Merritt JC, Crawford WJ, Alexander PC, Anduze AL, Gelbart SS: Effect of
marihuana on intraocular and blood pressure in glaucoma. Ophthalmology
1980; 87:222-28
Chang AE, Schilling DJ, Stillman RC, Et Al: Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol
as an antiemetic in cancer patients receiving high dose methotrexate.
Ann Intern Med 1979; 91:819-24
Ungerleider JT; Andrysiak T: Therapeutic issues of marijuana and THC
(tetrahydrocannabinol). Int J Addict 1985 May; 20(5):691-9

I obtained these citations from the Pilot Drug Evaluation Staff
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
Food and Drug Administration
HFD-007
Rockville, MD 20857

Ask for the PDES Master Bibliography Marijuana/THC, Therapeutic Uses

(9 pages with abstracts)

Tod Mikuriya, M.D.

=============================================================================

From: ebrandt@jarthur.cs.hmc.edu (Eli Brandt)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: Re: Medicinal Uses of Cannabis
Date: 17 Nov 1993 05:52:53 GMT
Message-ID: <2cce7l$d2q@jaws.cs.hmc.edu>

In article , Ben Chesley  wrote:
>Besides the calming of nerves  I really can't think of alltogether 
>too many other uses... I could be wrong though, but those are the most 
>well known.

Here's something I posted somewhere else:

--------------------
[somebody else said something]

[I said:]
The claim is something of an overstatement, mostly in the word
"proven".  However, it's nowhere near as whacked-out as you might
think.  I hate to inject a truckload of references, but actually I
don't.  So here you go. 

Nausea: pretty well known; I'll list a only few refs.
Vinciguerra, Moore and Brennan, "Inhalation Marijuana as an
	Anti-emetic for Cancer Chemotherapy", NY State J. Med. 88
	(Oct 1988): 525-527.
	[78 percent of 56 patients with nausea resistant to standard
 	 drugs became symptom-free]
Chang et al., "Delta-9-THC as an Antiemetic in Cancer Patients
	Receiving High-dose Methotrexate", Ann. Internal Med. 91
	(1979): 819-824.
	[smoked THC more effective than oral, among other findings]
Doblin and Kleiman, "Marihuana as Anti-emetic Medicine: A Survey of
	Oncologists' Attitudes and Experiences", J. Clin. Oncology 9
	(191): 1275-1280.
	[44% had recommended illegal use of marijuana; half would
	 prescribe it if it were legal]

Glaucoma:
Hepler and Frank, "Marihuana Smoking and Intraocular Pressure", JAMA
	217 (1971): 1392.
	[reduces IOP in patients with glaucoma]
Hepler, Frank, and Petrus, "Ocular Effects of Marijuana Smoking", in
	_The Pharmacology of Marijuana_, ed. Braude and Szara.  (NY:
	Raven, 1976), vol.2: 815-824.
	[no tolerance to IOP effect apparent over 94-day study]

Multiple sclerosis: (mostly case studies)
Clifford, "THC for Tremor in Multiple Sclerosis", Ann. Neurology 13
	(1983): 669-671.
	[case study of treatment of resistant and disabling tremor]
Meinck et al., "Effects of Cannabinoids on Spasticity and Ataxia in
	Multiple Sclerosis", J. Neurology 236 (1989): 120-122.
	[case study of marijuana for "motor and sexual handicaps"]
Lyman et al., "Delta-9-THC: A Novel Treatment for Experimental
	Autoimmune Encephalitis", J. Neuroimmunology 23 (1989): 73-81.
	[THC increased survival of this MS model from 2% (placebo)
	 to 95%.  May *prevent* progression of MS!]

AIDS: (effects on appetite are well known)

Migraines: primarily anecdotal reports, but see:
Volfe, Dvilansky, and Nathan, "Cannabinoids Block Release of
	Serotonic from Platelets Induced by Plasma from Migraine
	Patients", Int'l. J. Clin. and Pharm. Res. 5 (1985): 243-246.

"spasms": (also speculative)
Malec, Harvey, and Cayner, "Cannabis Effect on Spasticity in Spinal
	Cord Injury", Arch. Physical and Med. Rehab. 63 (March
	1982): 116-118.
	[half of the patients surveyed used marijuana for muscle
	 spasms]
Maurer et al., "Delta-9-THC Shows Antispastic and Analgesic Effects
	in a Single Case Double-Blind Trial", Eur. Arch. Psychiatry
	and Clin. Neurosci. 240 (1990): 1-4.
	[oral THC comparable in efficacy to codeine, but more
	 effective at reducing muscle spasms]

labor pains: anecdotal, unless you consider nineteenth-century use.
But as to analgesia in general:
Noyes, Brunk, Avery, and Canter, "The Analgesic Properties of
	Delta-9-THC and Codeine", Clin. Pharm. and Therapeutics 18
	(1975): 84-89.
	[20 mg THC approximately as effective as 120 mg codeine in
	 patients with advanced cancer]
Milstein, MacCannel, Karr, and Clark: "Marijuana-produced Changes in
	Pain Tolerance: Experienced and Non-experience Subjects",
	Int'l. Pharmacopsychiatry 10 (1975): 177-182.
	[analgesic effect greater in more experienced users]

>  I have heard of its benefits in relieving SOME pain, but I find the claim
>that it might help asthma to be pretty laughable.

Laugh not; THC is an effective bronchodilator.  Of course, smoking
plants is probably less than optimal for asthmatics.  Inhalation
would be better, but THC itself appears to be an irritant by this
route.

Smoked THC vs. inhaled isoproterenol: Tashkin et al., "Effects of
	Smoked Marijuana in Experimentally Induced Asthma", Amer.
	Rvw. of Respiratory Disease 112 (1975): 377-386.
	[smoked THC had slower, longer effect]
Inhaled THC vs. isoproterenol: Vachon et al., "Airways response to
	Aerosolized Delta-9-THC: Preliminary Report", in _The
	Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana_, ed. Cohen and Stillman.
	[inhaled THC had faster, shorter effect]

The flyer in question didn't mention epilepsy, but I'll throw that in:
Davis and Ramsey, "Antiepileptic Action of Marijuana-Active
	Substances", Federation Proceedings 8 (1949): 284-285.
	[2 of 5 cases of severe anticonvulsant-resistant grand mal
	 epilepsy controlled]
Consroe, Wood, and Buchsbaum, "Anticonvulsant Nature of Marijuana
	Smoking", JAMA 234 (1975): 306-307.
	[case study: marijuana effective as adjunct to phenytoin and
	 phenobarbital]
Cunha, Carlini, Periera, et al., "Chronic Administration of
	Cannabidiol to Healthy Volunteers and Epileptic Patients",
	Pharmacology 21 (1980): 175-185.
	[cannabidiol effective as adjunct to antiepileptic drugs]

The above cites are mostly from Grinspoon and Bakalar,
_Marihuana, the Forbidden Medicine_.  I've only read a few of the
referenced articles, so I'm going by their commentary for the most
part.

>You can find such an example of this on the Shamen's album "Boss
>Drum."  The cut "Natural States" is an interview with someone bombed
>out of their gourd, blabbering on and on about something which
>probably makes complete sense to them, but is sheer nonsense to
>anyone in full possession of thier senses.

Would that be the Tim Leary track?  :-)

	 PGP 2 key by finger or e-mail
   Eli   ebrandt@jarthur.claremont.edu