Marijuana is Effective, Deserves Research: Gupta

A prominent neurosurgeon, Gupta’s recent message was contrary to his earlier stand against the legalization of pot way back in 2009 when he even penned down an article in TIME magazine titled ‘Why I would Vote No to Pot’.

However, Gupta seemed to have changed his view completely and believes medical marijuana can help the mankind immensely. His altered stand could be observed in his latest article supporting the weed for its medical uses on CNN’s website. That’s for sure good news for all those still ‘trying’ to have their marijuana registration in Michigan completed.

It was only after he researched through the papers from smaller countries that he could gain generous idea what marijuana is exactly all about.

Marijuana has been long listed as a banned substance by Drug Enforcement Agency; stating it to be bereft of any kind of medicinal benefits. Also, the strain has been always believed to carry high potential of abuse.

Dr. Gupta realized after conducting in depth research that all the aspersions are fallacies and based on limited scientific proofs.

It’s nothing more than pure imprudence on the part of the society to keep mankind bereft of the medical uses of the drug, for such a long time. Needless to say, widespread adoption of medical cannabis in Michigan and several other states has also forced experts and journalists to take a second look at everything they’ve said over the last few years, or decades (in Gupta’s case).

Media and some of the anti-weed activists have not helped in improvement of the situation either. It’s more akin to intentionally keeping the US in dark for as long as 70 years.

Dr. Gupta further adds that it was for the basic reason that administrators in the past were unable to comprehend the chemical composition and effects of drug on human body that they proposed to list it in the category of schedule 1 substance. The lack of knowledge about marijuana led to its alienation from the society. Can you imagine today how the little world around you would be if there were no legal provisions for marijuana registration in Michigan.

Even though, researchers didn’t come across any kind of evil effects (in terms of addiction playing on the parallel lines as cocaine and morphine) marijuana wasn’t still legalized.

Marijuana leads to dependence in only around 9% to 10% of its adult users in comparison to 25% of heroin users.

Also, there are no withdrawal symptoms associated with the drug in comparison to others mentioned before and therefore, it makes no justified case for the banning of marijuana on the validation that it is addictive in nature. Marijuana gives no life-threatening complications.

However, the above reasoning doesn’t rationalize complete harmfulness of marijuana and therefore, shouldn’t be used by young and growing brains for the reason that it can diminish the IQ level in them.

Medical Benefits

Marijuana’s medical uses are numerous and many patients have benefitted from the healing properties of the wonder weed. Dr. Gupta further explained how he discovered several other benefits of the drug after going through the research papers published between the years 1840 to 1930. The drug is of immense use when used in the cases of neuralgia, convulsive disorders, and emaciation.

He maintains that for the reason most of the research work on marijuana has been done with the sole objective of exploring its harmful effects, real benefits of the drug have remained undiscovered for long.

To anyone researching in the field, including those who’ve been supporting medical cannabis in Michigan, this paints a grimly distorted picture.

Challenges in The Way of Marijuana Research

There are plentiful challenges in front of anyone aspiring to bring upfront the right picture with respect to the strain. The problem arises with the easy availability of the weed. For the simple reason that marijuana is banned in most states of the US, researchers don’t show much interest in the research work. In case, you access some samples from the farms in Mississippi, approval is must before beginning with the study work.

For anyone wishing to investigate into the anti-cancerous properties of the strain, he is required to seek approval for his proposal from National Cancer Institute and similarly anyone for pain study has to visit the office of National Institute for Neurological Disorders. Lastly, it is the National institute of Drug Abuse that evaluates the proposal.

It is for the reasons that patients are left lurking for cures which can be easily provided by this wonderful weed.

Patients suffering from neuropathic pain or pain from breast cancer can be benefitted by the weed considerably.

The prospects for legalization of medical cannabis in Michigan are fairly low today but considering the improvement in situation in other parts of the US the situation will only improve.

Dr. Gupta also opines that administrators in the 18^th century categorized this drug under schedule 1 substance grouping for lack in knowledge about the product. However, with the developments in the field of science presently much can be achieved in the field and situation of medical marijuana can be improved significantly.

But, the biggest challenges that still remain are lacking infrastructure that surrounds the study of an illegal substance and multi-level approval process.