Mary Jane as Medicine

Marijuana as Medicine

Marijuana as medicine has been studied for many years. In some cultures, it is already used as medicine, and it stems back from many generations. There are many good uses for marijuana to be used as medicine which will be discussed in following paragraphs. The problem is that in order to be used in America as medicine, marijuana must be legalized.

Marijuana has a long history of medical use. It is one of the oldest living plants and, in ancient times, was used as various forms of medicine through ingestion of the plant. The first recorded use of marijuana as medicine was in China. It was reported in Pen TsÑŽoo Ching in first or second century A.D. It reported that ma-fe-san(boiled hemp compound) was used as an anesthetic for surgical patients. Ma fen (the fruit of hemp) had many uses such as clearing blood and cooling temperature, relieving fluxes, undoing rheumatism, and discharging pus for patients.

China is not the only country to use the drug in early times. It was introduced to southeast Asia around sixteenth century A.D. Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam are reported to have current uses of marijuana as medicine. In Cambodia, they have an enormous list of uses, but to name a few are: to treat malaria, to relieve asthma and calm the nerves, regulate the function of the heart, and treats paralysis.

In Thailand, it is used in folk medicine as well as in the official medical reports. In folk medicine, the people sun dry the leaves and boil them to treat migraines, and dizzy spells. It is also taken as a relaxant before bedtime.

In Vietnam, it has many uses. Cannabis is used to alleviate loss of memory, eliminate blood loss, and to treat gynecological problems. As you can see, there are many different uses for marijuana as medicine. It is impossible to explore all the uses of the drug, but we will look at a few in detail now.

One question is the effectiveness of THC to reduce nausea in chemotherapy patients. Because cancer is on the rise, there are more and more people using chemotherapy as treatment in America. Right now, there are many different types of chemotherapy drugs, and they all have the same side effects. Some are: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, dyspepsia, heart burn, and ulceration. These are only the gastrointestinal effects. There are hair effects, skin effects, and muscle and nerve effects to these drugs. Drugs administered to treat the side effects of nausea, and vomiting are mostly ineffective. However, there are reports that state that THC, taken in a capsule or in a cigarette, does reduce nausea and vomiting. The controversy is that some patients experienced hallucinations while taking the drug. The hallucinations were experienced perhaps because too much of the drug was taken at one time. The question that is brought up is How much is an effective dose? First, the way the drug is taken varies on the individual. Some people react differently to all kinds of drugs taken orally.

After deciding on how the patient should orally take the drug, the person administering the drug must keep in mind other considerations. First, the drug must be given early enough to prevent anticipatory vomiting. This is a well known phenomenon in cancer patients. That is chemotherapy patients expect to vomit and in anticipation of it, they begin vomiting before the treatment even begins.

Another consideration of administering the drug is blood concentration level. The amount of the drug must raise the concentration of the drug in the blood to more than 10.0 ng./ml. On the other hand, it must be at a lower blood concentration level than that which will initiate severe mood alteration. Lastly, it must be given often enough to maintain the concentration level until the threat of vomiting has passed.