of Martin, Brown, and Roof who were alleged as victims or victimizer in racism, not individually chosen, and not that they were drug addicts, always individually chosen.

Initially my comment was directed toward an open public statement concerning the violation of federal law -- like those who object to the income tax publically stating they are not paying their income taxes. That one can get away with a violation of federal controlled-substance law and not so much an equally obtusely derived taxation law shows the corrupt nature of the U.S. federal government, and yet again it does not seem to matter to the social-responsibility progressive-socialists that their means of coercion is corrupt.