How Effective Is Medical Marijuana? Here’s A Closer Look At 14 Different Uses

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Prevention

Whether you’re in the camp to legalize marijuana or would rather keep it restricted (no judging, here!), it’s high time to size up its medical claims. Pot pre-dates the Egyptian pyramids—but it took till now for 23 states to give their A-Okay for its medicinal use. Prevention asked top docs whether cannabis, med-speak for marijuana, is actually helpful (or at least promising) for nearly two dozen health woes ranging from multiple sclerosis to migraines, cancer pain to epilepsy.

Two things to keep in mind as you’re reading: Most of the research involves marijuana or its individual psychoactive compounds administered in carefully measured doses—a far cry from the variability in strains being sold on the street or even in dispensaries. “That’s the equivalent of buying penicillin at a flea market,” contends Ivor Grant, MD, chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. And there’s just not a lot of research yet, period. The FDA hasn’t removed marijuana from its “schedule-one” drug designation, which it reserves for substances that have no acceptable medical use. “Few doctors have the special permission required to work with schedule-one drugs,” notes Otis Brawley, MD, chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society. “Cocaine is less restricted than marijuana.”

Even so, experts have been able to cobble together enough info to tell you what has merit and what’s just bogus. Pot, here’s your first report card.

FOR TREATMENT NOW
The first part of this report card analyzes marijuana’s effectiveness at treating conditions that have at least a decent amount of research.

For: Nausea Relief
Objective: Help ease the nausea and vomiting that chemo-bound cancer or AIDS patients experience
Effectiveness Grade: A
Test Results: Marijuana aced this category because in the late ’80s, the FDA approved synthetic versions of its main psychoactive compound, Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Doctors can write prescriptions for dronabinol (brand name: Marinol) and nabilone (sold as Cesamet). In one study at St. John’s Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, researchers found that 38% of AIDS patients taking 5 milligrams of Marinol for six weeks had better appetite and less nausea compared to 8% of patients on the placebo. On the cancer front, a large Swiss review concluded that both marijuana meds were more effective than common anti-nausea drugs for patients receiving most types of chemotherapy. In fact, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of 26 leading cancer centers, recommends the medications in its guidelines for treating nausea and vomiting.
Room for Improvement: Inhaled marijuana, which is better absorbed in the bloodstream, hasn’t been widely studied to quell nausea, likely because a commercial product isn’t available in the U.S. Another caveat: “Many of the studies looked at symptom relief in the short-term,” says Grant. “We need research that tracks patients for a couple of years at least.”

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