Yes marijuana is good for your health. Medical marijuana that is. Today there is increasing interest in the use of medical marijuana for treating everything from cancer to menstrual cramps and migraine headaches. People who wouldn’t be caught dead using marijuana are now interested in medical marijuana because it may be able to save their lives.
Medical professionals worldwide have used marijuana for millennia to treat a variety of ailments. Modern medicine men are begrudgingly beginning to acknowledge medical marijuana can aid in the treatment and cure of many diseases.
Earliest Usage
Marijuana, or more properly Cannabis Sativa, has been used for its medicinal properties for over 5,000 years. Its earliest documented use is in China. In the 28th Century B.C. the Chinese Emperor Shen-Nung prescribed marijuana for gout, beriberi, constipation, ‘female weakness’, rheumatism and malaria among other ailments. In 2,000 B.C. physicians in Egypt were prescribing marijuana for eye problems. In India in 1,000 B.C. marijuana was being used as an anesthetic and an anti-phlegmatic and Hoa-Tho, a 2nd Century A.D. Chinese physician is reported to have used marijuana as an analgesic during surgery.
Modern Usage
Today in many parts of India and especially in Ayer Vedic medicine marijuana is used to treat a wide range of ailments. It is also used as a sedative, an analgesic, an anti-hemorrhoidal and an antispasmodic.
One might infer marijuana is only used in ‘backward’ Asian countries with no knowledge of modern medical practices, But one would be wrong. Napoleon’s army used it to treat burns, as a sedative and as a pain reliever. In the United States in 1961 the National Institute of Mental Health did a study that indicated marijuana could be used for epilepsy, infant convulsions, treatment of tetanus, convulsions of rabies, treatment of depression, as a sedative and hypnotic in relieving anxiety and has antibiotic properties.
Today physicians prescribe medicinal marijuana to stimulate the appetite of AIDS patients, treat glaucoma and multiple sclerosis and reduce nausea for cancer patients. The British House of Lords in a 2001 report stated marijuana could be used to treat migraine headaches, schizophrenia, asthma, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and general pain. Doctors also acknowledge it can help to treat high blood pressure.
Medical Marijuana Movement
There is a major movement, particularly in California, to make medicinal marijuana readily available to patients through medicinal marijuana stores. California medicinal marijuana dispensaries and medicinal marijuana clinics, many of which are run by medicinal marijuana collectives and marijuana doctors, seek to make medicinal marijuana available to patients with medical weed cards that legally allow them to receive medical marijuana strains to treat a variety of illnesses. Medical marijuana is truly becoming a herb for the healing of the nation.