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Nov-17-2012 00:53
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Medical Marijuana: The Replacement for Very Dangerous Drugs
Dr. Phillip Leveque, Doctor of Pharmacology Salem-News.comMarijuana is less addictive and less dangerous than Starbuck’s espresso.
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(PORTLAND, OR) - Dr. Sanjay Gupta will be speaking on CNN Sunday night about the 'killer drugs'. This article was first written in 2007; it still is found very easily on Google; I wonder where Dr. Gupta has been for the last five years! Marijuana/cannabis has been used in his home country India for the past 4000 years with absolutely no deaths. I wonder if the Doctor will be talking about marijuana as a painkiller when he speaks about the killer drugs tonight on CNN, but will not compare marijuana to these other definitely killer drugs.
 Dr. Sanjay Gupta |
When I was ordered before the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners, the first question I was asked by Dr. Spokas, the chairman, from Ontario, Oregon, was “Dr. Leveque don’t you know that marijuana is very addicting and very dangerous?”
Frankly, I didn’t know or believe this and all of my experience with fifty years of study and 4000 patients told me this was totally false. But, when one is facing a “Spanish inquisition” with psychological “thumb screws” or “hanging”, I decided to answer “maybe for some people”. I didn’t believe a word of it.
I didn’t dare ask where he got his information but I assumed it came from the U.S. government, which has produced false propaganda for 70 plus years.
Marijuana is less addictive and less dangerous than Starbuck’s espresso.
The Oregon Medical Marijuana Law allows the use of marijuana for Cancer, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s rage, Glaucoma, chronic pain, chronic nausea, chronic spasms, Multiple Sclerosis and seizures.
As a retired Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, I accepted this with a grain of salt but when I started seeing patients, I was astonished and pleased that indeed the above conditions were “miraculously” alleviated by the use of medical marijuana.
I was further astonished when I was told by the patients “marijuana is much better than any prescription I have been given". Further questioning of patients indicated it was better that the morphine-like painkillers, such as Oxycontin, Percodan or Demerol. It was also better than the Valium-like tranquilizers, such as Xanax, and Ambien, etc. and even the anti-depressants, such as Elavil, Trazadone, and the really heavy anti-depressants, such as Prozac and Zoloft.
Another, almost strange report, was that it was preferred over Aspirin and Tylenol, etc. because it worked faster with no stomach or liver damage.
For a retired Professor of Pharmacology, the patient’s reports were really a “blockbuster”. The biggest surprise came really quickly by Viet Nam veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They had been given every kind of medication, which gave minimal, if any, relief and many suffers simply turned to alcohol stupefaction to blot out PTSD battle stress.
The latter had become a tragedy for many as they had discovered in Viet Nam the marijuana was an excellent tranquilizer, better than any standard such drug or alcohol.
Literature review for current Marijuana Therapy led me to “O’Shaughnessy, The Journal of Cannabis in Clinical Practice”, a newspaper-like magazine published by a group of California Marijuana Specialists, which are providing the cutting edge for information on the subject.
California is the leading marijuana state with about 300,000 legal marijuana patients. (This is a 2007 figure- the number is significantly higher today) I am not/was not surprised to see that the reports of the fifteen doctors in the journal correspond with my own experiences. In fact, (the late) Dr. Tod Mikuriya has found that marijuana provides relief for about 200 specific diseases. It seems like marijuana could be/should be the first choice drug rather than the last.
Cannabis / marijuana medicines were at one time the “drugs of choice” in the United States, until they were declared illegal. They had been used for 100 specific medical problems through the use of about 30 prescription medicines.
First published here: Medical Marijuana: The Replacement for Very Dangerous Drugs
Dr. Phillip Leveque
Dr. Phillip Leveque has degrees in chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology and minors in physiology and biochemistry. He was a Professor of Pharmacology, employed by the University of London for 2 years, during which time he trained the first doctors in Tanzania. After training doctors, he became an Osteopathic Physician, as well as a Forensic Toxicologist.
Before any of that, Phil Leveque was a Combat Infantryman in the U.S. Army in WWII. He suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder more than 60 years after the war, and specialized in treating Veterans with PTSD during his years as a doctor in Molalla, Oregon.
Do you have a question, comment or story to share with Dr. Leveque?
Email him: ASK DR. LEVEQUE
More information on the history of Dr. Leveque can be found in his book, General Patton's Dogface Soldier of WWII about his own experiences "from a foxhole". Order the book by mail by following this link: DOGFACE SOLDIER OF WWII If you are a World War II history buff, you don't want to miss it.
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muzzylu November 17, 2012 5:12 pm (Pacific time)
Marijuana is a very healthy food if taken as an edible, not smoked. It is a gentle and safe way to handle pain. There is a great $2.99 e-book on medical marijuana: MARIJUANA - Guide to Buying, Growing, Harvesting, and Making Medical Marijuana Oil and Delicious Candies to Treat Pain and Ailments by Mary Bendis, Second Edition. This book has great recipes for easy marijuana oil, delicious Cannabis Chocolates, and tasty Dragon Teeth Mints.
