The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids


Book Description

Significant changes have taken place in the policy landscape surrounding cannabis legalization, production, and use. During the past 20 years, 25 states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis and/or cannabidiol (a component of cannabis) for medical conditions or retail sales at the state level and 4 states have legalized both the medical and recreational use of cannabis. These landmark changes in policy have impacted cannabis use patterns and perceived levels of risk. However, despite this changing landscape, evidence regarding the short- and long-term health effects of cannabis use remains elusive. While a myriad of studies have examined cannabis use in all its various forms, often these research conclusions are not appropriately synthesized, translated for, or communicated to policy makers, health care providers, state health officials, or other stakeholders who have been charged with influencing and enacting policies, procedures, and laws related to cannabis use. Unlike other controlled substances such as alcohol or tobacco, no accepted standards for safe use or appropriate dose are available to help guide individuals as they make choices regarding the issues of if, when, where, and how to use cannabis safely and, in regard to therapeutic uses, effectively. Shifting public sentiment, conflicting and impeded scientific research, and legislative battles have fueled the debate about what, if any, harms or benefits can be attributed to the use of cannabis or its derivatives, and this lack of aggregated knowledge has broad public health implications. The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids provides a comprehensive review of scientific evidence related to the health effects and potential therapeutic benefits of cannabis. This report provides a research agendaâ€"outlining gaps in current knowledge and opportunities for providing additional insight into these issuesâ€"that summarizes and prioritizes pressing research needs.




Marijuana As Medicine?


Book Description

Some people suffer from chronic, debilitating disorders for which no conventional treatment brings relief. Can marijuana ease their symptoms? Would it be breaking the law to turn to marijuana as a medication? There are few sources of objective, scientifically sound advice for people in this situation. Most books about marijuana and medicine attempt to promote the views of advocates or opponents. To fill the gap between these extremes, authors Alison Mack and Janet Joy have extracted critical findings from a recent Institute of Medicine study on this important issue, interpreting them for a general audience. Marijuana As Medicine? provides patientsâ€"as well as the people who care for themâ€"with a foundation for making decisions about their own health care. This empowering volume examines several key points, including: Whether marijuana can relieve a variety of symptoms, including pain, muscle spasticity, nausea, and appetite loss. The dangers of smoking marijuana, as well as the effects of its active chemical components on the immune system and on psychological health. The potential use of marijuana-based medications on symptoms of AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and several other specific disorders, in comparison with existing treatments. Marijuana As Medicine? introduces readers to the active compounds in marijuana. These include the principal ingredient in Marinol, a legal medication. The authors also discuss the prospects for developing other drugs derived from marijuana's active ingredients. In addition to providing an up-to-date review of the science behind the medical marijuana debate, Mack and Joy also answer common questions about the legal status of marijuana, explaining the conflict between state and federal law regarding its medical use. Intended primarily as an aid to patients and caregivers, this book objectively presents critical information so that it can be used to make responsible health care decisions. Marijuana As Medicine? will also be a valuable resource for policymakers, health care providers, patient counselors, medical faculty and studentsâ€"in short, anyone who wants to learn more about this important issue.




Therapeutic Uses of Cannabis


Book Description

At the last Annual Representative Meeting of the British Medical Association a motion was passed that `certain additional cannabinoids should be legalized for wider medicinal use.'' This report supports this landmark statement by reviewing the scientific evidence for the therapeutic use of cannabinoids and sets the agenda for change. It will be welcomed by those who believe that cannabinoids can be used in medical treatment. The report discusses in a clear and readable form the use and adverse effects of the drug for nausea, multiple sclerosis, pain, epilepsy, glaucoma, and asthma.




Marijuana and Medicine


Book Description

The medical use of marijuana is surrounded by a cloud of social, political, and religious controversy, which obscures the facts that should be considered in the debate. This book summarizes what we know about marijuana from evidence-based medicineâ€"the harm it may do and the relief it may bring to patients. The book helps the reader understand not only what science has to say about medical marijuana but also the logic behind the scientific conclusions. Marijuana and Medicine addresses the science base and the therapeutic effects of marijuana use for medical conditions such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. It covers marijuana's mechanism of action, acute and chronic effects on health and behavior, potential adverse effects, efficacy of different delivery systems, analysis of the data about marijuana as a gateway drug, and the prospects for developing cannabinoid drugs. The book evaluates how well marijuana meets accepted standards for medicine and considers the conclusions of other blue-ribbon panels. Full of useful facts, this volume will be important to anyone interested in informed debate about the medical use of marijuana: advocates and opponents as well as policymakers, regulators, and health care providers.




