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Title: Former Cop Tries Cannabis as Last Resort to Treat Parkinson’s Disease
Source:
Daily Sheeple
URL Source: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/watc ... reat-parkinsons-disease_122016
Published: Dec 1, 2016
Author: Carey Wedler
Post Date: 2016-12-02 21:28:11 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 30289
Comments: 101
As research and anecdotal evidence increasingly indicate cannabis has medical benefits, a new series of videos from a man suffering from Parkinson’s disease highlights just how vital the plant can be. Larry Smith, a former police officer, began to suffer from the debilitating neurological disease twenty years ago. In 2011, filmmakers began documenting his experience for the upcoming film, Ride with Larry. The documentary and accompanying awareness campaign “seeks to enlighten audiences to the human cost of Parkinson’s disease while providing insights into the tangible benefits of an active lifestyle, particularly through recumbent cycling,” according to the film’s Facebook page. More recently, Larry began to experiment with medical marijuana to treat his worsening symptoms. In a video uploaded to Ride with Larry’s Facebook page last week, he arrives in San Diego, California, to obtain a license. “My symptoms are a great deal more obvious than ever before, and the pain is a little sharper,” Larry says with some difficulty speaking. “Larry’s at the point where he’s having so much trouble walking, now he takes twenty pills a day,” his wife Elizabeth explains, noting that increasing the dose could increase the side effects. While in San Diego, Larry and his wife visit a medical marijuana doctor to obtain a prescription. “These are not the days of Reefer Madness,” Larry observes in the video, referencing a 1936 propaganda film meant to demonize cannabis use. “Yet I and millions of other people can’t have it without facing serious jail time.” Larry currently lives in South Dakota, which does not have a medical marijuana program. In Part 2 of the series, Larry uses his prescription to purchase $40 worth of the plant at a dispensary in an attempt to ease his pain and rigid joints. Elizabeth tells the “budtender” at the dispensary that the side effects of Larry’s pills have actually contributed to his dyskinesia. Further, she also discloses that every time she fills a prescription for him, it costs about $3,000, pointing out the stark difference in cost between pharmaceuticals and cannabis. Though in Part 2, Larry buys actual buds, in Part 3 of 3, he meets with another man suffering from Parkinson’s disease who gives him cannabis oil to place under his tongue. His relief is almost instantaneous. “With a few drops of cannabis oil under his tongue, Larry’s severe dyskinesia (uncontrolled movements), loss of voice, and tremors are calmed within in minutes! We didn’t even edit the footage because the results were so startling.” Sure enough, the footage shows Larry placing the drops under his tongue before lying down. After just a few minutes, he sits up and it becomes apparent his uncontrolled movements have largely ceased. His friend says, “I think you’ve calmed down.” Larry simply says, “So quickly,” as a smile comes over his face. “My voice is coming back,” he also observes. In a voiceover, Elizabeth notes how his hands became “rock steady” after he tried the treatment. “It works most of the time,” his friend observes after he sits up. Larry imitates the sound of a heavenly choir to demonstrate his immense relief. “Did you guys eat lunch?” he asks the others in the room. “You hungry now?” his friend with Parkinson’s inquires. “Funny, I am,” he replies. As the video ends, Larry observes that “A person like me could really use marijuana. And it makes me pretty angry that I can’t get it in my home state.” At least one academic expert shares this frustration. As Dr. Daniele Piomelli, a professor of Pharmacology at UC Irvine’s medical school, says in Part 3 of Larry’s series: “The number one frustration that I have is knowing that there is this untapped potential — that comes from what marijuana is teaching us — to generate new medicines, and being stuck because of financial issues or political issues. That is extremely frustrating.” Dr. Piomelli, who runs a lab at the university, discussed recent research on cannabis’ effect on Parkinson’s disease: “We know from animal experiments that the endogenous cannabinoid system is very important [in] regulating motor activity, the very type of activity that is impaired in Parkinson’s disease. From animal experiments, we also know that boosting certain branches of the endocannabinoid system is helpful in relieving symptoms of Parkinson’s. Finally, from anecdotal information, we know that certain patients who smoke marijuana experience relief [from] their symptoms.” Further, a 2014 study published in Clinical Neuropharmacology, researchers concluded there was “significant improvement of sleep and pain scores” for patients using cannabis to treat Parkinson’s. They noted “no significant adverse effects of the drug were observed” but cautioned further research was necessary. A 2014 study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology explained that cannabidiol, or CBD, a non-psychoactive endocannabinoid, had the possible effect of “improving quality of life measures in PD patients with no psychiatric comorbidities.” They also advised more research was needed. Even without the scientific research to back up the plant’s effectiveness, Larry’s experience may provide hope to countless others suffering from debilitating ailments (Part 3 has been viewed over 20 million times as of this article’s publication). Though cannabis is becoming legal in a growing number of states, many people suffering from illnesses are unable to access the treatment. As Elizabeth said in Part 1: “I do not like the idea of breaking federal law. Even though the state law in California is very clear that it’s permissible, I’m still uncomfortable. But, you know, if this is the only thing — and as far as I know we’ve tried everything, and this is the only thing that’s left…we are going to give it a go and see how it goes.” And as she says in Part 3 after witnessing her husband finally experience relief: “We now know that medical marijuana controls dyskinesia, and yet it’s not available to us.” Still, as stories like Larry’s continue to accumulate and the war on a plant continues to fail, the trend of legalization throughout the United States shows no signs of stopping. Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
According to the video’s description:
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 34.
#1. To: Deckard (#0)
Marijuana should never be thought of as a replacement for dopaminergic and other approved therapies for Parkinson's disease.
Yes, $3000 a month for the Big Pharma cannot be replaced.
paulsen (misterwhite) must be heavily invested in Big Pharma. Why else would he deny the proven benefits of medical cannabis and want to keep it banned?
Proven? Anecdotal stories are not proof.
Clinical Studies and Case Reports It does not count when one doper says he has been peer reviewed by another doper when the test is rejected by official authorities. That counts for zero and any possession or use of marijauna remains a Federal crime. 81 Fed Reg No 156 (12 Aug 2016) 53767-53845, Proposed Rules Denial, Docket DEA-427 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/about-site/background). ClinicalTrials.gov was searched for all studies administering marijuana. The results of this search were used to confirm that no completed studies with published data were missed in the literature search. During the literature search, references found in relevant studies and systematic reviews were evaluated for additional relevant citations. All languages were included in the search. The PubMed search yielded a total of 566 abstracts. Of these abstracts, a full-text review was conducted with 85 papers to assess eligibility. From this evaluation, only eleven of 85 studies met the 6 CFR elements for inclusion as adequate and well-controlled studies. None of the 11 adequate and well controlled studies proved efficacy. 74 studies failed to meet the standards of adequate and well-controlled studies.
Clinical Studies and Case Reports It does not count when one doper says he has been peer reviewed by another doper when the test is rejected by official authorities You obviously didn't even look at those two sources. Typical government apologist.
#35. To: Deckard (#34)
I don't have to look at your bullshit sources when the sole official source capable of approving the tests, or the drug, states that there has been no test whatsoever that has met the required standards and shown efficacy. Typical doper whose brain is too fried to think. Argued to a court, this peer-reviewed bullshit gets destroyed like a doper's brain. Americans for Safe Access v DEA (excerpt) peer review bs DHHS makes the scientific and medical evaluations. If and when the effectiveness of kratom is established in well-controlled, well-designed, well-conducted, and well-documented scientific studies, including studies performed in a large number of patients, they may give your insatiable desires high consideration. You are like a teen who does not take a road test but goes to the DMV for a drivers license and presents notes from various friends, neighbors, and mommy attesting to your being a safe driver. You do not get a license without a road test. DMV to Deckard: Because we say so. Americans for Safe Access et al v. DEA, 11-1265 (D.C. Cir. 22 Jan 2013) At 23: At 26-28: Contrary to what Petitioners suggest, something more than “peer-reviewed” studies is required to satisfy DEA’s standard, and for good reason. “[S]cientists understand that peer review per se provides only a minimal assurance of quality, and that the public conception of peer review as a stamp of authentication is far from the truth.” Charles Jennings, Quality and Value: The True Purpose of Peer Review, NATURE.COM (2006), http://www.nature.com/nature/ peerreview/debate/nature05032.html; see also Lynn S. McCarty et al., Information Quality in Regulatory Decision Making: Peer Review versus Good Laboratory Practice, 120 ENVTL. HEALTH PERSP. 