Exploding the Myths: Medical Marijuana and Children

by on April 6, 2020 » Add the first comment.

Neal Smith

4-2-2020

Marijuana has been used as a medicine for several thousand years. Old people, young people, men and women were healed for a myriad of diseases; it didn’t matter age or gender.

It is a concern that youth, primarily adolescents, not use Marijuana recreationally. Science is showing there is a chance of serious psychological problems for adolescents who use Marijuana at any level that might be considered regular use.

There are precious few studies that have been done on young people using Marijuana under a doctor’s supervision. But, let’s take a look at that using a logical approach drawing on the science we do know.

We know, for example, that Marijuana is not toxic, nor fatal. In “Exploding the Myths: Not Your Father’s Marijuana:

The low toxicity of THC is best indicated by its widespread use with very few reports of anything even approaching an overdose.   Occasionally, people may get too “high” for their psychic comfort, but their bodies continue to function fairly normally.  The dosage sufficient to kill half of the organisms tested (LD50) for orally ingested THC is approximately 1 g/kg of body weight.  Simply interpreted, this means an average sized human would have to consume 50-100 g of pure THC to reach the LD50 level.  Since high-potency Cannabis contains approximately 10% THC, a person would have to eat at least 500-1,000 g of this marijuana before having a 50% chance of death.  A 1 g marijuana cigarette of 10% THC Cannabis contains 100 mg of THC and is usually shared among several smokers.  Clinically effective oral doses for the relief of nausea start at 5-10 mg.  This means that, even accounting for pyrolytic decomposition and smoke loss, there is a several-thousandfold difference between an effective dose of THC and a potentially lethal one!  For alcohol, this difference is only about twentyfold.  Other common non-prescription drugs, such as aspirin, have similar relatively narrow margins of safe use.

You can read this report at: http://druglibrary.net/olsen/HEMP/IHA/iha01104.html

This applies to all humans, regardless of age. Therefore, it should be safe for children to use for a short time, under medical supervision.

There is some anecdotal evidence. A two and a half year old boy in Montana, Cash Hyde, was dying from a brain tumor. Conventional medicine failed. Cash’s parents, in consultation with doctors, gave him Marijuana. From a Bozeman, Montana TV station, KBZK:

Cash’s parents were there every step through his battle and watched as drugs prescribed by his doctors made him hallucinate and stop his heart. Cash’s dad says medical cannabis helped rebuild his organs that were damaged from the chemo, helped with his appetite and helped him sleep.

“I watched Cashy not be able to eat for over 40 days, live off nothing but fluid intravenously to the point where he couldn’t lift his head up off his pillow. I realized along the way in this journey that there is a quality of life that a lot of people do not have, and it’s because of the drugs that they’re given,” said Hyde.

An eight year old California boy named Sam suffered from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a form of Autism. In spite of all the convention medicines, Sam’s behavior deteriorated to the point he was unmanageable at school or home.  The report is too long to reproduce here, but you can (And should) read the report at: http://www.onlinepot.org/medical/samsstoryautimtreatment.htm

Sam’s life has improved dramatically since he began using medical cannabis to treat his Autism Spectrum Disorder. Because Sam is doing better, we are all doing better. We have our life’s back again. We still have an autistic son who faces many challenges but our lives have improved immeasurably. We can take Sam out to dinner, go shopping, visit friends, plan vacations, take him to visit his Grandparents, laugh as a family, and not be constantly worried that he is going to hurt our daughter or himself. In other words, we can live without being consumed by Sam’s autism. Most importantly, SAM IS HAPPIER AND HEALTHIER.

We are going to continue to treat our son with Medical Cannabis. No one ever questioned us when we gave Sam all the other medications that never helped him, and in my opinion, caused him to harm. Medical Cannabis is natural and non-toxic. The only side effects we have observed so far are glassy and reddened eyes and an occasionally a slight drowsiness. When he wakes each morning up he is alert and happy. He has not built up a tolerance to the medication. We skip doses whenever we can. With the other prescriptions we were instructed to never miss a dose or it could disrupt the medication’s effectiveness.

In 1990 in Indiana, Megan Parrish was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. After repeated chemotherapy with the side effects of vomiting, the nine year old’s weight dropped to 48 pounds. A nurse practitioner suggested Marinol, a synthetic derivative of Marijuana, since the penalties in Indiana for giving any child Marijuana for any reason are so severe. Megan began to eat and was able to deal with the chemotherapy. She didn’t need as much chemical pain medicine to deal with spinal taps and other painful procedures. Today as an adult, Megan works in the medical profession.

There are reports of parents in non-medical Marijuana states, but they usually are done anonymously or in conjunction with police reports. Non-medical states frequently have serious charges to level against anyone who for any reason gives Marijuana to a child. But you have to ask yourself what you would do if your child had Autism, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, ADD, ADHD, multiple sclerosis, or other major illness? Would you do what is necessary to help your child? Most of us would.

Consider this also: If Marijuana helps your child, your doctor recommends it but the government says no, who would you listen to? And why have we let government come in between us and our doctors?

 

 

 

 

 

Related posts:

  1. Exploding the Myths: What About the Children?
  2. Exploding the Myths: Not Your Father’s Marijuana
  3. Exploding the Myths: Marijuana Slavery
  4. Exploding the Myths: Marijuana Addiction is a Matter of Semantics
  5. Exploding the Myths: Stoned Driving

Find more like this: Medical Marijuana, Science, series Exploding the Myths , , ,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>