Grass and thinking

[Grassman]

The sideffects of grass are not physical but political.

You look at things...searching for the truth.This is a good thing.

[canny cat]

it's my belief that it's partly this kind of waffle that puts straight people off trying medical marijuana.

it doesn't turn you into some mindbending metaphysicist, it doesn't open magical pathways into new thoughts and turn you into some kind of peace angel whose waffling is important :cool:

those hippy days are long gone and pot is just pot - another drug to take if you choose - like alcohol or paracetamol. only when the esoteric type nonsense is eradicated from the medical pot scene will it be taken seriously on it's merits and be accepted fully as a medical alternative.

grassman, i read your postings on the old BT and often found them entertaining, but now it's got it's own forum please be aware that this kind of hippy waffle damages the genuine cause for medical legalisation and may deter people from trying pot as a medecine.

there are more important issues to be brought into view -

people need educating about pot - about the crap that gets cut into most commercial 'hash' to make it go further and increase profits. the weed that is tumbled to harvest its glands to make hash then dusted with crap to make it look as if it's fresh off the plant. the plants that are fed chemicals for faster and bigger growth then harvested without flushing so the product is contaminated with high levels of chemicals.

legalising pot would enable quality enforcement and provide a cleaner end product. THIS is a good argument for legalisation, not that it'd make the world a more hippyish peaceful place!

i could go on for hours but i'm starting to bore myself so i'll stop now!

[Grassman]

LOL.....I think.

[canny cat]

it's not just the possible pollutants that people need to be aware of when trying cannabis for the first time, it's that the different strains of weed have differing properties -

some give a heady trippy high with little medical properties, others have a more relaxing 'body stone' which has better effects on spasticity and pain.

i've heard people say they tried pot and had a nightmare time full of anxiety and no medical benefit - they were smoking the wrong strain out of ignorance. i'd like to see this forum being used to EDUCATE people so they can get the most out of their pot smoking and see the medical benefits for themselves.

if people have a bad experience arising from ignorance it will HARM the medical marijuana cause and increase the negative propaganda surrounding it.




i don't like to associate with the 'drugs scene' and dealers, so i grow my own.
i use organic soil and fertilisers, choose the right strains for my needs and reap the benefits regarding easing the spasticity and pain i get from having primary progressive multiple sclerosis. all i have is a 125 watt envirolite grow bulb hanging in my wardrobe and a 7" deskfan to circulate the air - it's so easy that even i (who normally has plants drop dead just by looking at them) can produce excellent quality pot without lining the pockets of criminals, buying adulterated gear.

i wake up in agony every few hours each night, but a few puffs on a spliff settles me back to sleep well enough - if i took enough diazepam and codeine to sleep well i wouldn't be able to walk the next morning because they take away what little use i have of my legs. pot is the better choice for me as it would be for many others.

i'd like to see other peoples' suffering eased too, but it's not going to happen until people become properly educated about cannabis.

[Grassman]

I don't dream anymore,short term memory...shot and my mind is being attacked....so I don;'t get "High".

Cannibias Culture is a yggooid websiite4e to m learn.

[soul]

Hey G- Guy yea if it works go with it.
Canny Cat there definitely needs to be research done on the various strains out there to see what works for the different symptoms of the different diseases. But who is going to do Peer reviewed science on this subject, &who is going to do it and publish it? With the Gov. stance on this subject makes me think it will just get stomped on by the Gov.
I know for certain symptoms of my MS can be addressed with certain strains
We need to gather information on the different strains to find out what works for the different ailments
soul

[canny cat]

great idea :) i'll get the ball rolling ...

[Grassman]

A good read.....

AN INTERVIEW WITH JEFFREY HERGENRATHER, MD

What Have California Doctors Learned About Cannabis?

It has been 10 years since California voters enacted Proposition 215,
making it legal to grow and use cannabis, with a doctor's approval,
for medical purposes. Prop 215 didn't create a record-keeping system
because the authors didn't trust the government and didn't want to
generate a master list of cannabis users. So, over the course of the
past decade, a vast public health experiment has been conducted in
California but no state agency has been tracking doctors who approve
cannabis use or patients who medicate with it.

