MA Marijuana Info | Marijuana Info MA MA Marijuana News and Info
Doctors, activists, and lobbyists gathered in an auditorium this past week in Boston, where the Massachusetts Medical Society held its first ever class designated to the use and effect of marijuana in regards to treating medical issues.
Dr. Alan Ehrlich, who was the main instructor in this course, began his lecture by taking an example of a woman named Marilyn who was a 68 year old woman suffering from breast cancer. She was being treated with chemotherapy, which in turn took away her stamina, appetite, and in turn created a lot of pain for her. Ehrlich says, for Marilyn, who wants to relieve nausea and vomiting brought on by her chemotherapy, “there are no randomized trials of smoked cannabis versus placebo.” This basically means that the Food and Drug Administration has yet to conduct any true tests on whether or not marijuana actually aids in the relief of nausea and other side effects of chemotherapy. Patients may have told their doctors that marijuana helps improve their appetite, but there are little to no scientific proof to back up this claim.
Doctors like Alan Ehrlich are also burdened with assessing the risks their patients might face when using medical marijuana. Ehrlich cautioned that, “anytime you are certifying [a patient], you have to assess risks and benefits. It’s not just do you qualify? [It’s also] what are the risks?”
The doctors who attended the course did so in order to be able to prescribe their patients marijuana if they see fit, and the course was a pre requisite to doing so.
A lot of these doctors just wanted to know a lot of the basics: like would it be more effective if the marijuana was eaten, smoked, or vaporized.
