Medical cannabis holds multiple potentials when it comes to therapeutic benefits for people. The United States federal government currently classifies marijuana/cannabis as a schedule 1 drug. This means that it has no acceptable medical applications and a high risk for abuse.
Medical cannabis is against the law federally in every state in America. However, many states do not support the will of the federal government these days. Currently, 18 states have legal markets for adults to access recreational cannabis, and 37 states have legalized some form of medical cannabis.
In 2022, to stand before anyone and say that cannabis has no accepted medical value is heinous. A statement such as this is uneducated, unjust, and wrong. The United States federal government has utilized marijuana prohibition as a tool against the people for nearly eight decades, it’s time for that to end.
People Believe in the Medicinal Powers of Cannabis and They Always Have
From Reefer Madness of the 1940s, where claims such as “women cry for it-men die for it” were made, to the ’70s when Nixon really wanted to stick it to potheads, the ’80s when Regan waged a war on drugs, in particular cannabis, one thing has remained strong and that is the people’s love for cannabis. Back in the day, people knew cannabis was medicine. They knew that cannabis helped with a wide variety of different symptoms and conditions.
Both the American and Chinese pharmacopeias acknowledged cannabis as a medicine and its many medicinal applications. Suddenly this all changed. It was almost as if politics and monetary prosperity began to overtake governments around the world. The attempted eradication of cannabis encouraged an unsurmountable amount of arrests. These arrests helped fill prisons with free labor and quotas to fill the cots.
Today, cannabis isn’t taking it lying down. Cannabis and the people who love it are making a stand. This is resulting in a global shift in cannabis policy. Research and information are the essence of the era we live in. Years ago, information was not as openly available and easily accessible as it is today. Thanks to the internet and social media, information, and education regarding the truths about cannabis are easier to share than ever before. Research is able to take place thanks to states and countries acknowledging wrongs of the past and supporting positive cannabis policy.
Medical Cannabis Helping Cancer Patients
It’s no secret that medical cannabis has been helping cancer patients. The medical community should be ashamed of themselves for not rallying stronger support for cannabis legalization. Countless people have either been able to control and reduce the symptoms of cancer and its treatment including chemotherapy or have been able to eradicate cancer altogether by utilizing medical cannabis.
The pharmaceutical industry is perhaps one of the largest contributors to political campaigns. When we start to dive into research pointing towards medical cannabis reducing the need for opiates, we’re beginning to take funding out of the pockets that support our political representatives. But that is exactly what is going on. Neuroscience News reported on cancer patients, cannabis, and opiate painkillers. They said, “Most cancer patients who use the medical cannabis reported a significant improvement in pain measures and a decrease in some other cancer-related symptoms. Additionally, medical cannabis use reduced the consumption of traditional, opioid-based painkillers for those with cancer.”
This research points toward cannabis helping to reduce opioid dependency. This is something that is more than speculated across the cannabis community; it is known. Why our political representatives do not know this is a great question to ask them. Frontiers in Pain Research published an article suggesting medical cannabis should be very carefully considered to be an alternative to opioid painkillers. In this article, they said, “a comprehensive assessment of the benefits of medical cannabis for cancer-related pain found that for most oncology patients, pain measures improved significantly, other cancer relatives symptoms also decreased, the consumption of painkillers was reduced, and the side effects were minimal.”
Medical Cannabis is Helping Tackle the Real Problem – Opioids
Opioids are extremely dangerous and present the risk of many different adverse side effects compared to cannabis. Opioids can cause physical dependency, respiratory depression, vomiting, sedation, nausea, constipation, dizziness, and more. The most common side effects of cannabis are dry mouth, red or bloodshot eyes, and increased appetite, with some consumers experiencing nausea, headache, increased excitement, and/or feelings of sedation, aka couch lock.
In comparison, the side effects of cannabis are very mild compared to that of opioid prescription drugs. COVID-19 may have put the world on lockdown, but the opioid epidemic is still very much alive. It’s just not being talked about. When it is mentioned, it typically is in relation to cannabis helping curve America’s appetite for this dangerous pharmaceutical. After all, America consumes more opioids than any other nation in the world.
Other countries are leaps and bounds ahead of America when it comes to medical cannabis applications. Countries like Israel are leading the way. An assistant professor at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, by the name of David Meiri, was quoted telling the media, “Traditionally , cancer related pain is mainly treated by opioid analgesics, but most oncologists perceive opioid treatment as hazardous, so alternative therapies are required.” Alternative therapies such as cannabinoid therapy treatments are proving to hold their weight in the medical community when it comes to helping cancer patients experience pain relief and more.
The continued prohibition of cannabis is wrong. The United States federal government has supported federal marijuana prohibition since 1937 and continues to do so to this day. It is obvious that marijuana prohibition was based on a foundation of misinformation and falsehoods. It is time for the political representatives of the United States to acknowledge the wrongs of the past and begin to make the future right. A future where cannabis earns its due respects as the medicine that it is. A future where people are no longer incarcerated for a plant. A future where everyone has access to medical cannabis.
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