To assess the results in the absence of government-garnered data, I
surveyed doctors associated with the Society of Cannabis Clinicians.
The SCC was founded by Tod Mikuriya, MD, in 2000 so that doctors
monitoring their patients' use of cannabis could share data for
research purposes (and, alas, respond to threats from federal and
state authorities). More than 20 doctors have attended SCC meetings,
which are held quarterly. Philip A. Denney, MD, is the current president.

Some responses to the survey have not yet been received, but it
appears that the specialists have approved cannabis use by more than
140,000 patients. "Approve," not "recommend," is the apt term, since
more than 95 percent of the patients consulting specialists had been
self-medicating previously.

The specialists account for approximately 40% of the letters of
authorization on file with an agency that issues ID cards on behalf
of cannabis dispensaries (to spare them having to confirm the
validity of each customer's letter of approval). Extrapolating from
this ratio, I estimate the number of Californians who have used
and/or provided medicinal cannabis legally under Prop 215 to be about 350,000.

The complete survey will appear in the Fall issue of O'Shaughnessy's,
a journal I produce for the SCC. What follows are excerpts from the
response of Jeffrey Hergenrather, MD, a former family practitioner
who has been conducting cannabis consultations in Sebastopol since 1999.

Q. How many patients will have received your approval to use cannabis
through October 2006?

A. 1,430

Q. What percentage had been self-medicating with cannabis prior to
consulting you?

A. 99%

Q. With what medical conditions have they presented? List top five
and approximate percentage (total can exceed 100%).

Chronic pain (62%), Depression and other mental disorders (30%),
Intestinal disorders (12%), Harmful dependence (10%), Migraine (9%)
are the most common conditions being treated.

Q. What results do patients report? How does cannabis appear to work
in treating their symptoms?

A cannabis specialist soon becomes aware of two remarkable facts. The
range of conditions that patients are treating successfully with
cannabis is extremely wide; and patients get relief with the use of
cannabis that they cannot achieve with any other pharmaceuticals.

The testimonies that I hear on a daily basis from people with serious
medical conditions are moving and illuminating. From many people with
cancer and AIDS come reports that cannabis has saved their lives by
giving them an appetite, the ability to keep down their medications,
and mental ease. No other drug works like cannabis to reduce or
eliminate pain without significant adverse effects. It evidently
works on parts of the brain involving short-term memory and pain
centers, enabling the patient to stop dwelling on pain. Cannabis
helps with muscle relaxation, and it has an anti-inflammatory action.
Patients with rheumatoid arthritis stabilize with fewer and less
destructive flare-ups with the regular use of cannabis.

Other rheumatic diseases similarly show remissions. Spasticity cannot
be treated any more quickly or efficiently than with cannabis, and,
again, without significant adverse effects.

Patients who suffer from migraines can reduce or omit conventional
medications as their headaches become less frequent and less severe.

About half of the patients with mood disorders find that they are
adequately treated with cannabis alone while others reduce their need
for other pharmaceuticals. In my opinion, there is no better drug for
the treatment of anxiety disorders, brain trauma and post concussion
syndrome, ADD and ADHD, obsessive compulsive disorder, and
post-traumatic stress disorder. Patients with Crohn's disease and
ulcerative colitis are stabilized, usually with comfort and weight
gain, while most are able to avoid use of steroids and other potent
immunomodulator drugs.

People who were formerly dependent on alcohol, opiates, amphetamines
and other addictive drugs have had their lives changed when
substituting with cannabis. Patients with end-stage renal disease on
dialysis and those with transplanted kidneys show mental ease,
comfort, and lack of significant graft-versus-host incompatibility
reactions in my small series.

Diabetics report slightly lower and easier-to-control blood sugar
levels, yet to be studied and explained.

Sleep patterns are typically improved, with longer and deeper sleep
without any hangover or significant adverse effects.

Many patients with multiple sclerosis report that their condition has
not worsened for many years while they have been using cannabis
regularly. MS and other neurodegenerative diseases share the common
benefits of reduced pain and muscle spasms, improved appetite,
improved mood and fewer incontinence problems. Many patients with
epilepsy are adequately treated with or without the use of other
anticonvulsants.

Patients with skin conditions associated with systemic disease such
as psoriasis, lupus, dermatitis herpetiformis, and eczema all report
easement and less itching when using cannabis regularly.

