> Evidence from randomized clinical trials does not support the use of cannabis or cannabinoids for most conditions for which it is promoted, such as acute pain and insomnia.
I once slept in a hoodie with the hood under my back and woke up with horrible back pain, I could not sit still or focus on anything but the pain, 800mg of ibuprofen did nothing. I was about to go to the ER or urgent care when a doctor friend suggested trying cannabis, I took one small hit and was immediately pain free. I have never experienced such a dramatic medical effect in my life, one second I was writhing in pain and the next I was completely fine.
I’ve also seen videos of epileptics calming their seizures from cannabis. The autism community often speaks highly of it, how it makes them feel “normal” or more regulated. I’ve heard of stories of people getting off opioids by using cannabis. I think the people who get anxiety from it or no relief from insomnia are often taking far too much because there aren’t any good guidelines for self medicating and the guidelines they do get are from recreational users.
All I have are anecdotes, but given how obvious the effects were, I find it hard to believe there’s no medicinal value to cannabis.
Acute pain isn't discussed in detail in this paper, but here's a paper they cited:
> Conclusions: There is low-quality evidence indicating that cannabinoids may be a safe alternative for a small but significant reduction in subjective pain score when treating acute pain, with intramuscular administration resulting in a greater reduction relative to oral.
> meta-analysis of 39 RCTs, 38 of which evaluated oral cannabinoids and 1 administered inhaled cannabis, that included 5100 adult participants with chronic pain reported that cannabis and cannabinoid use, compared with placebo, resulted in a small improvement in sleep quality [...]
It goes on to criticize those studies, but we again see low-quality evidence in favor.
In the context of evidence-based medicine, "does not support" can mean the RCTs establish with reasonable confidence that the treatment doesn't work. It can also mean the RCTs show an effect in the good direction but with insufficient statistical power, so that an identical study with more participants would probably--but not certainly--reach our significance threshold. The failure to distinguish between those two quite different situations seems willful and unfortunate here.
You do realize that your case has as much evidence that passage of time fixed your problem (or anything else that transpired) as it does for cannabis? And that is why people do randomized trials.
it is very important to also remind - no amount of alcohol is ever prescribed or sold in the pharmacies. the alcohol was legalized in order to a) reverse the ill effects of prohibition which led to birth of large-scale organized crime; b) to allow regulation of substances innit, as people were dying from bad booze.
likewise, nations may have to legalize in order to regulate the contents of whatever-white-powder users may stumble upon on the street. and let us be honest - no bombs can stop the Fentanil (or rat poison for all I care) from being mixed in.
The sad thing to me, because of how it has affected, several family members, is that some smoke dope or take CBD to treat anxiety only to make things worse.
Because of how marijuana has been made nearly sacrosanct in some circles, they will not look at that THC or CBD as a contributing factor : (
> Evidence from randomized clinical trials does not support the use of cannabis or cannabinoids for most conditions for which it is promoted, such as acute pain and insomnia.
I once slept in a hoodie with the hood under my back and woke up with horrible back pain, I could not sit still or focus on anything but the pain, 800mg of ibuprofen did nothing. I was about to go to the ER or urgent care when a doctor friend suggested trying cannabis, I took one small hit and was immediately pain free. I have never experienced such a dramatic medical effect in my life, one second I was writhing in pain and the next I was completely fine.
I’ve also seen videos of epileptics calming their seizures from cannabis. The autism community often speaks highly of it, how it makes them feel “normal” or more regulated. I’ve heard of stories of people getting off opioids by using cannabis. I think the people who get anxiety from it or no relief from insomnia are often taking far too much because there aren’t any good guidelines for self medicating and the guidelines they do get are from recreational users.
All I have are anecdotes, but given how obvious the effects were, I find it hard to believe there’s no medicinal value to cannabis.
> I once slept in a hoodie with the hood under my back and woke up with horrible back pain
I don’t understand what’s happening in this sentence
Acute pain isn't discussed in detail in this paper, but here's a paper they cited:
> Conclusions: There is low-quality evidence indicating that cannabinoids may be a safe alternative for a small but significant reduction in subjective pain score when treating acute pain, with intramuscular administration resulting in a greater reduction relative to oral.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1089/can.2019.0079
For insomnia, this paper itself says:
> meta-analysis of 39 RCTs, 38 of which evaluated oral cannabinoids and 1 administered inhaled cannabis, that included 5100 adult participants with chronic pain reported that cannabis and cannabinoid use, compared with placebo, resulted in a small improvement in sleep quality [...]
It goes on to criticize those studies, but we again see low-quality evidence in favor.
In the context of evidence-based medicine, "does not support" can mean the RCTs establish with reasonable confidence that the treatment doesn't work. It can also mean the RCTs show an effect in the good direction but with insufficient statistical power, so that an identical study with more participants would probably--but not certainly--reach our significance threshold. The failure to distinguish between those two quite different situations seems willful and unfortunate here.
You do realize that your case has as much evidence that passage of time fixed your problem (or anything else that transpired) as it does for cannabis? And that is why people do randomized trials.
it is very important to also remind - no amount of alcohol is ever prescribed or sold in the pharmacies. the alcohol was legalized in order to a) reverse the ill effects of prohibition which led to birth of large-scale organized crime; b) to allow regulation of substances innit, as people were dying from bad booze.
likewise, nations may have to legalize in order to regulate the contents of whatever-white-powder users may stumble upon on the street. and let us be honest - no bombs can stop the Fentanil (or rat poison for all I care) from being mixed in.
Sure, sure. But this is an argument that we shouldn't have special licensing schemes subsidizing some use via tax exemption ("medical").
The sad thing to me, because of how it has affected, several family members, is that some smoke dope or take CBD to treat anxiety only to make things worse.
Because of how marijuana has been made nearly sacrosanct in some circles, they will not look at that THC or CBD as a contributing factor : (
It is all fun and games "defending" legalization of weed online until you get a substance abuser in your family.
Cannabis works great for stress for a week, then it makes things worse for me. A few weeks off, and I can take advantage again.