How Does Medical Marijuana Help Cancer?

Medical marijuana is the medical--as opposed to recreational--application of the fruit, or "buds," of the cannabis sativa and cannabis indica plants. Patients can appropriate the effects of marijuana by drinking tinctures, eating food cooked with marijuana-infused butter, ingesting raw marijuana or by smoking the marijuana either in a cigarette, in a cigar or through a pipe. Doctors do not prescribe medical marijuana to directly treat cancer, but rather to relieve negative effects of cancer. History The American Cancer Society explains that various cultures have documented the medical use of marijuana over millenia, applying it to conditions including constipation, malaria, absent-mindedness, insomnia, beriberi, gout, rheumatism, depression, muscle as well as joint pain, coughs and tetanus. Throughout this period, many societies also ingested marijuana casually for the narcotic psychological and physiological effects of the drug. The American Cancer Society explains that due to the prevalence of this application of marijuana, many governments--including the United States--eventually banned its cultivation, sale and purchase. Nonetheless, recreational marijuana use has continued, eventually leading to questions regarding its therapeutic potential, states the American Cancer Society. Sponsored Links 5 Foods to never ever eat Cut down a bit of stomach fat every day by never eating these 5 foods. Trimdownclub.com Current State of Medical Marijuana Most recently, the global scientific and medical community has applied extensive research to the medical potential of marijuana and most outcomes are noncommittal, with a few studies with affirmative as well as negative conclusions. The American Cancer Society reports on the federal level as of 2010, the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, approved the active chemical in marijuana for use to treat various terminal conditions, including cancer. According to the website Medical Marijuana, the states that individually permit the cultivation, sale and use of medical marijuana for the treatment of conditions sanctioned by the FDA include Alaska, California, Colorado, the District of Colombia, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Function The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of the cannabinoid tetrahyrocannabinol, or THC, to treat nausea and vomiting in cancer patients, according to the American Cancer Society. According to the Institute of Medicine (see reference 3), THC is a composite chemical of marijuana and generally accepted as marijuana's "active ingredient," given it both provides the "high" for which some smoke marijuana illegally as well as the therapeutic qualities for which the FDA approved it for medical use. Citing studies published between 1975 and 2005, the American Cancer Society explained how various clinical tests established that THC viably reduced pain, nausea, inhibited vomiting and stimulated appetites in cancer patients. Furthermore, the Institute of Medicine reports that the sense of euphoria and sedation associated with marijuana evidenced therapeutic value, as it was desirous for the patients. The American Cancer Society avers that while some researchers used raw marijuana to conduct these studies, some used pharmaceutical substitutes that contained either THC or a synthetic version. Such pharmaceutical substitutes never required smoking--patients ingested pills and oral sprays or wore skin patches instead. Theories/Speculation Marijuana is associated with compendious speculations and controversy. Both the American Cancer Society and the Institute of Medicine asserts that the majority of the speculation regarding the harm behind legalizing marijuana for medical use includes long term health problems associated with smoking. There also are potential social issues, including increased use among minors, a general belief that marijuana is "safe" when marijuana could be harmful due to the carcinogens present in smoke. According to the American Cancer Society, other drug options can engender the same benefits without the risks associated with smoking marijuana. Support for medical marijuana includes the argument that most terminal patients, such as those with cancer, will not have the opportunity for long-term use, according to the Institute of Medicine. Supporters say health problems resulting from marijuana smoking remain unproven, while its efficacy in assuaging various medical conditions has, states the American Cancer Association. None of the testing of medical marijuana as of 2010 includes an assessment of all means of ingesting marijuana. There are various ways to smoke marijuana; these include in a cigarette, in a cigar, with a pipe, with a water pipe, with an herbal vaporizer, and with a gas mask. Some choose to smoke marijuana with tobacco, effectively reducing average marijuana consumption, but that increases risks associated with tobacco. Other ways to ingest marijuana include in tinctures made from either a lipid or alcohol base, in food, in sprays and in transdermal patches. Though research has explored some of these methods, all must be taken into account in order to fully assess the viability of marijuana as an option for therapy. Other supportive speculation provided by the American Cancer Society includes that marijuana could possess antibacterial qualities, controls seizures, and dilate airways--which can help to control asthma, hinder tumor development and reduce pressure in the eyes for glaucoma patients. Potential The Institute of Medicine asserts that cannabinoids likely regulate pain. Furthermore, the Institute of Medicine confirms that scientific data shows potential therapeutic value for cannabinoid drugs, including marijuana, for pain, nausea and vomiting relief as well as appetite stimulation for cancer patients. The Institute of Medicine also concludes that various psychological effects, including euphoria, sedation and anxiety reduction, may be desirously therapeutic for cancer patients, and should thus undergo clinical examination for therapeutic value. In this way, the Institute of Medicine has confirmed that marijuana has various sources of potential for therapeutic value for cancer patients. Thus, the Institute of Medicine urges that researchers should apply further assessment to determine whether there are therapeutic applications of medical marijuana.