Tell Your Children


Book Description

In “a brilliant antidote to all the…false narratives about pot” (American Thinker), an award-winning author and former New York Times reporter reveals the link between teenage marijuana use and mental illness, and a hidden epidemic of violence caused by the drug—facts the media have ignored as the United States rushes to legalize cannabis. Recreational marijuana is now legal in nine states. Advocates argue cannabis can help everyone from veterans to cancer sufferers. But legalization has been built on myths—that marijuana arrests fill prisons; that most doctors want to use cannabis as medicine; that it can somehow stem the opiate epidemic; that it is beneficial for mental health. In this meticulously reported book, Alex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter, explodes those myths, explaining that almost no one is in prison for marijuana; a tiny fraction of doctors write most authorizations for medical marijuana, mostly for people who have already used; and marijuana use is linked to opiate and cocaine use. Most of all, THC—the chemical in marijuana responsible for the drug’s high—can cause psychotic episodes. “Alex Berenson has a reporter’s tenacity, a novelist’s imagination, and an outsider’s knack for asking intemperate questions” (Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker), as he ranges from the London institute that is home to the scientists who helped prove the cannabis-psychosis link to the Colorado prison where a man now serves a thirty-year sentence after eating a THC-laced candy bar and killing his wife. He sticks to the facts, and they are devastating. With the US already gripped by one drug epidemic, Tell Your Children is a “well-written treatise” (Publishers Weekly) that “takes a sledgehammer to the promised benefits of marijuana legalization, and cannabis enthusiasts are not going to like it one bit” (Mother Jones).




Brewing with Cannabis


Book Description

Brewing with Cannabis introduces the convergence of marijuana and brewing in the modern craft beer movement. Explore the varied history of how the cannabis plant became federally illegal and dive into both historic and current laws on decriminalization and legalization of cannabis in the U.S. Learn about the agriculture and biology of cannabis, unique characteristics of the plant, and the similarities between cannabis and hop plants. Find out all that is needed to successfully grow cannabis plants in the comfort of your own home (where state legal). Examine the active components of cannabis and the chemistry of how they interact with beer. Discover how to de-carboxylate THC-A into the fully psychoactive form of THC and learn methods of adding cannabis and CBD to non-alcoholic beer and homebrew for different effects. Delve into how and why the plant produces compounds such as cannabinoids and terpenes, how they function, and how to incorporate them into beer recipes. Both homebrewers and professional brewers will be inspired by a wide-range of extract-based and all-grain recipes they can adopt or use as guidance when creating non-alcoholic beer or homebrew. Designed as a practical guide to use in brewing, the final chapter will inspire readers on how the discovery of new cannabinoids and terpenes may be used in the future. This book will be especially useful to brewers seeking information on the responsible and state legal of use of cannabis in brewing.




Marijuana


Book Description

The leading clinical expert on marijuana sifts through the myths about the drug to deliver an unbiased, comprehensive guide backed by scientific facts to give you the information you need to make informed decisions about marijuana. Marijuana--or weed, pot, grass, MJ, Mary Jane, reefer, cannabis, or hemp among dozens of other names--has a long, colorful history dating back more than 2,000 years as the one of the most sought-after mood-altering substances in the world. Societal opinion about the drug has dramatically swayed over the years, from viewing it as a grave danger to society in the 1930s film Reefer Madness, to a harmless recreational high in the ’60s, to an addictive substance and gateway to such “hard” drugs as heroin today. The myths and misinformation about marijuana have only multiplied over the years as the controversy over legalization and medical marijuana grows. A nationally recognized clinical expert and leading researcher on marijuana, Kevin P. Hill provides a comprehensive guide to understanding the drug in Marijuana: The Unbiased Truth about the World’s Most Popular Weed. Through research-based historical, scientific, and medical information, Hill will help you sort through what you hear on the streets and in the media and cut straight to the facts. Whether you’re a parent concerned about your child’s use, someone with an illness considering medical marijuana as a treatment option, a user who has questions about its effect on your health, or if you’re just trying to make up your mind about legalization, this book will give you the most current and unbiased information you need to make informed decisions about marijuana.




Weed, Inc.