927, 930 (2012) (“It is difficult to extract from the extensive body of work and commentary published over the last 25-30 years that scientific journal peer review is a coherent, consistent, reliable, evaluative procedure. . . . [T]he opposite conclusion may be more accurate.”). Petitioners may have cited some peer–reviewed articles in support of their position, but they have not pointed to “adequate and well-controlled studies” confirming the efficacy of marijuana for medicinal uses. If, as is the case here, “there is substantial evidence to support the [agency’s] finding that the[] studies [offered by petitioner] are not helpful, then petitioner must fail.” Unimed, Inc. v. Richardson, 458 F.2d 787, 789 (D.C. Cir. 1972). In making this assessment, we must “remind ourselves that our role in the Congressional scheme is not to give an independent judgment of our own, but rather to determine whether the expert agency entrusted with regulatory responsibility has taken an irrational or arbitrary view of the evidence assembled before it.” Id. The DEA’s construction of its regulation is eminently reasonable. Therefore, we are obliged to defer to the agency’s interpretation of “adequate and well-controlled studies.” See Thomas Jefferson Univ., 512 U.S. at 512 (deferring to “an agency’s interpretation of its own regulations”). Judged against the DEA’s standard, we find nothing in the record that could move us to conclude that the agency failed to prove by substantial evidence that such studies confirming marijuana’s medical efficacy do not exist. Finally, Petitioners suggested during oral argument that the Government had foreclosed the research that would be necessary to create sufficiently reliable clinical studies of marijuana’s medical efficacy. Because Petitioners did not properly raise this issue with the DEA and there is nothing in the record to support it, we do not consider it here. We note, however, that DHHS’ recommendation explained that “[t]he opportunity for scientists to conduct clinical research with marijuana exists under the [D]HHS policy supporting clinical research with botanical marijuana.” Denial, 76 Fed. Reg. at 40,562. Thus, it appears that adequate and well-controlled studies are wanting not because they have been foreclosed but because they have not been completed.
No need to read doper bullshit. United States v. McIntosh, 15-10117 (9th Cir. 16 Aug 2016) At 26: In light of the ordinary meaning of the terms of § 542 and the relationship between the relevant federal and state laws, we consider whether a superior authority, which prohibits certain conduct, can prevent a subordinate authority from implementing a rule that officially permits such conduct by punishing individuals who are engaged in the conduct officially permitted by the lower authority. We conclude that it can. ____________________ [4] This requires a slight caveat. Under the CSA, “the manufacture, distribution, or possession of marijuana [is] a criminal offense, with the sole exception being use of the drug as part of a Food and Drug Administration preapproved research study.” Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1, 14 (2005); see 21 U.S.C. §§ 812(c), 823(f), 841(a)(1), 844(a). Thus, except as part of “a strictly controlled research project,” federal law “designates marijuana as contraband for any purpose.” Raich, 545 U.S. at 24, 27. Footnote 5 at 32-33:
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-- Dr. Michael S. Okun, National Medical Director, National Parkinson Foundation
#4. To: misterwhite (#1)
Marijuana should never be thought of as a replacement for dopaminergic and other approved therapies for Parkinson's disease.
#13. To: A Pole (#4)
(Edited)
Yes, $3000 a month for the Big Pharma cannot be replaced.
#20. To: Deckard (#13)
"Why else would he deny the proven benefits of medical cannabis"
#28. To: misterwhite (#20)
Proven? Anecdotal stories are not proof.
#32. To: Deckard, misterwhite (#28)
60 Peer-Reviewed Studies on Medical Marijuana
marijuana has no ‘‘currently accepted medical use’’ because: As detailed in the HHS evaluation, the drug’s chemistry is not known and reproducible; there are no adequate safety studies;
there are no adequate and well-controlled studies proving efficacy
ClinicalTrials.gov is a database of publicly and privately supported clinical studies that is maintained by the NLM. Information about the clinical studies is provided by the Sponsor or Principal Investigator of the study. Information about the studies is submitted to the Web site (‘‘registered’’) when the studies begin, and is updated throughout the study. In some cases, results of the study or resulting publication citations are submitted to the Web site after the study ends
#34. To: nolu chan (#32)
60 Peer-Reviewed Studies on Medical Marijuana
Replies to Comment # 34. You obviously didn't even look at those two sources.
