Thread: Study shows No long-term lung damage from marijuana

http://news.yahoo.com/no-long-term-l...220625384.html

So there is that. Another myth debunked by a 20 year study.

Yet people still feel the need to deny marijuana to others who could use it to improve their quality of life.

When I don't smoke daily, I can't work. I have epilepsy but my seizures are completely controlled by daily marijuana use. When I don't have access to it, I tend to have Petit Mal seizures at a rate of 2 or 3 an hour.

Why would anyone want to deny such a drug from people who could benefit from it?

Originally Posted by dreadpiratejaymo

http://news.yahoo.com/no-long-term-l...220625384.html

So there is that. Another myth debunked by a 20 year study.

Yet people still feel the need to deny marijuana to others who could use it to improve their quality of life.

When I don't smoke daily, I can't work. I have epilepsy but my seizures are completely controlled by daily marijuana use. When I don't have access to it, I tend to have Petit Mal seizures at a rate of 2 or 3 an hour.

Why would anyone want to deny such a drug from people who could benefit from it?

Is this the only drug which can prevent seizures? Im fairly sure there is other, legal stuff available.

Originally Posted by dreadpiratejaymo

Why would anyone want to deny such a drug from people who could benefit from it?

Originally Posted by http://news.yahoo.com/no-long-term-lung-damage-marijuana-study-220625384.html

"Marijuana is still an illegal drug, and it has many complicated effects on the human body and its function," said Stefan Kertesz, senior author of the research in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"In our findings we see hints of harm in pulmonary function with heavy use, and other studies have shown that marijuana use increases a user's likelihood of a heart attack... and impairs the immune system's ability to fight disease."

I've personally no problem with marijuana (or even better, active ingredients from it) being used as a proscribed medical treatment. I do have a problem with it being presented as a harmless drug or being treated differently to any other medicine just because a whole load of people also use it to get high.

Originally Posted by ian

Is this the only drug which can prevent seizures? Im fairly sure there is other, legal stuff available.

Oh you mean drugs like this?

Zarontin (ethosuximide)
Used to treat absence seizures.
Adverse effects include nausea, vomiting, decreased appetite, and weight loss.

EDIT*

Granted the side effects of weed is -

Imprisonment, possible rape, segregation, and gang violence. so yeah... i guess weed is more harmful...sigh.

Originally Posted by ian

Is this the only drug which can prevent seizures? Im fairly sure there is other, legal stuff available.

Yep. He's taking money away from Big Pharma and their patented cures with nasty side effects. Terrible that he'd use something that grows like a weed and would be easily available and cheap but for prohibition.

Originally Posted by HonestJoe

I've personally no problem with marijuana (or even better, active ingredients from it) being used as a proscribed medical treatment. I do have a problem with it being presented as a harmless drug or being treated differently to any other medicine just because a whole load of people also use it to get high.

It's not presented as a harmless drug. It's presented as a drug by which the user causes no harm to others in the use of it. As for getting high, do you have moral qualms with that natural, peaceful human desire to feel good and, if so, can you explain why you need to make the behavior into a crime when in done in a fashion of which you disapprove? I can think of a number of legal ways that people obtain highs that I find more dangerous than drugs and of which I generally (if not morally) disapprove, but I don't feel the need to make criminals out of those who engage in those activities, so I'm wondering why others do.

Originally Posted by BleedingHeadKen

It's not presented as a harmless drug.

That was the impression I got from the OP and other similar statements. The idea that marijuana use could cause any harm appears to be being dismissed as a "myth".

Originally Posted by BleedingHeadKen

It's presented as a drug by which the user causes no harm to others in the use of it.

Most prescription drugs will harm nobody other than the person taking it. That isn't the reason we have the process of qualified medical professions providing them on prescription only.

Originally Posted by BleedingHeadKen

As for getting high, do you have moral qualms with that natural, peaceful human desire to feel good

That's a complex question but regardless, the issue of morality are entirely irrelevant here.

This is an example of the issue I was trying to get across though. If marijuana had never been (widely) used as a recreational drug, I suspect it would have been developed in to conventional treatments a long time ago and I think that would be a good thing - it does appear to have a great potential in a number of areas.

The knee-jerk objection because of it's use as an illegal drug is a problem but just as disruptive is the knee-jerk promotion because it is an illegal drug. There are plenty of people out there arguing for "medicinal marijuana" just because they want to use it recreationally with fewer or no legal controls. If that dishonesty didn't exist, it would be one big stumbling block removed from the possibility of marijuana being used professionally to help people with real medical need.

Originally Posted by BleedingHeadKen

but I don't feel the need to make criminals out of those who engage in those activities, so I'm wondering why others do.

I'd have no major issue with general legalisation of marijuana, though I doubt it would be an especially positive move and would create a whole different set of problems. I think that should be an entirely separate question from the one of developing medical treatments from the plant though. Merging the two only serves to muddy the water and helps nobody.

Originally Posted by marbro

Oh you mean drugs like this?

Zarontin (ethosuximide)
Used to treat absence seizures.
Adverse effects include nausea, vomiting, decreased appetite, and weight loss.

EDIT*

Granted the side effects of weed is -

Imprisonment, possible rape, segregation, and gang violence. so yeah... i guess weed is more harmful...sigh.

Get a medical perscription for marijuana for your condition, then you will be free from all legal harassment. Your condition warrants a legal use of the drug, so why the complaint? Then again, perhaps different states have different laws, and in some all options need to be exhausted before you get a perscription you want.

Originally Posted by ian

Is this the only drug which can prevent seizures? Im fairly sure there is other, legal stuff available.

It is the only affordable drug that has been able to prevent them for me.

Depekote worked too, but it costs more than my rent for 1/2 of 1 months supply in the dose I need.

phenobarbital made me a zombie. Couldn't work at all.

Dilantin didn't work, it just gave me gingivitis and disturbing dreams.

Tegretol doesn't work well. The siezures are less in frequency when I take it. This is the current medication my doctor has officially put me on.

Marijuana makes them go away completely.


So yeah, other medications are available. They just don't work.

Originally Posted by HonestJoe

I do have a problem with it being presented as a harmless drug or being treated differently to any other medicine just because a whole load of people also use it to get high.

I never claimed it was harmless, nor did the article I linked to.

There is plenty of medication that is legal, gets you high, is addictive, and extremely harmful.

This can even be said for some over the counter medications.