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Aug-21-2013 17:54printcomments

Marijuana: Very Good for Insomnia

It’s been known for centuries!

Medical marijuana

(PORTLAND, OR) - After mulling over the medical uses of marijuana, struck me that many or most of the medical conditions allowing its use left out the most important and most common condition over riding all of the others. IT’S INSOMNIA!

Insomnia probably has a thousand different causes for a thousand different people. It is difficult to make up a worst case list. Pain is the most common complaint by patients, this is compounded by PTSD because of their inter-relationships.

Spasms of any kind usually cause pain so they do go together. Anxiety and anguish come in there some place. I think most of us are somewhat psychologically bent out of shape, psychiatrists and psychologists will tell us so.

Psychotropic drugs are those which are working mainly or exclusively on the psyche. Which part of the brain that is, I am not sure. PTSD is certainly involved with the psyche.

There have been a parade of drugs which have been used for insomnia. Alcohol has been used for at least centuries, certainly more. All sorts of modifications such as chlorinated alcohols have been used. Alcohol causes alcoholism and death, when chlorinated they are even more dangerous.

Barbiturates were at one time very popular but when they were so easily used for suicides they gradually decreased in use.

Benzodiazepines came about next, and were sold by the billions. Apparently they too are easily used for suicides.

The anti-depressants were next, which seems a misnomer. Many do enhance sleep, but many are dangerous. There are an excess of anti-psychotic drugs it seems patients will try almost anything and in any combination.

The ancient literature is replete with referring to marijuana as a calmative and therefore a sleep enhancer.

As a medical marijuana doctor, I saw about 5,000 patients who wanted it for some legal purpose. As far as I can remember, insomnia was never on the “acceptable” list, but it was always one of their principal conditions whether it was pain, spasms, or PTSD with severe nightmares.

In researching this article, I found that medical research on insomnia has been done and reported on truthonpot.com called “Using medical marijuana for insomnia?” The study was done in 1973, but it if it was done in the U.S., it was probably illegal.

The study involved 9 patients who were given THC in doses of 10, 20 and 30 mgs once a week over a six-week period. It was found that 20 mg gave the best results for insomnia. This is strange, because THC as Marinol is prescribed in 2.5, 5 or 10 mg doses and 10 mgs causes panic attacks and hallucinations.

C B D a relative of THC and Marinol has also been used successfully for insomnia. 15 patients were studied and a dose of 150 mg was found to be best.

THC was tried against Elavil (Amitriptyline) an important sleep provoking anti-depressant drug. THC was better.

I asked my 5000 patients when they used marijuana. Some used it frequently and some almost chain smoked for extreme pain. Most used it for sleep.

Even patients with Fibromyalgia, Multiple sclerosis, sleep apnea, and many forms of cancer found marijuana very helpful for insomnia.

Many states are including insomnia as a condition for which they can get a state medical marijuana permit.

MARIJUANA FOR INSOMNA: OOOO-RAH (WAKE UP ALREADY).

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

Click on this link for other articles and video segments about PTSD and medical marijuana on Salem-News.com: Dr. Leveque INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES

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Emilie February 5, 2017 11:24 am (Pacific time)

What's c b d? U mentioned above its a relative of thc and works well for insomnia. Thanks

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