On August’, 2008 A La Times medical reporter interviewed a group of doctors that were researching the benefits of medical marijuana. Depending on the audience, marijuana is just as dangerous a drug as PCP and heroin and therefore should be kept illegal, or it’s a wonder herb that is just bursting with unknown benefits and is being suppressed by the government–or perhaps its a little bit of both: a plant with tremendous benefits as well as drawbacks, yet worth looking into.

While the political arguments continue over medical marijuana, a group of researchers continues to investigate the effects of inhaled marijuana to treat muscle spasms, nausea, and pain.

The researchers point out that all drugs carry risks–when you look into most medicine cabinets in American households, you will find them filled with aspirins, antihistamines, and pain killers. What doctors try to do is weigh the positives versus the negatives of what the medicine can do and from there they reach a decision–why not for marijuana as well, some researchers are asking.

After looking into the truth, these scientist discovered that marijuana does indeed have significant medical benefits for those who suffer from chronic pain syndromes, multiple sclerosis, cancer pain, AIDS wasting syndrome, and the nausea that accompanies chemotherapy. These scientist have also discovered that their attempts to try to harness and understand their findings is being hampered. They also note that the risks associated with marijuana use are real but very small.

Dr. Donald Abrams, chief of hematology and oncology at San Francisco General Hospital and professor of clinical medicine at UC San Francisco, says he sees cancer patients in pain, not eating or sleeping well, experiencing nausea and vomiting from treatment, and being depressed about their situation.

He’s happy that he live in a state like California where medical marijuana is legal by state law–this even as federal agents continue to raid on a regular basis the cannabis dispensaries that are in the state as well as scrutinize doctors who prefer to treat some of their patients with marijuana.

“I can talk to patients about medicinal cannabis [and] I’m often recommending it to them for these indications,” Abrams says.

The use of marijuana for medical purposes has a history that goes back thousands of years. The plant was used all throughout Asia, the Middle East, and Africa for ailments like earaches, child birth, stress relief, and pain relief.

Medical researchers have recently began to investigate marijuana’s effects on various kinds of pain such as damaged nerves in people with HIV, diabetes and spinal cord injury; to cancer; and from multiple sclerosis.

For three decades, Dr. Julian Reindhurst has studies the medicinal benefits of marijuana. He currently has a blog that gives the historical perspective of how nirvana seeds benefited other ancient civilizations. He also has a website site that looks at the medicinal benefits of the nirvana seeds.

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