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Archive for August, 2010

Canadian study shows relief for chronic neuropathic pain

August 31st, 2010 |

Author: kanaman

There’s now more scientific evidence for what many patients have known for awhile: Smoking marijuana can ease chronic neuropathic pain and help patients sleep better, according to a team of researchers in Montreal.

The new study, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that pain intensity among patients decreased with higher-potency marijuana, reports Caroline Alphonso of The Globe and Mail. The study represents an important scientific attempt to determine the medicinal benefits of cannabis.

Patients suffering from neuropathic pain often use opioid pain medication, antidepressants and local anesthetics, but all of those drugs have limitations, and the side effects of these substances can rival the conditions they are supposed to treat. Unlike “normal” pain, which results from stimulation of pain receptors in the body, neuropathic pain results from damage to or dysfunction of the central or peripheral nervous system, reports Deborah Mitchell at EmaxHealth.

But many politicians and medical personnel have been reluctant to advocate medical marijuana because, even though patients champion its use, there have been calls for more scientific studies.

“Patients have repeatedly made claims that smoked cannabis helps to treat pain, but the issue for me had always been the lack of clinical research to support that claim,” said Dr. Mark Ware, director of clinical research at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal. In this small but randomized, controlled trial, “the pain reductions were modest, but significant,” he said. “And it was in people for whom nothing else worked.”

Twenty-one adults with post-traumatic or post-surgical chronic pain took part in the study. They randomly received marijuana at three different strengths: with a tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of 2.5 percent, 6 percent and 9.4 percent, and a placebo. THC is one of the main active ingredients in the cannabis plant.

All of the patients rotated through each of the four dosages, with nine days of no smoking in between.
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Posted in News |

Tags: Canada, cannabis, Cannabis News, Cannabis Research, Cannabis Science, chronic pain, clinical trial, higher potency marijuana, marijuana, medical marijuana, medicinal, Montreal, nervous system, neuropathic pain, pain relief, post traumatic pain, smoked cannabis, Smoking Products, study |

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Germany: Lawmakers ready to approve use of medical marijuana

August 18th, 2010 |

Author: kanaman

Medical cannabis will be available in Germany soon, with the center-right coalition preparing to make groundbreaking changes to drug laws, a government health spokeswoman said this week. Cannabis was illegal throughout Germany until the federal constitutional court decided on 28 April 1994 that people need no longer be prosecuted for possession of soft drugs for [...]
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Posted in Seeds, Useful articles, Weed growing |

Tags: cannabinoid, cannabis, Cannabis News, drug tsar, Germany, hashish, law, Legalisation, legalization, medical marijuana, medicinal, Medicinal cannabis, pain relief, soft drugs |

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Mexico former president advocates for drug legalization

August 11th, 2010 |

Author: kanaman

And here’s one more former politician advocating for legalization of drugs! It seems that quite a few of them can have a totally different speech once they retire. This double-sided view doesn’t reassure much when you realize these guys have the power, or better to say, they serve it. The organised crime in Mexico has [...]
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Posted in News |

Tags: Calderon, cannabis, cocaine, decriminalisation, drugs, former president, Fox, government, heroin, legalization, legalize, marijuana, Mexico, President, Society and Cannabis, violence, war on drugs |

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