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Important: Smoking is not allowed in moving vehicles - which includes cars and boats.  If you need to transport the medical cannabis, do so by putting it in the trunk or away from the driver in the very back of the car if there is no trunk.  Smoking while driving is dangerous.

Join Norml and ASA(Americans for Safe Access) to help support the changes that California has made in the law regarding medical cannabis use.  This law, or issues surrounding it, are constantly being challenged. Without these agencies and many others like them, there would not be any effort to help maintain the functionality of the law.

Information

Uses of Cannabis

     Cannabis sativa is a plant found throughout the world. It has many uses and has been used for thousands of years for paper, fabric, food and medicine. It is the medicinal use that we consider here. This is a list of conditions that are considered helped by cannabis use:

 

Chronic Pain

Headache

Gastrointestinal (Nausea, Anorexia, Abdominal pain, Irritable bowel syndrome, Crohns disease, Ulcerative colitis, Chemotherapy)

Chronic anxiety

Depression

Insomnia

PTSD

Seizure disorder

Asthma

Glaucoma

Bipolar disorder

ADD

Multiple sclerosis (dysesthesia, muscle spasm)

Severe dysmenorrhea

Meniere’s ( vertigo, tinnitus)

Restless leg syndrome

Phantom limb pain

OCD

Parkinson’s

     Cannabis is also useful to control the side effects of cancer, hepatitis, and HIV medications. Medications that produce symptoms of illness even while treating the disease are difficult to take. Patients that are allowed to use cannabis during their treatments are often more likely to stay on a higher level of functioning. Studies have shown that patients on pain medication have been able to greatly reduce the dose of pain medication by supplementing with cannabis.

     Since SB420 was passed in January of 2004(see on this web site), cannabis use is legal for qualified patients in California. This law is important and gives vital needed details. I would encourage anyone interested in medical marijuana to read this law. This state law has had a huge impact on the lives of countless patients suffering needlessly where pharmaceutical medications have failed and provided an option for those people who do not wish to take the traditional medications because of side effects or general preferences.
 

Types of Cannabis

     The cannabis plant is very versatile with many qualities that can be enhanced or reduced by the growing conditions; light, nutrients, water.

     When it is grown for medicine, it is grown in a way that encourages the plant to produce THC and cannabinoids. This is completely different that the way it is grown for industrial properties. Industrial cannabis, or hemp, does not contain any THC and does not produce any psychological effects if smoked. Hemp grows very tall and stalky, with barely and leaves and no buds at all.
 
     Cannabis grown for medicine contains 60 active chemicals. THC is the most well-known because of the mental euphoria it produces. The 59 other chemicals in the plant are the cannabinoids and cannabidiols. These molecules are still being separated out and identified as to their individual properties. Their potential for medicinal benefit is evident from many studies which show that cannabis is effective as an anti-nausea agent. A recent study done in Canada suggests that a certain cannabinoid stimulates the growth of adult neurons in the hippocampal area of the brain! There are other studies which suggest that cannabis may have anticancer potential by reportedly causing the shrinkage of tumors in animal models. The true potential for all of the uses of cannabis is sadly affected by the lack of clinical studies because of restrictions on the use of the agent even for research purposes.
 
     The cannabinoids are the chemicals in marijuana that can affect neurological pain, appetite, nausea, sleep, musculoskeletal pain as well as visceral pain. THC seems to be the most psychoactive component in the plant and works in conjunction with the cannabinoids. Marinol is a synthetic form of THC and has no cannabinoids in it at all which is part of the reason it is ineffective in a great number of people. The
 
     Cannabinoids are the chemicals in marijuana that can give some individuals the benefits that they claim they feel from ingesting the plant. Each person is different, and some people have receptors for certain cannabinoids and not for others, while other people have different receptors altogether. When the whole plant is ingested, all 60 chemicals are present and that makes it pretty likely that every person who ingests that plant is going to have at least one receptor hat binds with one of the 60 chemicals present. This means that almost everyone is going to feel some effect from cannabis; it just might not be the same effect as others feel.
 
     Just as there are differences in people, there are differences in plants as well. There are 2 different strains of the marijuana plant, one is indica and the other is sativa. The differences in these two strains are in the amount of THC contained.

