No offense to others, but I'd really like to stress that I'm asking this question to MEDICAL EXPERTS only, and not amateurs. Sorry.
Anyways what are your views on medical marijuana? Do you view it as being a legitimate medicine?
Another question. If someone is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer treatment, while marijuana may help alleviate some of the pain, wouldn't it be counterproductive to the cause of destroying the cancer? Since marijuana has a carcinogenic effect and smoking it puts free radicals into the body that help instigate cancer, wouldn't this destroy the whole purpose of the chemo?
Thanks
Suggestion:
Hi,
I have worked in addictions treatment for many years and I can tell you that those trained in addictions therapy will have very different opinions than doctors. It is suprising how little education there is for doctors, surgeons, and nurses in the area of psychotropic drugs like marijuana. My parents and uncles are all cancer surgeons. My aunt is a cancer nurse (pain management specialist). My parents and aunt are very pro-medical marijuana. But they are also pro-demerol, pro-morphine drips, etc. which obviously just leave the patient addicted to opiates, underweight, and needing addiction withdrawal. I have seen this quite a few times in rehab–clients coming in after years or months of opiate and marijuana treatment for severe medical issues (like cancer or HIV/AIDS). They are then terrified to get off the drugs for fear of being in pain or getting sick. It's a vicious cycle. And of course, I would say that about 85-90% of the clients I saw from 2008 on had a medical marijuana card. And of those, maybe 2 had gotten it for chemo or something similar. The rest had found crooked doctors to give them prescriptions.
I have had quite a struggle myself to find medications to treat some serious health problems, and I've seen doctor after doctor to get non-narcotic options. I take one called Zofran for nausea. My aunt says this is the second most common drug given in her cancer ward (after morphine). It is non-narcotic, non-addictive, and safe for use every day. As for pain, I take Torradol when necessary, which is like a miracle in a syringe or pill. It is an intense pain killer which even qualms kidney stone pain in seconds. Its chemical makeup is similar to Tylenol and is non-addictive, but is not safe for long-term or chronic use.
Some people claim that marijuana is the only substance that rids them of their nausea and helps with appetite. I'm sure part of the joy of medical marijuana for those who are actually sick is partly psychological. I mean, they also get to get high and relax while also feeling better with their illness. But the idea of medical marijuana to begin with was that it was ONLY for people with TERMINAL illness. This means that, to put it bluntly, they were most likely going to die anyway. I know marijuana is used medically to treat other non-terminal issues like glaucoma, but the reality is that there are TONS of medications that work much better to treat glaucoma than weed. As for the carcinogens in the blood–I don't think smoking marijuana NEGATES the purpose of chemo. One of the most common causes of death for cancer patients is actually malnutrition and/or starvation due to the nausea and vomiting. If marijuana helps a chemo patient to actually eat (as opposed to TPN or other IV nutrition), it can in fact reduce their risk of death and improve their prognosis. Food is a very powerful weapon against cancer. Have you read about macrobiotics? That diet claims to be able to "cure" many people of cancer, which I find a ridiculous and outrageous statement, but it has been shown to help many types of cancer from progressing. And actually, there was a study published this year out of Europe which showed that smoking cigarettes actually reduces the risk of thyroid cancer in those who are prone to it. A family member who had thyroid cancer many years ago sent the study to me, as I have had thyroid disease since age 14 and have a (supposedly) 85% risk of developing thyroid cancer in the next 10 years. I am also a smoker. Obviously this study did not claim smoking is good, and it did specify that you are still more likely to develop lung, esophageal, stomach, or mouth cancers.
Anyway, there are a few drugs on the market now which use the extracted active ingredient in marijuana (THC) in pill form. Theoretically they are safer to use, since there are no carcinogenic effects, but I hear from users that they don't work as well. A newer drug I don't know the name of is supposed to be released soon that uses the THC extract to help nausea and vomiting specifically; it has been very successful in trials with chemo patients.
I'm so totally rambling, and I apologize. I get on these rants about this issue. It honestly makes me sick that people have taken advantage of the legality of medical marijuana in this country. I don't see anything wrong with someone smoking weed if they are dying of cancer or AIDS. It's really their choice. That was the original idea: let them make the rest of their life as comfortable as possible. In my opinion–even as an addictions counselor–god bless! But now you have people getting med cards for things like "headaches" or "fatigue" or "ADD" or whatever. It's ridiculous.
Sorry I'm still rambling. Interesting question and I'm curious to read other responses.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Marijuana has it's place in the medical world just as much as morphine and other controlled substances. Although, there are other drugs for pain and nausea and glaucoma, many of those have their own precautions. Why should someone with cancer not be allowed to be pain free, free from nausea and feel good too. It is always the abusers that make it hard on the patients that really need relief.
The arguments that marijuana can do anything better than other legitimate medications can do is very specious. The usual arguments are that marijuana relieves nausea, or helps to ease pain. But there are many VERY effective anti-nausea medications that are MUCH, MUCH better at relieving nausea than marijuana can. Ditto for pain relief; there are plenty of pain relievers, both narcotic and non-narcotic, in medicine. As for cancer, that is a particular type of pain, usually a burning sensation, and opiates specifically plug the brain's receptors that interpret burning pain much more efficiently than marijuana. So, the two basic specious arguments for marijuana don't hold up to scrutiny even for one minute.
But marijuana also has some terribly damaging effects not found in medical anti-nausea or pain medications. Marijuana is very damaging to the lungs, for example, estimated to be at least as bad as tobacco. It can weaken certain systems in the body involved with fighting off cancer, so it's counter-productive. There are a lot of metabolites from THC, and each of them is a different chemical with a different collection of damaging effects on the body. The studies done in the 60s attempting to show marijuana as safe were phony studies, sponsored by NORML, obviously a very biased political organization with a political axe to grind, not medical experts. And metabolites of THC can hide in fatty tissue, which tends to break down as a patient loses weight in progressive cancer, which can dump the metabolites into the blood stream at precisely the time in the patient's life when they really don't need any further assaults on their body.
Bottom line is, there is no evidence of benefit from marijuana for medical purposes, and there is all sorts of evidence that it can be very damaging. There is no legitimate compelling argument to support the medical use of marijuana. Anyone who tells you otherwise is giving you a political opinion, not a medical one.
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