3 ms·

I am all for seeking professional help, and I don't put faith in alternative medical practices. With that said, I think currently pharmacology is too constraine

I am all for seeking professional help, and I don't put faith in alternative medical practices. With that said, I think currently pharmacology is too constrained by special interest groups. Cannabis is a great example of something that greatly improves the quality of life for many people, but isn't recognized and respected as medicine by the medical community at large.

Fnoord 9y ago
> Cannabis is a great example of something that greatly improves the quality of life for many people, but isn't recognized and respected as medicine by the medical community at large. Scientific research can go (too) slow to your liking and/or needs. With cannabis, that's been changing the past decade AFAICT. My late father had MS, and he had the opportunity to use cannabis to reduce the effects of MS well over 10 years ago (he didn't use that opportunity because of his preconceived notion about cannabis). My late uncle, who AFAIK never used cannabis before (it is decriminalized here), used cannabis to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy. More and more governments are accepting medical marihuana/cannabis. Portugal has decriminalized a lot of drugs, and even in the conservative USA various States are finally adopting medical marihuana. That being said, there are also cannabis zealots. E.g. some people abuse that scientific research to justify their pot smoking (which is here, unlike in USA, traditionally combined with tobacco, and regardless includes carcinogenics). They simply deny that smoking is bad for their lungs despite decades of evidence suggesting the contrary. I know one friend of my partner who claims cannabis is great for his diabetes but dismisses his change in lifestyle/diet. You cannot simply ignore such factors, and they greatly complicate scientific evidence in research, never mind for those who decide to self medicate based on such research.

Fnoord 9y ago

> Cannabis is a great example of something that greatly improves the quality of life for many people, but isn't recognized and respected as medicine by the medical community at large. Scientific research can go (too) slow to your liking and/or needs. With cannabis, that's been changing the past decade AFAICT. My late father had MS, and he had the opportunity to use cannabis to reduce the effects of MS well over 10 years ago (he didn't use that opportunity because of his preconceived notion about cannabis). My late uncle, who AFAIK never used cannabis before (it is decriminalized here), used cannabis to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy. More and more governments are accepting medical marihuana/cannabis. Portugal has decriminalized a lot of drugs, and even in the conservative USA various States are finally adopting medical marihuana. That being said, there are also cannabis zealots. E.g. some people abuse that scientific research to justify their pot smoking (which is here, unlike in USA, traditionally combined with tobacco, and regardless includes carcinogenics). They simply deny that smoking is bad for their lungs despite decades of evidence suggesting the contrary. I know one friend of my partner who claims cannabis is great for his diabetes but dismisses his change in lifestyle/diet. You cannot simply ignore such factors, and they greatly complicate scientific evidence in research, never mind for those who decide to self medicate based on such research.