The use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, even though legal in Oregon since 1998, remains a topic of debate in both medical and civilian conversations. Many still consider it a mind-altering recreational drug with no medicinal value. The legal use for recreational purposes starting this month fuels the debate further.
A doctor and patient talk about their experience using and prescribing the drug.
She’s a grandmother in her 60’s. Two years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She’s one of the 220,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer each year, according to breastcancer.org.
For her, the first year of treatment was the most painful. She experienced the most pain, not from the cancer, but from the treatment for the cancer. She was lucky if she had an appetite, and even luckier if she could eat. She was uncomfortable, and needed something to make the anxiety and pain go away.
For her, marijuana was the answer.
Living in Corvallis and not yet retired, she does freelance work for the state of Oregon. For that reason, she asked to remain anonymous in fear of retribution. But her message is clear.
“I believe in medical marijuana. It would be my pain regulator drug of choice.”
After experimenting with prescribed drugs such as Percocet and codeine, she found that their side effects made her feel worse than she felt before taking them. They made her want to throw up. They brought on symptoms that made her want to take another drug to counteract them. She saw a potentially dangerous cycle if she didn’t try something else.
Americans for Safe Access, a group of 50,000 members including medical professionals, patients and activists for medicinal use, agree with her regarding options for safer treatment than synthetic drugs.
“In terms of the research, there’s a lot of popular misconceptions of the use of cannabis, like it will destroy your brain,” said Christopher Brown, press secretary. “In reality, damage is pretty mild. There’s a lot less than a lot of other drugs prescribed by doctors.”
She believes that more conversations should focus on the legal drugs prescribed to patients that are proven far more addictive and harmful than marijuana. During her cancer treatment, she once had a doctor prescribe her 85 oxycodone. She wondered how it was acceptable for them to give her drugs of that strength in bulk, but not for them to give her a medical marijuana card.
Exhausted from the extra load of symptoms caused by her painkillers, she sought out a recommendation to use medical-grade marijuana. To her surprise, she found it didn’t make her feel sick like the other medications. In fact, she felt better.
“It’s the only thing I can use for pain management,” she said. “Percocet makes me deathly ill. Codeine makes me deathly ill. I really had no alternative, and overall it was more effective.”
Today, doctors struggle with the decision to associate their name with recommending marijuana for medicinal use. In part this is because it’s still illegal on a federal level; but many also are afraid of professional suicide if they are flagged for supporting it.
“If you sign medical marijuana cards you often can’t get a job at hospitals. That scares doctors into not wanting to do it,” said a doctor serving the Willamette Valley. “It’s something that’s perfectly legal, but people in the community will scoff at it.”
The doctor asked to remain anonymous for the same reasons. But, his message is also clear.
“I think it should be legal.”
He recommends appropriate patients to the drug. The bulk of his recommendations are for patients with chronic pain, PTSD, seizures, and cancer.
“I always try to encourage them to do edibles or vaporizers,” he said. “The smoke is more damaging to their lungs.”
Most of his patients come to him in severe pain, or in turmoil from the loss of bodily control they have with continued use of narcotic painkillers. Some patients come to him taking prescribed methadone and oxycodone, for example, and are scared of becoming physically dependent.
“They want a natural option, not addictive, and something they have more control of than pain medicine,” he said.
He explained that, while some argue that marijuana is addictive, studies have not proven it to be physically addictive.
“There’s a psychological dependence, which is different than addiction,” he said. “In one study 7 percent [of participants] saw addiction, which was the same percentage of the placebo effect.”
More research and case studies are showing that the drug goes beyond a purely recreational drug. Even the American Medical Association changed its stance. In its 2009 Report of the Council on Science and Public Health, they recommended the “reclassification of marijuana’s status as a Schedule I controlled substance into a more appropriate schedule.” The report also supported ceasing “criminal prosecution and other enforcement actions against physicians and patients acting in accordance with states’ medical marijuana laws.”
If reclassified out of Schedule I, marijuana would no longer be bunched with drugs such as heroin and LSD. As described by the DEA, Schedule 1 drugs are “the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules” and have “no currently accepted medical use.”
As of October 2015, there are over 70,000 registered medical marijuana users in Oregon, according to the Oregon Health Authority. Of those, the Corvallis-based grandmother joins nearly 5,000 other cancer patients.
