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A Brief Introduction to the Medical Uses of Marijuana

Canada's legal land of love

By Robert WebbPublished 3 years ago Updated 3 years ago 5 min read
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As I sit back in my chair and exhale the marijuana smoke from my lungs, I begin to ponder the importance it plays in my life. Cannabis, for a lot of people, is now a form of religion.

I live in Canada, but I am a permanent resident here, not a citizen. I immigrated from the UK around seven years ago and as far as cannabis is concerned, things could not be more different between the two countries. In the UK, cannabis is a class B drug and carries with it a 5-year jail sentence. Not only that but the distribution of cannabis can carry up to a 14-year sentence and both have a possible unlimited fine alongside their jail time.

In Canada, as many other countries have turned towards, the government grows, distributes, and profits from marijuana. And the residents of these countries benefit from the plant's legality. If you have not felt the difference being a cannabis user in both legal and illegal countries, then let me tell you now it is vast.

In Canada, when I want to partake in marijuana use, I have many places for my story to begin. Depending on the province I can walk to a 100% legal government or privately owned cannabis dispensary and choose from an incomprehensibly diverse arrangement of tasty treats. Within these holy walls, I will find up to 100 different strains of Cannabis flower, each with its specific terpene profile and cannabinoids.

If smoking flower is not your thing then worry not. Vape cartridges line the shelves like ammo rounds. Oils, hash, edibles, you name it, they have it. CBD bath bomb? THC gummy bears? Maybe you just want a box of 12 Pre-Rolls so you can get straight to it. Whatever you are looking for, the experience of being supported in making whatever decision you want to make for yourself is highly motivating.

If however, I do not want to walk to a shop to chat with a budtender, I can simply open up a webpage with an online retailer and order away. I should expect the same quality of product delivered to my door within three days.

On the contrary, in the UK if you are lucky enough to know a dealer you can buy a bag of average grade damp flower for double the price. And in doing so you can be locked up for five years next to god knows who. It is a startling difference.

Canadians embrace marijuana use and they do so in confidence. Rightly so, with new science providing insights into the plant's medicinal, therapeutic, and even recreational benefits.

Let’s dig into what some of those benefits are.

The benefits of Cannabis vary greatly across the board. Everything from relaxation to fibromyalgia to Chron’s disease. Depending on the patient’s requirements, the cannabis plant has a lot to offer. These benefits come from a group of compounds in cannabis called Cannabinoids.

The most notable cannabinoid is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive compound found in cannabis. Although this cannabinoid gets a lot of attention from the recreational community, it receives less focus from the medicinal side. Cannabidiol (CBD) is another major constituent of the plant and possibly carries with it significant healing properties.

CBD is thought to have extremely potent anti-inflammatory effects along with a long list of other benefits. Patients who use marijuana regularly for medical purposes claim it helps with anxiety, depression, mood disorders, motivation, and the threat of the existential.

Patients also speak of Cannabis helping with everything from irritable bowel syndrome to insomnia and migraines. The medical uses mentioned above are far from taken lightly, depression and anxiety can ruin someone’s life if not kept in check and it appears that for so many people the use of Marijuana is how they keep these overwhelming negative emotions at bay.

Most notable in the medical uses is how CBD, THC, and other cannabinoids are helping deal with extreme, life-threatening diseases. Personally, I think this is where things get really interesting.

Individuals making their own choices based on good knowledge and freedom is the best move towards individual sovereignty. However, the tides only turn on an illegal drug when there is enough compelling evidence to wow the previous deniers of its cause.

That is where the big medical dogs pipe in. Cannabis has been shown to have impactful, positive medical effects on the motor function loss and pain management of arthritis & endometriosis.

CBDs powerful anti-inflammatory effects are thought to be helpful to rheumatoid arthritis along with overall inflammation of the body. Neurological and brain disorders know thought to be helped by cannabis use include people suffering from Epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Tourette’s syndrome. Not to mention the thousands upon thousands of soldiers returning home from war using cannabis to aid in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The benefits of this powerful plant are starting to get noticed and although Cannabis might be one of the more conscientious topics of discussion in the health industry just now, it is rightly so. Throughout the world, without much hard work, you can find people that are touched by the healing properties of Cannabis.

As we progress and science has more time to decipher the code of healing inside this plant, we will learn how to use it more effectively and safely.

In the meantime, if you are interested in finding out more about medical marijuana and its benefits, get to google and start your research.

Talk to your doctor, talk to your friends and family members, and above all, be careful before you add anything new into your diet.

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About the Creator

Robert Webb

Freelance writer.

I write about all walks of life, from fiction to non-fiction, self-help to psychology, travel to philosophy.

I like to bring a sense of humor to serious topics, a splash of philosophical thinking, and a dash of weirdness.

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