Oregon Medical Marijuana Doctor Tells All: Q&A Part 7 (VIDEO)

Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician and Toxicologist.

(SALEM, Ore.) - Welcome to the seventh installment of this special series. This is an ongoing question and answer segment that allows our viewership to email questions to Dr. Phil Leveque, and those questions are addressed in future segments.

DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION FOR DR. LEVEQUE? Email: newsroom@salem-news.com or simply write a comment at the bottom of the page. You do not have to use your real name if you are not comfortable doing so. Watch for your question in upcoming segments.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Salem-News.com does not advocate any illegal activity. This special segment is geared completely toward exploring the legal use of marijuana as a medical treatment. Dr. Phillip Leveque's opinions and advice are intended only as such, and his statements are strictly his own, and do not represent the opinions or policies of Salem-News.com.

This is the full transcript from the video. You will see the video screen when you scroll to the bottom of the page.
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Bonnie: "Welcome to our ongoing series with Oregon's expert in pharmacology, toxicology and most importantly, medical marijuana, Dr. Phil Leveque. Today we're going to be taking your questions that you have been sending in to Salem-News, so Doctor Leveque, let's just get started."

Bonnie: "Well, the first one comes from a gentleman named Mark, Mark says, 'Doctor I'm new to smoking," and this is all he has ever smoked, he does not smoke cigarettes. He takes on e hit every couple of days from a water pipe, and he wants to know if there is any damage to his lungs."

Dr. Leveque: "That's a very interesting question because the federal government has been saying for 70 years now that it not only causes damage to the lung but lung cancer. This is not true. The worst thing that can happen with very poor grades of marijuana which is usually called ditch weed, is that it's just like burning straw or burning alfalfa and its the burning products that do cause the irritation. Its not the cannabinoids that are in marijuana that are the medical stuff in marijuana, those cannabinoids are actually protective toward any kind of lung damage."

Bonnie: "OK, well Jeff wants to know, he suffers from Gastro Paresis which gives him a lot of nausea especially in the morning. Right now he is taking Marinol which is 2.5 milligrams because medical marijuana is illegal in his state of Iowa. He says he gets a lot more help from medical marijuana and what do you think with his particular problem?"

Dr. Phil Leveque of Salem-News.com

Dr. Leveque: "Gastro Paresis is one of the more common symptoms of diabetes and paresis means paralysis so what it amounts to is your parastolsis doesn't work in your stomach and intestinal track, and this usually causes nausea and it can cause vomiting because if it doesn't work, I mean this is what happens. The strange thing is that the physician who is writing the prescription for 2.5 Marinol; apparently this physician doesn't know that 2.5 of Marinol doesn't do anything for anybody. It would take probably a minimum of five milligrams but at the same time I would recommend that the patient uses marijuana just like he is doing, because I had about 20 patients with Gastro Paresis and they said it works very well for that. So it works very well for a whole list of Gastro intestinal symptoms and Gastro Paresis is one of those. It brings everything to normal and marijuana is good for that for almost every one of the medical conditions for which medical marijuana is used."

Dr. Leveque: "I have probably had somewhere between 25 and 30 patients who moved from non medical marijuana states to Oregon for this purpose."

Bonnie: "OK, the next question is from a mom with a bi-polar son. He's been on many meds since he was 8-years old and he is now an adult, he has bad side effects from the medication that he is taking and it doesn't seem to help. How can medical marijuana help bi-polar patients?"

Dr. Leveque: "This is probably one of the most interesting facts about medical marijuana; that it does work for a whole bunch of psychiatric problems. The physicians in California are using it for this and that's where I first heard this information. Again, this is a homeostatic normalizer that is working in the brain, and several brain conditions including Turret's Syndrome, ALS, Multiple Sclerosis, a whole bunch of them are modulated by the use of medical marijuana. So this is, and the whole thing of it is that you mentioned that the child has used a 'many different medicines,' this is one of the most unfortunate things of the whole business; that psychiatric conditions are the most difficult to treat and no only that, are most usually treated very badly and this is a very good example of that. Actually, medical marijuana should be the first choice medicine, not the last choice medicine for something like this.

Bonnie: "And bi-polar is not one of the conditions is it, that they can be approved for to get a medical marijuana permit?"

Dr. Leveque: "Not in Oregon, Oregon does not accept any psychiatric or psychological conditions but California does and I hope several of the other states do too, but I know California does in particular."

Salem-News.com's Bonnie King

Bonnie: "OK, well this next question is a little bit different, it's from a guy named Buddy. He used medical marijuana for a couple of years, he knows it increases the appetite, for that he says there is lots of proof, but he also has heard that it increases the metabolism. Is that a fact and what it is your feedback on that?"

Dr. Leveque: "There is no information that I have that it does increase the metabolism. One thing it does is make you feel a lot better; now if he thinks that is increasing their metabolism, fine. But one of the, what I would consider the common side effects if I can call it that from the use of marijuana is the munchies, but when you feel good you feel like eating and this is very important to people who have cancer or HIV/AIDS. It can be life saving for those people."

Bonnie: "So I think of metabolism as something that gives you energy, an increase of energy, so you would say no to that question?"

Dr. Leveque: "Well my answer is that the old definition of marijuana side effects is that it causes euphoria and euphoria is habit forming. It makes you feel good and if you feel good you're going to have an appetite, and you do have an appetite but as far as the metabolism is concerned, I think that is probably connected to the feeling good. If you feel bad you aren't going to eat."

Bonnie: "Well that makes sense. OK, one last question; is there a difference between medical marijuana and just regular weed?"

Dr. Leveque: "Regular weed is usually called ditch weed, and it grows in Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, all over the Midwest, it was planted during WWII to make rope for the Navy battleships and it is a really poor grade of marijuana, and if that is what he is talking about, the usual result of using ditch weed is a headache, and good marijuana is used to cure headaches. So, yes, there is a very vast difference between ordinary marijuana and ditch weed, medical marijuana."

Bonnie: "OK, if you have questions for Dr. Leveque, whether they be about medical marijuana or other toxicology or pharmacology issues, he is here to answer your questions. So please send them in to newsroom@salem-news.com

WATCH THE COMPLETE VIDEO REPORT BELOW WITH SALEM-NEWS.COM'S BONNIE KING AND DR. PHIL LEVEQUE.
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You can email your questions to the doctor: newsroom@salem-news.com

Watch for Dr. Phil Leveque's video question and answer segments about medical marijuana with Bonnie King.

Other articles and video segments about medical marijuana on Salem-News.com:

Salem-News.com Marijuana Coverage

Where and How to Smoke Legal Marijuana without Fear of Arrest in the U.S.

Eulogy of a Great Warrior: Hoss Plourde

The Ripple Effect How Marijuana Laws Are Impacting Society

Audit the Audit

Welcome Home, Tom

Comments Leave a comment on this story.

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S.LaMarhe; August 12, 2007 8:16 am (Pacific time)

Thanks S-N!, a very informative article. I suffer a vioent attack of Turret's Syndrome whenever I hear g.w.b.'s or condolezza's voice on the BBC or view their peculiar images in the media. So I usually twist one to recover my my tenous version of reality. It usually works within seconds. The quality is good to excellent here.

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Oregon Medical Marijuana Doctor Tells All: Q&A Part 7 (VIDEO)

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