Posted on 02/26/2006 7:55:05 AM PST by Wolfie
Physician Advocates for Medical Marijuana
Vermont -- As he opened his remarks about medical marijuana, Dr. Joseph McSherry said he couldn't be as informative as he would like to be.
"I asked a very good friend, who happens to be a medical marijuana patient, what I should tell you today," McSherry said. "He said to tell you not to ask a doctor. Doctors don't know (expletive) about medical marijuana."
McSherry, a neurophysiologist and PhD associated with Fletcher Allen Medical Center and the University of Vermont, said his friend is largely correct: There have been few scientific studies on the effects of marijuana as a medicine, and even less research has been conducted on its medical effects in humans.
"You'll probably be more educated than your doctor by the time we get through," McSherry told his audience at the Godnick Center in Rutland on Friday.
He walked the audience through the limited medical data on cannabis and the properties of the chemicals in marijuana other than THC that can have beneficial effects.
Canabanoids, McSherry said, can boost the effectiveness of other painkillers, inhibit the growth of tumors and alleviate wet macular degeneration, which causes blindness in some cases.
"We're just beginning to scratch the surface of this iceberg," he said.
McSherry said that inhaled marijuana can be very effective at treating sudden swift pains, while many other painkillers, including marinol — a legal prescription drug that is a capsule of THC in sesame oil — can take too long to take effect.
"I don't approve of smoking for anybody," he said. "There's got to be a better way of doing it, but the U.S. government hasn't been interested in doing any research.
"If you eat it, the chemicals peak in two to four hours. Eating it is probably the worst way of intaking THC," he said. "If you inhale it, THC levels peak in a few minutes and it actually goes away in the first hour."
He noted that researchers in other countries are trying to develop different types of medical cannabis for patients.
Two members of the audience who said they use the drug for medicinal purposes offered compelling testimony about its benefits. Neither identified themselves.
The first patient said that at one point he had been on 17 different medications to treat his multiple sclerosis — some to counteract the side effects of other medications.
"Now I think I'm on four medications now," he said. "I'm not on medications for the side effects of medication. I'm not drugged out or high. From 17 meds, down to four."
A second patient said he had lost more than 50 pounds while undergoing chemotherapy before using marijuana to counteract the nausea.
"I went from 236 pounds down to 176," he said. "Part of the problem was the sickness of chemo. I couldn't hold down food, and marinol did not work for me. Cannabis did work."
Members of the audience had many questions about medical marijuana, from its chemical properties to the intricacies of growing plants to use for medicine.
"If you have a seed that has a known history of consistent product, you will get a consistent product medically," McSherry said. "That's why I think patients ought to be able to grow their own."
One audience member wondered how patients who don't grow it can access medical marijuana.
"Where does the pot come from if you're not a green thumb person?" she asked.
McSherry said "compassionate clubs" have formed in California that allow medical marijuana patients to bring in prescriptions to be filled with marijuana of a known quality rather than forcing patients to rely on what they can find on the black market, he said.
"In Vermont, if you have a friend or a grandson … you can make a provision to register with the state that you're a registered patient and they're a registered grower," he said, adding that Vermont's medical marijuana law does not shield users or growers from federal prosecution.
McSherry sees access to the drug as an uphill battle. He said many doctors are resistant to the notion of medical marijuana.
"There are very definitely a lot of doctors who are very adamant it's not a medicine," he said. "There are doctors that believe if it were a medicine, the FDA would approve it and pharmaceutical companies would make cannabis that you can take as a product.
"But patients' definition of a medicine is a different thing," he added.
Your data warns of potential harm. It shows no real evidence of real harm as in documented cases.
Do a search on "Marijuana Deaths" and see what you can find.
The big lie is easy to swallow. A simple lie, easy for even the stupid to understand. Marijuana is dangerous is the lie.
Very nice post. The Lord gave us everything good and wants us to use it.
There are many things in life that do not kill directly that are illegal: cocaine, heroin, opium, etc.
Marijuana is in that category of substances that slowly kill: the mind, the spirit, the society, and finally the ethos of a nation or people. If it were possible I would not have any qualms about sending potheads off somewhere apart from society so that could smoke their brains out without doing harm to others. Charlie Manson did it for awhile. I hear Bolivia alows it too. Maybe pot heads could handle that? Take up a collection and buy an island, set up a legal contract - a constitution if you will - allowing pot to be grown and smoked. I would gladly support that.
Finally, if science can prove that certain elements of pot alleviate pain - put it in pill form and let doctors dispense it. That would be fine.
