Medical marijuana| Harvard Health Letter | Peter Grinspoon, MD

Marijuana Diaries Potcast | Introduction | Pilot S1E0

Hello friends , Wednesday 11 December 2019 . Thought of making introduction for my podcast . You can listen to me smoking joint , that’s how it’s gonna be . Bahut sari stories research kar raha hu , app log k sath share karunga . Thik h baba ! Support karo

Medical marijuana| Harvard Health Letter | Peter Grinspoon, MD

There are few subjects that can stir up stronger emotions among doctors, scientists, researchers, policy makers, and the public than medical marijuana. Is it safe? Should it be legal? Decriminalized? Has its effectiveness been proven? What conditions is it useful for? Is it addictive? How do we keep it out of the hands of teenagers? Is it really the “wonder drug” that people claim it is? Is medical marijuana just a ploy to legalize marijuana in general? These are just a few of the excellent questions around this subject, questions that I am going to studiously avoid so we can focus on two specific areas: why do patients find it useful, and how can they discuss it with their doctor? Marijuana is currently legal, on the state level, in 29 states, and in Washington, DC. It is still illegal from the federal government’s perspective. The Obama administration did not make prosecuting medical marijuana even a minor priority. President Donald Trump promised not to interfere with people who use medical marijuana, though his administration is currently threatening to reverse this policy. About 85% of Americans support legalizing medical marijuana, and it is estimated that at least several million Americans currently use it. Marijuana without the high Least controversial is the extract from the hemp plant known as CBD (which stands for cannabidiol) because this component of marijuana has little, if any, intoxicating properties. Marijuana itself has more than 100 active components. THC (which stands for tetrahydrocannabinol) is the chemical that causes the “high” that goes along with marijuana consumption. CBD-dominant strains have little or no THC, so patients report very little if any alteration in consciousness. Patients do, however, report many benefits of CBD, from relieving insomnia, anxiety, spasticity, and pain to treating potentially life-threatening conditions such as epilepsy. One particular form of childhood epilepsy called Dravet syndrome is almost impossible to control, but responds dramatically to a CBD-dominant strain of marijuana called Charlotte’s Web. The videos of this are dramatic. Uses of medical marijuana The most common use for medical marijuana in the United States is for pain control. While marijuana isn’t strong enough for severe pain (for example, post-surgical pain or a broken bone), it is quite effective for the chronic pain that plagues millions of Americans, especially as they age. Part of its allure is that it is clearly safer than opiates (it is impossible to overdose on and far less addictive) and it can take the place of NSAIDs such as Advil or Aleve, if people can’t take them due to problems with their kidneys or ulcers or GERD. In particular, marijuana appears to ease the pain of multiple sclerosis, and nerve pain in general. This is an area where few other options exist, and those that do, such as Neurontin, Lyrica, or opiates are highly sedating. Patients claim that marijuana allows them to resume their previous activities without feeling completely out of it and disengaged. Along these lines, marijuana is said to be a fantastic muscle relaxant, and people swear by its ability to lessen tremors in Parkinson’s disease. I have also heard of its use quite successfully for fibromyalgia, endometriosis, interstitial cystitis, and most other conditions where the final common pathway is chronic pain. Marijuana is also used to manage nausea and weight loss, and can be used to treat glaucoma. A highly promising area of research is its use for PTSD in veterans who are returning from combat zones. Many veterans and their therapists report drastic improvement and clamor for more studies, and for a loosening of governmental restrictions on its study. Medical marijuana is also reported to help patients suffering from pain and wasting syndrome associated with HIV, as well as irritable bowel syndrome and...

Manipur Plans to Legalise Medical Marijuana Soon

Chief Minister N Biren Singh believes the booming business could help boost the hilly state’s revenue. The Northeast Indian state of Manipur is known to have some of the highest quality ganja (weed) in the country. And soon, you may just be able to buy it legally for medical purposes. Manipur’s government now wants to legalise marijuana for medical and industrial purposes, and it’s probably high time given the plant naturally sprouts in the state. At a press conference held in Imphal on Saturday, September 21, the state’s chief minister N Biren Singh declared that the government was seriously considering legalising medical marijuana to help boost the state’s revenue. “Our revenue must be strong. Moreover, cannabis grows in the wild abundantly in Manipur and this can be used for extraction of hemp oil which is known for its medicinal property,” Singh told The Indian Express . He believes this hemp oil can not only help patients of paralysis but also help the state strengthen its economy. “We will discuss the issue at the next meeting of state Cabinet. Arunachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have already legalised it for medicinal purposes,” he said. He also shared an incident where a mother sold her house to invest in medical cannabis oil for her wheelchair-bound daughter, even posting it on his Facebook with the caption, “God must be crazy! Happy mother!” He also said start-ups would be considered as part of this plan, but only if they had high potential to be a part of this industry. Despite weed being a part of the Indian Vedic culture, recreational cannabis use continues to be banned in the country. But now, the movement to legalise marijuana is slowly catching heat, and while cities like Varanasi and Noida have always had permission to grow and sell bhang, one of the plant’s byproducts, other states like Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have now been allowed to grow it for research purposes. While the cultivation of cannabis has been banned under the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985 in the state since 2000, it continues to be illegally grown, often by militant sections of the society that authorities steer clear of, and has a high demand in states like Bihar, West Bengal, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. Manipur also lies on the edge of the Golden Triangle of the drug trade between Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and China. Surveys by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and other private agencies say cultivation has been going on for four decades in the state’s Churachandpur, Senapati and Ukhrul districts. So considering it’s kinda happening with or without the state’s consent, regularising production in a monitored and systematic manner would be a good idea. This way, weed can be used as an ingredient by companies making medicines or for other industrial purposes like hemp—a sustainable byproduct that can be used to make cloth and paper—and could turn into a booming business.

