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Medical use of Cannabis

Cannabis sativa L., or Hemp, is used for medical indications for several centuries in Europe. Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) described Cannabis sativa L. at length in her book on medicinal plants. Both in the media and in scientific journals, Cannabis sativa L. is receiving increasing attention again for its potential medical use. Its use is still more controversial than the use of opium and morphine but because of new scientific data, a renewed interest is emerging among patients and clinicians alike.

Interestingly, the therapeutic effects of Cannabis are well described, or proven, in various illnesses, like HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, cancer, asthma, epilepsy, etc. Unfortunately, not enough scientific information seems to be present among patients and health care providers. Therefore, the medical use of cannabis is still underutilized.

Male cannabis plant Globally, the awareness of the potential medical use of cannabis and its other components, the cannabinoids, is growing.

On November 11th, 1998, the Labourgroup for Science and Technology of the House of Lords of the British Parliament declared that there was enough evidence for efficacy in certain illnesses and thus, that cannabis should be reclassified and made available to patients, so making the use of cannabis for medical purposes no longer an offense.
In addition, it was strongly recommended, that clinical trials should be inaugurated to study the efficacy of cannabis in various diseases. Also, after a thorough research of 18 months of all available data, the US Institute of Medicine, a body of the National Academy of Science, published a report the medical use of cannabis on March 17th, 1999. It concluded that marijuana had potential efficacy in a variety of symptoms and diseases. All possible side effects of the medical use of cannabis were acceptable, except the possible danger of smoking by itself over a significant period of time, which could cause lung cancer. Interestingly, the German authorities (BfArM) have licensed Dronabinol (THC) for medical purposes in Germany in June 2002. This Dronabinol is made by Delta9Pharma from regular Hemp and thus plant-derived and not made synthetically, like Marinol.