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Now that over 3500 patients have been approved for Arizona Medical Marijuana ID Cards, the overall US total for registered legal medical marijuana patients now stands over one million.

If you have over one million people utilizing one half to one gram daily of medical marijuana with an average price of $320 an ounce, the income totals between two and six billion dollars per year. The sixteen legal states plus DC comprise over twenty five percent of the US, so a complete US legalization medicinally would total over $10 billion annually.

Some states simply allow medical marijuana patients to grow their own herb, while others have full fledged dispensaries. Adding both of these together, somewhere between 550,000 and 800,000 pounds of medical marijuana are allowed in the US legally.

It is interesting to note that after all these patients and time, all of the horrific predictions of opponents have gone unproven. In almost all states, workplace injuries and accidents have decreased, and numerous states are seeing their lowest fatal crash rates in decades.

Here are numerous facts regarding medical marijuana.

* In the 16 states plus DC with legal medicinal marijuana, there are over ninety million US individuals (somewhere between twenty five to thirty percent of the US population)

* Patients comprise over three percent of Montana, two and one half percent of Colorado, and two percent of California. Oregon is slightly over one percent.

* 6 states including MT, WA, CA, CO, OR, and MI total 98% of the US legal patients.

* Monthly marijuana teen smoking is decreased in all medical marijuana states besides Maine

* Incidents of work injury and work place accidents have been decreased in all medical marijuana states.

* All medical marijuana states besides RI have seen a decrease in annual highway fatalities.

The good news is that more and more states annually are approving legal medical marijuana to assist debilitated patients alleviate suffering. It represents a great option for numerous disease conditions and symptoms where traditional medications are either inadequate or intolerable.

Learn more about Arizona Medical Marijuana. Stop by Arizona MMC’s site where you can find out all about obtaining anArizona Medical Marijuana Card and what it can do for you.

Currently there are fifteen states (and DC), that have made medical marijuana legal for conditions that qualify. Still there are plenty of individuals who say marijuana does not have medical value. Others take the stance that the natural forms of marijuana are not necessary as the Food and Drug Administration has approved a synthetic marijuana in the past, so why not just use that?

Modern scientific research has shown the opposite of this belief and that marijuana does have medicinal value. It can stimulate appetite, promote weight gain, decrease some types of chronic pain, reducing vomiting and nausea, and helps decrease eye pressure in glaucoma.

The medicinal benefits continue with evidence showing marijuana reducing the tremors from MS, decreasing muscle spasms from multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries. Anecdotal additional benefits (but not sufficiently researched to statistical significance), include helping with seizures, migraine headaches, insomnia, depression, and a useful anticonvulsant.

Since 1986, Marinol has been available as a synthetic THC (a key element of marijuana) as an FDA approved Schedule II drug. It was approved for both anti-nausea along with being an appetite stimulant to prevent the wasting syndrome seen with HIV/AIDS and sometimes cancer patients. There are plenty of patients who find that smoked or vaporized natural marijuana works better for them due to its more rapid onset and the fact that if one is nauseated, keeping a pill down may be difficult.

With most conventional medications being oral, having an available smoked medication is unusual to most physicians. Inhaling marijuana (whether smoked or vaporized) provides blood concentration levels consistent with IV injection.

Interestingly, the federal government continues to keep marijuana in the Schedule I category and it is illegal. Therefore even if a patient utilizes marijuana medicinally in compliance with state law then technically federal law is being violated. Yet thousands of patients in the US do find medicinal benefits and continue to use it.

There have been numerous national societies who have come out in support of marijuana’s medicinal value. These have included the American Public Health Association, the Federation of American Scientists, the Physicians Association for AIDS Care, the Lymphoma Foundation of America, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

The research is clear on the medicinal benefits of marijuana for numerous debilitating conditions. In most cases, it represents an extremely effective alternative to medications that have either significant side effects, addictive properties, or are prohibitively expensive.

Want to find out more about Arizona Medical Marijuana, then visit Arizona MMC’s site on how to choose the best Arizona Medical Marijuana Doctors for your evaluation.

Marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit substance in the US, with 26 million Americans smoking pot at least once in 2008. Sixteen states now have legal medical marijuana programs as well.

