Then brace yourself:
"There is conclusive or substantial evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective:
For the treatment of chronic pain in adults (cannabis) (4-1)
As antiemetics in the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (oral cannabinoids) (4-3)
For improving patient-reported multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms (oral cannabinoids) (4-7a)
"There is moderate evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective for:
Improving short-term sleep outcomes in individuals with sleep disturbance associated with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, and multiple sclerosis (cannabinoids, primarily nabiximols) (4-19)"
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research.
https://www.nap.edu/read/24625/chapter/6#128
Mom doesn’t respond to evidence of her misstatements, NobleFree. It’s just not her style. When you actually nail the evidence of one of her misstatements to the wall like you have done here she unfortunately tends to disappear for awhile. But who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll pop back up. Her responses are always so much fun!
Actually... not. At least for the first two items on the list (4-1 and 4-3), the evidence quoted did not support the strong conclusions.
For the chronic pain, for example, they based their conclusion on a meta-analysis of several studies which actually did not find any better pain relief than with opioids (which are not very effective; I know a physician who says that opioids do not work on chronic pain). And there were significant side-effects which would make their use problematic.
And again, the evidence for its use as an anti-emetic is also weak and problematic. The meta-analysis found that, at best, it is equivalent to anti-emetics that are already in use—but those don’t cause highs like marijuana does.
I suspect that the reports of efficacy of marijuana for so many conditions are not based on actual efficacy, but on the fact that people who are stoned probably aren’t paying much attention to their other problems.
Oh, and one effect of chronic marijuana use or a single high dose is to cause hyperemesis—not exactly a quality I’d look for in an anti-emetic.
When I am looking for evidence of efficacy or harm caused by a substance, I do not look at book reviews, especially those which base their conclusions on meta-analyses. Meta-analyses are extremely weak as evidence. The best evidence is collected through carefully controlled studies, and I look those up in PubMed.