With the legalization of medical marijuana in many states, the clinical uses of the drug has been brought to the forefront of the discussion of the need for these laws. One area of interest to me that has potential to be treated with cannabis is uncontrollable seizure activity. There have been many reports of people who were unable to stop their seizures by other means using cannabis to bring themselves down. Further, it has been reported that others can even use a spray to bring loved one out of a long lasting seizure. This is important because during a seizure, the person is not breathing. Long lasting seizures can cause brain damage and even result in death if they remain untreated. But how does any of this work?
There are two types of receptors in the brain that are activated by cannabis CB1 and CB2. For seizure activity, the CB1 is the main receptors of interest as these are responsible, in part, for calcium influx in the brain. When too much calcium rushes in to neural pathways, seizures occur. Thus if cannabis can block the receptor from activating an influx of calcium, it can help to stop seizures.
There is also two components of cannabis the psychoactive, delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and the non-psychoactive cannabidiol (CBD). In animal models, both components have been shown to have an effect on stopping epileptic seizures, however THC has the effect of "being high" generally undesirable in a medication that is needed for daily function. This is why many medical marijuana growers have developed marijuana that is high in CBD and low in THC - allowing the benefits of the drug without the dramatic "high".
Could high CBD, low THC cannabis be a safer alternative to stronger anti-convulsive medications like Versed, which is so dangerous that it can only be administered by a healthcare professional? Possibly, but more research must be done. Because medical cannabis is still not legal at the federal level, clinical trails approved by the FDA are hard to come by. Perhaps someday it will become the recommended treatment, but only after much more research can it be relied upon.
Never will I understand why therapies, such as medical marijuana, which have so much potential, are banned from even being studied. While I understand the government is trying to protect the well-being of the people they represent when writing laws like this, realistically, politics overtakes the majority of the decision. This reminds me of the NRA's vehement opposition to gun safety research--but I digress.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to get some real research done on this. Like all other drugs, cannabis has side effects, but the different side effects of cannabis may be beneficial to some who cannot tolerate the side effects of traditional drugs. I think one of the biggest problems with cannabis based medications thusfar is understanding the metabolism of THC/CBD in the body. I had a doctor once explain to me that the main difference between marijuana and xanax, for example, is that 99.9% of the time, he can predict the effects of xanax in the patient, however, he would not be able to predict the effects of marijuana consistently. This, of course, is probably due to lack of research on the effects of marijuana.