Marijuana Facts – Ten Surprising Truths About Marijuana Medicine

1. Healthcare professionals are in favor of medical marijuana.

In a survey of Medscape, an online community for doctors and nurses, it was found that three out of four doctors and nine out of 10 nurses favor decriminalization of marijuana for medical use.

2. The vast majority of medical marijuana prescriptions are for life-threatening conditions.

Many people think the medical marijuana movement is an excuse for stoners to get legal weed, but according to the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center, 90% of MMJ prescriptions are for AIDS or cancer.

3. Marijuana has a neurochemical effect on pain.

A National Institute of Mental Health study has shown that rather than just “relaxing” a pain patient or “intoxicating” them, the psychoactive ingredients in marijuana suppress the transmission of pain signals in the brain.

4. Pot can be used medicinally to treat mental health disorders.

Many people think of weed as a medicine for glaucoma and pain, but it is also approved in different jurisdictions to treat mental disorders as varied as Tourette’s, depression, anxiety disorders, and even anorexia and bulimia.

5. Medical marijuana can be stored without losing its potency for up to 60 months.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse performed a study that proved that medical-grade pot can be stored at freezing temperatures for up to 60 months without losing any potency.

6. Medical pot could reduce the number of medication-related deaths by 1,000 or more each year.

The FDA recently released a report that shows that 17 drugs used for symptoms ranging from nausea to pain (which could be replaced with medical MJ) were responsible for 10,000+ deaths between 1997 and 2005, at a rate of about 1,000 a year.

7. The University of Mississippi has been growing medical cannabis for over forty years.

The US government has a long-standing contract with Ole Miss to grow a variety of marijuana products for medical research. Each year since 1968, researchers at Ole Miss have been growing between 1.5 and 6.5 acres of medical MJ.

8. Legal medical marijuana appears to reduce illegal marijuana use among teens.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has found that in eight of the ten states with legal medical pot laws, illegal use among teenagers has dropped an average of 3 percent.

9. Smoking grass may reduce your chances of contracting lung cancer.

Despite claims to the contrary, an in-depth study at UCLA found no association between smoking pot and contracting lung cancer, claiming instead that marijuana “may have some protective effect.”

10. Ganja can improve the immune system.

Is there anything weed can’t do? Dr. Donald Abrams found in a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine that medical marijuana patients had “improved immune function” compared with patients who received a placebo.