Modern medicine is slowly but surely waking up to the huge health and healing benefits of medical marijuana. MMJ is now being used to treat and manage a whole host of physiological and psychological diseases.
However, despite a slew of studies showing its effectiveness, and mountains of anecdotal evidence from cannabis card patients who have benefited from its use, there is still controversy surrounding medical marijuana. In many circles, marijuana is viewed as a harmful and deviant drug. Rigid thinking in this area means that many people refuse to see cannabis as anything but the dangerous and degrading substance they have been brainwashed into believing it is.
Marijuana’s bad reputation comes from decades of baselessly awful press, and a large amount of deliberate misinformation that’s been peddled by malevolent and cynical forces with sinister agendas.
For much of the 19th century, physicians happily, and to great effect, prescribed Cannabis Indica for a wide range of ailments including nervous disorders, labor pains, nausea, asthma, sexual dysfunction, and headache. Well over 100 studies published in the 19th century validated its effectiveness. Marijuana was well and truly a ‘superstar’ of 1800s medicine. Cannabis was to the 19th century apothecary, what Conor McGregor is to the 2017 UFC.
Medical marijuana and modern medicine: a match made in heaven?
But in 1937 things changed. The Marijuana Tax Act became law and the use of marijuana for medical purposes or otherwise became illegal. Propaganda was disseminated that said cannabis was of no medicinal benefit and that it was, in fact, sinister and harmful. Stories of people going crazy and committing acts of wild violence and sexual depravity while under the influence of the evil herb marijuana were circulated and the notion that weed was a satanic and horrendous poison seeped into the national consciousness. These wild stories were thoroughly false and baseless, yet a naive populace believed them anyway.
According to author Preston Peet, in his excellent book ‘Under the Influence: The Disinformation Guide to Drugs’, the underlying purpose of criminalizing and vilifying cannabis was to kill the hemp industry, and make the big business interests who ran the synthetic fiber industry even more filthy rich. It seems possible that the alcohol industry, which had just exploded after the end of prohibition in 1933, also stood to benefit from a total ban on marijuana.
Marijuana stayed strictly ‘off the menu’ for doctors and patients (on an official basis at least) for the next several decades, until eventually the mood began to change in more enlightened parts of the nation during the 1990s. California passed Proposition 215 in 1996 which allowed the use of medical cannabis in the state for people with a California medical marijuana card. Gradually other states opened their eyes to the undeniable benefits of issuing medical 420 cards and followed suit, legalizing marijuana for medical use. By the beginning of 2017, 28 US states had legalized medical marijuana.
MMJ is now firmly a part of modern medicine with physicians prescribing a California medical card for physiological conditions such as vomiting, migraines, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, nausea, sickle-cell disease, Parkinson’s disease, sleep apnea, spinal cord injuries, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, muscle spasms, and asthma, as well as psychological conditions like anxiety disorder, insomnia, bipolar disorder, depression, and PTSD.
The benefits of cannabis cards for modern medicine are now being thoroughly explored and studies are bringing a whole host of new and unexpected benefits to light. Studies on laboratory animals are showing that the cannabinoids found in MMJ can inhibit tumor growth, and even kill tumors by inhibiting the formation of new blood vessels that tumors need in order to grow. This is an excellent development in the fight against cancer. Cannabinoids even seem to have an advantage over chemotherapy because, while chemo tends to annihilate healthy cells as well as cancerous cells, cannabinoids seem to kill cancerous cells while leaving healthy cells intact.
Not only is MMJ easing the pain and suffering of patients with a raft of different diseases, and showing potential to kill tumors, but it is also, according to research from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, showing great potential to improve neurological functioning after a stroke, and a study from the National Cancer Institute is even suggesting that it could have a protective effect against the development of certain tumors! Hurray for cannabis!
So the real story of medical marijuana and modern medicine is a beautiful love story. There was a passionate honeymoon full of laughter, lust and wild nights. Then came a tumultuous middle period in which mistrust, wild accusations and hurt feelings lead to an acrimonious break-up. But that break-up was ultimately character building, and it let the lovers realize just how much then really meant to each other, and they finally got back together in a wonderful reunion, and a renewed, more mature, and deeper love flourished, and looks set to continue to flourish forever more! Warms your heart, right?