Marijuana replaces Ritalin in treatment for ADD/ADHD - Video
Click link at bottom of page and scroll down for video

So it would appear the die is cast and that cannabis is set to be reclassified to a class B drug, bringing with it more arrests, more prison sentences, and more expense.

In the meantime, Dutch Police in Amsterdam are complaining about their rights to use cannabis when off-duty and as if that wasn't enough to prove the futility of trying to outlaw a substance which is a long way safer than either alcohol or tobacco, we now have a consultant pediatrician from the US, claiming marijuana (or cannabis) can be used ON CHILDREN, in the treatment of ADD or ADHD? So who's telling us lies?

Dr Claudia Jenson, who is a consultant pediatrician from USC, has come up with a novel way of treating ADD/ADHD, WITHOUT any of the unwanted side effects which can result from using popularly prescribed medicines.
Attention deficit Disorder, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) is a biological, brain based condition that is characterized by poor attention and distractibility and/or hyperactive and impulsive behaviors. It is one of the most common mental disorders that develop in children. Symptoms can continue into adolescence and adulthood. Image
If left untreated, ADHD can lead to poor school/work performance, poor social relationships and a general feeling of low self esteem.

The normal course of treatment for a child diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, is a course of methylphenidate, better known as Ritalin.

Methylphenidate (MPH) is a prescription stimulant commonly used to treat Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. It is also one of the primary drugs used to treat the daytime drowsiness symptoms of narcolepsy and chronic fatigue syndrome. The drug is seeing early use to treat cancer-related fatigue.

As always there is a flip-side to these prescription drugs, and in the case of Ritalin, substance abusers have found various ways to ingest the drug recreationally, which gives an effect similar to cocaine or amphetamine so the use of ritalin is to be closely monitored.

For the child diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, the side effects of using Ritalin, are many, including psychosis (abnormal thinking or hallucinations), difficulty sleeping, stomach aches, diarrhea, headaches, lack of hunger (leading to weight loss) and dry mouth. In some cases, the use of Ritalin has led to death.

If Ritalin or its side effects, are causing your children problems, ask your doctor about using marijuana as an alternative.

Check the video out for what Dr. Claudia Jenson, a Consultant Pediatrician from USC has to say on the subject. Click below and scroll down for video.

http://cannazine.co.uk/cannabis-news/unite...adhd-video.html

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Medical marijuana for ADD and its good for kids!

video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj72e5q61Fs

 

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Autism, ADD, ADHD and Marijuana Therapy
Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician, Toxicologist and Pharmacologist. He is an expert in medical marijuana treatment.

Mon, May 05, 2008 2:42 pm
more: headline news, medical news

salem-news.com



(MOLALLA, Ore.) - It has been known for at least 2,000 years that Marijuana/Cannabis is a psychotropic that affects the brain and central nervous system. (The Scythians) The first western references seem to be that it was a euphoric, in other words a central nervous system stimulant not like cocaine or amphetamines but a gentler pleasant stimulant.



Dr. W.B. O'Shaunessy (see: Medical Marijuana Feb-21-2008) found it to be an anti-convulsant against Tetanus, which may seem to cloud the issue. It is also a good anti-epileptic and centrally acting analgesic even effective for migraines as well as an anti-depressant and anxiolytic.



Dr. Tod Mikuriya has written that it promotes homeostasis or normalization of function in many various systems of the body and also modulates or moderates emotional hyperactivity such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, often known simply as PTSD.



I had heard or read about California marijuana doctors reporting that it was effective for the treatment of ADD and autism. These were single or isolated reports because physicians seemed to be reluctant to even talk about what the U.S. government constantly bleats about a "dangerous addicting drug", marijuana.



Dr. Mikuriya reported in 2006 in O'Shaunessy marijuana magazine that a 15-year old child was brought to him by his mother. He had been diagnosed with ADD and psychoses and had been given over 30 different kinds of drugs including pulverized kitchen sink, most of which made him combative and worse. He had used marijuana at age 11 with older friends.



It had a calming effect but his use brought police action and three court ordered rehabs which really drove him crazy. His mother found Dr. Mikuriya who prescribed Marinol which worked. A judge would not let him use ut, but a second judge did allow it and he got a marijuana permit and smoked it with dramatic improved results.



I decided a search of the Internet was advisable and I typed up marijuana autism with the surprising finding that the Autism Research Institute posted an article by Bernard Rinland Ph.D. Medical Marijuana: a valuable treatment for autism in 2003. The site discussed a letter from a mother of a violently autistic child. A friend suggested a marijuana brownie cookie which in the words of the mother "saved my child's life and my family's life."



The article continues to state that many parents in the same situation have reported marked success.



A second article from the American Alliance for Medical Cannabis (AAMC) in 2002 written by Jay R. Cavanaugh Ph.D. titled Medical Cannabis and Brain Disorders reported effective use as follows: Bipolar disease (81 patients or 20%)
ADHD/ADD (53 patients or 13%)
Multiple Sclerosis (32 patients or 8%)
and neuropathy (35 patients or 9%).



Other interesting findings were PTSD (30 patients at 7%) and obsessive compulsive disorder (2.4 or 6%). They also reported successful treatment of Tourettes, Parkinson's, and Autism (10 patients or 2%)



It is time we got our medical dinosaurs M.D.S. out of the closet and educated to the marvelous benefits of this safe effective NEW-OLD medicine.
source: http://hightimes.com/news/ht_admin/4260

 

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Cannabis as a medical treatment for attention deficit disorder




"Why would anyone want to give their child an expensive pill... with unacceptable side effects, when he or she could just go into the backyard, pick a few leaves off a plant and make tea for him or her instead? Cannabinoids are a very viable alternative to treating adolescents with ADD and ADHD"

WASHINGTON - As a California pediatrician and 49-year-old mother of two teenage daughters, Claudia Jensen says pot might prove to be the preferred medical treatment for attention deficit disorder - even in adolescents.

