> Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007 05:58:00 -0700
> From: Beth Wehrman <beth@...>
> Subject: MAP: Medical Marijuana: Treatment For
> Marijuana Dependence
>
> Salem News, Salem Oregon
> Date: July 1 2007
> Author: Dr. Phillip Leveque
>
> (MOLALLA, Ore.) - I found this article discussing
> this subject with a
> computer search. The title was "Marijuana: Medical
> Implications" from
> the journal American Family Physician (Vol. 60/No.9,
> pgs. 2583-93) by
> Dr. John R. Hubbard, et al at Vanderbilt University
> School of Medicine.
>
> The first few sentences in the abstract are: "Over
> 50 percent of
> people will use marijuana sometime in their life.
> While intoxication
> [sic] lasts two to three hours, the active
> ingredient...[THC], can
> accumulate in fatty tissues, including the brain and
> testes [ouch]."
>
> I'm a bit surprised at the cavalier use of
> "intoxication." Nobody
> says that patients who are using Morphine or
> Oxycontin are
> intoxicated, but they certainly are by the same
> token.
>
> After 1937, when Cannabis in any form was illegal,
> researchers were
> able to get research grants to study adverse effects
> of Cannabis but
> not beneficial effects. My wife, a nurse, witnessed
> the first
> injections of Penicillin in her hospital in
> Newcastle, England. The
> patient was surgically draped and the Chief of
> Surgery at Grand
> Rounds, in surgical garb and rubber gloves, gave the
> injection into
> the buttocks of the patient. Over the next two days,
> the patient was
> repeatedly questioned about adverse side effects.
> One of his
> complaints was a pain in the testicle. (This was NOT
> a long needle).
> For the next several years, pain in the testicle was
> considered an
> adverse effect of Penicillin. So much for the
> adverse effects of Marijuana.
>
> There are at least two reasons for adverse effects
> from Marijuana.
> The old stuff (prior to about 1990) was very low in
> THC, the chief
> medical agent. There are at least two more important
> ones—CBD and
> CBN. Old stuff, when burned in a cigarette, was very
> irritating to
> the mouth, throat, breathing tubes and lungs. It
> caused coughing and
> a headache. If it contained more than a little THC,
> it would cause
> bloodshot eyes, vasodilation, followed by increased
> heart rate and
> the "munchies", all considered adverse effects.
>
> If a person got some strong stuff but didn't know it
> until he took a
> big inhalation, he would really get "high" in a
> hurry. This is very
> unpleasant, scares the person and may cause a whole
> bunch of anxiety,
> panic attacks, etc. This is frequently followed by
> deep sedation or
> sleep. Some people enjoy the "high", sedation and
> sleep.
>
> Auditory and visual hallucinations are common with
> very high doses
> but may be euphoric and some people seem to enjoy
> them. The term
> psychedelic has been used but usually applies to LSD
> or "magic
> mushrooms", etc. Medical Marijuana users discover
> that adverse
> effects are brought on by heavy doses and they avoid
> them.
>
> The article states that about 100,000 people seek
> treatment for
> Marijuana dependence each year. This is really
> strange, as 750,000
> people are arrested each year for Marijuana use. One
> would presume
> that those represent the most affected patients but
> probably the
> legal system requires many to have treatment or drug
> counseling,
> which they regard as both punitive and hilarious.
>
> The article is very serious about treatment for
> Marijuana dependence.
> Patients should
>
> (1) be evaluated for other drug-related disorders
> (e.g., alcoholism),
>
> (2) be evaluated for psychiatric disorders (e.g.,
> depression),
>
> (3) be evaluated for medically related problems
> (e.g., chronic pain),
>
> (4) be educated about adverse effects,
>
> (5) have supportive care for panic reactions,
>
> (6) have supportive care for withdrawal symptoms,
>
> (7) be aided in providing education of spouse and
> family, and
>
> (8) receive a referral to a relapse prevention
> program. Most medical
> marijuana patients would consider all of these
> treatment strategies
> as being much funnier than the U.S. government
> produced movie Reefer
> Madness, which is so absurd that it really isn't
> humorous.
>
> It is noted that Dr. Hubbard is Director of the
> Substance Abuse
> Treatment Program at the Nashville Veterans Affairs
> Medical Center. I
> would guess that this explains the over-cautionary
> sense of his
> article. I know at least a dozen Cannabis doctors
> who would consider
> his article not humorous but very tragic.
>
> Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat
> Infantryman in WWII,
> Physician and Toxicologist.
>
> http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july22007/leveque_dependence_62207.php



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