On August 18, 2008 A La Times medical reporter interviewed a group of doctors that were researching the benefits of medical marijuana. The issue of whether marijuana has any medical benefits is all determined on whom you ask–should marijuana be labeled with the dangerous drugs like PCP and heroin, or is it a miracle herb that has an abundance of uses and is being suppressed by the government–perhaps its something in between: an herb with tremendous medical benefits yet with drawbacks, worth looking into.

As the political campaigning over medical marijuana continues, a small group of scientist are investigating the effects on how inhaled marijuana treats nausea, pain, and muscle spasms

Doctors have long understood that all drugs come attached with risk–in most American homes the medicine cabinets are stuffed with aspirin, antihistamines, and pain killers. What Doctors try to do is balance out the risk versus the benefits of what the medicine can do–some argue this should be the same approach when it comes to looking at marijuana.

Researchers say that their findings show that marijuana does have medical benefits– for chronic pain syndromes, cancer pains, AIDS wasting syndrome, nausea associated with chemo therapy, and multiple sclerosis. The research is hindered so progress is slow as they try to harness and understand all of the plants benefits. Another discovery has been that although there are real risks attached to marijuana, they are generally small.

Dr. Donald Abrams, chief of hematology and oncology at San Francisco General Hospital and professor of clinical medicine at UC San Francisco sees cancer patients in pain, not eating or sleeping well, experiencing nausea and vomiting from treatment, and being depressed about their situation.

He’s happy that he live in a state like California where medical marijuana is legal by state law–this even as federal agents continue to raid on a regular basis the cannabis dispensaries that are in the state as well as scrutinize doctors who prefer to treat some of their patients with marijuana.

“I can talk to patients about medicinal cannabis [and] I’m often recommending it to them for these indications,” Abrams says.

The medical use of marijuana has gone on for thousands of years. In the days before the bible, the plant was used as a medicinal tea in China, and in India it was used as a stress formula and pain reliever–All throughout Asia, the Middle East, and Africa marijuana was use for earaches, childbirth, and many other remedies.

In the past 10 years there have been studies to test the effects of marijuana on people with HIV, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and spinal chord injuries.

For the past three plus decades, Dr. Reindhurst has researched the medicinal effects that nirvana seeds have been used in history. She has a web site full of information on the nirvana seeds and the many uses it has had throughout humancivilization.

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Filed under: Cancer

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