THE CANNABIS PARADIGM SHIFT
Dedi Meiri is a researcher in the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Cannabinoid Research.
In the following TEDxTelAviv presentation, he reveals some of the most intriguing issues behind medical cannabis research.
On one hand, it is clear that there is a huge amount of evidence to the positive effects of cannabis in the field of medicine. On the other hand, myths and urban legends are not rare neither of those against the "devils lettuce" or of the "enlightened evangelists".
The plant is neither "the answer to all our problems" nor "THE problem inc."
I believe that the above presentation be Dr. Meiri explains well where our misconceptions come from. Many people have come to feel that the medicine industry, as any industry, is mainly guided by "bottom line" results and that research is only guided by their main interests. This creates a question mark at the availability of the correct treatment for many ailments and disorders like "is opioid treatment for severe pain really the best option, regarding the high chance of addiction?" or "are chronic inflammatory conditions really untreatable?". Likewise, we can wonder if the medicinal procedures take into account the complete scope of treatment or if their decisions are somewhat guided by the medicinal companies.
The most positive sides of the "Medical Cannabis Revolution" are: 1. Patients regain partial control over their own health and 2. Medicine conglomerates lose some power over the treatment procedures.
Having said that, there are a lot of misconceptions about medical cannabis. In the above video, Dr. Meiri manages to put the spotlight on the many possibility of future treatments of illnesses with medical cannabis but he also put thinks into perspective. Medical research is a time consuming procedure. For each specific condition, research has to be done in a scientific approach.
On the other hand, due to the broad evidence of the low side effects, people in distress can opt to try out, listen to the advise of extra-medicinal experts and, in conjunction with their traditional medical treatment, "experiment" with this alternative treatment.
A point that I feel need to express is the specifications of the different strains and the treatment effects achieved. Just as with the cancer research mentioned by Dr. Meiri, one strain may be effective to kill a certain cancerous cell while another may have zero effect. There may also be a specific relation (probably still to be researched) between the personal DNA genetics and the effectiveness of specific strains. I feel the need to stress this point, as I believe that many people who acquire their cannabis from "unregistered sources" may miss out on the real possibilities of treatment as the strains are unstable and the growing conditions likewise. This does not sum up to a professional Treatment regimen and may cause unwanted results.
I suggest to listen to the short presentation in order to fully understand where science is right now and where we are going with regards to medical cannabis.
Please keep in mind that I am no medical expert and this is in no way a medical advise.