After being consider an illegal substance for decades, marijuana is being culturally and legally re-evaluate by many countries. Scientific research, the increase in countries that have legalize it, as well as the great diversity of dissemination of information have contribute to the medicinal use of marijuana.
Medical marijuana is the use that is given to the plant in terms of its active principles of marijuana sativa. Are you curious to know if the benefits behind this substance are all that they say? In the following paragraphs we will break down some of the most research benefits, as well as some considerations for their use.
Medicinal properties
We must recognize the various components of the plant, which will define whether its use for therapeutic purposes is appropriate or not. Marijuana contains more than 100 cannabinoids, of which two stand out: Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD). Each of the two produce a different effect contributing to the sensation generate by marijuana and its therapeutic applications.
Cannabidiol or CBD, is the main component of marijuana. It is present in the resinous marijuana flowers, making up to 45 percent of the plant extract. CBD is one of the more than 100 exclusive cannabinoids of the flowers.
On the other hand, we have the psychoactive component of marijuana which is THC. This cannabinoid is link to two receptors in the human brain, CB-1, which influences pleasure, appetite, memory, and concentration, and CB-2, which is responsible for moderating the sensation of pain and plays a role in homeostasis in certain parts of the body such as the kidney and liver.
Now, the medicinal use of marijuana is perhaps one of the most ancient uses of the flowers. Medical encyclopedia Pen Tsao that was written between approximately 4000 and 2000 BC, where the father of ancient Chinese medicine Sheng Nung mentions marijuana as one of the marijuana flowers that he test in the medical experiments of the.
What are the benefits of marijuana?
The first benefit of the flowers in the human body is find in pain control. One of the first (current) uses give to the marijuana flowers was for the control of intense pain in some cancer patients, to later begin testing it in patients with multiple sclerosis and other serious injuries.
Definitive evidence that cannabinoids are effective in treating chronic pain appears in a report. It is base on one of the most comprehensive studies ever conduct on marijuana. Medical research studies show the flowers to have anticancer properties. In addition, it also has antitumor effects in various types of cancer.
Slows the progression of Alzheimer’s
Even very low amounts of THC can help reduce the symptoms of this disease. It has long been claim that the most common cannabinoids have neuroprotective properties. Since Alzheimer’s is link to inflammation of the immune system, CBD also plays a role in its treatment.
Among other benefits of marijuana is also to reduce loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting cause by chemotherapy, as well as to treat pain and spasticity (muscular disorder that involves an abnormal increase in muscle tone) in people with HIV/AIDS.
Thanks to its effects on the limbic system, doctors sometimes prescribe marijuana to treat neurological and mental health conditions such as anxiety, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and Tourette’s syndrome.
Occasional insomnia is part of our lives, but when sleep disorders become chronic, they quickly cause problems for the affected person. The relaxing effects of marijuana can help this condition. And it can also improve sleep.
Read also: 7 Medical Conditions Marijuana Intake Improves
Medicines with marijuana
The consequence of not being accredit can be 10 to 25 years in prison, plus a fine ranging from 100 to 500 days of minimum wage.
Currently, Tampa doctors can already prescribe products with marijuana, but for this they must have a prescription that is issue and control by marijuana dispensary, if they do not have this, the doctor can become creditor to jail and a fine of up to 500 days of minimum wage.
“Marijuana dispensary, is not prepare for the avalanche of this type of medical prescriptions that is upon them. Doctors can now access this prescription, which is control with QR, and once they are exhaust they will have to renew it. But the good news is that for This only requires accreditation as a doctor with a professional license,”
Roberto Ibarra.
During his participation in the Marijuana Summit, he mention that the doctors who can process your prescription are general practitioners, surgeons, specialists, dentists, and even homeopaths and veterinarians. The procedure to prescribe narcotic and psychotropic drugs is carry out in marijuana dispensary and takes a period of five days.
He explain that although the Regulation that allows the production, export and import of marijuana for medicinal and research purposes of the General Health Law, it is not clear if a doctor can request products to become a distributor, there are legal gaps that they can be occupy.
“The legal path would have to be find. As expect, the doctor would have to have a pharmacy or drugstore to be able to comply with the regulation, or even become an authorize distributor of some of the establishments that already have the permit, but not may have samples, as occurs with other medications,”
Ibarra explain.
He warn that it is important that the permit and recipe book be process, since the consequence of not being accredit can be 10 to 25 years in prison, plus a fine ranging from 100 to 500 days of minimum wage. “In the last two weeks we have receive at least 10 inquiries from doctors and people who receive citations for importing CBD products or sending them within the country by parcel,” Ibarra report.
Marijuana regulation law keeps market illegal
Marijuana dispensary, which is currently under review in committees, maintains the illegal market by preventing free trade and production, warn the marijuana council.
“The most important thing to achieve in the approval of the law is the contribution that would be make by reducing the public security crisis, since at least 18,000 people arrest for carrying less than 28 grams of marijuana could be release”
The president of the Council, say in a statement.
The cost of keeping the 18,000 inmates incarcerate, considering that each one costs the prison system around 3,500 pesos per day, will rise to more than 1,800 million pesos per month. “The situation is unsustainable, in such a way that if say law is not definitively approve by April 30, the issue will continue for another 18 months for another legislative period,” added Guillen.
CCN point out
When analyzing the opinion issue by Marijuana dispensary, which consists of 55 articles, the CCN point out that the possible beneficiaries are greatly limit and do not guarantee free competition or the development of the national industry.
“Although it is positive that marijuana dispensary is in charge of the control and regulation of the acts of this Law, the legislation leaves ‘holes’ that will favor the permanence of the black market,”
Guillén.
These obstacles state that it will prevent the creation of at least 5,000 new jobs in the first stage, without considering the nearly 30,000 current jobs that are generate clandestinely and that will become part of the official figures once the information is publish.
“The potential of legal marijuana as a generator of jobs is enormous, in such a way that recreational or adult use is a large market that will allow the creation of legal dispensaries and distributors of marijuana as a matter of first necessity,”
Alfredo Neme Martínez, representative Abroad of the CCN.
Regarding the transformation of marijuana
They indicate that it is limiting since it does not consider the use for foodstuffs and beverages; including the production of cosmetics. Thus, the law was left to duty by allowing the transformation of the raw material and by prohibiting its different finish products.
Finally
They clarify that the law violates human rights by having a reservation that obliges any user or possessor of marijuana to request licenses, even contravening what the aforementioned law establishes by allowing the possession of up to 5 grams of marijuana.
