Benefits of Medical Cannabis
- A wide margin of safety
- Rapid onset of action
- Able to easily self-titrate without euphoria
- Decrease pain without mental clouding
- Improve sleep without after effects
- Quell Nausea / Vomiting and improve appetite
- Anti-Inflammatory
- Decrease and/or eliminate other conventional medications
- Harm reduction medication
- Not Habit Forming- Not addictive by classic definitions
Safety of Cannabis
- No recorded deaths
LD-50 = 20,000- 40,000 : 1 joint > Would Require 1500 pounds consumed in 15 minutes - Low risk with high benefits
“…one of the safest therapeutic substances known to man. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for the DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in the light of the evidence in this record.”
– 1988 ruling by Francis Young, Chief Administrative Law Judge for the DEA
Risk vs Benefit
“ …Except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of cannabis use are within the range of effects tolerated for other medications.”
Institute of Medicine – 1999
Comparative Addiction Rates
- Tobacco 32%
- Heroin 23%
- Cocaine 17%
- Alcohol 15%
- Cannabis 9%
