A study of 120 Dravet syndrome patients across the country has shown that cannabidiol (CBD), an extract of cannabis, can reduce the seizures of children suffering from this most serious form of epilepsy
It’s all over the news. “Marijuana Stops Epileptic Seizures.” That’s misleading, possibly on purpose. It’s not marijuana. It’s an extract of cannabis. And it’s not what the stoners want.
Dravet syndrome is the most serious form of epilepsy. Those that suffer from this form of epilepsy experience life-threatening seizures.
Cannabidiol, or CBD, is an extract from marijuana. CBD does not cause the psychoactive effects sought by people who smoke pot or consume edible marijuana.
A recent study by Dr. Orrin Devinsky, director of the New York University Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, and colleagues around the country found that CBD reduced the number and severity of seizures in children suffering from Dravet syndrome. Of the 120 children studied for 14 weeks, half were treated with CBD and the other half received a placebo.
This type of treatment is a far cry from the ‘medical marijuana’ as practiced in California and other states that have legalized the smoking of pot for medical purposes.
Prior to Dr. Devinsky’s study, The American Epilepsy Society said: "Marijuana itself has major shortcomings as an epilepsy treatment ... evidence for efficacy in treating seizures does not meet the necessary standard to recommend it to patients." Worse, researchers state that "marijuana use or withdrawal could potentially trigger seizures in susceptible [epilepsy] patients."
The pot proponents keep trumpeting phony claims that marijuana provides relief to glaucoma patients, eases pain, nausea and vomiting in in chemotherapy patients, and eases multiple sclerosis (MS) muscle contractions, sleep disorders and Tourette’s symptoms.
The American Glaucoma Society has written: "There is no scientific basis for marijuana's use in treatment," and there is evidence that it could actually do damage.
And a study conducted with 6,500 volunteers by England’s prestigious Bristol University showed that cannabis does not ease pain, nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients, nor does it ease MS muscle contractions, sleep disorders and Tourette’s symptoms.
Furthermore, two DEA chiefs have debunked medical marijuana as a hoax.
In a 2011 letter to organizations petitioning for a reclassification of marijuana, then DEA Director Michele Leonhart declared that marijuana "has a high potential for abuse," "has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States" and "lacks accepted safety for use under medical supervision." The letter and 37 pages of supporting documents were published in the Federal Register.
And in 2015, DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg rejected the notion that smoking marijuana is "medicine," calling the premise a "joke." In a briefing to reporters, Rosenberg said:
"What really bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also medicinal -- because it's not. " We can have an intellectually honest debate about whether we should legalize something that is bad and dangerous, but don't call it medicine -- that is a joke. There are pieces of marijuana -- extracts or constituents or component parts -- that have great promise medicinally. But if you talk about smoking the leaf of marijuana -- which is what people are talking about when they talk about medicinal marijuana -- it has never been shown to be safe or effective as a medicine."
California’s medical marijuana law is a farce. Pot heads can go to almost any doctor licensed to dispense marijuana and obtain a pot prescription for claimed symptoms such as headaches, backaches, hair loss, erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, depression, ingrown toenails, constipation, diarrhea, irritable bowel, hemorrhoids and, of course, anxiety caused when their dealer has been busted by the cops. At the end of the day, this hoax leaves the pot-prescribing doctors laughing all the way to the bank.
I am vehemently opposed to the legalization of smoked or edible marijuana, whether for medical or recreational purposes. I may be tilting at windmills because it looks like the whole nation is headed to legalized pot. Because I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that marijuana is a very dangerous drug and not the innocuous substance its advocates claim, I will continue to express my opposition during the short time I have left on this earth. I am sure that after I’ve croaked, those Americans who are not stoners will come to regret the legalization of marijuana.
However, I am not opposed to the medical use of non-psychoactive extracts from the cannabis plant. If Cannabidiol,(CBD) can reduce the seizures of children suffering from Dravet syndrome, then by all means let’s treat them with that derivative from the cannabis plant. And if CBD or any other non-psychoactive extract from cannabis is found to treat other diseases, then I’m all for prescribing those extracts.
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