Medical marijuana is excellent for so many different reasons. It’s confirmed in scientific literature that it has loads of health benefits, which is probably why the US government, more than a decade ago, created a patent outlining it’s antioxidant and neuroprotective qualities.

The abstract reads:

Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention. A particular disclosed class of cannabinoids useful as neuroprotective antioxidants is formula (I) wherein the R group is independently selected from the group consisting of H, CH3, and COCH3.

This has been known for a long time, one of many examples comes from1840, when Victorian Doctors were treating people with extracts of cannabis for many illnesses, including tinctures for treating children with epilepsy.One of my favourite pioneers was Dr William Brooke O’Shaughnessy MD, an irish physician, surgeon, Professor of chemistry, scientist and innovator, he was a pioneer of ‘intravenous therapy’ and he is the man credited with introducing cannabis to Western medicine. You can read more about that here.

It’s great that marijuana has been legalized in Canada, Health Canada allows you to grow approximately 5 times the amount of grams you were prescribed per day in plants i.e. if you were prescribed 5 gram per day, you can grow 25 plants indoors and even more if you require it. Through Canada’s ACMPR program, we help people through the paper work as well as connect them with passionate doctors who are willing to provide them with the prescription they need.

One thing, however, about marijuana legalization in Canada that’s not really mentioned are the medicinal properties of THC. Cannabis has many active medical properties, and it’s great, many of them are sold without psychoactive THC ingredient. Because of this, the medicinal benefits of THC go overlooked.

Just because THC can be ‘psychoactive’ does not mean it’s unhealthy and that it doesn’t have any medicinal benefits. Here is video of Dr. Christina Sanchez, a molecular biologist at Compultense University in Madrid, Spain, explaining how THC (the main psychoactive constituent of the cannabis plant) completely kills cancer cells. Cannabinoids refer to any group of related compounds that include cannabinol and the active constituents of cannabis. They activate cannabinoid receptors in the body. The body itself produces  compounds called endocannabinoids, and they play a role in many processes within the body that help to create a healthy environment. I think it’s also important to note that even cannabis stripped of its psychoactive compounds can treat cancer effectively.

A study from a team at UC San Diego, released in December 2013, evaluated “the analgesic efficacy of vaporized cannabis in subjects.” Published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the study looked at patients who were “experiencing neuropathic pain despite traditional treatment.” Use of traditional cannabis strains containing THC produced “a clinically significant outcome.” The study concluded: “Low-dose vaporized cannabis significantly improves neuropathic pain.”

The NCBI in 1998 published findings of a team at the National Institutes of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, found that CBD and THC are both neuroprotective antioxidants. They first introduced agents that cause neurological damage in rats, then studied the efficacy of the cannabinoids in correcting or preventing it. 

THC’s neuroprotective properties have been demonstrated since then. In October 2014, Reuters Health reported on a study finding that the death rate following traumatic brain injury was lower among patients who tested positive for THC at one California hospital.

“This data fits with previous data showing that (THC) may be neuroprotective,” said Dr. David Plurad of UCLA, one of the study’s authors.

The team reviewed data on 446 adults treated at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California, for traumatic brain injuries. About 2.4 percent of those who tested positive for THC died of their injuries, compared to about 11.5 percent of those with negative THC test returns. 

Post-traumatic stress is another area where THC seems effective. The journal Clinical Drug Investigation in August 2014 published findings of a team led by Raphael Mechoulam, the Israeli scientist who first isolated THC and CBD in the 1960s. It noted: “Marijuana is often used as compassion add-on therapy for treatment-resistant PTSD.” Reviewing its effects on a study group, the team found: “Orally absorbable Δ9-THC was safe and well tolerated by patients.”

If you want to grow your own cannabis, and iff you’d like assistance to make sure you go through the process legally and the right way, please contact us about acquiring a licence and we’ll help you through the process every step of the way.