New Plea Filed in Delhi High Court to Decriminalise Cannabis in India

Considering that countries around the world are decriminalising the use of marijuana, especially for medical purposes, and even legalising it for personal blazing sessions, many feel it’s high time India decriminalises the “drug” as well. Now, a new petition filed in the Delhi High Court is challenging the prohibition and criminalisation of cannabis in the country. Filed by Bengaluru-based cannabis advocacy group The Great Legalisation Movement (GLM), a group that actively advocates the medical use of marijuana, the petition is contending the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS) and Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Rules, 1985, which prohibit and criminalise the use of cannabis and even industrial hemp, and restrict all activities related to it. Advocates Avinash K Sharma and Ashutosh Nagar are at the forefront of filing this petition, while the petitioner is being represented by Senior Advocate Arvind Datar and advocate J Sai Deepak. The organisation has outlined that the objective is not to completely de-regulate the use of the drug but to change the absolute ban into one with "reasonable restrictions". What it basically wants is to change the perception of cannabis as being a ‘hard drug’ and not lump it in the same category as cocaine or heroin. It highlights the many medical benefits of marijuana, quoting scientific research papers that say, “...medicinal use of Cannabis can help to reduce the acute health crisis, which the country is currently facing.. (It) is useful in prevention of Cancer and brings relief to the patients who are affected with HIV. The level of relief, which this plant can bring, would become evident from the fact that on an average eight lakh people die from cancer every year. Further, about 82,000 cases of HIV infection are reported every year” according to legal website Bar & Bench. It also points out how cannabis can numb chronic pain and help people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The petitioners also want to take the industrial hemp industry to a higher level and argue that its cultivation is commercially viable and can be used to make all kinds of products—from furniture to fabrics. It also points out that farmers can greatly benefit from growing some ganja, given how bad their economic conditions currently are. It also remarked how "unfathomable" it was that the government is willing to turn a blind eye to bhang shops in the country when both bhang and cannabis come from the same plant. The Great Legalisation Movement has been fighting for legalisation since 2014, and regularly organises rallies in favour of it. Most recently, the founder Viki Vaurora penned an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to seriously consider the medical benefits that marijuana could bring to India’s healthcare system. This isn’t the first time such a petition has been filed, but the court has crushed similar cases by dismissing a PIL filed in the Bombay High Court in 2015, and a recent plea made in the Himachal Pradesh High Court. But now that many parts of the world are warming up to the idea of legalisation, especially countries which had severe laws against it like Thailand, Malaysia and even South Korea, and given India’s historical context with cannabis, there are high hopes this time around.

Police in India Keep Seizing Large Quantities of Weed

In a major downer for potheads everywhere, police in India have been seizing large quantities of cannabis of late. And now, they’ve caught over 3,000 kgs worth of it in Odisha on June 9. Busting a major drug racket that involved 34 people selling cannabis worth Rs 2 crore, this is the third weed bust that’s happened this week. On June 4, the Assam police posted a picture of all the pot they had caught, flexing how they had managed to seize about 590 kgs of it through a Twitter post with the perfect amount of shade. They were able to catch over 50 cartons of cannabis through an operation that used intelligence inputs. Soon after that, the Hyderabad Task Force Police arrested two dealers and got hold of 200 kgs of ganja. The dealers caught said they were doing so to earn an income in an economy that is still suffering from rampant unemployment. In Odisha, the dealers were caught because they attacked the police force when their weed delivery was intercepted on June 6, prompting the cops to form a 75-member team to catch the culprits. But even so, this is the 48th case in Odisha’s Malkangiri district, with over 12,000 kgs of ganja being caught by the cops this year itself. And this is just in one district in one city. Whether it’s growing ganja in their homes by using hydroponics, trading it over the untraceable dark web or simply telling the cops it’s cholera medicine for cattle, Indians seem to be finding ways to escape the system and score big. But with all these latest instances of dealers and their stash getting caught, is a crackdown on cannabis on the cards once again? And does this mean mariijuana is soon going to be in short supply? We asked around and found out from a Mumbai-based dealer that while major busts have been happening over the week, the scene in big cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Pune still haven’t been affected and scoring continues to be relatively easy. However, after hearing about all these incidents, our source was mainly worried about escalating pot prices, thanks to huge quantities of it being confiscated. From a scientist recreating the strain Bob Marley used to smoke to studies that suggest smoking up improves everything from anxiety to sex, there’s been an increasingly supportive attitude towards cannabis at a global level. But despite supporters who say it has historically been part of India’s culture to those who favour legalisation for economic reasons to tackle the country’s agrarian crisis, weed remains an illegal substance in our country.