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Cannabis Considerations

Shall I not also add that even as light and color and sound come into our minds at the prompting of the world beyond, so these other stirrings of consciousness come from something which, whether we describe it as beyond or deep within ourselves, is greater than our own personality?

Sir Arthur Eddington, Quantum Questions

To Use or Not to Use?

More and more evidence is gathering that marijuana is an exceptionally useful medicine. And of course it cannot be denied that a number of folks use cannabis simply for recreation, just as many use alcohol. Yet even with so-called recreational use---which is really just a way relaxing or letting go of the worries of the world---I would argue that this too is medicinal use. For however one gets there, such relaxation and letting go is an undeniable antidote to life's troubles and hurries, whether human-contrived or otherwise. In any case, is cannabis use for you?

A Medicine Beyond

In the case of cannabis, there's a long list of what it might be good for, a list far longer than what's officially recognized. And the list is getting longer all the time.

Some of medical marijuana's more popular and well-documented uses include treatment for nausea and vomiting, appetite stimulation (useful in wasting syndrome and cachexia associated with cancer, AIDS/HIV and other debilitating conditions), glaucoma, chronic pain, muscle spasms and seizures. Cannabis is also proving useful in a number of conditions for which conventional medicine has few answers, including multiple sclerosis, premenstrual syndrome, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, migraines, and fibromyalgia.

Ongoing studies indicate cannabis may be useful for various types of arthritis, cancers, neurologic and muscular disorders, ALS, asthma, hepatitis, pruritus, urinary incontinence, atherosclerosis, hypertension, morning sickness...the list goes on. Medical marijuana has also proven effective in certain mood and psychological problems such as depression, bipolar, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress, attention-deficit, autism, alcoholism and opioid addictions. To this I would add that medical marijuana holds promise, along with proper counseling, in the treatment of various so-called personality disorders.

Wonder Drug?

Given its many proven and promising uses, is marijuana a wonder drug? My answer to this is YES!...at least in the sense that if you wonder whether cannabis will help you with a particular problem or condition, consider giving it a serious try...and, if nothing else, simply enjoy. Cannabis has an unusually high, if not astronomical, potential benefit-to-risk ratio, which means that there's a much much greater chance it will help you than hurt you.

Reasonable Limits?

While I would not want to place any limitations on marijuana's potential medical benefit, when it comes to cannabis use, some people should probably be more careful than others. In most instances, some sort of guidance or company, however informal, is recommended for first time users. Special or unusual circumstances, such as history of physical or mental illness, probably warrants some manner of professional supervision.

I wouldn't recommend smoking marijuana, or anything else for that matter, if you have a serious respiratory condition, though nebulized cannabis might provide a suitable alternative in certain cases. Cannabis has actually shown benefit in problems like asthma and cough, as it may relax smooth muscles, desensitize stimulus receptors and nerve endings, suppress the cough reflex and modulate immune and inflammatory responses.

In cases of more problematic mental illness or psychological stress, I wouldn't dissuade you from trying cannabis, it may very well prove be helpful. But it should only be used with caution and, depending on the severity of your problem, under routine or direct supervision of a specialist. If you're considering trying cannabis and already in counseling, be sure to discuss this with your therapist. See if they will support you and help monitor your progress. If your counselor/therapist/doctor is not willing to support you in this, ask them why, get another opinion or find someone who will. Some therapists, namely transpersonal psychologists but others as well, may be especially open to explorations with medical marijuana.

Finally, if you have any doubts about your health or have particular problems you're concerned about, check with a qualified doctor before using cannabis. I recommend this regardless of legality in your location. For this is a good thing to do before using any drug---prescription, over-the-counter or otherwise---especially with pre-existing health concerns. And keep in mind, such is ultimately yours to decide, as responsibility for health foremost lies in your court.

Over-the-Counter Status

Given medical marijuana's wide range of therapeutic value, ease of use and extreme safety, a sound argument could be made that it qualifies for over-the-counter status. So should cannabis be available without a prescription?

A case could be made for this position by comparing the effectiveness and safety profile of cannabis with other over-the-counter products now available. Compared with common drugs like acetaminophen, aspirin, and even supplements as seemingly benign as iron, cannabis is far less likely to cause problems. We could also compare cannabis with nonmedical products such as alcohol and tobacco, and again---regarding safety with both immediate and long-term consumption---find cannabis a far safer product. Statistics in both the health-care field and criminal justice system support this argument.

