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Different Smokes For Different Folks

Medical Marijuana can treat different things—in different places
Although many of the medical conditions for which patients can use cannabis are the same in the 16 states (and Washington D.C.) with MMJ laws, many also allow its use for other, in some cases very specific conditions. We will examine some of the other medical conditions for which marijuana can be recommended in California and other

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Medical Marijuana can treat different things—in different places

Although many of the medical conditions for which patients can use cannabis are the same in the 16 states (and Washington D.C.) with MMJ laws, many also allow its use for other, in some cases very specific conditions. We will examine some of the other medical conditions for which marijuana can be recommended in California and other states.

Here in the Golden State, Proposition 215 allows medical marijuana to be used for any condition for which it can provide relief. Cannabis can also be used to reduce eye pressure in glaucoma and is very effective in treating pain. Muscle spasticity, nausea, anxiety and depression are other conditions that can be treated with marijuana.

But the medical marijuana laws in Michigan and Maine, for example, specifically mention “nail-patella syndrome” as a condition for which medical marijuana may be recommended. So does the Wisconsin medical marijuana bill that failed in the 2010 legislative session. That bill also specifically mentioned another relatively rare medical condition, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

Nail–patella syndrome is a rare genetic disease caused by a mutation in a portion of chromosome number 9 and occurs in about one in 50,000 individuals. Nail-patella syndrome causes fingernail abnormalities, primarily absent or under developed thumbnails, absent or under developed patellae, or knee caps, pelvic abnormalities and deformation or abnormal development of the radial heads, or bones in the forearms and in other joints. Nail-patella syndrome is also associated with kidney disease and glaucoma.

Severe pain due to joint malformations and instability is common in nail-patella syndrome, and treatment is typically to try to reduce the severity of the symptoms, to reduce the pressure within the eye if the patient has glaucoma and to prevent any kidney problems from progressing to renal failure.

How is it that certain specific diseases are included in the laws of some states and not in others? At least in the case of Michigan, it seems that special interest groups and individuals with nail-patella syndrome successfully lobbied the legislature to include it by name in the legislation. Indeed, most states with medical marijuana laws have provided for a process by which new conditions can be added to the approved list. In Colorado, patients or physicians may petition the Department of Health to have new conditions added, but to date, none have been approved. According to press reports, this has been because the medical research on the use of cannabis in those conditions has been found to be inconclusive, incomplete or less than definitive.

The process of adding new conditions and of determining which kinds of medical research studies are acceptable and which are not seems to be persistently controversial, and it is not surprising that there is also no general agreement on just how to do either.

 

Agree to Disagree

Sometimes, however, medical authorities disagree about whether research supports the use of cannabis or not. According to a March 2010 New York Times article, that is exactly what happened in the case of PTSD, which was designated an approved condition in New Mexico in February, 2009, but was narrowly rejected in a vote in a committee of the Colorado House of Representatives that same month.

A medical advisory committee in New Mexico recommended that PTSD be approved because “. . . marijuana could help relieve anxiety associated with post-traumatic stress disorder,” and went on to cite a number of psychiatric and pharmacological studies they felt supported its use. The Times article quotes Dr. Alfredo Vigil, the secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health, as saying “There are hints and some indications in the medical literature that there are components of cannabis that might be helpful to some people with PTSD.”

The article also quotes Dr. Ned Calonge, the chief medical officer for the Colorado health department at that time, who interpreted the data rather differently: “There is no evidence of efficacy of marijuana for treatment of P.T.S.D. in the medical literature.”

 

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