Is marijuana really good for medical use and if so why?

i know that it lowers blood pressure and thats a good thing but what else can it do are there any bad effects
Answer:
One thing it can do is really help cancer patients with keeping weight on or gaining it. It gives them the munchies, calms the stomach and allows the food to stay down. I could go on and on about it, but I won't. I researched this topic a lot for a paper in college and there is so much info on it.

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It does not lower blood pressure. It does make nausea and pain from cancer treatments tolerable.

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it increase appitite and decreases pain for people with HIV, AIDS, and cancer

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Ancient herbal remedies applied marijuana for a wide range of ailments, including constipation, rheumatic pain, female disorders, earache, jaundice, glaucoma, asthma, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, and excitability. It was used to prolong life, improve judgement, lower fevers, induce sleep, stimulate appetite, aid in childbirth, and better the voice. Queen Victoria is said to have sipped marijuana tea for menstrual cramps.

In modern medical application, marijuana effectively treats pain, muscle spasms and tremors, seizures, nausea, vomiting, appetite stimulation, insomnia, migraine headaches, depression, and glaucoma, among other things.

Currently, scientists and drug companies are scrambling to "discover" the many potential benefits of marijuana's ingredients. Recent research concludes:

Cannabis contains a chemical that can protect cells by acting as an antioxidant. More effective than vitamins C or E, it offers an appealing option for the treatment and perhaps prevention of stroke, neurodegenerative disease, and heart attacks. (Science News, July 11, 1998, p.20)

Preliminary research shows beneficial effects in Tourette's syndrome when smoking marijuana. (American Journal of Psychiatry 156:3 March 1999)

Pharmos Corporation has received patents for "novel" therapeutic applications for the use of synthetic analogs of cannabinoids. In preclinical tests, Pharmos found anti-inflammatory effects in preventing the production or release of tumor necrosis factor. Pharmos also expects to find application in neurological disease caused by multiple sclerosis. (Pharmos press release, March 23, 1999)

In late 1998, University of Buffalo researchers reported that cannabinoids help control the timing of reproduction by slowing sperm which are approaching an egg before it is ready for fertilization. (March 23, 1999, San Jose Mercury News)

Studies show cannabinoids work as well as morphine by short-circuiting pain signals before they reach the spinal cord or brain, and they are less addictive than narcotic pain relievers. (Ibid)

A pharmacologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center has shown that injecting small concentrations of cannabinoids directly at a site of injury relieved pain and swelling. (Ibid)

Completed in June 1996, a study of 65,171 patients by insurer Kaiser Permanente found that pot smoking women and men had a lower mortality rate than cigarette smokers or people who drank at least three beers a day. (March 3, 1999, Cityview, Des Moines, IA)

Steve Kubby, diagnosed in 1978 with an extremely rare and typically fatal form of adrenal cancer (malignant pheochromocytoma), has used marijuana as his primary therapy. Dr. Vincent DeQuattro, a leading specialist on this disease who practices at the University of Southern California Medical Center, first diagnosed Kubby's disease 15 years ago and referred him to other physicians after the cancer spread to Kubby's liver. After discovering that Kubby had survived much longer than the expected short term, DeQuattro contacted a colleague in Michigan. "He told me that every patient other than Steve with Steve's condition had died during this interval of time." DeQuattro believes that "in some amazing fashion, this medication has not only controlled the symptoms of the pheochromocytoma, but in my view, has arrested its growth." (February 14, 1999, Sacramento Bee, CA)

Joe Hart, 50, has been HIV positive for 15 years. He gave up on pharmaceutical drugs two years ago, relying instead on relief from nausea from eight daily puffs on a marijuana cigarette. Hart's Key West physician Dr. Raymond McKnight said, "I think it's a fascinating case. I don't think I can get a doctor to sit in the same room with me and [Hart] and guarantee me it's not helping him. He definitely couldn't say this is not working." (April 8, 1999, Miami Herald, FL)

Don Schmiege, a 72-year-old retired biologist, uses marijuana to relieve constant pain in his chest and neck that began after an accident injured his neck. He says the only alternative offered by doctors is morphine, which has a disorienting effect. (March 2, 1999, The Juneau Empire, AK)

