Had to do the paper on a drug, so I focused on health benefits w/ emphasis on vaporizing. Did this for Eng 101, includes work cited w/ good sources. I highly suggest anyone who enjoys vaporizing to read the journal done by NORML Cali on the volcano vaporizer. Touches on Plant Basics, Early Use, Medicinal Past/Present, and Vaporizing.
Enjoy. 
Quote:
The Health Benefits of Medical Cannabis
Cannabis is used widely through out the world recreationally and medically with the most minimal short and long term side effects in medical drug history. Such wide use of cannabis has set its place as now the most controversial plant on the planet next to the poppy. As it is slowly becoming decriminalized, more studies are being done to confirm health benefits, and more professionals are backing the plant. It is only a matter of time before the stigma of cannabis use is forgotten and the synergistic effect of the herb is widely prescribed as a clinical medicine. Cannabis is a healthy, organic way for millions of people to treat or even cure various ailments.
Cannabis is an annual, flowering herb that is native to Central Asia. It has both male and female gender and can also show hermaphroditic qualities. There are three species of cannabis: Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis (The Vaults of Erowid). Cannabis is the only plant that contains cannabinoids, the psychoactive compounds, which makes the plant unique. The active cannaboids in cannabis are: tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabinol, and cannabidiol. Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the most active chemical in the plant and gives the plant its sedative effects (The Vaults of Erowid). Cannabis flowers give many products that humans can consume including the dried flowers or the collected resin glands pressed together known as “hashish” (The Vaults of Erowid).
Cannabis has been used for recreational and medicinal purposes around the world for ten thousand years. It has been considered a five source plant: fibers, oils, seeds, recreational uses, and as a potent medicine (Schultes and Hofmann 1). Starting at Central Asia, the plant was used for the first recorded medical use, five-thousand years ago, by a Chinese emperor-herbalist Shen-Nung who prescribed it for malaria, and most popularly for female disorders (Schultes and Hofmann 2). In India, religious use of cannabis had been going on for thousands of years before, as believed in the Hindu religion that ingesting the plant will cleanse the body and bring you closer to Shiva (God of gods). Medicinally it was held higher because of its psychoactive properties and used to treat fevers, dysentery, and improve judgment (Schultes and Hofmann 3). So revered was the power of this plant in Indian life that it was believed that “those treading upon the leaves of this holy plant would suffer harm or disaster, and sacred oaths were sealed over hemp” (Schultes and Hofmann 4). Cannabis spread to other parts of the world where it was used as medicine in Africa, Greece, Egypt, England, and Mexico.
In the nineteenth century cannabis use had spread to North America, and was the top ingredient in most prescription medicines in the United States. During this time, physicians had published more than one hundred publications in medical literature recommending its use for a variety of disorders (NORML 1). Ohio State Medical Society reported in 1860 claimed that cannabis treated a large list of ailments including pain, hysteria, asthma, and bronchitis (US National Commission on Marijuana 4). With all the support from the medical community and accepted worldwide as a useful medicine, cannabis became a scapegoat from a racially fueled immigration scare. The recreational use of cannabis among Spanish immigrants and blacks led to the “Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.” The bill effectively made cannabis illegal in all aspects, and ended the medical research on the plant. The American Medical Association strongly opposed the act by stating, Since the medicinal use of cannabis has not caused and is not causing addiction, the prevention of the use of the drug for medicinal purposes can accomplish no good end whatsoever. How far it may serve to deprive the public of the benefits of a drug that on further research may prove to be of substantial value, it is impossible to foresee. (Woodward 2). Even with the mass support of American doctors, the bill was passed, and so began a painstaking drug war that continues to this day.
Later in the twentieth century, marijuana stigma faded in the United States which has led to many studies and a larger belief in the medical abilities of cannabis. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has stated that modern research suggests that cannabis aids in the treatment of pain, nausea, and glaucoma. Also, marijuana is a powerful appetite stimulant, and can allow many sick people to eat and nourish their bodies. A huge amount of support of medical cannabis in the United States has come from more than sixty health organizations, overwhelming public support reported at seventy-three percent of Americans, and many government-appointed investigations (NORML 2, 4).
With so much support and medical backing, nine US states have allowed medical cannabis to be procured in their state (NORML 4). With so much use, the main focus is on helping patients get their medicine in the most efficient, and healthy way. Smoking is a huge problem for medical cannabis because it produces many toxins, and is quite harmful to the body in numerous ways. Despite the side effects it is a must because of the speed of administration. Vaporizing offers the answer to that problem by delivering inhaled cannaboids while avoiding the dangers of inhaling toxic smoke (Gieringer, St.Laurent, and Goodrich). The vaporizer accomplishes this by heating the plant material to a temperature that is below combustion by high enough to release the active compounds. In a study done in 2004 it was shown that “vapor was overwhelmingly dominated by THC, with trace amounts of other compounds” (Gieringer, St.Laurent, and Goodrich). None of the toxic compounds came into the vapor but in a tested sample of a combusted product, 5 notorious toxins were labeled. In the final analysis of the study it was stated that “this (study) strongly suggests that vaporization is an effective method for delivering medically active cannaboids while effectively suppressing other deleterious compounds that are a byproduct of combustion. (Gieringer, St.Laurent, and Goodrich )
Cannabis is a genetically ancient plant that has coexisted in harmony with humans for thousands of years. Whether for religious, medicinal, or recreational use it has found a place in millions of people’s lives around the world. Medicinally, cannabis has qualities that cannot be matched by conventional pharmaceuticals, and is slowly making its way back to mainstream medicine. New methods allow the efficient and fast acquisition of the active compounds, without compromising health. Take the natural aspect with healthy administration techniques combined with the power of the chemicals and you have a potent healer for both mind and body. Cannabis is on the rise and will soon shift from hated to loved and become the world’s top medicine.
Work Citied "Cannabis Basics." The Vaults of Erowid. 09 July 2006. 16 Apr 2007. <http://erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_basics.shtml>. Gieringer, Dale, Joseph St.Laurent, and Scott Goodrich. "Cannabis Vaporizer Combines Efficient Delivery of THC with Effective Suppression of Pyrolytic Compounds." Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics 4(2004): 7-27. "History of the Medical Use of Marijuana." The Vaults of Erowid. 1972. US National Commission of Marijuana and Drug Abuse. 16 Apr 2007. <http://erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_medical_info3.shtml>. "Introduction to Medical Use." NORML . 22 August 2003. NORML. 16 Apr 2007. <http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5441>. Schultes, Richard, and Albert Hofmann. Plants of the Gods. 2nd ed. Inner Traditions, 2001. Woodward, William. "American Medical Association Opposes the Medical Marijuana Tax Act of 1937." Marijuana Library. 10 July 1937. American Medical Association. 16 Apr 2007. <http://www.marijuanalibrary.org/AMA_opposes_1937.html>.
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