With an increasing number of US states passing laws that allow people to use medical marijuana for the treatment of certain health conditions, it’s high time you are aware of basic info about it, how it works and which potential conditions it treats.
This comprehensive blog will provide detailed information regarding all this and more. Let’s begin!
About Medical Marijuana
Since the turn of the century, the usage of medical marijuana as a treatment option has been explored for a variety of health conditions that are unsuccessfully treated with other common drugs & therapies.
Moreover, the continuous support of doctors & patients who have experienced the effectiveness of medical marijuana in helping with symptoms of certain medical conditions has resulted in states permitting its use for these conditions if prescribed by a doctor.
The US states who have made medical marijuana legal are usually termed medical marijuana states. If you are a resident of a state where medical marijuana is legal, and your health practitioner believes that it could help treat one of the health issues you’re suffering from, then you’ll receive a ‘marijuana card.’
Consequently, you will be placed on a list that permits you to purchase marijuana from an authorized medical marijuana seller, generally known as a cannabis dispensary.
How Does Medical Marijuana Work?
Presently, there are 2 FDA-approved cannabinoids available in the US for refractory chemotherapy-induced nausea & vomiting. They are namely dronabinol (Marinol®) & nabilone (Cesamet®) and are prescribed in pill form. Nabilone is moreover indicated for AIDS-associated wasting & spasticity caused by a spinal cord injury.
Furthermore, various other marijuana-based medications have been approved or are in the process of clinical trials in the US.
One such medication, Nabiximols (Sativex®) is presently available in the UK, Canada, and many European countries for treating the spasticity & neuropathic pain that may come with multiple sclerosis. It is consumed in the form of a mouth spray and is essentially a combination of THC & CBD, which is another chemical found in marijuana.
Also, the FDA has approved a CBD-based liquid medication named Epidiolex® for the treatment of 2 kinds of chronic childhood epilepsy, Dravet syndrome & Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. It’s delivered to patients in a reliable dosage form & via a reproducible route of delivery to make sure the patients receive the expected benefits.
Despite all this, there is still a lot of research required to figure out optimal dosing & delivery routes.
Medicinal Properties of Marijuana
The potential medicinal attributes of marijuana and its constituents have been extensively researched & debated for a large number of years. However, regardless of that, no consensus has been reached about marijuana as a medicine.
One thing that has come to light is that THC on its own has proven medical benefits in specific formulations, while CBD does not have any of the beneficial attributes of THC.
Risks of Using Marijuana as a Medicine
To begin with, the human body already produces marijuana-esque chemicals that influence pain, inflammation & various other processes.
According to Laura Borgelt, PharmD, of the University of Colorado, marijuana can sometimes help these naturally produced chemicals work better. This, in turn, provides relief to patients suffering from certain health conditions.
Health Conditions that Medical Marijuana Treats
Many US citizens are curious about medical marijuana and have a common question to ask: Can cannabis treat health conditions?
To answer this question, currently, more than 200 different indications or uses for medical marijuana have been identified that can be distinguished into the following broad categories:
- Anti-nauseant & appetite stimulant
- Antispasmodic & anti-convulsant
- Analgesic (pain reliever)
- Anti-inflammatory & immune system modulator
- Anxiolytic (anxiety reliever) & antidepressant for mood disorders
- Harm reduction substitute for alcohol, opiates & other dangerous drugs
To be more specific regarding its usage, medical marijuana in kansa city is commonly prescribed as a treatment option for the following list of conditions:
- Chronic pain
- Nausea caused by cancer chemotherapy
- HIV
- Muscle spasms from multiple sclerosis
- Glaucoma
- IBS
- Seizure disorders
- Crohn’s disease
Medical Marijuana can work wonders for various physical and psychological conditions to alleviate your symptoms.
If you are interested in buying medical marijuana, apply for a medical marijuana card today and buy 100% legal medical cannabis from our dispensaries in Missouri.