Finally, we might consider if physician-written prescriptions or professional recommendations for marijuana are actually necessary, at least any more so than any of the above mentioned drugs. Does cannabis use really warrant an official diagnosis or otherwise require a doctor's clean bill of health or green light? In the vast majority of cases, surely no more so than other over-the-counter drugs, including alcohol and tobacco. In addition, over-the-counter status would do away with the many criminal problems associated with illicit trade and black market transactions.

The Big Minor Question

The question of minors and marijuana is---as with sex, alcohol, and cigarettes---the most delicate and perhaps problematic of issues. I think this is an area where thoughtful adults from all walks of life need to put their community-minded heads together, and decide how best to proceed in this post-just say no era. As for my own two cents, I begin most direct: If you are a minor, I DO NOT recommend you use cannabis.

With that said, this adult would have to play really dumb to think you won't try it if you really want to. Marijuana will probably---as with sex, alcohol and cigarettes---enter the picture at some point in your teen years, especially given the very precocious nature of our society and culture. When it does, you'll have some very important decisions to make. Get educated first! Then, if you must, I recommend you talk with your parents first, or an adult you can trust. Because once you go there, you're entering the liberty of adult territory, complete with responsibility and accountability. No doubt a good portion of your elders, even in the highest sectors of society, need to remember this as well.

When it concerns drug education, the biggest injustice we've perpetrated on our children is misinformation. Yet the misstep here is much easier to correct than the slip and slide it creates. And that simple misstep is to classify marijuana in the same category as heroine, crack cocaine and other extreme soporifics and speeds. If we are to build clear-cut boundaries for dangerous drugs, such blatant misclassification of marijuana only pokes big holes in the walls. Honest education and discussion may not be foolproof, but it provides a much greater safety margin than misinformation, which only makes problems worse.

Reality Check

In my 15 years as a pharmacist, I've seen the market for psychotropics---that is, drugs that work on the mind such as antidepressants, antianxiety agents, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, etc.---grow by leaps and bounds. Whereas 50 years ago there were perhaps two or three of these meds on the market, a few dozen are available today. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, between the periods 1988-1994 and 1999-2000 adult use of antidepressants almost tripled. Today antidepressants are the most prescribed drugs. What does this trend say about the current condition of humanity?

In cases of severe mental illness, certainly these medications have proved helpful. On the other hand, given their increasingly widespread use, one must wonder if these drugs aren't more often used as bandaides or cover-ups, agents that only temporarily mask otherwise normal feelings, feelings that must be experienced and expressed as part of the human condition. I say temporarily mask, because as a rule these agents are usually effective for only so long before the dose must be increased, or another medication substituted or added in the regimen.

Why the increase in prescription psychotropic use, perhaps most alarmingly seen in our youth? Is human biochemistry really that messed-up? Does the answer to human health and well-being lie in some yet-to-be perfected synthetic that, any year now, will bubble to the surface of some chemist's flask?

From drugs to food additives to plastics, just as modern chemistry has permeated our everyday lives, so too it has permeated our minds. Modern society has come to not only depend on this laboratory-manufactured lifestyle but to fully assume it as normal and natural. And yet how normal is it to place completely novel synthetic chemicals in the human body? Barring the most extreme cases, to play with our biochemistry and experiment on the human mind in such an artificial manner seems too risky a proposition.

Over hundreds of millions of years, in constant intimate contact and interchange, animals have developed side-by-side with the plant kingdom. Not only are our biochemical systems well-familiar and complementary to each other, they are most fundamentally related. If we are to put medicines in our bodies, substances that affect not just our physiology but mental function as well, it seems a lot more reasonable to use something natural like cannabis---a plant with which we have been co-evolving for millions of years---than something concocted in a laboratory test-tube just yesterday. Along with all reason and logic, choosing such a naturally prescribed course simply makes good sense.

Now, it might be worthwhile to consider: Is a society truly free when it disallows an individual from following such a common sense course? Moreover, what does it say about the system that still criminalizes cannabis in the face of all evidence, logic and reason? In my opinion, such indictment say ours has not evolved much beyond the Dark Ages or the Inquisition...or it's de-volving back to those days.