     The indica strain of cannabis contains a lower amount of THC and a higher amount of cannabinoids. Many feel that the effects felt from ingesting this strain are more sedating, more relaxing, possibly better for pain and sleep.
The sativa strain has a higher concentration of THC than indica. It can produce an energetic “high” and consequently could have a stronger affect on mood and the mental state. It is said that sativa is sometimes the one thing that will motivate a depressed person to get out of the house and face the world.

     Indica and sativa are the two main strains and have been cross-bred to produce multiple different hybrids. This enables patients to find a breed that works well for their particular condition. Many patients find that using different strains for different symptoms or different times of day effective. For example, someone suffering from pain and depression may use sativa during the day to help lift their mood but use an indica at night for pain relief and sleep.

     The above illustrates the fact that there is much to learn about the effects and potential of cannabis as a therapeutic tool.

     Current ongoing research in other countries is a constant source of new information and it seems that we know only the “tip of the iceberg” of its nature.  

Vaporizing

     Smoke from marijuana contains many of the familiar bad things found in tobacco smoke. Most people do not smoke the same amount of marijuana that a cigarette smoker would of tobacco, so the total amount of smoke ingested in a day is significantly less with marijuana. However, the inhalation of tar and other compounds is associated with more cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, etc.
 

     Smoke of any kind suppresses the natural defense system of the lungs. The airways of the lung are lined with tissue that has microscopic cilia, or little fingerlike extensions that ‘wave’ upwards from the lungs to the mouth and nose. The purpose is to push mucus filled with foreign toxins back up and out of the lungs to the mouth and nose where they can be swallowed or sneezed out. These cilia stop working with any kind of smoking, which means that the toxins (or organisms) trapped in the mucus have no way of escaping the lung. This means that, bottom line; smokers are at higher risk of chronic lung conditions, infections, and cancer.
 

     There are 2 conflicting studies about the smoking of cannabis, one done at UCLA, the other at John Hopkins in Baltimore. One study does show an increase in head and neck cancer risk from smoking marijuana, while the other shows no increased risk at all. A recent study by Dr. Tashkin at UCLA concluded that there is no increase in lung cancer risk from exclusively smoking marijuana. Because of the uncertainty of the safety of smoking cannabis at this time, some use a vaporizer in hopes of avoiding exposure to the harmful tars and toxins emitted by regular smoking.
 

     The vaporizing method was invented in 1996 and requires no flame or combustion thereby avoiding some of the carbon combustion that produces tar and smoke. Proponents of marijuana devised a method by which the cannabis plant can be heated to a temperature lower than that required for combustion but not enough to change the beneficial chemicals from a solid to a gas. There was a study done by Dale Gieringer in which he analyzed the smoke from a joint in comparison to the gases released by the vaporizer. He found that the vapors released by the vaporizer contain only about 5 different compounds with THC being the most abundant. The joint contains approximately 111 compounds, with various tars and toxins being at the top of the list. The vaporizer allows the inhalation of vapor that, per his account, has neither the harmful hydroflourocarbons nor the tar that is produced as part of the smoke with the burning of plant cellulose. If this is true, it means that the lungs are not being exposed to the same tar or carcinogens and the patient’s risk of developing any long term lung problems are probably greatly reduced. Keep in mind that the vaporizers on the market currently are not specifically tested as to their efficacy in reducing tar emissions so one needs to exercise caution while evaluating them
 

 

Non-smoked Cannabis

    Cannabis need not be smoked to be effective. As noted before in this site, there are vaporizers available that apply indirect heat to the plant material and reportedly release less of the toxins. The vaporizers require no flame or combustion, thereby avoiding the carbon combustion that produces smoke with tar. The vapors contain no tar, so are safer for the lungs than smoke and a lot less smelly.

     Cannabis can also be eaten in foods or taken as an elixir. By ingesting cannabis, there are slightly different effects, which may make it a better method under certain situations and for certain individuals. It tends to last longer but has a slower onset of action. Consequently, it is also more difficult to gauge the appropriate dose that is needed since the immediate feedback seen with inhalation is absent. The effect will be a delayed one so it is easier to take more than is needed with this method. Finally, elixirs, (the fat, oil and alcohol soluble components of the plant) are used under the tongue in drops or added to beverages, depending on the circumstances and the effect desired. The different effects of marijuana ingested by mouth may be attributed to metabolism of the cannabinoids and THC by the liver, thus producing an altered molecule that is still active in the body and brain. This is not to be confused with sublingual (under the tongue) administration which absorbs directly into the blood stream via the oral mucosa.