Medical Cannabis and Insomnia
Medical marijuana patients usually find that sleep is a wonderful benefit of cannabis. Many chronic pain patients experience insomnia due to their pain and find excellent relief and sleep when using cannabis.
While many people are finding relief from terrible diseases by smoking marijuana, there are also many people who believe that legislators should allow researchers more freedom to research this drug for legal medicinal usage. To date, 13 states have declared medical marijuana legal to use. The Supreme Court recently ruled that the federal government can continue to ban the use of medical marijuana. Justice Scalia writes that the federal government also has, under the commerce clause, the power to prohibit interstate commerce of this drug. Personal use of marijuana may not be commerce, but if our drug laws were working correctly, they would be perfectly enforced. Even as evidence mounts concerning the benefits of marijuana as a medicine, federal officials and agencies continue to bury their heads in the sand.
Written records on medicinal marijuana stretch back over 2000 years. It was first discovered in print in the 2nd century in a Chinese book of medicine. As far back as 1611, this plant was cultivated for its fiber in Jamestown, Virginia. In the 19th century, it was used to treat such ailments as spastic conditions, labor pains, insomnia, and even helped with appetite. It is still used as a medicine in the Middle East and Asia. Although modern technology medicine does not refer back to the medical practices of ancient civilizations, this only confirms that marijuana has had a significant medical history, and claims of its medicinal use were not just pulled out of nowhere.
Marijuana is a drug that comes from the dried, cut leaves of the hemp plant known as “cannabis sativa”. It goes by a number of street names such as “grass”, “Mary Jane”, “pot”, “reefer”, “herb”, and “weed”. The active ingredient in marijuana is delta tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). This ingredient targets Cannabinoid receptors that have been proven to cut tumor growth in half in common lung cancer. It has also been tested and researchers at Harvard University say it also significantly reduces the cancer's ability to spread. Cannabinoids are chemical substances in cannabis, or marijuana. Endocannabinoids are cannabinoids that are produced naturally in the body.
Montel Williams is a huge activist for legalizing medicinal marijuana since he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999. He has debilitating knee and foot pain and has tried Oxycontin and a variety of other drugs with no relief. Then a doctor suggested he smoke pot and “immediately I slept through the night.” Williams is a registered medical marijuana user in California. He began pushing for medical marijuana laws after being stopped at a Detroit airport by an Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms officer for carrying drug paraphernalia. His charges were later dropped.
Williams told a Senate panel about his chronic pain and urged New Jersey to join 12 other states that have enacted these laws. The states that have currently legalized medical marijuana are: California, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Maine, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Montana, Vermont, and Rhode Island. New Mexico is planning on signing a bill in 2008. Williams will speak at two events in Trenton; a Drug Policy Alliance-sponsored news conference and a Senate hearing. Governor Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey said last year that he would sign a medical marijuana bill into law. “I break the law every day and I'll continue to break the law.” (Montel Williams)
This bill, sponsored by Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) lists cancer, HIV and AIDS, chronic pain, severe nausea, persistent muscle spasms and even glaucoma as conditions eligible for medical marijuana use. The legislation has never received a hearing, even though it has long been proposed. A 2002 poll found that 82 percent of the people in New Jersey supported allowing access to medical marijuana. Terrance P. Farley, an Ocean County assistant prosecutor told the Associated Press that the bill is only an attempt to legalize drugs. “This is how they're trying to get marijuana legalized”, he said.
Marijuana is listed in Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the most restrictive schedule. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) supports that placement because marijuana met the 3 criteria about this drug: 1) marijuana has high potential for abuse, 2) the drug has no currently accepted medical use in treatment, and 3) it has a lack of accepted safe use under medical supervision. The Federal government should, at the very least, possibly downgrade it to a Schedule II, since it has been accepted for medical use in the United States. A past evaluation by several agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), concluded that supported use of medical marijuana has no sound scientific studies and no human or animal data supported the safety or efficacy for general use.
During the Prohibition of Alcohol period (1920-1933), psychoactive properties of marijuana were left to criticism by the same forces that opposed the consumption of alcohol. Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937, which made continual use of marijuana a criminal act. During hearings held before this act, a lone opponent, a representative of the American Medical Association (AMA), argued that banning marijuana should exempt it for medical purposes, at least. His testimony included the following:
There is positively no evidence to indicate the abuse of
cannabis (marijuana) as a medicinal agent or to show that
its medicinal use is leading to the development of cannabis
addiction. Cannabis at the present time is slightly used for
medicinal purposes, but it would seem worthwhile to main-
tain its status as a medicinal agent…. There is a possibility
that a re-study of the drug by modern means may show
other advantages to be derived from its medicinal use.
Marijuana was removed from the American pharmacopoeia in 1941, over AMA objections, and hope for further research or legal medical use came to a halt. In 1970, Congress restructured the drug laws with the Controlled Substances Act, which kept marijuana banned for medical use.
Marijuana has many substitutes, such as Marinol. Swallowing this substance, however, takes longer to work, has more adverse side effects and is more expensive. A year's supply can cost up to $15,000; too much, some said, for a flawed version of a weed that can be grown in any backyard. One reason many prefer to smoke marijuana rather than swallow Marinol is that it allows them to regulate the amount of THC that goes into their systems. Smoking allows an instant transmission of this ingredient to sites in the brain that control nausea, so when the anti-nausea effect wears off, they only need to smoke a little more if needed. Individual patients respond differently to different doses, and they can avoid taking too much, which is not possible with Marinol.
On the other hand, although several states have passed legal drug laws making smoked marijuana available for various medical conditions, the FDA, the DEA and the Office of National Drug Control Policy do not support the use of smoked marijuana for medicinal purposes. These measures go against their efforts to ensure that medications are proven safe and effective under the standards of the FD&C Act. Gov. Jon S. Corzine's proposal would allow chronically ill patients to medicinally smoke, eat or take marijuana in tablets. The program would be monitored by the State Health Department. The amount of marijuana would be capped at 1 ounce and the patients would be issued registered medical marijuana user cards. Bertha Madras, deputy director for demand reduction at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in a telephone interview: “We cannot base medical decisions on anecdotes.”
Researchers do not know why THC inhibits tumor growth; they say it is possible the substance activates molecules that arrest cell cycles. It may also interfere with angiogenesis and vascularization, which promotes the growth of cancer. Anju Preet, Ph.D., a researcher in the Division of Experimental Medicine says much work is needed to pave the pathway by which THC functions. “The beauty of this study is that we are showing that a substance of abuse, if used prudently, may offer a new road to therapy against lung cancer.” People hope that the federal courts and legislators will be allowed to take a closer look at the benefits, examine the evidence and conclude that we only want safe pain relief for the people who need it the most.