Book Description

The truth about what happens when capitalism meets a mind-altering substance. Colorado’s Amendment 64, the game-changing amendment that authorized the use and regulation of marijuana in the state, sounded to most people who voted for it like a victory for social justice, a way to solve the problem of prison overcrowding, and a windfall for state and local governments that could reap the benefits from sales taxes. In Weed, Inc., author Ben Cort shows the truth. This was not simple legalization of a plant or decriminalization for those possessing it. Instead, the law was written to allow for the commercialization of the mind-altering component of marijuana, THC, by an industry now seeking to make it stronger and to get it into the hands of as many new users as possible. Controlled by a powerful, wealthy lobby, the industry has no federal oversight and has grown at a pace that’s made building and enforcing responsible regulation totally impossible, with adverse impacts to society, health, and the environment. Consider this: There are more marijuana dispensaries in Denver than Starbucks and McDonald’s combined. You’d have to smoke 15 joints in 1970 to get the same high as just one joint today. In 1996, the average level of THC in marijuana was 5% or less. Today, 30% THC is the norm in Colorado, and there are now powerful concentrates that have THC levels as high as 98%. Indoor marijuana-growing operations account for 1% of total electricity use in the US, producing greenhouse gas emissions equal to that of 3 million cars. Pesticide levels six times the maximum allowed by the federal government have been found on plants quarantined at marijuana grow houses in Denver. The black market has not disappeared; in fact, it has only grown since legalization. This essential book will take you in the complex, real world of legalized weed and keep open the debate as more states follow Colorado’s lead. We are only at the beginning of a social experiment that has wide-reaching ramifications.




Cannabis Healing


Book Description

Everything you need to know to use cannabinoids safely and effectively for better health and healing of a wide range of conditions • Explains the biochemistry of cannabinoids and shows how they interact with the human body • Offers a complete discussion of safe use, possible side effects, contraindications, and precautions, including during pregnancy and chemotherapy • Explores the use of CBD to treat seizures, anxiety, muscular disorders, and psychotic states and the use of THC to treat schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, ADHD, Tourette’s, Parkinson’s, depression, COPD, and chronic pain, among many other physical, neurological, and emotional conditions In this authoritative yet practical guide to the healing properties of cannabis and cannabinoids such as THC and CBD, Franjo Grotenhermen, M.D., explores how to use these substances to treat a wide range of physical and emotional conditions. Dr. Grotenhermen first examines the history of marijuana as medicine, including its important role in U.S. medical practice during the 19th century. He explains the biochemistry of cannabinoids and shows how they interact with the human body, including a look at cannabinoid receptors and how cannabinoids occur naturally in the body. The author then draws on his years of experience legally treating patients in Germany as well as numerous research studies and tests to provide an in-depth guide to the many healing applications for cannabis and its derivatives. The therapeutic applications covered include the use of CBD to treat seizures, epilepsy, anxiety, several forms of cancer, muscular disorders, and psychotic states and the use of THC to treat schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, ADHD, Tourette’s, Parkinson’s, impotence, depression, lupus, COPD, and chronic pain, among many other physical, neurological, and emotional conditions. The author examines the various cannabis-derived medications available, such as Cannabinol, Dronabinol, and Marinol, and the main methods of administering cannabis. He offers a complete discussion of safe use, possible side effects, contraindications, and precautions (including during pregnancy and chemotherapy), alongside research data that confirms cannabis as one of the least toxic substances in existence. Written by a practicing physician, this guide provides everything you need to know to use cannabinoids safely and effectively for health and healing.




The Dangerous Truth About Today's Marijuana


Book Description

This is the poignant life-and-death story of Johnny Stack, whose young and vibrant life ended by suicide after his descent into addiction to high-potency marijuana and cannabis-induced psychosis. You'll laugh and cry with his mother, Laura Stack, as she retells the story of Johnny's joyful childhood and then takes you through the unthinkable tragedy of his loss. It's every parent's nightmare. But this book is much more than Johnny's story. Today Laura, who is a nationally recognized speaker and best-selling author, leads a national effort of parents, impacted family members, healthcare professionals, coalitions, teachers, and youth who are concerned about the harmful effects of marijuana on our children, teenagers, and emerging adults. This book is a clarion call for parents across America to educate themselves about the risks of today's high-THC marijuana products and to better understand the potentially devastating effects on youth mental health. Laura's real-life story is backed by recent scientific-based research on how today's potent THC products lead to mental illnesses in adolescents, such as anxiety, depression, paranoia, psychosis, and sadly, suicidal ideation. This book is her vision to dramatically decrease adolescent marijuana usage, the false perception of safety, mental illness, and suicide, to allow our youth to live productive, happy lives.