How Well Do You Know Cannabis?

Does cannabis cure cancer? Is marijuana safe to use? Is it true that marijuana has no negative side effects? Medical marijuana is entirely safe to use, right?

Cannabis is getting lots of press these days. Some of the information about it is accurate, some of it is certainly hopeful, and some of it is just plain wrong. Sifting through the claims and counter-claims only makes one wonder what’s really happening with pot.

Clearing the air on this hot topic, here are several things that we do know.

Cannabis Anatomy and Physiology

Also known as marijuana, the leaves of the cannabis sativa plant contain a powerful psychoactive agent called delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol or THC. When these leaves are smoked or ingested, THC and other chemicals are taken up at the brain where they alter the chemical environment and the user experiences their environment differently. Changes in mood and the ability to move, which is commonly known as a “high”, are the most common experiences.

Science Weighs In

While many of the short-term effects of cannabis use have been documented. The smoking of marijuana is suspected to contribute to breathing problems and regular use can also exacerbate mental illness conditions. Marijuana use is also a known hazard to the developing fetus during pregnancy.

That being said, there are a number of anecdotal incidents being reported in which the use of marijuana alleviated symptoms of severe disease conditions. These reports continue to fuel the national move towards the legalization of “medical marijuana” but are they evidence enough?

What we do know right now about the use and safety of cannabis is tantalizingly little. Yes, there are several published studies but these studies use the same terms to describe variations of the marijuana plant. These apples-to-oranges studies call into question the reliability of their conclusions because of the differences in the chemistry of the plants being studied.

Not all Cannabis Is Created Equal

Cannabis is a plant and as such, has the ability to develop unpredictably, depending on its environment (food, light, soil, air quality, even altitude). As the variables in its environment change, so does its chemical development of that plant. So one crop of cannabis can have a greater or lesser amount of THC, depending on how it was grown.

Add in the genetic variations that normally develop in the wild, or are engineered in the lab (Did you think GMO is for food crops only?), and you have a product on the market that is highly (no pun intended) inconsistent in its quality.

So when studies have been conducted on cannabis, have they all tested the same product?

Unfortunately, not.

Even the medical grade marijuana sold in the shops is not the same thing as what can be purchased on the street. THC content varies with the individual source market and that particular crop.

Boiling Cannabis Down to the Gooey Stuff

Adding to the confusion and risk of cannabis use is the extraction of THC and other cannabinoids from the natural leaves. The resulting gooey brown/yellow substance can go by the names of wax, shatter, budder, and Butane Hash Oil (BHO). The extraction process concentrates the chemicals, thus providing a greater high than consuming only the leaves.

BHO, which as the name implies, uses butane in the extraction process. Some butane remains in the product after processing, which is then consumed by the user.

Is butane safe to inhale?

No.

And to puzzle the consumer even more, there is the marketing of synthetic cannabinoids which are actually laboratory creations and not really a part of the natural plant.

Quality Matters

Quality control is also a concern. Given the legal status of cannabis, commercial chemistry labs are obviously not involved in the distillation process.

So who is manufacturing these extracted oils?

Likely someone with little or no chemistry training, using a homemade lab, producing cannabis extracts of variable quality and uncertain levels of contamination. This is comparable to the “bathtub gin” produced during Prohibition when commercial production of alcoholic beverages was halted and individuals distilled their own spirits. This resulted in batches of alcohol that were sometimes deadly poisonous.

These amateur chemists producing extracted cannabis are also noteworthy for regularly blowing up themselves and their labs as they mishandle volatile chemicals. The nonprofessional truly does not belong in the chemistry of psychoactive products.

With the popularity of vaping these days, vape pens are often used to deliver the amplified high that extracted oils provide. With vaping the psychoactive chemicals and any contaminants are delivered deep into the users’ lungs. The research on this delivery system is still in its infancy but the concept of putting chemicals known to irritate sensitive tissues in intimate contact with lung tissues warrants extreme caution and further study.

Positive Medical Findings

The medical research brings up some alluring possibilities related to cannabis. Small studies indicate that it can alleviate symptoms associated with debilitating diseases like glaucoma, Crohn’s Disease, and possibly even some Cancers. How much of this that can be ascribed to a placebo effect (an amazingly powerful healing force of the mind exerting changes over the body) has not yet been established.

Remember, the consumption of “medical marijuana” is for the treatment of disease symptoms. Cannabis is not known treat, nor cure disease.

Some Conclusions on Cannabis

Based on what we know so far, we don’t know enough to say whether cannabis fits the bill as a curative agent. The Internet is replete with stories of miracle cures attributed to cannabis use but they are based on limited Science, unknown testing parameters, and lots of hope.

Is Cannabis safe?

We don’t know that yet.

The truth is that there is enough observed data to warrant a closer look. We need to buckle down and study this plant more thoroughly. Here are some suggestions:

1. Standardize the quality of cannabis being tested so that we are testing “apples to apples”
2. Evaluate extracts for efficacy and contamination
3. Longitudinal studies to understand the effects of use over time for different populations
4. Evaluate different delivery systems (smoking leaves vs. eating leaves; consumption of extracted cannabis) for effects and safety

We don’t know enough yet to say whether cannabis consumption is effective for the conditions for which it is prescribed. We don’t even know all of the risks of consumption over long periods of time. The current market where consumers are purchasing “medical marijuana” to self-medicate while waiting for Science to follow up and prove their use is a case of the tail wagging the dog and can be dangerous for users.

We have so much more we need to learn before we can say that cannabis lives up to its billing as a curative agent.

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
― Carl Sagan