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+ This page goes over the many uses of cannabis and some answer to a few FAQ
++ Marijuana has thousands of possible uses in medicine.
Marijuana (actually cannabis extract) was available as a
medicine legally in this country until 1937, and was sold as
a nerve tonic -- but mankind has been using cannabis
medicines much longer than that. Marijuana appears in
almost every known book of medicine written by ancient
scholars and wise men. It is usually ranked among the top
medicines, called `panaceas', a word which means `cure-all'.
+ The list of diseases which cannabis can be used for
includes: multiple sclerosis, cancer treatment, AIDS (and
AIDS treatment), glaucoma, depression, epilepsy, migraine
headaches, asthma, pruritis, sclerodoma, severe pain, and
dystonia. This list does not even consider the other
medicines which can be made out of marijuana -- these are
just some of the illnesses for which people smoke or eat
whole marijuana today.
+ There are over 60 chemicals in marijuana which may have
medical uses. It is relatively easy to extract these into
food or beverage, or into some sort of lotion, using butter,
fat, oil, or alcohol. One chemical, cannabinol, may be
useful to help people who cannot sleep. Another is taken
from premature buds and is called cannabidiolic acid. It is
a powerful disinfectant. Marijuana dissolved in rubbing
alcohol helps people with the skin disease herpes control
their sores, and a salve like this was one of the earliest
medical uses for cannabis. The leaves were once used in
bandages and a relaxing non-psychoactive herbal tea can be
made from small cannabis stems.
+ The most well known use of marijuana today is to control
nausea and vomiting. One of the most important things when
treating cancer with chemotherapy or when treating AIDS with
AZT or Foscavir, being able to eat well, makes the
difference between life or death. Patients have found
marijuana to be extremely effective in fighting nausea; in
fact so many patients use it for this purpose even though it
is illegal that they have formed `buyers clubs' to help them
find a steady supply. In California, some city governments
have decided to look the other way and allow these clubs to
operate openly.
+ Marijuana is also useful for fighting two other very serious
and wide-spread disabilities. Glaucoma is the second
leading cause of blindness, caused by uncontrollable eye
pressure. Marijuana can control the eye pressure and keep
glaucoma from causing blindness. Multiple Sclerosis is a
disease where the body's immune system attacks nerve cells.
Spasms and many other problems result from this. Marijuana
not only helps stop these spasms, but it may also keep
multiple sclerosis from getting worse.
++Alot of people have asked if marijuana stay in your fat cells and keep you
high for months?
This just aint true. The part of marijuana that gets you high is called
`Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol.' Most people just call this
THC, but this is confusing: your body will change
Delta-9-THC into more inert molecules known as
`metabolites,' which don't get you high. Unfortunately,
these chemicals also have the word `tetrahydrocannabinol' in
them and they are also called THC -- so many people think
that the metabolites get you high. Anti-drug pamphlets say
that THC gets stored in your fat cells and then leaks out
later like one of those `time release capsules' advertised
on television. They say it can keep you high all day or
even longer. This is not true, marijuana only keeps you
high for a few hours, and it is not right to think that a
person who fails a drug test is always high on drugs,
either.
Two of these metabolites are called
`11-hydroxy-tetrahydrocannabinol' and
`11-nor-9-carboxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol' but we will
call them 11-OH-THC and 11-nor instead. These are the
chemicals which stay in your fatty cells. There is almost
no Delta-9-THC left over a few hours after smoking
marijuana, and scientific studies which measure the effects
of marijuana agree with this fact.
++Doesn't Marijuana cause brain damage?
No. The reason why you ask this is because you
probably heard or read somewhere that marijuana damages
brain cells, or makes you stupid. These claims are untrue.
-- marijuana kills brain cells -- is based on
research done during the second Reefer Madness Movement. A
study attempted to show that marijuana smoking damaged brain
structures in monkeys. However, the study was poorly
performed and it was severely criticized by a medical review
board. Studies done afterwards failed to show any brain
damage, in fact a very recent study on Rhesus monkeys used
technology so sensitive that scientists could actually see
the effect of learning on brain cells, and it found no
damage.
The truth is, no study has ever demonstrated cellular
damage, stupidity, mental impairment, or insanity brought on
specifically by marijuana use -- even heavy marijuana use.
This is not to say that it cannot be abused, however.
++If it doesn't kill brain cells, how does it get you `high'?
Killing brain cells is not a pre-requisite for getting
`high.' Marijuana contains a chemical which substitutes for
a natural brain chemical, with a few differences. This
chemical touches special `buttons' on brain cells called
`receptors.' Essentially, marijuana `tickles' brain cells.
The legal drug alcohol also tickles brain cells, but it will
damage and kill them by producing toxins (poisons) and
sometimes mini-seizures. Also, some drugs will wear out the
buttons which they push, but marijuana does not.
++Don't people die from smoking pot?
Nobody has ever overdosed. For any given substance,
there are bound to be some people who have allergic
reactions. With marijuana this is extremely rare, but it
could happen with anything from apples to pop-tarts. Not
one death has ever been directly linked to marijuana itself.
In contrast, many legal drugs cause hundreds to hundreds of
thousands of deaths per year, foremost among them are
alcohol, nicotine, valium, aspirin, and caffiene. The
biggest danger with marijuana is that it is illegal, and
someone may mix it with another drug like PCP.
Marijuana is so safe that it would be almost impossible to
overdose on it. Doctors determine how safe a drug is by
measuring how much it takes to kill a person (they call this
the LD50) and comparing it to the amount of the drug which
is usually taken (ED50). This makes marijuana hundreds of
times safer than alcohol, tobacco, or caffiene. According
to a DEA Judge ``marijuana is the safest therapeutically
active substance known to mankind.'Amen'
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