A doctor and patient talk about their experience using and prescribing the drug.
She’s a grandmother in her 60’s. Two years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She’s one of the 220,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer each year, according to breastcancer.org.
For her, the first year of treatment was the most painful. She experienced the most pain, not from the cancer, but from the treatment for the cancer. She was lucky if she had an appetite, and even luckier if she could eat. She was uncomfortable, and needed something to make the anxiety and pain go away.
For her, marijuana was the answer.
Living in Corvallis and not yet retired, she does freelance work for the state of Oregon. For that reason, she asked to remain anonymous in fear of retribution. But her message is clear.
“I believe in medical marijuana. It would be my pain regulator drug of choice.”
After experimenting with prescribed drugs such as Percocet and codeine, she found that their side effects made her feel worse than she felt before taking them. They made her want to throw up. They brought on symptoms that made her want to take another drug to counteract them. She saw a potentially dangerous cycle if she didn’t try something else.
Americans for Safe Access, a group of 50,000 members including medical professionals, patients and activists for medicinal use, agree with her regarding options for safer treatment than synthetic drugs.
“In terms of the research, there’s a lot of popular misconceptions of the use of cannabis, like it will destroy your brain,” said Christopher Brown, press secretary. “In reality, damage is pretty mild. There’s a lot less than a lot of other drugs prescribed by doctors.”
She believes that more conversations should focus on the legal drugs prescribed to patients that are proven far more addictive and harmful than marijuana. During her cancer treatment, she once had a doctor prescribe her 85 oxycodone. She wondered how it was acceptable for them to give her drugs of that strength in bulk, but not for them to give her a medical marijuana card.
Exhausted from the extra load of symptoms caused by her painkillers, she sought out a recommendation to use medical-grade marijuana. To her surprise, she found it didn’t make her feel sick like the other medications. In fact, she felt better.
“It’s the only thing I can use for pain management,” she said. “Percocet makes me deathly ill. Codeine makes me deathly ill. I really had no alternative, and overall it was more effective.”
Today, doctors struggle with the decision to associate their name with recommending marijuana for medicinal use. In part this is because it’s still illegal on a federal level; but many also are afraid of professional suicide if they are flagged for supporting it.
“If you sign medical marijuana cards you often can’t get a job at hospitals. That scares doctors into not wanting to do it,” said a doctor serving the Willamette Valley. “It’s something that’s perfectly legal, but people in the community will scoff at it.”
The doctor asked to remain anonymous for the same reasons. But, his message is also clear.
“I think it should be legal.”
He recommends appropriate patients to the drug. The bulk of his recommendations are for patients with chronic pain, PTSD, seizures, and cancer.
“I always try to encourage them to do edibles or vaporizers,” he said. “The smoke is more damaging to their lungs.”
Most of his patients come to him in severe pain, or in turmoil from the loss of bodily control they have with continued use of narcotic painkillers. Some patients come to him taking prescribed methadone and oxycodone, for example, and are scared of becoming physically dependent.
“They want a natural option, not addictive, and something they have more control of than pain medicine,” he said.
He explained that, while some argue that marijuana is addictive, studies have not proven it to be physically addictive.
“There’s a psychological dependence, which is different than addiction,” he said. “In one study 7 percent [of participants] saw addiction, which was the same percentage of the placebo effect.”
More research and case studies are showing that the drug goes beyond a purely recreational drug. Even the American Medical Association changed its stance. In its 2009 Report of the Council on Science and Public Health, they recommended the “reclassification of marijuana’s status as a Schedule I controlled substance into a more appropriate schedule.” The report also supported ceasing “criminal prosecution and other enforcement actions against physicians and patients acting in accordance with states’ medical marijuana laws.”
If reclassified out of Schedule I, marijuana would no longer be bunched with drugs such as heroin and LSD. As described by the DEA, Schedule 1 drugs are “the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules” and have “no currently accepted medical use.”
As of October 2015, there are over 70,000 registered medical marijuana users in Oregon, according to the Oregon Health Authority. Of those, the Corvallis-based grandmother joins nearly 5,000 other cancer patients.
Did you know...
- One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.
- Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women.
- Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death among women.
- Each year it is estimated that over 220,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 40,000 will die.
- Although breast cancer in men is rare, an estimated 2,150 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and approximately 410 will die each year.
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