The folks at NORML have called attention to a new study that was released via PubMed last month which points to Crohn’s Disease as yet another medical condition which can be eased by the use of cannabis. The therapy was inspired by the knowledge that medical marijuana is known to improve “inflammatory processes.”
The study in question was an “observational” study examining the effects of cannabis use in patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) and looked at everything from the progression of the disease itself, to the use of medication to control it, the need for some CD patients to undergo surgery, and the likelihood of hospitalization being required either before or after a patient had used marijuana. The patients in the study consisted of 26 men and 4 women, and the Harvey Bradshaw index was employed as a measure of disease activity.
The results of the study were that twenty-one of the thirty participating patients showed significant improvement after the use of medical marijuana and that the need for other medicines was markedly reduced. Of the participants, fifteen had undergone a total of 19 surgeries over an average of nine years before using MMJ, while after three years of cannabis use, only two still required surgery to ease their CD.
The net result: one more medical benefit of cannabis seems to be the easing of Crohn’s disease. Nevertheless, the U.S. government refuses to accept that any benefit could possible exist.
