The UK state has long been scared of the effects of cannabis, especially its anti-state effect on people who want the freedom to eat, and smoke, and drink, whatever the hell they like.
But soon, specially selected National Health Service patients are to be given cannabis as part of a government-funded trial, costing half a million pounds, to see if it can work as an effective pain relief drug.
Of course, all of the sufferers from long-term pain who regularly use cannabis right now, illegally, to get themselves through the long days and nights of multiple sclerosis, and other painful complaints, could have told them this years ago. And have done so, many times. But not to worry. Spending half a million of other people’s money costs the government absolutely nothing, after all, so where’s the worry?
It should be interesting however, if Her Majesty’s Government do legitimise ‘medical cannabis’. Expect to see queues out the door of most General Practitioners’ surgeries filled with ‘migraine’ sufferers, for whom Nurofen doesn’t quite cut the mustard anymore.
Actually, I can feel this throbbing pain in my left temple, right this second, probably from all this cheese I’m eating on the Atkins diet. Maybe I should chuck the diet in, and get back to carbohydrates? Anybody got any ‘interesting’ chocolate cake mixture recipes?
My policeman friend says that far more traffic injuries are caused today as a result of drivers being on dope than on drink.
They’re desperately trying to find a cost-effective and convenient equivalent to the breathalyser.
The problem with cannabis is that it takes much longer to dissipate from the body than drink does.
Digging around on the web, the first thing I found was this:
http://www.christian.org.uk//html-publications/cannabis.htm
which I now intend to sit down for an hour and read…
I have heard a great deal of hear say about the medical benefits of herb (and smoked a bit myself years ago). Of course I didn’t inhale.
But, anyway, I’ve heard hear say evidence including things like it helps people with bronchitis. Now, cannabis has four to five times the tar as tobacco. It is the tar that harms your lungs, the nicotine just gets you hooked. How can anything with 4 or 5x the tar of tobacco be good for someone with bronchitis?
But, I welcome a state funded, and scientific study of the potential health benefits. The key word here is “scientific”, not anecdotle.
Just stay off the road, Ron, and everything’ll be ok.
“How can anything with 4 or 5x the tar of tobacco be good for someone with bronchitis?”
Assuming this is valid (and that is a large assumption given the avalanche of disinformation from the drug warriors), you have to remember that most cigaretter smokers take in 20 or more cigarettes per day. Even the most devoted pot smokers take in a fraction as much of their weed, so the difference in usage patterns makes it very difficult to compare the health effects of the two.
Actually, just go around the whole tar issue as any one who went to high school/college when I did would do: special brownies!
(“That 70s Show” is almost a documentary of my HS years. Just substitute a small camping trailer for the basement.)
Of course, there is the danger of a feedback loop here: too many special brownies leads to the munchies, leading to more brownie consumption, more munchies, ad infinitum.
Bronchitis is not an ailment for which canabis is an effective treatment.
The drug’s most important applications are (1)appitite stimulation in Aids patients who suffer from Aids Wasting Syndrome and (2) the suppression of nausia in patients undergoing highly emetogenic forms of chemotherapy. Emesis can be so sever in some chemo patients that they break ribs or rupture their esophaguses while vomiting. The limited amount of available reasearch and a mountain of anecdotal evidence all strongly support the drug’s effectiveness in these areas.
There is tremendous suffering going on because patients are unable to use canabis to aleviate serious pain/nausia/lack of appitite. We cannot confuse the issue of recreational use of canabis (which is hardly pressing) with the need of desperately ill people for relief.
A three pound (weight not $) can of “special” brownies
the scorers table at Pebble Beach Golf Course
a wonderfully sunny day
Nicholaus on the hunt
a recently retired USAF Chief Master Sgt. with a sweet tooth
Memories are made of this