Recently, CNN's chief medical correspondent
Sanjay Gupta reversed his opinion on medical
marijuana .
While recreational marijuana is controversial, many
people agree with Gupta's new stance, and believe
that the drug should be legal for medical uses.
While the benefits of smoking pot may be
overstated by advocates of marijuana legalization,
the new legalization will help researchers study the
drugs' medicinal uses, and better understand how
it impacts the body.
Currently only 6% of studies on marijuana analyze
its medicinal properties.
Keep in mind, though, that there are negative
effects of smoking too much pot or using it for non-
medicinal purposes. When overused or abused, pot
can cause dependency and mess with your
memory and emotions .
There are at least two active chemicals in
marijuana that researchers think have medicinal
application. Those are cannabidiol (CBD) — which
seems to impact the brain without a high— and
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — which has pain
relieving properties.
Also keep in mind that these same health benefits
can be gained by taking THC pills, Dronabinol,
which in some ways is more effective than smoked
marijuana.
Randy Astaiza contributed to an earlier version of
this story.
1.
It can be used to treat Glaucoma.
Marijuana use can be used to treat and prevent the
eye disease glaucoma, which increases pressure in
the eyeball, damaging the optic nerve and causing
loss of vision.
Marijuana decreases the pressure inside the eye,
according to the National Eye Institute: "Studies in
the early 1970s showed that marijuana, when
smoked, lowered intraocular pressure (IOP) in
people with normal pressure and those with
glaucoma."
These effects of the drug may slow the progression
of the disease, preventing blindness.
2.
It may help reverse the carcinogenic effects of
tobacco and improve lung health.
According to a study published in Journal of the
American Medical Association in January 2012,
marijuana does not impair lung function and can
even increase lung capacity.
Researchers looking for risk factors of heart disease
tested the lung function of 5,115 young adults over
the course of 20 years. Tobacco smokers lost lung
function over time, but pot users actually showed
an increase in lung capacity.
It's possible that the increased lung capacity
maybe due to taking a deep breaths while inhaling
the drug and not from a therapeutic chemical in
the drug.
3.
It can help control epileptic seizures.Marijuana use can prevent epileptic seizures, a
2003 study showed.
Robert J. DeLorenzo, of Virginia Commonwealth
University, gave marijuana extract and synthetic
marijuana to epileptic rats. The drugs rid the rats of
the seizures for about 10 hours. Cannabinoids like
the active ingredients in marijuana,
tetrahydrocannabinol (also known as THC), control
seizures by binding to the brain cells responsible
for controlling excitability and regulating
relaxation.
The findings were published in the Journal of
Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
It also decreases the symptoms of a severe seizure
disorder known as Dravet's Syndrome.
Charlotte Figi has Dravet's Syndrome, and her
parents are giving her marijuana to treat her
seizures.
During the research for his documentary
"Weed," Gupta interviewed the Figi family, who
treats their 5-year-old daughter using a medical
marijuana strain high in cannabidiol and low in
THC.
Their daughter, Charlotte, has Dravet Syndrome,
which causes seizures and severe developmental
delays.
According to the film, the drug has decreased her
seizures from 300 a week to just one every seven
days. Forty other children in the state are using the
same strain of marijuana to treat their seizures —
and it seems to be working.
The doctors who recommended this treatment say
that the cannabidiol in the plant interacts with the
brain cells to quiet the excessive activity in the
brain that causes these seizures.
As Gutpa notes, a Florida hospital that specializes
in the disorder, the American Academy of
Pediatrics, and the Drug Enforcement agency don't
endorse marijuana as a treatment for Dravet or
other seizure disorders.
4.
A chemical found in marijuana stops cancer from
spreading.
CBD may help prevent cancer from spreading,
researchers at California Pacific Medical Center in
San Francisco reported in 2007.
Cannabidiol stops cancer by turning off a gene
called Id-1, the study, published in the journal
Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, found. Cancer cells
make more copies of this gene than non-cancerous
cells, and it helps them spread through the body.
The researchers studied breast cancer cells in the
lab that had high expression levels of Id-1 and
treated them with cannabidiol. After treatment the
cells had decreased Id-1 expression and were less
aggressive spreaders.
In "WEED," Gupta also mentioned a few studies in
the U.S., Spain, and Israel that suggest the
compounds in cannabis could even kill cancer cells.

Be back in the morning.