Three puffs a day of cannabis, better known as marijuana, helps people with chronic nerve pain due to injury or surgery feel less pain and sleep better, a Canadian team has found.
''It's been known anecdotally," says researcher Mark Ware, MD, assistant professor of anesthesia and family medicine at McGill University in Montreal. "About 10% to 15% of patients attending a chronic pain clinic use cannabis as part of their pain [control] strategy," he tells WebMD.
But Ware's study is more scientific -- a clinical trial in which his team compared placebo with three different doses of cannabis. The research is published in CMAJ, the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
The new study ''adds to the trickle of evidence that cannabis may help some of the patients who are struggling [with pain] at present," Henry McQuay, DM, an emeritus fellow at Balliol College, Oxford University, England, writes in a commentary accompanying the study.
Ware evaluated 21 men and women, average age 45, who had chronic nerve pain (also called neuropathic pain). A typical example, Ware tells WebMD, is a patient who had knee surgery and during the course of the operation the surgeon may have had no choice but to cut a nerve, leading to chronic pain after the surgery.
Ware's team tried three different potencies of marijuana, with the highest a concentration at 9.4% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) herbal cannabis. He also tested 2.5% and 6% THC.
''Each person was in the study for two months, and used all four strengths [including placebo]," Ware says. He rotated them through the four strengths in different orders, and they didn't know which they were using.
The cannabis was put into gelatin capsules, then put into the bowl of a pipe. Each person was told to inhale for five seconds while the cannabis was lit, hold the smoke in their lungs for 10 seconds, and then exhale.
They did this single puff three times a day for five days for each of the doses and the placebo. The participants were allowed to continue on their routine pain medications.
The California Democrats won’t touch it. Neither will the party’s candidates for governor and lieutenant governor. Bay Area congressional reps Nancy Pelosi, Jackie Spier, and Fiona Ma are staying out of the fray. Senator Feinstein is decidedly against it and Kamala Harris went so far as helping write the case for voting ‘no’ along with her Republican rival.
But two prominent African-American associations have come out in favor of Proposition 19, the state ballot initiative that would (at least try to) legalize the use of recreational marijuana. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People endorsed the measure in July and last week, the National Black Police Association joined the ranks of the measure’s supporters.
The primary motivation for the rift between these prominent organizations and the traditionally lockstep Democratic party? The severe differences in arrest rates for African Americans who use the drug. A recent study by the Drug Policy Alliance found that while a larger percentage of whites between the ages of 12 and 25 actually say they’ve used the drug, blacks are arrested at a much higher rate. That fact not only inspired two prominent African American groups to endorse Proposition 19, but has added a civil rights overtone to the debate over legalization–the argument being that as long as marijuana is illegal, African American men and women will continue to be shuffled into the justice system for what are considered minor crimes.
How this argument will play out at the polls is uncertain and depends who it appeals to. The New York Times had a great article about the split in the African American community over legalization last month. But the truth of the matter is that the Black vote in this state doesn’t go very far: about 6 percent of registered voters in California are African American. What may matter much more is how this civil rights claim plays in the Latino community–which accounts for 21 percent of the state’s registered voters.
Anecdotally and based on state data, it seems that Latinos suffer similar disparities when it comes to enforcement of marijuana laws. (In real terms it’s harder to prove as a national trend–FBI statistics don’t include Latinos as a category.) But the most recent poll I could find put Latino support for Proposition 19 at 38 percent, with 62 percent against. Meanwhile, African Americans in the same poll showed 40 percent in favor and 52 percent against the initiative. So why is the civil rights message seemingly not resonating amongst Black and Latino voters? I’ll be bringing you varying perspectives on that question, so check back.
IRVINE – A group of about 15 Proposition 19 supporters gathered with signs and slogans Sunday evening at the intersection of Alton Parkway and Culver Drive.
Proposition 19, also known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, is on the Nov. 2 statewide ballot. If passed by voters, it will legalize purchase and sale of marijuana and allow local governments to regulate and impose taxes on such sales. Despite the passage of Proposition 19, marijuana will remain illegal under federal law.
Those who oppose Proposition 19, such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the California Chamber of Commerce, believe the initiative could make it impossible for businesses to effectively enforce the drug-free workplace requirement mandated by the federal government.
Matt Mirmak, organizer of the demonstration and Orange County volunteer coordinator for Yes on 19, said he is optimistic that voters will support the legalizing marijuana this November.
"I think people realize that we are faced with a war that we cannot win," he said.
This proposition will also be a solution for the state and local governments to get out of what has become a financial mess, Mirmak said.
Three puffs a day of cannabis, better known as marijuana, helps people with chronic nerve pain due to injury or surgery feel less pain and sleep better, a Canadian team has found.
The California Democrats won’t touch it. Neither will the party’s candidates for governor and lieutenant governor. Bay Area congressional reps Nancy Pelosi, Jackie Spier, and Fiona Ma are staying out of the fray. Senator Feinstein is decidedly against it and Kamala Harris went so far as helping write the case for voting ‘no’ along with her Republican rival.
IRVINE – A group of about 15 Proposition 19 supporters gathered with signs and slogans Sunday evening at the intersection of Alton Parkway and Culver Drive.
