Liquid Cannabis and other herbal life saving treatments??!??

[rabbit12345]

This has popped up so much on my facebook feed about it being a cancer treatment and indeed some of the "evidence" looks compelling. In particular an old school friend who uses it to control MS symptoms (to be fair they smoked a fair bit even before MS diagnosis) keeps posting links to the wonders of liquid cannabis.

Why is it not being taken more seriously. Would you try it if it was your last resort? Would you suggest someone try it?

or AIBU to believe all the hype?

When you know people who have survived taken it without the internet then yes there is evidence.

Anecdata =/= evidence. Anyone can post about their granny who smoked 16 packs of fags a day and drank nothing but whiskey and lived to be 112.

So yes, it is quality of life saving

Except that is a distortion of the original post and a disingenuous claim. It is not "life-saving". It can improve the quality of life of some people with some types of conditions, which is a different discussion.

I think ' life saving' is probably overstating it, but it can certainly be 'life enhancing' in many chronic illnesses, and I know of many families who feel that it has given them their child back after losing them to constant seizures and the sedative effects of conventional antiepileptic drugs. The studies are happening now, it looks likely to become mainstream medicine over the next few years.

I ve heard a lot of positive things about cannabis helping with chronic pain, but have no idea how people get hold of it ... I have chronic pain but don't have any connections to dealers! It's impossible .. It should be legalised.

Times are changing though.

Luckily I love Amsterdam.
Any good at gardening?

I wouldn't know where to start! Any tips? ;)

I don't get the chance to travel for various reasons.

Ahem.

SWIMK who couldn't travel would either have grow their own or buy on the darknet.

If they were worried about the stigma.

Not worried about stigma .. Just don't know where to find someone.

I've seen a few patients who use it. Thankfully they feel able to let me know they are using it so I can take it into account when prescribing mainstream analgesia. I haven't researched the statistics but I have seen a few people derive benefit when using it for pain relief in chronic conditions.

Sadly I've also seen a few patients who have hoped it would be some sort of wonder drug that would cure their cancer, and inevitably it has made no difference.

There is a LOT of research being undertaken with cannabis.

One problem with the research is that you have an exact amount, you can't just roll a joint or bake a cake, you have to extract the active ingredients and test them.

A final product should contain the useful stuff but without the 'high' because you are eventually looking at a pill that would allow someone to work / have fewer symptoms etc.

It's exactly the same for herbal/plant remedies that work. You don't boil up willow bark to cure your headache - you take an aspirin, which has a measured dose of the active ingredient of willow bark.

If you need to slow your heart rate you take digoxin, you don't go and grab a handful of foxgloves.

I think there is a certain romanticism to 'herbal' medicines, there is a certain theatre to boiling up a herb and drinking the 'tea' from it, but the herbs that do work are much more effective as pills/measured doses.