Medicinal Marijuana Eases Neuropathic Pain in HIV - washingtonpost.com
WEDNESDAY, Aug. 6 (HealthDay News) — Medicinal marijuana helps relieve neuropathic pain in people with HIV, says a University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine study.

It included 28 HIV patients with neuropathic pain that wasn’t adequately controlled by opiates or other pain relievers. The researchers found that 46 percent of patients who smoked medicinal marijuana reported clinically meaningful pain relief, compared with 18 percent of those who smoked a placebo.

The study, published online Aug. 6 in Neuropsychopharmacology, was sponsored by the University of California Center for Medical Cannabis Research (CMCR).

“Neuropathy is a chronic and significant problem in HIV patients as there are few existing treatments that offer adequate pain management to sufferers,” study leader Dr. Ronald J. Ellis, an associate professor of neurosciences, said in an UCSD news release. “We found that smoked cannabis was generally well-tolerated and effective when added to the patient’s existing pain medication, resulting in increased pain relief.”

The findings are consistent with and extend other recent CMCR-sponsored research supporting the short-term effectiveness of medicinal marijuana in treating neuropathic pain.

Of course, you already heard this trumpeted on the evening news, right?  You’ve probably heard so much about all these studies showing marijuana to have medical efficacy for neuropathic pain, right?  Everybody knows that the news media loves to spray the marijuana stories all over the TV, radio, and newspapers, right?

Remember that study on marijuana being more potent than ever, or marijuana causing schizophrenia?  We saw those repeated in one form or another over the span of two months from just about every media outlet in existence.  Surely, this report, that finds something positive rather than negative about marijuana, will enjoy the same repeated airings and re-writes that the Drug Czar’s favorite stories get, right?

[cue crickets]

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Newswise
Newswise — The growing body of evidence that marijuana (cannabis) may be effective as a pain reliever has been expanded with publication of a new study in The Journal of Pain reporting that patients with nerve pain showed reduced pain intensity from smoking marijuana.

Researchers at University of California Davis examined whether marijuana produces analgesia for patients with neuropathic pain. Thirty-eight patients were examined. They were given either high-dose (7%), low-dose (3.5%) or placebo cannabis.

The authors reported that identical levels of analgesia were produced at each cumulative dose level by both concentrations of the agent. As with opioids, cannabis does not rely on a relaxing or tranquilizing effect, but reduces the core component of nociception and the emotional aspect of the pain experience to an equal degree. There were undesirable consequences observed from cannabis smoking, such as feeing high or impaired, but they did not inhibit tolerability or cause anyone to withdraw from the study. In general, side effects and mood changes were inconsequential.

It was noted by the authors that since high and low dose cannabis produced equal analgesic efficacy, a case could be made for testing lower concentrations to determine if the analgesic profile can be maintained while reducing potential cognitive decline.

In addition, the authors said further research could probe whether adding the lowest effective dose of cannabis to another analgesic drug might lead to more effective neuropathic pain treatment for patients who otherwise are treatment-resistant.

Funny thing - this study has been out there since April and we reported on it back then.  And yet, it was never seen in the mainstream media.  But when a study arises showing marijuana as ineffective for acute pain treatment, it gets picked up the very next day by the Washington Post.  Just another way in which prohibitionist politics affects the reporting of marijuana science - the good reports get buried and the bad reports get headlines.

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Wednesday is Cannabis Science day on the Stash, and coming up after the news, we’re separating the stems of propaganda from the buds of truth with Dr. Mitch Earleywine. Today Dr. Mitch and I discuss the Chicago Tribune’s characterization of aggression in marijuana smokers and the latest study to show marijuana helps treat neuropathic pain.

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DAVIS, CALIFORNIA — A clinical trial conducted at the University of California at Davis and just published online by the Journal of Pain has demonstrated significant relief of neuropathic pain (pain caused by damage to nerves) stemming from a variety of causes. This is the second study in just over a year to show that marijuana relieves neuropathic pain, which is notoriously resistant to treatment with conventional pain drugs, including opioid narcotics. A UC San Francisco study published last year showed relief of HIV/AIDS-related neuropathy.

In the new study, 38 patients experiencing neuropathic pain from diabetes, spinal injury, multiple sclerosis and other causes were given marijuana cigarettes of three different strengths: Zero percent THC (placebo), 3.5 percent THC or 7 percent THC. In each session, patients took the same number of puffs, following a standardized procedure to ensure uniformity of the dose received at each strength.

Both doses of marijuana reduced pain significantly, producing marked declines in pain intensity that lasted over five hours. Researchers Barth Wilsey and colleagues wrote that side effects “were relatively inconsequential,” and “psychoactive effects were minimal and well-tolerated.” Although the scientists did express caution about the neurocognitive effects of the higher dose — reflected in lower scores on some tests of memory and problem solving, the study was not designed to examine the potential for marijuana to allow reduced doses of narcotic painkillers that also cause cognitive impairment, a benefit widely reported by patients.

What? Didn’t these guys get the memo from the DEA that marijuana has no medicinal value? That it is “Cheech and Chong medicine”? That all the hundreds of thousands of medical marijuana patients in twelve US states are all faking it so they can get high legally? That the science just isn’t there to prove marijuana is a medicine? Gee, why do we keep letting scientists and doctors do research on cannabis and report the truthful results, when our politicians and law enforcement settled this debate already?