If you live in one of the sixteen states (and D.C.) that have legalized the use of medical marijuana, or if you live in one of the twelve states where similar legislation is pending, you may be wondering how such laws work. My state (Colorado) came to legalize medical marijuana by way of a ballot amendment approved by 54% of the voters on November 7, 2000, and the new law went into effect on June 1, 2001. In the almost eleven years since, my knowledge of medical marijuana - how to get it, how to use it, what it's good for - never expanded much. I heard about dispensaries being robbed, and federally-mandated tweaks to keep dispensaries a certain distance from schools, but that's about it.
Sidebar: There was a huge outcry in Colorado Springs in the beginning, which is what you'd expect from the reddest county in the state and home of several fundamentalist mega-churches. When voters passed the law in 2000 it was, "OMG! OMG! The sky is falling!" When dispensaries began opening in 2001 it was, "OMG! OMG! We're all gonna die!" But then the mmj-based tax revenues began to flow in. "OMG! OM - oh, shiny!" Tax revenues have increased exponentially ever since, and what do you hear now? [Crickets]
As I developed problems with medications over the past year, I began to wonder about medical marijuana - would it help me? How could I find out?
I began with my pain doc, a board certified physiatrist who has treated me for ten years. I told him the narcotics he's been prescribing are upsetting my stomach much as NSAIDs did. I told him that scares me to death, because once you rule out NSAIDs and narcotics, there's nothing left in his arsenal. I told him I'd like to try medical marijuana, and would he help me with the paperwork?
He was pretty negative about it. He said it only helps with nerve pain and phantom limb pain. He said he would stop prescribing for me if I decided to go that route.
Thanks, Doc. That was helpful.
A few days later I told a friend about the conversation. He gave me the name of a physician who would answer my questions and help me with the paperwork necessary to get on the state registry, and I had an appointment with her Monday.
I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't someone with an MD and PhD from Stanford. She just shook her head when I told her what my pain doc said. "He believes that because that's the only research he's read."
Being a good little Kossack, I had already discovered the lack of research on the use, benefits, and risks of medical marijuana - at least in the United States. For some background on this lack of scientific research, I read this article by David B. Allen, M.D., a cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon. After explaining the history and status of marijuana research in the U.S., Dr. Allen said this:
In The British Journal of Pharmacology July, 2010 160 (5): 1234-1242, a study shows that there is a near 50% reduction in the size of a heart attack (myocardial infarction) when Cannabidiol is given during a heart attack. This study shows that this effect is present even if Cannabidiol is given after the heart attack has started. So it seems that the protective effects of Cannabis work in brain strokes and heart attacks. I predict that heart surgeons in the future will give a cannabinoid medication to patients before cardiac bypass as a cardiac protectant for reperfusion injuries.
And this fascinating nugget:
[T]he U.S. government has a patent on Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neruoprotectants (Patent 6630507 October 7, 2003). In this study and patent, it is proven that Cannabidiol and THC both decrease the size of a stroke by 50%. (Currently no other medicine even decreases stroke by 2%) It is interesting that our government has a patent on a substance that it prevents other scientists from studying! Who does that advantage?
More of the same, this time regarding
multiple sclerosis:
Dr. Dennis Petro, a drug researcher, neurologist and Director of POT has studied the effects of cannabis on MS patients for decades. MS is his specialty. He has been forthright and vocal for years about cannabis and the ability of the plant's compounds to protect, even regenerate, the myelin sheath that covers nerves and causes the symptoms of MS as it deteriorates. Opposition to that prognosis from the federal government has been consistent and negative. Dr. Petro is wrong. Apparently there was an epiphany. Patent number 6630507 was filed by the federal government October 7, 2003 and the paperwork identifying the use was “cannabinoid as antioxidant and neuroprotectant.” Dr. Petro was right. This is the same group of miscreants who say cannabis has no medical value. I say these persons have no creditability and haven’t for almost a decade. SOURCE
In my state, medical marijuana has been approved for the following conditions:
Cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS positive, cachexia; severe pain; severe nausea; seizures, including those that are characteristic of epilepsy; or persistent muscle spasms, including those that are characteristic of multiple sclerosis. Other conditions are subject to approval by the Colorado Board of Health.
The doctor I saw on Monday put me and my medical records through our paces to determine if I qualify. Once she determined that I do, she began my education. I thought using mmj meant hiding in the garage and firing up a joint, but it turns out there are four main dosing methods and a seemingly endless variety of products.
Inhaled: Vaporizing is much preferable to smoking. A vaporizer is an electric device that lets the patient breathe in clean medicinal vapor without any smoke.
Sub-lingual: Cannabinoids cross the lining of the mouth into the bloodstream for quick effects, while any swallowed amounts have a delayed release in the GI tract. This is the preferred method for problems with appetite and nausea. One can buy hard candies, tinctures, and infused oils for sub-lingual dosing.
Edible: The selection of edible products available in dispensaries is limited only by the imagination. You can buy brownies, of course, as well as candy bars, power bars, teas, shakes, and so forth. (I wonder if marijuana provides much fiber? I could use more fiber in my diet.)
Topical: The doc says topicals are particularly good for pain relief if they're strong enough, and this route goes to your head the least. You can make your own cannabis-infused oil, or you can buy rubs and sprays and massage oils and bath oils and lotions and salves and alcohol rubs.
The doc turned me over to a clinic administrator who notarized the application the doctor and I had completed. He told me to mail it to the state, along with a check for $35, and to send it by certified mail. He also gave me a copy of my application and told me it would function as my registration while I waited for my card from the state. I'm to attach the certified mail receipt to the copy of the notarized application before shopping at a dispensary.
Since mailing my application on Tuesday I've been doing some heady research at local dispensaries. I can report that a hard candy before bedtime is faster and more effective that a sleeping pill, and I'm trying a topical rub that is helping my back pain, even though the unnecessary addition of things like camphor, menthol, and eucalyptus makes it reek to high heaven.
We've been told all our lives that marijuana is a gateway drug, the first step toward dying in an alley of a heroin overdose. Even if I believed that - I don't - I hope the gate swings both ways, that medical marijuana will be an exit drug for me. An exit from narcotics, of course, as well as an exit from injections of powerful steroids directly into my spine, an exit from acid blockers and proton-pump inhibitors, from liver-damaging acetaminophen, from benzodiazepines and muscle relaxants. If mmj helps me, I won't have to drive down Pikes Peak in the snow to pick up prescriptions that took days to get written; I'll be able to go to my neighborhood dispensary and get whatever I've found works best for me.
I hope everyone has the same option before too much longer.
UPDATE: Thanks to elkhunter, I can refer you to Granny Storm Crow's Reference List, a huge collection (hundreds of pages) of links to cannabis research.