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Evidence of human use of the cannabis plant
goes back to 8000 BC in China. Throughout history, people have
produced textiles, cordage, and other important materials from
cannabis fibers. Animals and humans have consumed cannabis seeds
and seed oil. And since early times, people have found medical,
spiritual, and psychological benefits from the use of the
flowering buds of female cannabis plants.
Ancient herbal remedies applied marijuana
for a wide range of ailments, including constipation, rheumatic
pain, female disorders, earache, jaundice, glaucoma, asthma,
muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, and excitability. It was used to
prolong life, improve judgement, lower fevers, induce sleep,
stimulate appetite, aid in childbirth, and better the voice. Queen
Victoria is said to have sipped marijuana tea for menstrual
cramps.
In modern medical application, marijuana
effectively treats pain, muscle spasms and tremors, seizures,
nausea, vomiting, appetite stimulation, insomnia, migraine
headaches, depression, and glaucoma, among other things.
Currently, scientists and drug companies are
scrambling to "discover" the many potential benefits of
marijuana's ingredients. Recent research concludes:
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Cannabis
contains a chemical that can protect cells by acting as an
antioxidant. More effective than vitamins C or E, it offers an
appealing option for the treatment and perhaps prevention of
stroke, neurodegenerative disease, and heart attacks. (Science
News, July 11, 1998, p.20)
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Preliminary
research shows beneficial effects in Tourette's syndrome when
smoking marijuana. (American
Journal of Psychiatry 156:3 March 1999)
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Pharmos
Corporation has received patents for "novel"
therapeutic applications for the use of synthetic analogs of
cannabinoids. In preclinical tests, Pharmos found
anti-inflammatory effects in preventing the production or
release of tumor necrosis factor. Pharmos also expects to find
application in neurological disease caused by multiple
sclerosis. (Pharmos press release, March 23, 1999)
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In
late 1998, University of Buffalo researchers reported that
cannabinoids help control the timing of reproduction by
slowing sperm which are approaching an egg before it is ready
for fertilization. (March 23, 1999, San Jose Mercury
News)
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Studies
show cannabinoids work as well as morphine by short-circuiting
pain signals before they reach the spinal cord or brain, and
they are less addictive than narcotic pain relievers. (Ibid)
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A
pharmacologist at the University of Texas Health Science
Center has shown that injecting small concentrations of
cannabinoids directly at a site of injury relieved pain and
swelling. (Ibid)
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Completed
in June 1996, a study of 65,171 patients by insurer Kaiser
Permanente found that pot smoking women and men had a lower
mortality rate than cigarette smokers or people who drank at
least three beers a day. (March
3, 1999, Cityview, Des Moines, IA)
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Steve
Kubby, diagnosed in 1978 with an extremely rare and typically
fatal form of adrenal cancer (malignant pheochromocytoma), has
used marijuana as his primary therapy. Dr. Vincent DeQuattro,
a leading specialist on this disease who practices at the
University of Southern California Medical Center, first
diagnosed Kubby's disease 15 years ago and referred him to
other physicians after the cancer spread to Kubby's liver.
After discovering that Kubby had survived much longer than the
expected short term, DeQuattro contacted a colleague in
Michigan. "He told me that every patient other than Steve
with Steve's condition had died during this interval of
time." DeQuattro believes that "in some amazing
fashion, this medication has not only controlled the symptoms
of the pheochromocytoma, but in my view, has arrested its
growth." (February 14, 1999, Sacramento Bee, CA)
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Joe
Hart, 50, has been HIV positive for 15 years. He gave up on
pharmaceutical drugs two years ago, relying instead on relief
from nausea from eight daily puffs on a marijuana cigarette.
Hart's Key West physician Dr. Raymond McKnight said, "I
think it's a fascinating case. I don't think I can get a
doctor to sit in the same room with me and [Hart] and
guarantee me it's not helping him. He definitely couldn't say
this is not working." (April 8, 1999, Miami
Herald, FL)
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Don
Schmiege, a 72-year-old retired biologist, uses marijuana to
relieve constant pain in his chest and neck that began after
an accident injured his neck. He says the only alternative
offered by doctors is morphine, which has a disorienting
effect. (March 2, 1999, The Juneau Empire, AK)
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A
woman in Maine described the last days of her sister-in-law
who was dying of pancreatic cancer. "The medications
prescribed for the nausea do not work, but marijuana does.
After watching her retch more than 30 times, I felt it was
time for her to try it, and it worked. For the moralists out
there, I suggest you see what an end-stage cancer patient has
to endure." (March 3, 1999, Bangor Daily News, ME)
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Robert
M., a 64-year-old from Arkansas, employs cannabis to fight the
imbalance, weakness, spasticity, and low energy symptomatic of
multiple sclerosis. (The Benefits of Marijuana, by Joan
Bello, 1996; Boca Raton, FL: LifeServices Press.)
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Will
Foster, a 38-year-old Oklahoma father of three, is a U. S.
Veteran diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in his feet and
back. He is currently serving a reduced term on his original
93-year prison sentence for cultivation of cannabis in his
home for his personal medical use. (Ibid)
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A
1999 report by federal researchers at the National Institutes
of Mental Health revealed that THC and cannabidiol (DBC)
appear to protect brain cells from the damage that often
occurs during a stroke by acting as powerful antioxidants. The
findings also indicated that marijuana may be valuable in the
treatment of brain injuries and diseases such as Alzheimer's
and Parkinson's.
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Researchers
in Spain found that injecting THC directly into certain brain
tumors (glioma, an incurable cancer), has killed the cancer
cells. Normal brain tissue was unaffected by the treatment.
The report was published in Nature Medicine, March 2000 issue.
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Mice
exhibiting symptoms similar to those characteristic of people
with multiple sclerosis were injected with THC in a study at
the University College of London and experienced reduced
tremors and spasticity from the treatment.
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