"There are many things in life that do not kill directly that are illegal: cocaine, heroin, opium, etc".
You can't possibly believe what you are saying. Nobody could be that stupid!
Heroin can kill you very quickly with an OVERDOSE! So can cocaine, opium, barbituates, meth, alcohol, etc.
A combination of barituates and alcohol is especially deadly.
Marijuana has never killed anyone. If you can find some proof that it has, post it. And I mean proof, not speculation that it might. Real proof.
"Finally, if science can prove that certain elements of pot alleviate pain - put it in pill form and let doctors dispense it. That would be fine. "
Scientists and doctors are your elite class and defacto mullahs of a bureaucratic abomination from which our taliban, the DEAmen, are spawn to suck the resources of the community to subsidize their reign of terror.
The right to control your own body gave women the right to consume a substance which kills a human life with a unigue genetic code simply because it resides in their body. Yet, one cannot consume an herb because it may alter their thoughts in a manner deemed inappropriate by corporate pawns seeking to maintain the efficiency of their chattel.
True---marijuana is not usually toxic enough to kill but if mixed with other drugs it can. Or a user driving a car or operating machinery can - something that requires brain skills and coordination (like driving a car), then yes, smoking "pot" can kill.
Lots of people driving high are involved in car accidents and kill others as well as themselves. Its use kills slowly usually but kills for sure.
I trust the judgment of the citizen voter to keep it illegal. But you should keep trying to legalize it. You have that right and incredibly lots of funding from all kinds of orgs including the Soros cabal and other left wing groups. Until then, cultivating it will land you in the slammer where you belong.
As I have said, what's wrong with isolating the supposedly positive pain reducing stuff and dispensing it in a pill form?
"As I have said, what's wrong with isolating the supposedly positive pain reducing stuff and dispensing it in a pill form"?
Are you aware what presciption drugs cost?
Are you aware that you can "grow your own" for next to nothing?
Are you aware that the government lets people make their own beer and wine without paying any taxes on it? You can even make your own whiskey if you apply for a permit to the feds. Has to be under a certain amount.
Are you aware that people had their driving abilities tested while high on pot and that they did at least as good as when they weren't high on pot? Check the web for this if you want to.
Nauseous patients have difficulty keeping pills down; and oral ingestion is a slow-onset delivery mechanism, which makes the dosage harder to titrate (that is, make it just enough to address current symptoms).
"Not usually"? Try "never."
but if mixed with other drugs it can.
LOL! Water can kill if mixed with strychnine.
Equally true of the drug alcohol; do you support banning that drug too?
What linger in the body are inert metabolites of cannabinoids ... so that theory falls flat.
Alcohol? Alcohol is dispensed for its medicinal value but with and without prescription.
As I said earlier I would support extracting the beneficial substance from the weed itself and putting it into a pill-serum/ form to be dispensed and controlled by pharmacists and physicians.
Can you live with that?
Alcohol is dispensed for its medicinal value but with and without prescription.
That doesn't answer the question.
My war? You exhibit paranoid symptoms...
It - like alcohol - will eventually come to the county level with citizens voting on whether or not to legalize and control the stuff. Like alcohol. I don't think it will ever happen but the Soros gangs that are pushing legalization will force it.
Nauseous patients have difficulty keeping pills down; and oral ingestion is a slow-onset delivery mechanism, which makes the dosage harder to titrate (that is, make it just enough to address current symptoms).
"Alcohol? Alcohol is dispensed for its medicinal value but with and without prescription".
So, what does the doctor say when he prescribes alcohol to a patient? Drink a fifth of whiskey tonight and call me in the morning?
Dispensed for medicinal value without perscription? Let me know what sickness to take alcohol for. I don't know that it cures any illnesses and I am over 50 years old. Snakebite medicine?
You sure are a wise person.
ANNUAL AMERICAN DEATHS CAUSED BY DRUGS
TOBACCO ........................ 400,000
ALCOHOL ........................ 100,000
ALL LEGAL DRUGS ................ 20,000
ALL ILLEGAL DRUGS .............. 15,000
CAFFEINE ....................... 2,000
ASPIRIN ........................ 500
MARIJUANA ...................... 0
Source: United States government...
National Institute on Drug Abuse,
Bureau of Mortality Statistics
Marijuana sure is dangerous, isn't it? Zero deaths from it every year. Even aspirin has 500 deaths a year. None for marijuana.
Maybe aspirin should be illegal since it is so dangerous compared to marijuana. Cigarettes and alcohol too. 500,000 deaths per year between them. Zero deaths for marijuana.
Tell me again, which drugs are "dangerous"?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.