Medicinal Cannabis: I was wondering if... - Lung Conditions C...

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Medicinal Cannabis

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10 years ago•16 Replies

I was wondering if anyone else uses Cannabis as medicine,I'm not allowed anything with Codine and basically can't take painkillers,they make me really ill,to ease my breathing with my asthma and other ailments Cannabis is better than any tablet etc that my Doctor will prescribe,I find it amazing that it's available by Presciption in the USA and quite a few other countries but not the UK,This one plant would save the NHS £millions each year without being robbed by the Pharmacuetical Corporation.

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16 Replies

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scorpiolass10 years ago

No I have never used Cannabis but this week a local patient was on the TV news. He has cancer & finds Cannabis eases his pain more than other drugs. He is going to live in Spain as apparently it is legal to use it there. I think if it is for medical reasons it should be a choice that is available on prescriptions. Love Mx

stilltruckin10 years ago

politics.co.uk/blogs/2014/0...

Quote:

'. . . doctors already can, and do, prescribe cannabis to people suffering from chronic pain. They have few options available to them. Most pain relief medicines for chronic ailments are very debilitating. They are typically opiates, or synthetic drugs like Tramadol, which target the same receptors. Most knock you out and are addictive.

There are cannabis-based alternatives. GW Pharma is allowed to work with cannabis and has made the liquid spray Sativex. Unfortunately, it is punishingly expensive, coming in at about £560 a month.

Dutch alternative Bedrocan has a herbal form of medicinal cannabis – basically just very high quality - which is sometimes prescribed by doctors. It is much more affordable, at just £35 a month. Bedrocan already exports all over Europe – only Britain, Ireland and France won't take it.

CLEAR was in contact with various individuals who'd been prescribed it. They went to Holland, picked it up and then openly declared it at customs, along with their prescription and receipt from the pharmacy as supporting documentation. Six were waved through, but the seventh, a man called George Hutchings, had his cannabis seized at Southampton airport. He is pursuing an appeal to the Border Force and judicial proceedings may follow. . . .'

you.38degrees.org.uk/petiti...

• in reply tostilltruckin10 years ago

I would rather be a criminal and pay £20 per month,these laws are ludicrous

Colours23• in reply to10 years ago

So would I,wonderful medicine, not many people are intelligent enough to understand it.

Colours23• in reply tostilltruckin10 years ago

Thanks for that,what really gets me annoyed is all they ever mention is pain pain pain,what about all the other hundreds of things cannibas helps with ,no side effects ,maybe 1 in a million!! Pharmacy would be out of buisness ,wow,to much fear as it works and people want it ,they are scared that's why .....control it if you don't understand it..........I fight for human rights.

10 years ago

I am glad to hear cannabis is avalable on prescription but it is not widely used. It should be because it works and the hallogenic bit is taken out with refining it (unfortunately). I have heard of lots of folk having to use it illegally and I wish this country would wake up and move with the times. x

huggs• in reply to10 years ago

Hi coughalot,

Just out of curiosity, why is it unfortunate that the hallucinogenic part of cannabis is removed when used for medical reasons?. Don't know much about this subject, and was just wondering, as I would have thought, that if it used purely for medical relief, then the hallucinogenic component is not necessary.

hugs from Huggs xx

Colours23• in reply tohuggs10 years ago

There isn't a halusagenic part of canibass .its a relaxing drug,depends how much you use,used responsible is a very magnificent medicine.

huggs• in reply toColours2310 years ago

Hi Colours,

I have read a little about it in more depth since this post was put up and understand a lot of people benefit,, and would in this country benefit from it in this country if it was available if prescribed. My question was because of coughalot saying that the hallucinogenic part of it had been removed for medical use and I was just curious. Shows how much I know. lol

I think there is to be an enquiry later in the year about it, but this debate has been going on for years.

It seems like a good option if responsibly used as you say, and of course strictly controlled. I know in the states they have to have a certificate stating that a person is using cannabis for medical reasons.

This is a very interesting subject, and hope progress can be made.

Take care,

hugs from Huggs xxx

10 years ago

I went to Amsterdam last year,first time abroad and wasn't impressed at all,smoked better Cannabis in the place I come from,I found the place expensive and like going to Blackpool for a kiss me Quick hat,personally I would make a few Cookies and Chillout in the West Coast of Scotland including the Hebrideas,total relaxation.

Colours2310 years ago

Yes my thoughts exactly ,I would pay anything for a natural medicine that would take care of the things I struggle with....sleep ,appetite ,anxiety,depression,pain,inflammation, that's about every thing taken care of.,,....why can't it be that simple.....idiots.