A woman in Maine described the last days of her sister-in-law who was dying of pancreatic cancer. "The medications prescribed for the nausea do not work, but marijuana does. After watching her retch more than 30 times, I felt it was time for her to try it, and it worked. For the moralists out there, I suggest you see what an end-stage cancer patient has to endure." (March 3, 1999, Bangor Daily News, ME)

Robert M., a 64-year-old from Arkansas, employs cannabis to fight the imbalance, weakness, spasticity, and low energy symptomatic of multiple sclerosis. (The Benefits of Marijuana, by Joan Bello, 1996; Boca Raton, FL: LifeServices Press.)

Will Foster, a 38-year-old Oklahoma father of three, is a U. S. Veteran diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in his feet and back. He is currently serving a reduced term on his original 93-year prison sentence for cultivation of cannabis in his home for his personal medical use. (Ibid)

A 1999 report by federal researchers at the National Institutes of Mental Health revealed that THC and cannabidiol (DBC) appear to protect brain cells from the damage that often occurs during a stroke by acting as powerful antioxidants. The findings also indicated that marijuana may be valuable in the treatment of brain injuries and diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Researchers in Spain found that injecting THC directly into certain brain tumors (glioma, an incurable cancer), has killed the cancer cells. Normal brain tissue was unaffected by the treatment. The report was published in Nature Medicine, March 2000 issue.

Mice exhibiting symptoms similar to those characteristic of people with multiple sclerosis were injected with THC in a study at the University College of London and experienced reduced tremors and spasticity from the treatment.

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it increases the appetite of aids and cancer patients undergoing chemo, it relieves effects of glaucoma, and it allows people that are ultimately only looking forward to death a chance to relax
in a cigarette or pill form i am for it's medical use 100%
so what if they are high
they are gonna die
where is the argument?

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Unfortunately, yes. It does have some very good medical benefits. That's why so many abusers of it, try so hard to get it legalized. However, I happen to know of something even greater than marijuana or anything else for that matter to use for medicinal purposes.

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marijuana is only approved for use as an appetite enhancer and anti-nausea drug in AIDS patients and cancer patients. it does have other medical benefits, but the addictive portion of it and the adverse side effects outweigh the benefits. side effects can include memory loss (both short and long term), decreased immune response, decreased REM sleep, poor concentration, etc. I'm not sure that it lowers your blood pressure, either. Studies show that your heart rate is increased during a high.

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Marijuana is good only for the very ill.
It is truly natures gift to us, and it should not be abused nor kept from sick people.
Very sick people, IE the dying, or those with another serious illness, generally are in a lot of pain, can not or will not eat and have a hard time finding comfort.
Marijuana will alleviate or at least help all of those symptoms.

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Mary Jane can ease the pain of glaucoma, lower blood pressure and eases nausea. For some it can even help with persistant headaches and migranes.
It has similar effects to alcohol including temporary loss of motor function, temporary loss of awareness of time/place, and it does carry some risk of cancer of the mouth and lungs - though it appears to be a lower risk than cigarettes. One nasty effect of marijuana is that it can lead to jail time - at least until the government legalizes and taxes it to death.
The most common medical use is for those on chemotherapy as it's nausea reducing properties are really good. However the THC (active ingredient) is usually given to the patient in liquid or pill form (sorry - chances are you won't be lighting up in the hospital!)

All in all it's got benefits and costs... just like everything else. If you choose to use it, do so wisely and don't get caught... or move somewhere where no one cares.

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As far as the healing power of marijuana there isn't any.

Marijuana help relieve patients from pain and helps stop the suffering from cancer and other diseases. It helps lower blood pressure by slowing your circulation down and basically doing the same thing Kodine or Demerol does but with much less chances of developing a dependency.

As for the bad effects it will NOT kill you like smoking sigs does BUT like any type of smoke you inhale it is not very good for your lungs. After using it for too long you risk developing lung problems. Not so much as cancer but more like increasing your chances of pneumonia and other lung illness.

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Yvie P***I completely agree with you!! Pot Heads try to justify their illegal use and possession on the merits of good medical use.

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