Marijuana Medical Facts

Medical science has learned much about marijuana, but both opponents and proponents claim scientific support for their respective positions. Academicians writing for the Berkman Center at Harvard University acknowledge both social and scientific controversy over whether use of marijuana, Cannabis sativa, is beneficial or hazardous. All investigators agree that the active ingredient in marijuana, delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is a powerful substance. It interacts with many body systems. Benefit or detriment may depend on a user's needs. Smoke Effects Smoking, whether marijuana or tobacco, deposits hundreds of combustion products and smoke particles throughout your lungs. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the DEA, reports that in one marijuana cigarette, a joint, over 400 chemicals and four times the tar of a single filtered cigarette are inhaled. The DEA cites a National Institutes of Health study documenting that five joints a week deliver as many cancer-causing chemicals as a pack-a-day tobacco smoker receives. Smokers all know that smoking delivers nicotine, but the amount depends on how much of a cigarette is smoked. Smoking is not a precise dose-delivery system for medical marijuana administration. The benefit of any smoke-delivered marijuana ingredient should be weighed against its variability and hazards. Marijuana can also be ingested. Sponsored Links Woman is 53 But Looks 27 53/YO Mom Reveals 1 simple Wrinkle Trick that has angered doctors... www.NecessarySkinCare.com Hormonal Effects In 2002, physicians reporting in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology reviewed 74 controlled research studies investigating the effects of THC on the human hormonal system. They found that marijuana suppresses male and female reproductive hormones, sperm production and lactation, and growth and thyroid hormones. These responses diminish with chronic use, though some males develop irreversible gynecomastia, or breast enlargement. The researchers concluded that most long-term hormonal consequences are mild and subtle. Psychological Effects A 2008 British Journal of Psychiatry report searched through more than 15,000 research studies to identify the effects of marijuana use on the outcome of care in patients with psychotic disorders. They reported only low confidence that marijuana use could be correlated with either good or bad outcomes and concluded that the dangers of marijuana in such cases remained unproven. College students who use marijuana heavily, according to research cited by the American Council for Drug Education, suffer deficits in attention, short-term memory and organization up to 24 hours after use. Another study, reported from the Berkman Center at Harvard University, documented that memory deficits can be detected for up to six weeks after the last marijuana use. If you use marijuana, you may want to weigh these potential deficits against your professional, social and educational goals. Appetite Effects The 2002 Journal of Clinical Pharmacology report identified a THC-mediated appetite stimulation effect. This effect is due to activation of your brain's "feeding center," which controls the sense of hunger. Marijuana's appetite stimulation has been exploited to improve nutrition for AIDS and cancer chemotherapy patients. Drug Testing If you use marijuana in any form, sensitive blood tests may detect it up to four weeks later, according to the American Council for Drug Education. THC accumulates in your fatty tissues including the liver, lungs and testes. Forty-eight hours after using marijuana, up to one-quarter of the THC is still detectable in your body.