Forty years ago, there were reports claiming that brain damage was caused by smoking marijuana. There were descriptions of marijuana smokers as lazy, apathetic, dull, delusional, irrational, and unproductive, which then gave reason for people to assume smoking marijuana resulted in brain damage.

Modern brain imaging techniques, including CAT scans, have found no evidence of brain damage in very heavy human marijuana smokers. In the 1970′s at Tulane Medical School, a series of animal studies were performed evaluating massive doses of THC – 100 times the psychoactive dose in humans. The initial studies showed that these heavy doses produced profound EEG changes with the implanted electrodes in the brains of monkeys. These changes reverted to normal within one hour of drug administration.

Additional testing with the monkeys was not conclusive. On autopsy, however, there appeared to be some damage to the monkey’s hippocampus. In humans, this area is associated with intellectual function. The assumption then was that smoking marijuana by humans resulted in brain damage.

Some years after the Tulane results, the National Center for Toxicological Research repeated the Tulane study with significantly more animals. There were 4 groups containing sixty five monkeys: 1) High dose THC inhaling 2) Low dose THC inhaling 3) Placebo 4) No inhalation at all. No brain abnormalities were seen in any of the groups.

Based on previous scientific evidence, marijuana induced brain damage could not really be proven. That could be changing. There was a new study in late 2010 that showed potential for marijuana smoking to lower cognitive function.

At a Society for Neuroscience meeting, Dr. Staci Gruber, discussed a small study where those who began smoking pot before age 16 performed substantially worse on cognitive function tests than both non-smokers and those who became chronic smokers later.

A larger study will need to be done, as there could be some validity regarding an immature nervous system being affected when marijuana smoking is started early with potential for long term vulnerability.

Want to find out more about AZ medical marijuana, then visit Arizona MMC’s site on how to choose the best Arizona medical marijuana doctor for your evaluation.

Plenty of people feel that marijuana leads to crime and smokers are aggressive, violent, and irrational. In addition, the same people think marijuana smokers commit more property offenses and felonies than nonsmokers.

First of all, marijuana possession by itself is federally illegal. Even in the 16 states that have legalized medical marijuana, state law does not trump federal. The discussion here is not whether marijuana in and of itself is illegal, but rather if smoking it leads to illegal and violent activities.

When marijuana first became a public concern in the 1920′s, critics disseminated stories about marijuana use leading to murder and mayhem. Eventually, the New York LaGuardia report concluded using marijuana resulted in “no aggressiveness or violent behavior observed.”

In the 1930′s, the murderous bandito stereotype was put forth by those promoting the prohibition of marijuana. The Bureau of Narcotics Director at the time promoted the notion that smoking marijuana resulted in a life of crime. In a 1937 American Magazine article, Anslinger warned of the “many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burgleries, and deeds of maniacal insanity” caused by marijuana.

This myth has been disproven numerous times. The Shafer Commission in 1972 examined this assertion and reported that “In most cases, the differences in crime rates between users and non-users are dependent not on marijuana per se but on other factors.”

Criminals and delinquents do use marijuana more frequently than the general population. When researchers controlled for this, time and time again the relatiionship between crime and marijuana disappeared.

There is a calming and sedative effect with smoking marijuana rather than it causing violence. It was the association with drinking alcholol that led to increased violence, not mairjuana itself, back in the 1930′s.

At any rate, marijuana causing violence is a myth and a better stereotype would be a laid back hippie.

Want to find out more about Medical Marijuana in Arizona, then visit Arizona MMC’s site on how to obtain your AZ marijuana card for your debilitating condition.

It has been written that Marijuana is harmful to humans. Fortunately, there is insufficient scientific evidence to back up that assertion, so it’s a myth. There is substantial evidence backing up marijuana’s medicinal benefits, which is why patients can now get an AZ Medical Marijuana Card. One simply needs to see an AZ marijuana doctor in his or her city.

Congress convened the Shafer Commission in 1970 for one million dollars to look at marijuana’s science looking at whether there was evidence of harm. Numerous members of Congress, doctors, and lawyers were on the team. No substantial evidence was seen of marijuana causing crime, insanity, lack of motivation, or sexual promiscuity.