Airway diseases such as asthma, sleep apnea, COPD, and chronic
sinusitis deserve special mention because I encourage the use of
cannabis vapor or ingested forms rather than smoking to reduce airway
irritation. Finally, most obese and morbidly obese patients respond
with weight loss and improved self esteem. I believe that cannabis
and psychotherapy work well together in fostering behavioral changes.

Q. Have you compiled demographic data or can you estimate the
breakdown with respect to your patients' age, gender, race, economic status?

Gender: 62% male, 38% female. Ages range from 14 to 86 years old. The
male mean age is 45.9 years with a median age of 46. The female mean
age is 47.4 with a median age of 48 years. The graphs of the age and
gender distribution are similar with the exception that there is a
bump in the leading edge of my male patient population as compared to
the females, which I account for by young men's work injuries, sports
injuries, motor vehicle accidents, and problems stemming from
military service, including injuries and post-traumatic stress
disorder. The vast majority of patients in my practice are of
Caucasian / Indo-European descent, with only about 1%
African-American, 2% Native American, 1% Pacific Islanders, and 2% Asian.

Q. Have you observed or had reports of adverse effects from cannabis?
If so, please describe.

Is there a downside to the use of cannabis? The sense of intoxication
rarely lasts longer than an hour and tends to be more troubling to
the novice than to the experienced user. For some people cannabis can
induce dry mouth, red eyes, unsteady gait, mild in-coordination, and
short-term memory loss, all of which are transient. These effects are
reportedly trivial compared to those brought on by pharmaceutical alternatives.

Cannabis use is steadily finding acceptance in society. Still, for
many it remains awkward if not totally impractical in the workplace.
People whose jobs require multi-tasking such as pilots, drivers,
dispatchers, switchboard operators, and many professionals find the
intoxicating effects of cannabis inappropriate in the workplace, and
therefore reserve their use for after work. Strains

Q. What have you learned re strains and dosage?

Cannabis is a complex, un-patentable plant with vast pharmacologic
potential. Different strains contain different mixes of cannabinoids
and terpenes that give them distinct qualities. Some strains energize
you; others put you to sleep. Many patients, when they find a strain
that suits their needs, try to obtain it on a regular basis. Unless
they are growing their own from cuttings, however, they have to rely
on growers and distributors to reproduce and make available the
preferred strain from year to year.

Due to Prohibition, California growers have been denied the tools of
analytical chemistry to test the cannabinoid contents of their
plants. This has impeded the development of strains aimed at treating
various conditions. Nevertheless, patients continue to educate
themselves about cannabis as medicine and how best to use it. Over
the years that I have specialized in cannabis therapeutics, health
benefits reported by patients have been substantiated and explained
by findings from research centers around the world.

[californiaDana]

Thank you Grassman for all that information. I know it helps me with chronic pain and muscle spasms better then the morphine I take.

I get a prescription from my dr. and my husband gets it since Im pretty much home bound. I have Chronic Inflamitory Dymlating Polyneuropathy, my nerves are being eaten up from the inside out and they dont know why.

I have tried MJ off and on since I was diagnoses giving other prescribed drugs a chance to help, they took the edge off. You get very depressed when you are hurting all the time and this helped with the pain and depression.

Dana

[canny cat]

thanks :) that's a good read, i hope it gets taken seriously by the powers that be.

[powder pig russ]

Dana

I have a similar variant of CIDP (MMN) with similar demyelinating consequences. Few patients experience pain but for me it is considerable. MJ is the only thing I have found that works. Lately, the pain has been increasing and now I am considering stronger measures. Your notes on morphine are appreciated.

There is a company in UK (GW Pharm) that has done quitea bit of research THC and has ID'd 40 different strains with different medicinal qualities. Their product, Sativex (an extract based oral spray), is on the market in CDA but is quite pricey.

I have heard their form of delivery (spray) is quite effective and has the added benefit of no smoke, fewer social distractions (discreet) and can be homebrewed w. everclear and a supply of 1 oz. spray bottles (3oz. dry A/B grade med/16+ fl. oz. evercl; steeped & agitated 2 wks & filtered).

Russ

[californiaDana]

Thanks for the info powder pug. I have never heard of that before but will look into it.
I have heard that it helps the symptoms of MS and nerves are nerves so far mine has helped me and I have an appatite, I lost so much weight while on IVIG not knowing I was having a reaction to it although the Drs saw I had sores all over and couldnt keep food down. I am so much better now because I want to eat.

Dana