{"id":2776,"date":"2021-03-09T12:27:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T01:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/medical-marijuana-is-not-regulated-as-most-medicines-are\/"},"modified":"2021-03-09T12:27:16","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T01:27:16","slug":"medical-marijuana-is-not-regulated-as-most-medicines-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/medical-marijuana-is-not-regulated-as-most-medicines-are\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical Marijuana Is Not Regulated as Most Medicines Are"},"content":{"rendered":"

The industry lacks randomized controlled clinical trials that can clearly establish benefits and risks.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By \u00a9  Jane E. Brody<\/a> <\/strong>March 8, 2021<\/p>\n

\u2026. of the same health concerns raised decades ago about using marijuana therapeutically are still unresolved, even as the potency of the plant\u2019s intoxicating ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol, best known as THC, has increased fivefold. Furthermore, exclusive medical use is uncommon<\/a>; in a Canadian study of 709 medical users, 80.6 percent also reported using marijuana recreationally.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are using a medical excuse for their recreational marijuana habit,\u201d said Dr. Kenneth Finn, a pain management specialist in Colorado Springs and editor of a new, 554-page professional book on the subject, \u201cCannabis in Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

The evidence \u2014 or lack thereof \u2014 of health benefits that can be reliably attributed to smoking, vaping or ingesting marijuana, even in its purest form, is described in great detail in Dr. Finn\u2019s book. \u201cComponents of the cannabis plant can help in various conditions, but that\u2019s not<\/em> what people are buying in stores,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cLet\u2019s do the research on purified, natural, noncontaminated cannabinoids,\u201d as the various potentially therapeutic chemicals in marijuana are called.<\/p>\n

Three such substances have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. One, Epidiolex, a cannabidiol-based liquid medication, is approved to treat two forms of severe childhood epilepsy. The others, dronabinol (Marinol, Syndros) and nabilone (Cesamet), are pills used to curb nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and to stimulate appetite in AIDS patients with wasting syndrome.<\/p>\n

Another marijuana-based drug, nabiximols (Sativex), is available in Canada and several European countries to treat spasticity and nerve pain in patients with multiple sclerosis.<\/p>\n

Medicinal cannabis is hardly a new therapeutic agent. It was widely used as a patent medicine in the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries and was listed in the United States Pharmacopoeia until passage of the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937 rendered it illegal.<\/p>\n

Then a federal law in 1970 made it a Schedule 1 controlled substance, which greatly restricted access to marijuana for legitimate research. Also complicating attempts to establish medical usefulness is that plants like marijuana contain hundreds of active chemicals, the amounts of which can vary greatly from batch to batch. Unless researchers can study purified substances in known quantities, conclusions about benefits and risks are highly unreliable.<\/p>\n

That said, as recounted in Dr. Finn\u2019s book, here are some conclusions reached by experts about the role of medical marijuana in their respective fields:<\/p>\n

\"CannabisInMedicineBOOK\"<\/p>\n

Pain Management: <\/em><\/strong>People using marijuana for pain relief do not reduce their dependence on opioids. In fact, Dr. Finn said, \u201cpatients on narcotics who also use marijuana for pain still report their pain level to be 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.\u201d Authors of the chapter on pain, Dr. Peter R. Wilson, pain specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and Dr. Sanjog Pangarkar of the Greater Los Angeles V.A. Healthcare Service, concluded, \u201cCannabis itself does not produce analgesia and paradoxically might interfere with opioid analgesia.\u201d A 2019 study of 450 adults in the Journal of Addiction Medicine<\/a> found that medical marijuana not only failed to relieve patients\u2019 pain, it increased their risk of anxiety, depression and substance abuse.<\/p>\n

Multiple Sclerosis: <\/em><\/strong>Dr. Allen C. Bowling, neurologist at the NeuroHealth Institute in Englewood, Colo., noted that while marijuana has been extensively studied as a treatment for multiple sclerosis, the results of randomized clinical trials have been inconsistent. The trials overall showed some but limited effectiveness, and in one of the largest and longest trials, the placebo performed better in treating spasticity, pain and bladder dysfunction, Dr. Bowling wrote. Most trials used pharmaceutical-grade cannabis that is not available in dispensaries.<\/p>\n

Glaucoma: <\/em><\/strong>The study suggesting marijuana could reduce the risk of glaucoma dates back to 1970. Indeed, THC does lower damaging pressure inside the eye, but as Drs. Finny T. John and Jean R. Hausheer, ophthalmologists at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, wrote, \u201cto achieve therapeutic levels of marijuana in the bloodstream to treat glaucoma, an individual would need to smoke approximately six to eight times a day,\u201d at which point the person \u201cwould likely be physically and mentally unable to perform tasks requiring attention and focus,\u201d like working and driving. The major eye care medical societies have put thumbs down on marijuana to treat glaucoma.<\/p>\n

Mental Health: <\/em><\/strong>Allison Karst, a psychiatric pharmacy specialist at the V.A. Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, who reviewed the benefits and risks of medical marijuana<\/a>, concluded that marijuana can have \u201ca negative effect on mental health and neurological function,\u201d including worsening symptoms of PTSD and bipolar disorder.<\/p>\n

Dr. Karst also cited one study showing that only 17 percent of edible cannabis products were accurately labeled. In an email she wrote that the lack of regulation \u201cleads to difficulty extrapolating available evidence to various products on the consumer market given the differences in chemical composition and purity.\u201d She cautioned the public to weigh \u201cboth potential benefits and risks,\u201d to which I would add caveat emptor<\/em> \u2014 buyer beware.<\/p>\n

For complete article go to \u00a9 NYTimes <\/a>https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/03\/08\/well\/live\/medical-marijuana.html<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Handbook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The industry lacks randomized controlled clinical trials that can clearly establish benefits and risks. By \u00a9  Jane E. Brody March 8, 2021 \u2026. of the same health concerns raised decades ago about using marijuana therapeutically are still unresolved, even as the potency of the plant\u2019s intoxicating ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol, best known as THC, has increased fivefold. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-next-phase-platform"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}