Is Marijuana an Appropriate Medication for Chronic Pain Management?

In my work with patients or during trainings I conduct I often run into some controversial and challenging concerns.  One of these issues is the use of marijuana as a legitimate medication; espcially for chronic pain management.  There are two polarized camps fueling this debate.  One side preaches the evils of using this herb and the other side extols the virtues.

There are many risks associated with marijuana, especially smoked marijuana, that must be considered not only in terms of immediate adverse effects on the lung; e.g., bronchi and alveoli, but also long-term effects in people with chronic diseases and those with a poor immune status.  The major problems I have with someone smoking marijuana as a medicine is the inability to regulate the dosage and, even more important the delivery system.

The level of THC varies so greatly in the marijuana that is currently available, that coming up with a therapeutic dose for smoked marijuana is extremely difficult.  In addition, marijuana has other ingredients that may have problematic side effects.  Then there is the dangerous delivery system—the issue of smoking it.  The components of the smoke are hazardous, especially in the immuno-compromised patient.  No other medication we have is administered that way because of the potential dangers.

Several years ago (about 2000) I wrote an article titeled The Mecical Marijuana Controversy. Yesterday I posted a new article on our Aricle Page that you can download for free; my article is titled 2009 Medical Marijuana Update (below you will find a link to download that article).  Since my original article in 2000 there has been significant research on THC and other cannabinoids that do show promise for chronic pain management that you can learn about in my new article.

To learn more about medical marijuana and chronic pain management please check out my article 2009 Medical Marijuana Update that you can download for free on our Article page.

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You can learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are working with people in chronic pain or are living with chronic pain and have any resistance or denial and want to learn how to develop a plan for helping to identify and manage denial please go to our Publications page and check out my book the Denial Management Counseling for Effective Pain Management Workbook. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To listen to a radio interview I did conducted by Mary Woods for her program One Hour at a Time please Click Here to go to this interview.

To read the latest issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please Click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please Click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.

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