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In Reply to: Re: Regarding medical marijuana posted by also thinking on June 08, 2005 at 16:24:07:
Just because you haven't heard about it doesn't mean it's not so. Anyway, I said that it was being used in Israel to treat some of the symptoms of PTSD. As you probably know, there is a whole range of symptoms and not everyone presents with the same set of symptoms. I mentioned some that are particularly relieved by cannabis, such as stress, migraines, chronic pain and insomnia.
You are also talking about cannabis as if it is one drug, when in fact there are many different strains and varieties, each with different properties. If you've ever visited a Medical Cannabis clinic/club you will know that there is usually a variety of strains available, and patients experiment with specific strains until they find one that works for them. That is no different, by the way, than people trying different antidepressants until they find one that works for them.
Btw, there is now a pharmaceutical legally available in Canada called Sativex, that is a sublingual spray extracted from the whole cannabis plant. The active ingredients are identical to cannabis that you would smoke or eat. This spray is specifically marketed to people with MS.
My purpose in initially suggesting that cannabis may be an alternative for some people was to simply add it to the other suggestions by you and Purple Haze. I did not intend to get into a debate on the merits or politics of cannabis. However, I've been involved in the War against the War on Drugs for some time now, I'm familiar with the fear-mongering, propaganda, lies and myths surrounding cannabis, and so I can't help but correct misconceptions when I come across them.
The fact is, millions of people around the world are using this drug beneficially for a wide range of ailments, or simply for the sense of well-being it gives them, and have done so for several thousand years. There has never been reported anywhere at anytime one single incident of a death caused by cannabis, which can't be said for something as seemingly innocuous as aspirin, for example, not to mention a whole host of other drugs that are ingested with complete trust in the medical/pharmaceutical industrial complex.
In that sense, it is cannabis that should be regarded as 'conventional' medicine (it was still listed in the U.S. pharmacopoeia in the first couple decades of the last century, but for political/economic reasons removed), and many pharmaceuticals which have only been in use for a few years and rarely tested for long term effects (such as the new classes of antidepressants and painkillers that have had to be removed from the market) that should be regarded as 'alternative' medicine.
