Updated news from the NIH National Cancer Institute: http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/cam/patient/cannabis-pdq/#l...
Cancer, in all reality, is a painful and harsh reality that can't be ignored and still has to be dealt with in time-consuming and life-interrupting ways. Chemotherapy is the common and most well-known form of treatment to deal with this unfair attack into privacy. Along with the attempt to rid the body of the cancer there are the punishing and crippling side effects that come along with this treatment: pain, nausea, lack of appetite or desire to eat, and weight loss and more.
Knowing that pain will come, marijuana can give you relief from that pain. It will help you endure those side effects that only make you feel even more of a victim.Marijuana, despite its drug abuse-related past, has risen from the dregs of life to credible standing in the medical world.
In 1985 the FDA did not approve marijuana as a legal drug but instead approved Marinol (a man-made version of marijuana with the same active ingredients) as legitimate treatment of chemotherapy side effects for those not responsive to the standard drugs.
Now there are 14 states, including Hawaii, where Marijuana is a legal solution to the pain, nausea, and vomiting problems due to cancer chemotherapy.
There is a way to get rid of some of that painful reality that cancer forces upon its prey, a way to stop feeling victimized by circumstance. The reason that marijuana is used is because of its main ingredient delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as THC. This THC is used to reduce the effect cancer treatments, mainly chemotherapy, causes. To be able to face cancer and the chemotherapy that goes with it, with the knowledge that you won't vomit this time or you won't lose weight again, simply to rid yourself of an evil tumor or cancerous growth that dares to try and to take control of your life.
Here at Medical Marijuana of Hawaii, Marijuana has found its useful and effective place among the medical solutions to enable those with cancer to not suffer from those effects of treatments as much as in the past. We believe in the work we are doing, in order to relieve some of the pain so common in our lives. Below are a few pros and cons to using marijuana for cancer.
Pros
- Enables you to stay strong so you can continue to tolerate the chemotherapy
- Moderately to extremely effective relief
- Helps with ability to sleep and develop good sleeping habits
- Helps deal with the possible effects of peripheral neuropathy (damaged nerves from the chemotherapy)
Cons
- No standardized dosage
- Use a vaporizer to dispense the dose
- 1 of every 100 patients report only mild relief instead of extreme relief