Monday, August 1, 2011

The Buckeye State Is Going To "Pot"....

And yet another group that wants to legalize medical marijuana… this time in the middle of America, in Ohio of all places. Ohio-n’s have turned over of a petition “loaded” with signatures from good solid U.S citizens (such as yourself) for what they say is their initial assault on ignorance by putting the issue before the voters in Nov. ‘12.

A quick preview of the sanity to come with the proposed "Ohio Alternative Treatment Amendment" and how it would modify the state constitution to allow caregivers to give patients with qualifying ailments up to 3.5 ounces in pot .

“Backers of the measure last week submitted a petition that summarized that amendment with 2,143 signatures to Attorney General Mike DeWine.

Secretary of State Jon Husted, Ohio's top elections official, said the next step in the process is validating 1,000 signatures and passing the language of the petition in a review process. If the proposal makes it through the review process, its supporters will need to collect at least another 385,245 valid signatures to win the amendment a spot on the ballot next year.”

Researchers at the Temple University School of Pharmacy reported that nerve pain that results as a side effect of the chemotherapeutic agent paclitaxel can be prevented by cannabidiol, a compound in the marijuana plant.

Cannabidiol (CBD) is the second most commonly occurring compound in the cannabinoid family (the group of medicinal compounds in the cannabis plant). Cannabidiol has many proven medical benefits, including anti-inflammatory, anti-anxiety, anti-convulsant, and anti-psychotic properties. It also has been shown to reduce muscle spasms, promotes sleep and helps to relieve pain. It is non-psychoactive, that is, it does not contribute to the "high" that one experiences with the use of cannabis that is due to the compound THC.

In a recent study published in the July issue of the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia, investigators studied the effect that CBD had on a particularly difficult side effect of the chemotherapeutic agent paclitaxel (brand name Taxol or Abraxane). Paclitaxel is used to treat patients with lung cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, head and neck cancer and advanced forms of Kaposi's sarcoma. A common side effect of paclitaxel (in up to two-thirds of patients receiving it) is peripheral neuropathy, damage to the nerves in the body that causes pain, numbness, tingling, sensitivity to touch and/or muscle weakness. Often when this side effect occurs, paclitaxel doses must be lowered or it must be stopped altogether, interfering with the cancer treatment.

In this study, it was shown that female mice (who appeared to be more sensitive to this side effect than male mice) who received treatment with cannabidiol did not develop paclitaxel-induced nerve pain. Let's hope that this research continues and that CBD can be tested in humans. It is amazing that a well-known side effect can be PREVENTED (not just treated after it happens!) with a natural medicine in marijuana. All of those opposed to marijuana and marijuana research need to open their eyes to the SCIENCE of cannabis!

CBD is currently studied in labs all over the world, as it is recognized as a medicinal compound with tremendous potential. Unfortunately, much of the cannabis that is available for medical marijuana patients in legal states is low in its content of CBD. As more people become aware of the medicinal properties of CBD, plants with higher CBD content will hopefully be more available.

Study citation: Ward SJ, Ramirez MD, Neelakantan H, et al. Cannabidiol Prevents the Development of Cold and Mechanical Allodynia in Paclitaxel-Treated Female C57Bl6 Mice. Anesth Analg 2011 Jul 7.

Washington D.C. the capital of the United States, as well as 16 additional states have at present legalized medical cannabis: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

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