Small Study On Michigan Medical Marijuana Patients

[t-pain]

http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/854/

 

some findings from the study i thought were interesting

 

For example, almost every participant spontaneously provided detailed stories of social isolation, and the loss of family, friends and significant others over opposition to the participant being a medical
marijuana user or patient.

 

^^ i think this is so true and yet no one talks about it.

 

 

Many of the people who turned
to medical marijuana without previous marijuana experience found they needed to
overcome the legal stigma that surrounds marijuana before being willing to try it. The
legal issues of medical marijuana in the state of Michigan are complex and frightening,
and though these participants unilaterally agree that medical marijuana helps their
condition, almost all of them expressed serious concerns about where they stand in the
legal system.

 

 

Far from the characterizations of the dangers of potent marijuana (NIDA, 2013) the
more potent marijuana was viewed by patients and caregivers as more effective
medicine which, paradoxically, also let patients decrease their overall use of marijuana.

 

 

 

Some medical marijuana users may be using marijuana as a substitute or
replacement for opiate narcotics. In particular this data suggests an avenue for clinical
research using medical marijuana for adjunctive pain treatment, especially in those
patients with persistent opiate addiction, or with those individuals resistant to more
standard forms of analgesic treatment.

 

 

Medical marijuana may be more effective than some types of narcotics by
providing analgesia without the side effects associated with opiates.  Randomized and
blinded clinical trials need to be permitted by the government and performed by
researchers to provide evidence or falsification of this hypothesis.

 

 

Patients and caregivers agree that law enforcement and courts hostile to
the medical marijuana act have used the statutory ambiguities to engage in uneven
enforcement activities contrary to the will of the people as manifested in the referendum
that created the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.

 

 

The results in this dissertation do not provide evidence or proof of these
hypotheses but they do raise the questions, offer solid hypotheses for future research,
and provide ample justification for that further research.

[t-pain]

the author has another paper on medical marijuana patients who use marijuana to decrease usage of opiates.

 

http://www.humboldt.edu/hjsr/docs/fwhjsrparagraph/Issue%2035%20Second%20Article%20Peters.pdf

 

 

The claim that marijuana use decreases the use of other drugs was called the
“Reverse-Gateway Hypothesis” in a telephone conference with this author, several
Michigan medical marijuana certifying physicians, and several lawyers specializing in the
new area of medical marijuana law and was later affirmed in a personal communication. Dr.
Townsend, an activist and medical marijuana certifying physician in Michigan claimed the
“overwhelming majority” of his patients seek marijuana in order to decrease their
prescription use, especially opiates (R. Townsend, M.D., personal communication, August
10, 2011).

The aim of this paper is to present the patient perspective and perceptions about the
effect of medical marijuana use on prescription drugs use. A nonrandom sample of patients
and producers was used and all patients who had experience with opiates expressed the view
that medical marijuana is not a “Gateway Drug” but a “Reverse-Gateway Drug” that permits
a decrease in opiate utilization.

[Chauncy Gardner]

Sure. Just another lame study by a stoner to try and get ammunition to justify the legalization of marihuana!

 

Just kidding. Playing devil's advocate for the prohibitionist crowd - the lame a-holes.