In addition, the commission did not see any evidence of marijuana being a stepping stone to drugs that were harder. They evaluated numerous studies showing that marijuana does not lead to withdrawal or physical dependence even with long term, high dose use.

After looking at a lot of research the Commission came to the conclusion that marijuana was not a publich health threat. Upon reaching that conclusion, the commission recommended doing away with federal and state criminal penalties for possessing and/or using marijuana. They did not recommend legalized the cultivation and sale of marijuana.

Subsequently, many national organizations agreed with this recommendation including the American Medical Association, The American Bar Association, The National Education Association, and the National Council of Churches. Over 10 years later, in 1982, committees from both the Institute of Medicine and the World Health Organization reviewed the current and previous research on marijuana. They found no evidence of biologic harm, psychological impairment, or social dysfunction from marijuana.

A Dutch government committee in 1995 stated “Everything we now know… leads to the conclusion that the risks of cannabis use cannot in themselves be described as ‘unacceptable’.”

And in that same year, the British Medical Journal Lancet’s editors stated “the smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health.” Consider the myth debunked.

Want to find out more about Arizona Medical Marijuana, then visit Arizona MMC’s site on how to choose the best Arizona Medical Marijuana doctor for your needs.

Marinol was approved by the FDA as a synthetic medical marijuana THC. It comes in oral form to reduce chemotherapy nausea and in addition assists with increasing appetite in AIDS sufferers. The debate between smoking natural marijuana versus utilizing oral Marinol is robust. This article’s purpose is to give the basics on the FDA approval process using Marinol as an example.

In the United States, the FDA exists to tell if a drug is safe for humans in the market. How does that happen? Clinical trials are done and are usually sponsored by a large pharmaceutical company.

Most of the time, that sponsor is a large pharmaceutical company. Some people tend to snub their noses at these companies, but it takes deep pockets to fund modern clinical trials. Plenty of ground breaking medications come out of clinical trials, including chemotherapy breakthroughs and less vital drugs such as Viagra.

The NIH extends grants for developing commercial drugs for severe diseases like Cancer, MS, epilepsy, and HIV or AIDS. It was one of these programs that Marinol was invented and studied.

Prior to testing drugs in humans, they are often tested in animals. Animal activists hate this research, but it is reality. If you had a significant other or relative with cancer, you might appreciate a life extending drug that originated with a rat study. The preclinical drug phase is when animals are researched.

One example would be a researcher looking at appetite in mice. A disease condition may be induced which reduces the animal’s appetite. At that point the mice are either administered the drug under investigation or the Gold Standard for increasing appetite. If the drug under investigation works, the drug manufacturer turns in an Investigational New Drug application to the FDA. The FDA then has 30 days to contest the application if desired, if not the drug maker can start human testing

There are usually three clinical trial phases. Phase 1 consists of the drug being given to healthy volunteers to determine safety. Phase two then consists of treating patients in small numbers who actually have the condition. Side effects and safety are observed and then Phase three entails a large group of individuals being treated confirmed effectiveness.

How long does all this take? On average, an unbelievable 5 years. If it is a complicated experimental drug, it may take longer. Also, if the condition is rare, it may take a while to enroll enough patients.

What’s the amount of medications getting approved? Around 1 in 5 drugs are FDA approved, with the average cost being two hundred to six hundred million dollars, these drug trials are risky.

After Phase 3, a New Drug Application is submitted to the FDA for marketing approval. It then takes an average of 1.25 years for the FDA to complete its review. Since 1992 when the FDA was allowed to charge fees it has allowed more staffing and the time for review has dropped from 2 years to 15 months.

At that point the FDA approves the drug for a specific indication. If the pharmaceutical company wants another indication, a supplemental application process is necessary. Marinol represents the only prescription medication in the US which is a synthetic medical marijuana. In just 2 years, Marinol shifted from Investigation New Drug to approval.

The initial approval by the FDA was in 1985 for controlling vomiting and nausea for cancer chemotherapy. Subsequently in 1992, the pharmaceutical company applied for and received additional approval for AIDS wasting.

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