Benefits of Medical Cannabis

Since the legalization of medical cannabis, hundreds of thousands of needing patients have found relief from many very serious ailments. In many cases, their quality of life has improved exponentially while reducing or completely avoiding the dangers that arise from taking habit-forming prescriptions. One of the great benefits that medical cannabis has over many prescriptions is the lack of irritating and uncomfortable side-effects. There have been many patients that prefer herbal therapy over the traditional western methods. For others, a blend between western and herbal therapies have proven to be effective as well.

Ambien and Ambien CR are prescriptions that are designed to relieve a person of insomnia. While marijuana shares this ability to relieve insomnia you’ll find that the similarities stop here. Ambien (whose active ingredient is Zolpidem) belongs to a class of medications called sedative-hypnotics. Serious side effects of Zolpidem include swelling of the eyes, lips, tongue or throat as well as difficulty breathing or swallowing – unless in the case of an allergic reaction, marijuana does not produce these side effects. There is also the risk of dependency and overdose from Zolpidem –two dangers that are not present with the use of medical marijuana.

For some people with chronic pain associated with their illness, marijuana has proven to be far more beneficial to their overall health and well-being than prescription pills. Since medical marijuana is not legal under federal law there are many patients who choose to take prescription drugs such as vicodin, codeine, percocet, oxycontin, morphine, dilaudid, etc. to relieve themselves of their pain. However, all of these prescription drugs are opioids (chemicals that bind to the opioid receptors in the brain creating a euphoric feeling –similar to heroin) and can form dependency which may eventually lead to addiction. The withdrawal symptoms form these opioids may contain but are not limited to: muscle spasms, nausea, vomiting, and sweating. The withdrawal symptoms from medicinal cannabis have not been agreed upon, and are in no way as significant as the withdrawal symptoms of opioids.

The use of cannabis and its cannabinoids date as far back as 2.737 BC. Cannibas has been related to stopping the spread of breast cancer cells and inducing the self destruction of brain cancer cells by promoting a stage called autophagy where the cells destroy each other rather than spread. The cannabinoids in cannibas have been linked to reducing the dependency on opiates and other addictive substances – and these benefits are just the tip of the iceburg.