Could marijuana be the answer? Image courtesy of JonRichfield

Some illegal drugs, such as marijuana, are often said to be a relief for chronic pain.

That is why it has put doctors in a confusing state. It has actually been shown that such drugs can have positive effects on relieving back pain. But owing to their negative effects, such as addiction, health and life risks, then use of this drug is still banned.

In most countries, the use of marijuana or cannabis is illegal. A very common problem that people seek marijuana for is some kind of body pain including back pain, loss of sleep, and stress accompanied by anxiety. Americans use marijuana for back pain relief and other medical reasons. Most of them often replace a drug that was prescribed with marijuana because of its pain relieving benefits.

 Marijuana For Back Pain Relief

An Ammanford man caught with o1,700 of cannabis has claimed he smoked it to relieve a chronic back problem.

 

Arwyn Kevin Walters, 56, is on incapacity benefit and has a signed doctor’s note stating he suffers from spondylosis, a degenerative nerve condition.

 

He had a string of convictions for growing the class B drug when officers raided his home.

 

He appeared at Llanelli Magistrates’ Court last Thursday and pleaded guilty to two counts of drug possession: one for 153.1 grams of herbal cannabis; the other relating to 23.86 grams of cannabis resin.

 

The offence happened on February 10, when at 8.55pm PC Harries stopped Walters in Bishop Road, Ammanford.

 

“Due to the strong smell of cannabis, he was searched,” prosecution solicitor Gerald Neave told the court.

 

“PC Harries seized a mixture of herbal cannabis and tobacco and Mr Walters was arrested.”

 

Later that day police searched Walters’s home, in Parcyrhun, where they found more resin and herbal cannabis wrapped in six separate bags.

 

“In the police interview he told officers that he smoked four-to-seven grams of cannabis resin per day, and three-to-four grams a day of herbal cannabis, and has done so for the past 40 years” Mr Neave said. “He said he bought it for around o400.”

 

But police valued the haul at o1,761 in total.

 

Walters’ charge is the latest in a series of offences relating to the drug: in 2001 and 2008 he was caught growing cannabis, earning a fine and a caution respectively. And in February last year he was fined for cannabis possession.

 

Walters lives on his own and receives o100 per week in incapacity benefit. Defence solicitor Robin Reed gave magistrates a copy of a doctors note he told the court explained details of the defendant’s back condition.

“He only smokes in the privacy of his own home,” Mr Reed said. “It keeps him sane and helps him to sleep.

“He is doing no harm to anyone but himself. He does not want to go on medication such as morphine.”

 

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Medical Research Shows Cannabis Helps With Back Pain Relief

Three puffs a day of cannabis, better known as marijuana, helps people with chronic nerve pain due to injury or surgery feel less pain and sleep better, a Canadian team has found.

 

”It’s been known anecdotally,” says researcher Mark Ware, MD, assistant professor of anesthesia and family medicine at McGill University in Montreal. “About 10% to 15% of patients attending a chronic pain clinic use cannabis as part of their pain [control] strategy,” he tells WebMD.

 

But Ware’s study is more scientific — a clinical trial in which his team compared placebo with three different doses of cannabis. The research is published in CMAJ, the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

 

The new study ”adds to the trickle of evidence that cannabis may help some of the patients who are struggling [with pain] at present,” Henry McQuay, DM, an emeritus fellow at Balliol College, Oxford University, England, writes in a commentary accompanying the study.

 

Marijuana for Pain Relief: Study Details

Ware evaluated 21 men and women, average age 45, who had chronic nerve pain (also called neuropathic pain). A typical example, Ware tells WebMD, is a patient who had knee surgery and during the course of the operation the surgeon may have had no choice but to cut a nerve, leading to chronic pain after the surgery.

 

Ware’s team tried three different potencies of marijuana, with the highest a concentration at 9.4% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) herbal cannabis. He also tested 2.5% and 6% THC.

 

”Each person was in the study for two months, and used all four strengths [including placebo],” Ware says. He rotated them through the four strengths in different orders, and they didn’t know which they were using.

 

The cannabis was put into gelatin capsules, then put into the bowl of a pipe. Each person was told to inhale for five seconds while the cannabis was lit, hold the smoke in their lungs for 10 seconds, and then exhale.

 

They did this single puff three times a day for five days for each of the doses and the placebo. The participants were allowed to continue on their routine pain medications. After each of the five-day trials, participants rated their pain on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being the worst. The highest dose, 9.4%, provided relief, Ware says. “They reduced their pain down to 5.4,” Ware says. “Those on placebo were at 6.1.”

 

Although that difference may seem modest, ”any reduction in pain is important,” Ware says. The concentration of 9.4%, Ware says, is lower than that found in marijuana on the street. “On the street, it’s 10% to 15% THC, more or less,” he says. “We’ve shown again that cannabis is analgesic,” Ware says. “Clearly, it has medical value.” Side effects were reported, including headache, dry eyes, numbness, cough, and a burning sensation in the area with pain.

 

The cannabis relieves pain, Ware says, by ”changing the way the nerves function.”

 

Find out more.

 

Research has shown that about three puffs of cannabis can relieve chronic pain every day. However, there are definitely health risks associated with taking cannabis if taken for a long period of time. Neurological pain is also relieved by using Cannabis, also known as marijuana. It is actually interesting to know that amongst those who use medical marijuana, a big percentage have never used the potent drug as a recreational drug, or to relieve themselves from stress and anxiety. There are many people who suffer from back pain. It is the second highest reason for absenteeism from work.  The use of medical marijuana has been successful to some extent to relieve back pain. That is why many Americans use marijuana for back pain relief.  

Alternatives to smoking the funny stuff can be found in Jesse Cannone’s book available via our website.