Pot offers buzz-free pain relief — study

[Praxius]

Pot offers buzz-free pain relief ? study - Canada - TheChronicleHerald.ca

TORONTO — Smoking pot can make some of the pain go away, without the patient getting high.

The finding comes from what researchers in Montreal believe to be the first outpatient clinical trial of smoked cannabis, involving 21 people with chronic neuropathic pain.

The results, which included improvements in mood and sleep, were published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Dr. Mark Ware and colleagues at McGill University and McGill University Health Centre got the ball rolling for the study almost a decade ago, but found it was a long road to get all the necessary approvals and import a convincing marijuana placebo from the United States.

But they plowed ahead, supported by a grant from the Canadian Institute for Health Research, because they felt it was important to generate some scientific data.

Marijuana is illegal in Canada but can be used medicinally in some circumstances. In 2001, Health Canada brought in marijuana medical access regulations outlining conditions for possessing, producing and using the herb for medical purposes.

Despite the years that have passed, "the debate rages on about medical marijuana," Ware said.

"We hear this a lot from policy makers and from regulatory colleges, especially here in Canada . . . there is very little evidence, and many of them aren’t aware of any evidence that smoked cannabis has any medical value."

Marijuana with potencies of 2.5 per cent, six per cent and 9.4 per cent of the active ingredient THC were obtained from Prairie Plant Systems, the company that was given a government contract 10 years ago to produce a safe, standardized supply of marijuana.

A placebo came from the U.S., where an alcohol extraction process was used to remove the active ingredient, and the herb was reconstituted so it looked like a green leafy material, Ware said.

There was a lot of paperwork and back-and-forth.

"Importing cannabis from the United States is not a trivial issue in this environment," Ware noted.

Patients were given a special pipe bought on the Internet and 25-milligram capsules of a substance to put in the pipe and light. The smoke was to be inhaled once — three times a day for five days — and patients didn’t know whether they were getting a placebo or one of three different potencies of active drug.

Some food for thought.... er munchies for thought.

 

[karrie]

It's nice to see some actual trials coming out on it.

 

[Bcool]

Pot offers buzz-free pain relief ? study - Canada - TheChronicleHerald.ca

Some food for thought.... er munchies for thought.

lol Munchies happen with or without it seems.

I have a neurological muscular disorder that ranges in pain from 'MERCY!!' to 'stuff happens'. The specialists kept prescribing stuff like Percocet (oxycodone with paracetamol/acetaminophen) & Tylenol 3, etc. - which a) had some very weird unpleasant effects & a feeling as if I'd been slugged with sledge hammer; b) too many on Net support groups were writing about dependency issues with both. I refuse to take 'em.

My GP got me approved for the only legal medical supply of marujana in B.C. just in time for Campbell to shut the non-profit organization down! He then prescribed B.C.'s legally approved version that has all the so called "naughties" removed - was useless. Some caring people, who shall remain nameless of course, managed to get me a very small amount of the good stuff - enough for about three small doobies. We didn't know if it was the right kind for what ails me, but it was the genuine article. I was extremely apprehensive about trying it. Whew!

It worked!! Best three days of ease of movement & no pain since before I got this damned disorder thirty years ago. No giggles or Lucy In The Sky stuff happened, although I felt happy - hardly surprising.

However, I am having to go along with the medical treatment approved & feel fortunate that I can get it, many can't: multi Botox injections every three months &, for me, doubling & tripling up on extra strength Advil on bad days.

MJ works! Not just for my disorder but many, many neurological disorders - not all, but enough that it should be part of the legal medical options. The numbers of suicides, hard drugs addictions, alcoholism from self-medicating more than justifies its legalization.

Just as with the scare campaigns against all psychiatric meds, benzodiazepines for anxiety and movement disorders, Ritalin/Concerta for severely ADHD children & adults, started by Scientology in the eighties & by Peter Roger Breggin, MD, who's made his fortune & career out of blaming the patient for any psychiatric disorders and/or the parents, especially re ADHD. As early as 1991 he sardonically coined the acronym DADD, stating, "...most so-called ADHD children are not receiving sufficient attention from their fathers who are separated from the family, too preoccupied with work and other things, or otherwise impaired in their ability to parent. In many cases the appropriate diagnosis is Dad Attention Deficit Disorder (DADD)"; the campaign against marujana is based on the innacurate "addiction!!" scare tactics.

Many properly, medically supervised prescription medications produce 'physical dependency'. IOW 'cold turkey', stopped abruptly after the body has adjusted and come to rely on a medication can cause symptoms ranging from mild discomfort to life threatening symptoms. Insulin, cortisone, beta blockers, etc., cannot be abruptly discontinued, new research has found that many anti-depressants cannot be abruptly discontinued, it's a large & varied list that debunks many addiction fallacies.

But its the addiction issue in North America that prevents medical, let alone legal general use, from something being made legal here that's been legally available either just medically or generally or both in many European countries for years. Just as Britain has no problem in permitting the medical use of heroin/opium for terminally ill and seriously suffering patients (even that was fought initially on the unbelievable basis that the patients would become addicted!); but Canada & the US inhumanely still will not permit the use of what is the most effective pain killer of them all for terminally ill & agonizingly suffering patients, heroin/opium, because of the addiction argument. So don't hold your breath re MaryJane - no pun intended. :sad7:

Sorry about the length of this. This, as you can imagine, is a biggie for me and the hundreds on the support forums who have had great relief from trying marujana as best they nervously can after suffering for years on meds & treatments that give little to no relief. And don't believe the claims about the single source, medically grown, chemically doctored "marujana" capsules the Feds & provinces claim to be the solution, Nabilone. It simply doesn't work, patients try it and flush it - its grass clippings in a capsule & tax payers are paying a very hefty amount for its production! I truly pity the cancer patients who have to rely on this political bullet dodging miserable excuse for a med that most doc's & nurses know doesn't work, but hope the placebo effect will at the very least.