ABSTRACT
Marijuana has been used medically for millennia and in the United States for over 150 years. It was in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia until 1942 when it was removed because of federal legislation making the drug illegal. The number of potential indications ranged so widely as to rival those of patent medicines of the time (Exhibit 12.1). Like the latter, all the proposed indications were based on anecdote and folklore. A few studies of the medical utility of a material thought to be similar to the active component of marijuana, synhexyl (parahexyl), were made during the 1940s and 1950s (Himmelsbach et al. 1944; Loewe 1946; Stockings 1947; Pond 1948; Parker 1950; Thompson and Proctor 1953). However, it was not until the isolation and synthesis of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) as the active component during the mid 1960s that more formal pharmacologically based studies became possible (Gaoni and Mechoulam 1964; Isbell et al. 1967). Nonetheless, a comparison of synhexl and THC revealed them virtually identical in clinical effects, except that synhexyl was less potent and slower in onset of action (Hollister et al. 1968). Curiously, almost all studies of medical marijuana have employed THC or its homologs rather than smoked marijuana. This oversight has created the current climate of controversy about the medical uses of marijuana. https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
Antiemetic *
Melancholia
Appetite stimulation *
Neuralgia
Antispasmodic, muscle relaxant *
Antitussive
Analgesic *
Antineoplastic
Bronchodilator *
Antipyretic
Anticonvulsant *
Topical antibiotic
Sedative-hypnotic
Anti-inflammatory
Opiate, alcohol withdrawal
Obsessive-compulsive
Antihypertensive
Dysmenorrhea
Some suggestive evidence for efficacy.