Offcut10 years ago

From what I understand "on the street" some of the cannabis sold is UK grown and the higher strength "skunk" However some of these are also enhanced to make more money as they give a bigger hit instead of the affect the US Indians used in their peace pipes?

Smoking the drug could and has been proven to be bad for you as it burns at a higher temperature and will damage the lungs more as it is not filtered or tightly packed. However it does appear that there is strong evidence that it can help pain far greater than many allowed drugs. I would also think that it must be better to give it out as a prescribed drug than get some low life that are not bothered about your health, bulk it up with who knows what.

I have said for many years that anyone addicted on street drugs should be given them for free with a program of reducing and getting them off it. The drug would be taken in a safe monitored environment so it is not abused. This would surely reduce the need for them to steal to buy the drugs from dealers in a lot of cases? MY opinion.

Be Well

Dragonmum10 years ago

To criminalise such a useful and comparatively harm-free substance is ridiculous but the public have been brain-washed into acceptance of its image as a gateway to harder drugs - a complete fallacy, those on cocaine etc. would have got there anyway. These are precisely the tactics being used to demonise and restrict the use of electronic cigarettes which are rapidly ousting every other useless therapy and are set fair to save millions of lives.

10 years ago

The use of cannabis is believed to stretch back 4,000 years. It has been used as a medicine for centuries all over the world including India, China and the Middle East.

Doctors in the west began to take an interest in the middle of the 19th century – it is believed even Queen Victoria was given it by her physician to relieve period pain.

Cannabis was made illegal in the UK in 1928, and medical use was outlawed in 1973. However, during the 1980s and 1990s medical interest in cannabis and its derivatives – cannabinoids - began to grow. This was, Politics.co.uk explains, “principally on the strength of anecdotal evidence from illegal self-medication”.

The potential benefits of cannabis have been widely noted. Multiple Sclerosis information service MS-UK says: “Several trials have confirmed that cannabis-based treatments alleviate MS-related neuropathic pain. Surveys of people with MS who smoke cannabis often report a reduction in muscle stiffness (spasticity).”

Meanwhile the National Cancer Institute in the US says “the potential benefits of medicinal Cannabis for people living with cancer include antiemetic effects, appetite stimulation, pain relief, and improved sleep”.

A 1998 report from the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee found cannabis was being used by people with multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, ME and pain, and as an anti-emetic after chemotherapy.

The report recommended allowing the use of cannabis in some circumstances. It concluded while “there is not enough rigorous scientific evidence to prove conclusively that cannabis itself has, or indeed has not, medical value of any kind… cannabis almost certainly does have genuine medical applications, especially in treating the painful muscular spasms and other symptoms of MS and in the control of other forms of pain”.

However, the proposals were rejected by the Government.

nancye10 years ago

Cannabis is legal and freely available here in Colorado. Many stores, which sell a variety of marijuana products. This situation is fairly recent but for some years the same sort of stores sold "medical" Marijuana and provided doctors on site to diagnose a condition for which marijuana was an approved treatment. There are differences of opinion of course and there were a startling number of stores that sprang up with legalization, but there seems to be no question that it is a useful treatment for pain and nausea. We will see how it all works out. Will problems outweigh the positive? Children get hold of pot cookies for example and end up in the emergency room. So we are experimenting here - but if you would like to try it come to Colorado!

huggs10 years ago

Hi Colours,

Of course I have heard of Cannabis as a recreational drug and its medical uses. I have read many articles and seen people on television who have benefited from it medically, but do not know enough about it to comment on the usefulness of it on specific conditions other than MS. I use to have a friend who smoked it, against doctors advice as she had a severe mental health condition which he said worsened it. She said it didn't. ? Who was right, I still do not know.

She offered to get me some to relieve a painful medical condition I had at the time, and I was tempted to try it in the form of tea, but in the end declined as I have another medical condition which I thought it might adversely affect.

Now some people are claiming it is now being used for that condition.

I fully understand believe you me, all about painkillers and their side effects, for which you end up having to take other medication, and in time you build up a tolerance to them anyway, so it is frustrating.

I do not trust Nigel Farage at all, and I think his stand on this, is aiming for the populous vote, but now I am getting too political for this forum I feel, as it just stirs things up. We can discuss and disagree like adults, and are all entitled to our opinion and the right to state it. I have acknowledged that I do not know enough to comment strongly on the use of this medicine for a lot of medical conditions, but as a chronic pain sufferer I will watch with interest.

hugs from Huggs xx

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