Many substances occurring in nature, are poisons, however these same substances are often used to make “medicinal concoctions.” For instance:
- Digitalis (a glucoside), is used for heart medicine; it originally came from the flower, foxglove.
- Aspirin came from salicylic acid, developed originally from the bark and leaves of the willow tree. It relieves headaches and lowers temperature, yet an overdose of it too, can kill.
- Opiates can relieve pain; they too can kill.
Said again, many natural substances which are poisonous can be manipulated into being “medicinal” and the difference, when they’re used for medicines, is almost consistently, in the “dosage”.
Druggies claim that marijuana is medicinal. Certain chemical compounds in marijuana, have medicinal qualities but scientific evidence is still lacking in regards to which substances, and how much.
Evidence is lacking because the users’ support groups are intentionally discouraged from continuing ….. they have the answer they want!
THC is the specific compound in marijuana, that gets people high. Druggies claim that’s the specific “healing compound” (although there are upwards of 600 different chemical compounds in marijuana) …
Which particular compound helps them? You’ll never convince a pothead who says he uses it for medicinal purposes that it could be any of the other 600 compounds!
In California, a survey found that the average length of time a “medical marijuana” cardholder was using marijuana BEFORE he obtained his card, was 17 years!
Factor that figure into the fact that when it became known that people with AIDS or other chronic type of wasting diseases, would get the munchies and eat, when they got high …. and you have a number of people using marijuana for the first time ….. imagine how those people figured into the group impacted that average, for the average to then come out to be 17 years ….. previously, the average must have been ….. what? 30+ years before their beginning to use?
Back then, I was a pothead. I remember the plan being talked about ….. it was for all of us to be on the same page, telling the establishment …. testifying, that pot was medicinal and if we did so, ….. then we had a chance to get it accepted, …. maybe even legalized.
The most astounding phenomena is that now, …. the second most common reason for an illicit drug user to go to the emergency room is because he/she used marijuana.
As stated repeatedly, the dosage is consistently the problem.
The THC in marijuana, back in the 70’s (when marijuana was first claimed to be medicinal) was 1 – 2 %. Now, studies say the THC content ranges as high as 35% THC. Different strains vary radically.
Even the same strains produce radically different amounts of THC (it depends on a number of variables).
There is currently no defined dosage for using marijuana for any of the various maladies. Can you imagine your doctor prescribing a pharmaceutical medicine w/o specifying a dosage?
Paracelsus, the father of toxicology, once wrote: “Everything is poison, there is poison in everything. Only the dose makes a thing not a poison.”
The term “poison” is often used colloquially to describe any harmful substance, particularly corrosive substances, carcinogens, mutagens, teratogens and harmful pollutants, ….. but druggies already have the answer they want …..