Medical Marijuana: Treatment for Marijuana Dependence

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

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I found this article discussing this subject with a computer search. The title was Marijuana: Medical Implications from the Journal, American Family Physician, Vol. 60/No. 9, pages 2583-93 by Dr. John R. Hubbard, et al Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

The first few sentences in the abstract are: “Over 50 percent of people will use marijuana sometime in their life. Five million use it weekly. While intoxication (SIC) lasts two or three hours, the active ingredient THC (SIC) can accumulate in fatty tissues, brain and testes (ouch) and stay there for two weeks.

I’m a bit surprised at the cavalier use of “intoxication”. Nobody says that patients who are using morphine or OxyContin are intoxicated but they certainly are by the same token.

After 1937, when cannabis in any form was illegal, researchers were able to get research grants to study adverse effects of cannabis but not beneficial effects.

My wife, a nurse, witnessed the first injections of penicillin in her hospital in Newcastle England. The patient was surgically draped, and the chief of surgery at Grand Rounds in surgical garb and rubber gloves gave the injection into the buttocks of the patient.

Over the next two days, the patient was repeatedly questioned about adverse side effects. One of his complaints was a pain in the testicle. (This was NOT a long needle). For the next several years, pain the testicle was considered an adverse effect of penicillin.

There are at least two reasons for adverse effects from marijuana. The old stuff (prior to about 1990) was very low in THC, the chief medical agent. There are at least two more important ones—CBD and CBN. Old stuff when burned in a cigarette was very irritating to the mouth, throat, breathing tubes and lungs. It caused coughing and a headache. If it contained more than a little THC, it would cause blood shot eyes, vasodilation, followed by increased heart rate and the “munchies”, all considered adverse effects.

If a person got some strong stuff but didn’t know it until he took a big inhalation, he would really get “high” in a hurry. This is very unpleasant, scares the person to death and may cause a whole bunch of anxiety, panic attacks, etc. This is frequently followed by deep sedation or sleep.

Some people enjoy the “high”, sedation and sleep. Auditory and visual hallucinations are common with very high doses but may be euphoric and some people seem to enjoy them. The term psychedelic has been used but usually applies to LSD or magic or “sacred" mushrooms etc.

Medical marijuana users rapidly discover doses causing adverse effects and avoid them. The article states that about 100,000 people seek treatment for marijuana dependence each year. This is really strange as 750,000 people are arrested each year for MJ use.

One would presume that these represent the most affected patients but probably the legal system requires many to have treatment or drug counseling which they regard as both punitive and hilarious.

The article is very serious about treatment for marijuana dependence. Patients should be (1) be evaluated for other drug related disorders (alcoholism), (2) evaluated for psychiatric disorders (depression), (3) evaluated for medically related problems (chronic pain), (4) educated about adverse effects? (5) supportive care for panic reactions, (6) supportive care for withdrawal symptoms, (7) education of spouse and family, and (8) referral to a relapse prevention program.

Most medical marijuana patients would consider all of these treatment strategies as being much funnier than the U.S. Govt. produced movie “reefer madness” which is so absurd that it really isn’t humorous.

It is noted that Dr. Hubbard is director of the substance abuse treatment program at the Nashville Veterans Affairs Medical Center. I would guess that this explains the over-cautionary sense of his article. I know at least a dozen cannabis doctors who would consider his article not humorous but very tragic.

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Phillip Leveque is a physician, toxicologist and WWII Combat Infantryman. Watch for his video question and answer segments about medical marijuana with Bonnie King.
You can email your questions to the doctor: newsroom@salem-news.com

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eric January 14, 2008 2:40 pm (Pacific time)

i think we need to decriminilize mj medical mj costs more than black markets.I get it cheaper in Idaho than my friend in california with a priciption.If it were legal there stil would be a black market.

Jeff July 6, 2007 9:00 am (Pacific time)

Dr. Leveque was given the power to reason without prejudice. I know of at least 2 other doctors with this gift and I'm sure there are many more. It is sad that the politicians fought the gift given to them by God and choose to reason with prejudice, that's why alcohol and nicotine are legal and cannabis is illegal, medically or otherwise. So we have a nation of medical users who are rewarded with prison sentences and recreational users both of whom face Federal Charges. While nicotine addicts more people everyday than any other drug simple because it is extremely addictive and legal hence available.

Imagine the economic BOOM in the INDUSTRIAL HEMP area, Food, Fuel, Clothing, medicine, and 4996 other uses, gee I wonder if the legalization of Industrial Hemp would cause anyone in any market to LOOSE MONEY. Why yes, I believe there are quite a few people who stand to lose billions of dollars if INDUSTRIAL HEMP WERE LEGAL.

Nicotine smokers smoke once a day everyday all day long. Cannabis smokers do not, especially medical users like me. We only smoke until are symptoms are relieved and that's 3-4 puffs 4-5 times a day. Hardly the same amount a tobacco smoker would use. Heck they blow through 2-3 packs a day. That's 60 joints, can you imagine anyone even needing to smoke 60 joints a day, or even being able to. But if they did it wouldn't kill them. More deaths are attributed to alcohol and nicotine, there is not one record of death from cannabis even by smoking it.

Only when we try to change God's design and create a different delivery system for THC like Sativex do we get into the realm of death. There is one record of a person who died while using Sativex but they do not know if it even played a role in the death. So keep up the GREAT work Dr. Leveque, I am seriously thinking of moving out to Oregon, or Washington simply so I would be legal. We need you Dr. Leveque and many more doctors and other professionals to speak for the incredible therapeutic effects of cannabis, with not one single bad report of using cannabis in medicines from the actual plant to a tincture of THC, and no deaths reported from ANY user's of cannabis in over 2,000 years of medical history.

So Why Is Cannabis Illegal? Ask your politicians to make it legal or they will loose your vote. YOUR VOTE IS POWER SO USE IT! It was legal until 1940, so what's the big deal, certainly not our children they already know more about it than there parents. So let's not make the sick suffer anymore and stop arresting people who use cannabis like some use liquor or nicotine. Do any of these people deserve prison sentences. Okay, maybe the habitual alcoholic but that's it.

See ya later- Americans For Cannabis Use.

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Medical Marijuana: Treatment for Marijuana Dependence

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