Medicinal Cannabis and Nausea: "This study was designed to determine how therapeutic users of cannabis rate its effectiveness as an anti-emetic, and particularly as a treatment for nausea and vomiting of pregnancy. In general (not specific to pregnancy), the vast majority of our respondents considered cannabis to be extremely effective or effective as a therapy for nausea (93%) and vomiting (75%), and as an appetite stimulant (95%).

"The length of this review, necessitated by the steady growth in the number of indications for the potential therapeutic use of cannabinoid-related medications, is a clear sign of the emerging importance of this field. This is further underlined by the quantity of articles in the public database dealing with the biology of cannabinoids, which numbered ~200 to 300/year throughout the 1970s to reach an astonishing 5900 in 2004.

Cannabis and Neuropathic Pain: "In this randomized clinical trial, smoked cannabis at maximum tolerable dose (1–8% THC), significantly reduced neuropathic pain intensity in HIV-associated DSPN [distal sensory predominant polyneuropathy] compared to placebo, when added to stable concomitant analgesics. Using verbal descriptors of pain magnitude from DDS [Descriptor Differential Scale], cannabis was associated with an average reduction of pain intensity from ‘strong’ to ‘mild to moderate’.

"Recent evidence suggests that local inflammation plays a major role in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. The function of CBD as an antioxidant to block oxidative stress and as an inhibitor of adenosine reuptake to enhance a self-defense mechanism against retinal inflammation represents a novel therapeutic approach to the treatment of ophthalmic complications associated with diabetes."

"We found evidence that combined extracts of THC and CBD [cannabidiol] may reduce symptoms of spasticity in patients with MS. Although the subjective experience of symptom reduction was generally found to be significant, objective measures of spasticity failed to provide significant changes. In a previous study of spasticity-related pain, MS patients also reported a subjective perception of symptom reduction with cannabinoids [10].

Pain and Medical Cannabis Use: "By providing a medical geographic patient utilization 'snapshot' of 236.4 patient-years of the use of MC [Medical Cannabis] at a regional pain clinic, this study provides further insight into the applicability of cannabinoid botanicals in the management of a broad range of refractory chronic pain conditions in adults, from myofascial pain and discogenic back pain to neuropathic pain and central pain syndromes.

Cannabinoids and Gastrointestinal Functions

"The information reviewed above indicates that cannabis has a long established history of efficacy in migraine treatment. Clinical use of the herb and its extracts for headache has waxed and waned for 1200 years, or perhaps much longer, in a sort of cannabis interruptus. It is only contemporaneously that supportive biochemical and pharmacological evidence for the indication is demonstrable.

"It is clear, however, that cannabis use did not compromise substance abuse treatment amongst the medical marijuana using group. In fact, medical marijuana users seemed to fare equal to or better than non-medical marijuana users in every important outcome category. Movement from more harmful to less harmful drugs is an improvement worthy of consideration by treatment providers and policymakers. The economic cost of alcohol use in California has been estimated at $38 billion [30].

"Cannabis indica became available in American pharmacies in the 1850’s following its introduction to western medicine by William O'Shaughnessy (1839).⁶ In its original pharmaceutical usage, it was regularly consumed orally, not smoked. The first popular American account of cannabis intoxication was published in 1854 by Bayard Taylor, writer, world traveler and diplomat."