Medical Marijuana: Whole Plant Better Than Isolated Components in Pain Relief, Italia

[ablueberry]

Scientists at the University of Milan have published a study finding that whole-plant marijuana extracts provide better relief for neuropathic pain than isolated components of the plant, like THC alone. The research is an intervention in the ongoing debate between medical marijuana supporters and herbal and alternative medicine advocates on one side and the US government, some politicians, and the pharmaceuticalized medicine industry on the other.

"The use of a standardized extract of Cannabis sativa... evoked a total relief of thermal hyperalgesia, in an experimental model of neuropathic pain,... ameliorating the effect of single cannabinoids," the investigators reported. "Collectively, these findings strongly support the idea that the combination of cannabinoid and non-cannabinoid compounds, as present in extracts, provide significant advantages... compared with pure cannabinoids alone."

Congressional drug warriors like Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) have long argued that marijuana is not a medicine and that any medicinal compounds in the plant should be isolated or synthesized, as is the case with Marinol, which contains one of the hundreds of cannabinoids found in the plant. The DEA takes a similar approach.

But this latest research only adds to the evidence that that position is mistaken.

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Medical Marijuana: Whole Plant Better Than Isolated Components in Pain Relief, Italian Study Finds | Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)

ablueberry Reviewed by ablueberry on 07-26-2008. Medical Marijuana: Whole Plant Better Than Isolated Components in Pain Relief, Italia * *Source Medical Marijuana: Whole Plant Better Than Isolated Components in Pain Relief, Italian Study Finds | Stop the Drug War (DRCNet) Rating: 5

[eltone]

Not only for pain but for chronic nausea and vomiting :thumbsup:. I take 2-5 mg Marinol pills a day which costs the state over $700 a month since I am on disability. However, the truth is without the psychoactive effect Marinol is way less efficient and effective. Off the record my Dr, his nurse and my pharmacist tell me, "If you have it, smoke it." Off the record since I live in a state where Medical Marijuana is in both schedule I and II :wtf3:. On July 29 the state pharmacutical board meets to discuss this and the DEA has excepted a petition from a private citizen for a hearing on moving marijuana from schedule I and putting it in schedule II or III. The federal and local governments are being forced to reschedule marijuana by a private citizen, this should not be. The DEA by law should have rescheduled marijuana out of schedule I in 1986 when California made medical marijuana legal. Now that 12 states have done this the petitioner has a good chance of winning this case :smokin::smokin::jumphappy:. He (the petioner) is also testifying, for the defense, in the on going Charlie Lynch case. Peace...