As usual, the opponents to legalizing medicinal marijuana say that there is the potential for abuse, use would set a “bad example” to children, and that the bill wasn’t restrictive enough.

Medicinal marijuana has been found to help some people manage chronic pain, nausea due to illness or treatment, and help with other types of side effects or symptoms. Considering that it is possible to receive morphine, a much more powerful medication that marijuana could ever be, the fear of abuse for what would be a controlled substance, is almost laughable.

On the bright (?) side, according to news reports, U.S. Attorney John Kacavas has indicated that his office would be targeting drug dealers and not those individuals who have small amounts of marijuana intended to help deal with their pain or other effects from illness or treatment.

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Image: Newscom.com

Post from: Blisstree

No Medicinal Pot in New Hampshire

Despite pot’s lack of legal status, it’s a fairly easy to get hold of “drug” and used by many people, for medicinal purposes or now.

Earlier research into the use of pot has shown that it can help weaken your bones, but now it seems that this is only in young people. Researchers have found that later on in life, pot may actually help prevent osteoporosis. The researchers, working out of the University of Edinburgh, are still in the very early stages of their studies. They are only now basing their comments on mice studies. However, this could prove to be quite promising.

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Image: Newscom.com

Post from: Blisstree

Pot May Help Strengthen Bones

I’ve written about legalizing marijuana for medical reasons (It’s time to legalize marijuana for pain control, Marijuana may be effective for neuropathic pain, and Author of How-To Marijuana, Step-by-Step Guide to Medical Marijuana, to list a few). It has so many uses in helping people with serious illnesses and chronic pain. Opponents bring up the safety issue of carrying medicinal pot and to that I way: Get real.

Do you know what doctors and nurses give now to people in severe pain? Morphine, Demerol, methadone (yes, methadone) and I’ve even administered suppositories of opium and belladonna. All perfectly legal and safe. If we can handle those types of medications, you can’t tell me we can’t handle marijuana safely.

And yet, thousands of people (if not millions) who could benefit from this drug are being denied that right.

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Image: Newscom.com

Post from: Blisstree

NH Vetoes Medical Marijuana

According to this article at Canada.com, Rules may be tightened on smoking medical marijuana , people with chronic diseases who use marijuana to relieve symptoms are being challenged even by federal workers if they’re found smoking in public. One gentleman had his pot taken from him and trampled by a park employee while the man was out hiking. He uses the pot to relieve his cancer symptoms.

I can see both sides of the story – and then some. First, I believe that medicinal pot is a right, just like any other medication. I don’t buy the “it’s not safe to carry pot in pharmacies” story because those pharmacies carry medications much, much stronger than pot. I don’t buy the “it’s a slippery slope” theory because if people are dying of cancer or AIDS, what slippery slope may they fall on?

But, to look at the issue at hand, where can they smoke:

The government’s point of view makes sense . Unless you are a registered user of medicinal marijuana, it’s an illegal substance still. If registered users smoke outside a restaurant or store, or in a park, people passing by may wonder why that person can smoke, but they can’t. The gov’t may feel that the people could become targets for those wanting to take their marijuana, and so on.

The registered smokers also make sense. As they say in the article, there aren’t restrictions for other people taking medications as to where they can do so, so why should there be a restriction on registered smokers? Should they not go out for the day, taking advantage of feeling better, for fear of needing their pot but not being allowed to use it?

What do you think? I’ve written about medicinal marijuana several times over at Help My Hurt before it was retired. I don’t feel it’s anything worse than the medications I used to give to patients. These medications ranged from morphine to opium and belladona. You can’t tell me pot is worse than those!

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Images: Newscom, MorgueFile

Post from: Blisstree

New rules coming: Canadian medicinal pot

Over at WebMD, there’s an article called Marijuana Eases Nerve Pain Due to HIV, which discusses findings of a study that appeared online in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. There is now a more evidence showing that medical marijuana can be a potent painkiller for patients with neuropathy, or nerve pain. People with this type of pain can find themselves very isolated and unable to work or participate in every day activities.

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Post from: Blisstree

WebMD article: Marijuana Eases Nerve Pain Due to HIV

The constant battle to allow medicinal marijuana is rearing its ugly head again. There are still many who want to deny the use of marijuana that can help them relieve chronic pain and/or symptoms of chronic illness.

Now, the state of California is backing an appeal for its use. You can read more about it in this article, California Appeals Court Backs Medical Marijuana.

Click here to read more.

Post from: Blisstree

California backs use of medical marijuana

Have a look at the article and see what they say. What do you think?

Image: Newscom

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Post from: Blisstree

Marijuana may be effective for neuropathic pain

A new study published in the July issue of the journal Anesthesiology found that oral medical marijuana (not the inhaled type) didn’t help to relieve certain types of pain and could even increase some types of pain.

The distinction between oral cannabis and inhaled cannabis is important though. According to this article, New Study Finds Oral Cannabis Ineffective In Treating Acute Pain, “Consistent with the uncertainty about oral cannabis ingestion evaluated in this study, there is also uncertainty in the research community as to whether inhaled cannabis might prove more efficacious for pain relief than orally ingested cannabis.”

Image: Newscom

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Post from: Blisstree

Study Finds Oral Cannabis (Marijuana) Ineffective In Treating Acute Pain…

Even people who live with chronic pain have to do a little housekeeping once in a while, right?

Last month, I had a give-away for the book, How-To Guide for Medicinal Marijuana (Author of How-To Marijuana, Step-by-Step Guide to Medical Marijuana). Unfortunately, the winner didn’t respond to my emails nor my announcement so I drew a new winner, and that is Diana Lee who left a comment on May 7th. I’ll be sending an email shortly.

I’m still waiting for a response from the winner of the poetry book, (And the poetry book goes to…). Because summer holidays are coming and many people are off and busy, I’ll give winners up to two weeks to respond, otherwise I’ll draw a new name.

I’ve had a few people tell me that they can’t find my email address – how to reach me – through this blog. I know it’s not easily noticeable; I even had trouble finding it the first time. If you ever want to contact me, there is an email link in the sidebar to the right, just under About Help My Hurt. Or, just make a note of it: it’s marijke (dot) durning @ b5media (dot) com. Also, I do read all the comments, so if you leave a note there that you want me to contact you, I will.

Help My Hurt began hosting a monthly Living with Pain blog carnival in May (June: Living with Pain Blog Carnival, Blog Carnival: Living with pain). If you have a blog posting that you would like to submit from your own blog, you’re very welcome to do so. Simply go to Blog Carnival page and submit your post. I’d love to build this into a great “go-to” blog carnival for chronic pain. Although I get a lot of great stuff, I have received many submissions from blogs that have nothing to do with chronic pain. I also have a pregnancy blog carnival that I’m just starting and the submissions I’m getting from some people are just ridiculous.

There – I think that about covers the housekeeping for now. I so enjoy researching and writing for this blog and I would really love it if you – the readers – would want to participate by either submitting suggestions of topics you’d like to see or by submitting guest posts.

Image: Newscom

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Post from: Blisstree

Help My Hurt housekeeping

According to this article, N.Y. poised to OK marijuana for medicinal use, there’s hope that law can be passed for medicinal pot before legislature closes for the summer holidays.

Image: Newscom

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Post from: Blisstree

NY state may be moving forward with medicinal marijuana law