In its scientific and medical evaluation, DHHS concluded that “research on the medical use of marijuana ha[d] not progressed to the point that marijuana [could] be considered to have a ‘currently accepted medical use’ or a ‘currently accepted medical use with severe restrictions.’” Id. at 40,560. As noted above, DHHS’ recommendations are binding on the DEA insofar as they rest on scientific and medical determinations. 21 U.S.C. § 811(b). After an exhaustive examination of the issue, the DEA, adhering to DHHS’ recommendation, reached the following conclusion:
To establish accepted medical use, the effectiveness of a drug must be established in well-controlled, well-designed, well-conducted, and well-documented scientific studies, including studies performed in a large number of patients (57 FR 10499, 1992). To date, such studies have not been performed. The small clinical trial studies with limited patients and short duration are not sufficient to establish medical utility. Studies of longer duration are needed to fully characterize the drug’s efficacy and safety profile. Scientific reliability must be established in multiple clinical studies. Furthermore, anecdotal reports and isolated case reports are not adequate evidence to support an accepted medical use of marijuana (57 FR 10499, 1992). The evidence from clinical research and reviews of earlier clinical research does not meet this standard.
The DEA interprets “adequate and well-controlled studies” to mean studies similar to what the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) requires for a New Drug Application (“NDA”). See id. at 40,562. DHHS found that “there have been no NDA-quality studies that have scientifically assessed the efficacy of marijuana for any medical condition.” Id. It is well understood that, under FDA protocols, “adequate and well-controlled investigations” require “clinical investigations, by experts qualified by scientific training and experience to evaluate the effectiveness of the drug involved, on the basis of which it could fairly and responsibly be concluded by such experts that the drug will have the effect it purports or is represented to have under the conditions of use prescribed, recommended, or suggested in the labeling or proposed labeling thereof.” 21 U.S.C. § 355(d). This is a rigorous standard. See, e.g., Edison Pharm. Co. v. FDA, 600 F.2d 831, 843 (D.C. Cir. 1979) (holding that substantial evidence supported the FDA’s conclusion that double-blind testing of a new drug was necessary before the drug could be administered to cardiac patients); Holland-Rantos Co. v. U.S. Dep’t of Health, Educ. and Welfare, 587 F.2d 1173, 1174 (D.C. Cir. 1978) (refusing to construe the requirement of a “well-controlled investigation” in a “self-defeating fashion”).
#37. To: Deckard (#34)
You obviously didn't even look at those two sources.
Here, we must read § 542 with a view to its place in the overall statutory scheme for marijuana regulation, namely the CSA and the State Medical Marijuana Laws. The CSA prohibits the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of any marijuana. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a), 844(a).[4] The State Medical Marijuana Laws are those state laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana. Thus, the CSA prohibits what the State Medical Marijuana Laws permit.
[5] The prior observation should also serve as a warning. To be clear, § 542 does not provide immunity from prosecution for federal marijuana offenses. The CSA prohibits the manufacture, distribution, and possession of marijuana. Anyone in any state who possesses, distributes, or manufactures marijuana for medical or recreational purposes (or attempts or conspires to do so) is committing a federal crime. The federal government can prosecute such offenses for up to five years after they occur. See 18 U.S.C. § 3282. Congress currently restricts the government from spending certain funds to prosecute certain individuals. But Congress could restore funding tomorrow, a year from now, or four years from now, and the government could then prosecute individuals who committed offenses while the government lacked funding. Moreover, a new president will be elected soon, and a new administration could shift enforcement priorities to place greater emphasis on prosecuting marijuana offenses. Nor does any state law “legalize” possession, distribution, or manufacture of marijuana. Under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, state laws cannot permit what federal law prohibits. U.S. Const. art VI, cl. 2. Thus, while the CSA remains in effect, states cannot actually authorize the manufacture, distribution, or possession of marijuana. Such activity remains prohibited by federal law.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 34.
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