Black Market Street: Inside a Thriving Open-Air Drug Business

The hustler asks it with a nonchalant air, neither friendly nor imposing. Smooth. Like a pro. The customer is startled, shoulders stiffening beneath his gray v-neck. "Huh?" "You need weed?" he repeats. The customer, a thin man in his 20s walking down Market Street, stops and looks around. Through his aviators he notices the dozen or so young men in loose jeans and hoodies lingering around the corner of Market and Jones. Some keep to themselves, leaning against the walls of a Western Union check-cashing joint. Others huddle in groups of two and three beside parked cars. The hustler, 6-foot-2 and lean with a beanie pulled to his eyebrows, is perched on a chain railing near the intersection. The customer stutters, searching for an adequate response, before mumbling, "How do you know I'm not a cop?" "I can just tell." "How much for an eighth?" "Thirty for a regular, 50 for a smoker's eighth." "What's the difference?" "Fifty's little more than an eighth." "Okay, yeah," says the customer, slowly nodding. "I'll take the regular." As he reaches for his wallet, the hustler leads him back up Jones. It's a one-way street, so the hustler only has to peek forward to catch any incoming police cruiser. The customer crumples two bills into his fist and slaps it into the hustler's palm. The hustler whips his backpack around, unzips the top, and fishes out an orange prescription pill container. He doesn't keep his product in Ziploc bags or plastic wrap. And he never carries more than an ounce on him. When he needs a re-up, he just walks to his supplier's apartment on Seventh Street. If he ever gets stopped by a cop, he can pull out his medical marijuana card (he has mild scoliosis) and go on his way; the card lets him legally carry the ounce. He's been frisked without being arrested more than 10 times over the past few years. Tilting the container sideways, the hustler taps out several nuggets into his own palm, measuring out 30 bucks' worth with his eye. The customer nervously glances around, both hands stuffed into skinny jeans pockets. This is a strange place for a drug deal, he thinks to himself, this corner along the city's busiest downtown thoroughfare, two blocks west of the Westfield Mall, two blocks south of the Tenderloin police station, five blocks east of City Hall. The hustler pours the green buds into the customer's hand, stray stems and leaves fluttering to the pavement. Seconds later, with the buyer disappearing into the Market Street flow, a fiftysomething man with bills folded between his calloused fingers shuffles up to the hustler. It feels like a busy day. The hustler goes by the name Bishop. He is 27 and has been commuting to Market Street to slang weed for nearly a decade, often posting up at the epicenter of the street-level pot business on Jones and Market. He started dealing at 15, as a high schooler in the Lakeview neighborhood of San Francisco. He knew a bunch of his classmates smoked weed and saw a business opportunity. Some older friends told him about the weed rush on Market Street. When he checked it out, he found a market that was more profitable and less risky than his native neighborhood. The police harassed him more in Lakeview than they do on Market, he says. On Market, there is a deep-pocketed, built-in consumer base and little tension among the many dealers. With the constant stream of foot traffic, there are more than enough lungs to go around. Bishop sets up shop three or four days week — though never on Sunday — and works from morning to sunset. He usually grosses upward of $100 an hour, $200 during an especially busy day, like on Pride Weekend. From his spot on the corner on this late summer morning, Bishop watches the remnants of the off-to-work crowd bustle by. Some march past a fenced-off lot filled with construction workers and loud machinery. New and exciting things are coming to Mid-Market, this enigmatic stretch of porn theaters, family businesses, and art galleries between Fifth and 10th streets, crunched between downtown, SOMA, and the Tenderloin, where techies, winos, hipsters, suits, and tourists collide. "San Francisco's up-and-coming neighborhood," they've been saying for decades. Only this time's gonna be different. Eager to turn the area into San Francisco's — no, America's next business-technology-culture hub, city leaders are tossing around tax breaks like tennis balls at a dog park. "A total resurgence is coming," said Mayor Ed Lee. Twitter is here. And Zendesk. Dolby, too. Real estate moguls from Dallas and financiers from New York City just plopped down major cash to construct a five-story glass-walled retail center called Market Street Place. "We're on the move," Lee said in May. "This is all for real. No more talk." But these development plans are riding into a neighborhood that's already had a booming industry for years. And that infamous drug trade has only benefited from the recent vacuum created by contradicting local and federal marijuana policies. While city policy orders law enforcement to be lenient to smokers and street dealers, a federal crackdown has closed seven San Francisco medical cannabis dispensaries over the past year, driving more customers to the corners.

Medical Marijuana Versus Prescription Drugs

There is a lot of debate as to whether or not medical marijuana is a safe and healthy alternative to prescription medication regimens these days. With the number of people becoming addicted to pain killers and other prescription drugs on the rise, most people who are pro medical marijuana are quick to point out the key differences that make medical marijuana a great alternative. A great place to begin in this debate is to take a serious look at the pros and cons of both medical marijuana and prescription drugs. It is a proven fact that nobody has ever died as a direct result from consuming marijuana, nobody has ever overdosed in other words. Marijuana is not lethal and overdose is an impossibility. Take a look at other remedies such as percocet, vicodin, and oxycontin. People are becoming seriously addicted to these medications in droves and are often times purchasing these drugs off the streets. Prescription medications are now killing more people in the United States than illegal street drugs and the numbers are increasing all the time. Those who are addicted to these drugs go through serious withdrawal when they are without them and often times resort to theft and other illegal methods to acquire more medication just so they can feel normal again. Then we come to the good old “Gateway Drug” theory, which has been scientifically proven to be false. There is absolutely no correlation whatsoever that creates a cause and effect chain of reactions that leads someone to smoke marijuana and then decide that they need to try heroin, it simply just does not work that way. That would be like saying that caffeine or sugar is going to lead to cocaine use, it is absurd when one really considers how the government has used mind control tactics to brainwash the masses. All in all, society as a whole does not suffer with medical marijuana in the world. Those who are qualified patients in their respective states are reaping the benefits of a healthy and bonafide alternative to a serious addiction problem and possibly death. One can’t even take a Tylenol or Aspirin without there being serious side effects to the liver and other organs in the body. Medications are not healthy and create a host of health problems in millions of people. Medical marijuana is not lethal, prescription and even non-prescription pills, powders, liquids, and injections are.