What is medicinal cannabis?

Medicinal cannabis is a purified and highly consistent formulation of cannabis which:

• Is produced from plants cultivated under controlled conditions
  (Meticulously inspected for mold, fungi, animal hair and feces, insects, mites, chemicals, etc. Basically, the presence of anything that isn't cannabis)
• Can be approved by doctors for medicinal purposes
• Minimizes the unwanted effects that are associated with the use of recreational cannabis

How does medicinal cannabis work?

The way in which cannabis exerts its effects on the human body has recently become clearer with the discovery that the active components of cannabis (termed cannabinoids) mimic the effects of chemicals (endocannabinoids) that naturally occur in the human brain and body. These chemicals act as 'signals' or 'messengers' that help control how the body functions. So, the use of cannabinoids to mimic these chemicals may affect different symptoms and how the patient experiences them.

How is medicinal cannabis different from recreational cannabis?

Medicinal cannabis is only available when approved by a Doctor for people with specific medical conditions. Medicinal cannabis is supplied as a highly consistent, purified formulation.

Recreational cannabis occurs in numerous forms and may be adulterated with a number of other substances . There is no standardization and users have no guarantee of potency or content.

Is medicinal cannabis legal?

Yes! On November 5, 1996, the people of California passed Proposition 215. Through this Initiative Measure, Section 11362.5 was added to the Health & Safety Code, and is also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. The purposes of the Act include, in part:

"(A) To ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes where the medical use is deemed appropriate and has been recommended by a physician who has determined that the person's health would benefit from the use of marijuana in the treatment of cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief; and

(B) To ensure that patients and their primary caregivers who obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes upon the recommendation of a physician are not subject to criminal prosecution or sanction."

Isn't smoking marijuana worse for you than smoking cigarettes?

There are many reasons why it is not. You may have heard that ``one joint is equal to ten cigarrettes'' but this is exagerrated and misleading. Marijuana does contain more tar than tobacco -- but low tar cigarettes cause just as much cancer, so what is that supposed to mean? Scientists have shown that smoking any plant is bad for your lungs, because it increases the number of `lesions' in your small airways. This usually does not threaten your life, but there is a chance it will lead to infections. Marijuana users who are worried about this can find less harmful ways of taking marijuana like eating or vaporizing. (Be careful -- marijuana is safe to eat -- but tobacco is not, you might overdose!) Marijuana does not seem to cause cancer the way tobacco does, though.

Here is a list of interesting facts about marijuana smoking and tobacco smoking:

 

• Marijuana smokers generally don't chain smoke, and so they smoke less. (Marijuana is not physically addictive like tobacco.) The more potent marijuana is, the less a smoker will use at a time.
• Tobacco contains nicotine, and marijuana doesn't. Nicotine may harden the arteries and may be responsible for much of the heart disease caused by tobacco. New research has found that it may also cause a lot of the cancer in tobacco smokers and people who live or work where tobacco is smoked. This is because it breaks down into a cancer causing chemical called `N Nitrosamine' when it is burned (and maybe even while it is inside the body as well.)
• Marijuana contains THC. THC is a bronchial dilator, which means it works like a cough drop and opens up your lungs, which aids clearance of smoke and dirt. Nicotine does just the opposite; it makes your lungs bunch up and makes it harder to cough anything up.
• There are benefits from marijuana (besides bronchial dilation) that you don't get from tobacco. Mainly, marijuana makes you relax, which improves your health and well-being.
• Scientists do not really know what it is that causes malignant lung cancer in tobacco. Many think it may be a substance known as Lead 210. Of course, there are many other theories as to what does cause cancer, but if this is true, it is easy to see why NO CASE OF LUNG CANCER RESULTING FROM MARIJUANA USE ALONE HAS EVER BEEN DOCUMENTED, because tobacco contains much more of this substance than marijuana.
• Marijuana laws make it harder to use marijuana without damaging your body. Water-pipes are illegal in many states. Filtered cigarettes, vaporizers, and inhalers have to be mass produced, which is hard to arrange `underground.' People don't eat marijuana often because you need more to get as high that way, and it isn't cheap or easy to get (which is the reason why some people will stoop to smoking leaves.) This may sound funny to you -- but the more legal marijuana gets, the safer it is.

  It is pretty obvious to users that marijuana prohibition laws are not ``for their own good.'' In addition to the above, legal marijuana would be clean and free from adulturants. Some people add other drugs to marijuana before they sell it. Some people spray room freshener on it or soak in in chemicals like formaldehyde! A lot of the marijuana is grown outdoors, where it may be sprayed with pesticides or contaminated with dangerous fungi. If the government really cared about our health, they would form an agency which would make sure only quality marijuana was sold. This would be cheaper than keeping it illegal, and it would keep people from getting hurt and going to the emergency room.

" The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society supports legislation to remove criminal and civil sanctions for the doctor-advised, medical use of marijuana by patients with serious physical medical conditions ... [the] Leukemia & Lymphoma Society strongly urge that in a state where patients are permitted to use marijuana medicinally for serious and/or chronic illnesses and a patient's physician has recommended its use in accordance with that state's law and that state's medical practice standards, the patient should not be subject to federal criminal penalties for such medical use."
- Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, July 2007

Medical value of marijuana debated in Calif. court

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? A federal appeals court in California is weighing arguments from a medical marijuana advocacy group that wants to force the government to retract its claim that pot has no medicinal value.

Lawyers from Americans for Safe Access told a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday that the assessment by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration was based on conservative values, not science.

The group is appealing a lower court judge's 2007 decision to dismiss its lawsuit, which cited a federal law that allows citizens to seek correction of false information put out by the government.