While some wonder whether Jensen was smoking some wacky weed herself, the clinician for low-income patients and professor to first-year medical students at the University of Southern California said her beliefs are very grounded: The drug helps ease the symptomatic mood swings, lack of focus, anxiety and irritability in people suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders like ADD and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

"Cannabinoids are a very viable alternative to treating adolescents with ADD and ADHD.I have a lot of adult patients who swear by it."

Under California state law, physicians are allowed to recommend to patients the use of cannabis to treat illnesses, although the federal government has maintained that any use of marijuana - medicinal or otherwise - is illegal. The federal courts have ruled that physicians like Jensen cannot be prosecuted for making such recommendations.

Jensen said she regularly writes prescriptions recommending the use of cannabis for patients -particularly those suffering pain and nausea from chronic illnesses, such as AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and arthritis.
She has also worked with one family of a 15-year-old - whose family had tried every drug available to help their son, who by age 13 had become a problem student diagnosed as suffering from ADHD. Under Jensen’s supervision, he began cannabis treatment, settling it on in food and candy form, and he has since found equilibrium and regularly attends school.

But not everyone is so high on the idea of pot for students with neurological illnesses. Subcommittee Chairman Mark Souder, R-Ind., who invited Jensen to testify after reading about her ideas in the newspaper, was hardly convinced by her testimony.

"I do believe that Dr. Jensen really wants to help her patients, but I think she is deeply misguided when she recommends cannabis to teenagers with attention deficit disorder or hyperactivity," he told Foxnews.com. "There is no serious scientific basis for using marijuana to treat those conditions, and Dr. Jensen didn’t even try to present one."

Dr. Tom O’Connell, a retired chest surgeon who now works with patients at a Bay Area clinic for patients seeking medical marijuana recommendations, is working on it. He said cannabis not only helps pain, but also can treat psychological disorders. He is currently conducting a study of hundreds of his patients, whom he said he believes have been self-medicating with pot and other drugs for years, and he hopes to publish a paper on the subject soon.

"My work with cannabis patients is certainly not definitive at this point, but it strongly suggests that the precepts upon which cannabis prohibition have been based are completely spurious," O’Connell said. Worse yet, he added, the prohibition has successfully kept certain adolescents away from pot who now turn to tobacco and alcohol instead.

Jensen, who said she believes Souder invited her to testify to "humiliate me and incriminate me in some way," suggested that a growing body of evidence is being developed to back medical cannabis chiefly for chronic pain and nausea. She said it is difficult, however, for advocates like herself to get the funding and permission to conduct government-recognized tests on ADD/ADHD patients.

"Unfortunately, no pharmaceutical companies are motivated to spend the money on research, and the United States government has a monopoly on the available cannabis and research permits," she told Congress. Studies done on behalf of the government, including the 1999 Institute of Medicine’s "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base," found that cannabis delivers effective THC and other cannabinoids that serve as pain relief and nausea-control agents. But these same studies warn against the dangers of smoking cannabis and suggest other FDA-approved drugs are preferable.

"We know all too well the dangerous health risks that accompany (smoking)," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., ranking member on the subcommittee, who like Souder, was not impressed by Jensen’s arguments. "It flies in the face of responsible medicine to advocate a drug that had been known to have over 300 carcinogens and has proven to be as damaging to the lungs as cigarette smoking," added Jennifer Devallance, spokeswoman for the White House Office of Drug Control Policy.

The government points to Food and Drug Administration-approved Marinol, a THC-derived pill that acts as a stand-in for marijuana. But many critics say there are nasty side effects, and it’s too expensive for the average patient.

On the other hand, Jensen and others say cannabinoids can be made into candy form, baked into food or boiled into tea. They say that despite the FDA blessing, giving kids amphetamines like Ritalin for ADD and other behavioral disorders might be more dangerous.

"Ritalin is an amphetamine - we have all of these youngsters running around on speed," said Keith Stroup, spokesman for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

"Although it flies in the face of conventional wisdom, it’s nevertheless true that cannabis is far safer and more effective than the prescription agents currently advocated for treatment of ADD-ADHD," O’Connell said.

Stroup said if Souder’s intention was to harangue Jensen, he was unsuccessful in the face of her solid and articulate testimony on April 1."It was a good day for her, and a good day for medical marijuana in Congress," he said.

Nick Coleman, a subcommittee spokesman, said Souder doesn’t "try to humiliate people.

"But to promote medical cannabis for teenagers with ADD... he does not feel that is a sound and scientific medical practice," Coleman said. While the issue of treating adolescents with medical marijuana is fairly new, the idea of using pot to treat chronically and terminally ill patients is not. Nine states currently have laws allowing such practices. A number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have added that they want the states to decide for themselves whether to pursue medical marijuana laws.

Among those lawmakers are Reps. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a physician; Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.; and Barney Frank, D-Mass. "(Rep. Paul) believes there are some legitimate applications," like for pain and nausea, said spokesman Jeff Deist. "But the real issue is that states should decide for themselves."

source: http://www.chanvre-info.ch/info/en/Cannabi...-treatment.html