"MMJ is medicine" - Journal of American Medical Association

Seniors MMJ Network
Jul 5, 2015
3 min read

Medical Marijuana research - Seniors safety

Two recently published articles concerning the efficacy of Medical Marijuana have been catching the attention of media and Seniors worldwide. More frequently, we are seeing historically anti-marijuana publications conducting new research and the results have been surprising. The latest comes in the form of a pair of articles in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The first is a review commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health. Penny Whiting, a senior research fellow at the University of Bristol, and her team reviewed 79 randomized clinical trials of cannabinoids involving about 6,500 subjects.The majority of studies reviewed involved marijuana-based medications such as Marinol and Dronabinol (U.S. FDA approved medications that contains synthetic THC) and Sativex (an oral spray using synthetic cannabinoids) which is approved in 15 countries, including Canada, UK, Spain, Italy and Germany. Only two of the studies reviewed used actual marijuana flower. “There is evidence to support the use of cannabinoids for the treatment of chronic pain and spasticity,” said lead author Penny Whiting. The evidence also showed that the medications could help multiple sclerosis patients who suffer from spasticity, which involves sustained muscle contractions or sudden involuntary movements.

Considering that new research and the majority of antidotal evidence points to "whole plant" medicine being the best, it's great to see positive results confirmed, even with the isolated and synthetic forms of cannabinoids (natural occurring compounds in Marijuana).

The second article in JAMA was a review conducted by Kevin Hill, MD, MHS, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Substance Abuse Consultation Service at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. Using 28 randomized clinical trials of cannabinoids and applying somewhat different criteria than the Swiss study, Hill concluded that "the use of marijuana for chronic pain, neuropathic pain, and spasticity due to multiple sclerosis is supported by high-quality evidence." The review conducted by Hill reached similar results with Whiting et al., that the evidence supporting marijuana as a treatment for glaucoma, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and Tourette syndrome is markedly weaker.

An area where the two reviews differ, was on the efficacy of Medical Marijuana in treating nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy and loss of appetite associated with HIV/AIDS wasting. Whiting et al. concluded "there was low-quality evidence suggesting that cannabinoids were associated with improvements in nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy or weight gain in HIV. They do concede that the lack of statistical significance and possible sample bias due to subjects who dropped out of the studies before they were completed could have effected those results. The review by Hill does not include studies of these applications, having considered them as well established in light of FDA approval.

While the studies did note some potential side-effects such as dizziness, dry mouth, nausea, sleepiness and euphoria , they overwhelmingly show that there is a potential medical benefit for a variety of conditions. Concern was raised in an editorial that accompanied the reviews, it stated that the list of approved conditions for Medical Marijuana is growing faster than the research can support. This echos what everyone is saying, that we need to conduct more research and possibly, we can improve the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of people.

Have you or someone you know been using Marijuana for medical reasons? We'd love to hear your story, send us an email at seniorsMMJnetwork@gmail.com