Chris Furney November 17, 2012 2:23 pm (Pacific time)
Great Article! Phil Leveque wrote my first permit, more than a decade ago. (Hi Dr Phil!) I have about half of the Good Doctor's education. Some special points-
Addictive- I agree- quitting coffee was HARD.
I'm another walking miracle. What cannabis has done for my healthcare really would qualify as a Vatican recognized healing miracle. Standards available. I don't believe in hundreds of miracles in a row either.
The little white pills they gave some 250,000 troops from Desert Storm give one muscle spasms, including cardiac arrythmia. Cannabis is very effective in helping this. The same drug, and others such as those administered in Project MKNAOMI make it impossible to use antidepressants.
I also have PTSD, and a host of orthopedic problems, and cannabis works great for those too. It's even making my hair grow back! Pix on request- the oil WITH THC works much like Rogaine when applied topically.
Tranquilizer, antispasmodic, alcohol replacement, can't die from the stuff, cheap if allowed, and I'm pretty sure that there's a bombshell or two hidden back there too.
Great Article.
Chris
Malcolm Kyle November 17, 2012 9:39 am (Pacific time)
Here is part of the testimony of Judge Alfred J Talley, given before the Senate Hearings of 1926:
"For the first time in our history, full faith and confidence in and respect for the hitherto sacred Constitution of the United States has been weakened and impaired because this terrifying invasion of natural rights has been engrafted upon the fundamental law of our land, and experience has shown that it is being wantonly and derisively violated in every State, city, and hamlet in the country."
"It has made potential drunkards of the youth of the land, not because intoxicating liquor appeals to their taste or disposition, but because it is a forbidden thing, and because it is forbidden makes an irresistible appeal to the unformed and immature. It has brought into our midst the intemperate woman, the most fearsome and menacing thing for the future of our national life."
"It has brought the sickening slime of corruption, dishonor, and disgrace into every group of employees and officials in city, State, and Federal departments that have been charged with the enforcement of this odious law."
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/HISTORY/e1920/senj1926/judgetalley.htm
And the following paragraphs are from WALTER E. EDGE's testimony, a Senator from New Jersey:
"Any law that brings in its wake such wide corruption in the public service, increased alcoholic insanity, and deaths, increased arrests for drunkenness, home barrooms, and development among young boys and young women of the use of the flask never heard of before prohibition can not be successfully defended."
"I unhesitatingly contend that those who recognize existing evils and sincerely endeavor to correct them are contributing more toward temperance than those who stubbornly refuse to admit the facts."
"The opposition always proceeds on the theory that give them time and they will stop the habit of indulging in intoxicating beverages. This can not be accomplished. We should recognize our problem is not to persist in the impossible, but to recognize a situation and bring about common-sense temperance through reason."
"This is not a campaign to bring back intoxicating liquor, as is so often claimed by the fanatical dry. Intoxicating liquor is with us to-day and practically as accessible as it ever was. The difference mainly because of its illegality, is its greater destructive power, as evidenced on every hand. The sincere advocates of prohibition welcome efforts for real temperance rather than a continuation of the present bluff."
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/HISTORY/e1920/senj1926/walteredge.htm
And here is Julien Codman's testimony, who was a member of the Massachusetts bar.
"we will produce additional evidence on this point, that it is not appropriate legislation to enforce the eighteenth amendment; that it has done incredible harm instead of good; that as a temperance measure it has been a pitiable failure; that it has failed to prevent drinking; that it has failed to decrease crime; that, as a matter of fact, it has increased both; that it has promoted bootlegging and smuggling to an extent never known before"
"We believe that the time has come for definite action, but it is impossible to lay before Congress any one bill which, while clearly within the provisions of the Constitution, will be a panacea for the evils that the Volstead Act has caused. We must not be vain enough to believe, as the prohibitionists do, that the age-old question of the regulation of alcohol can be settled forever by the passage of a single law. With the experience of the Volstead law as a warning, it behooves us to proceed with caution, one step at a time, to climb out of the legislative well into which we have been pushed."
"If you gentlemen are satisfied, after hearing the evidence supplemented by the broad general knowledge which each of you already possesses, that the remedy that will tend most quickly to correct the wretched social conditions that now exist, to promote temperance, find to allay the discontent and unrest that the Volstead Act has caused, is to be found in the passage of one of the proposed bills legalizing the production of beer of an alcoholic content of 4 per cent or less. We do not claim that it will do away with all the evils produced by attempted prohibition, but it would be a step in the right direction."
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/HISTORY/e1920/senj1926/codman.htm
Mark November 17, 2012 4:55 am (Pacific time)
Dr.Gupata I'm a retired disabled combat Vet from OIF. Pre and post war our governments answers for soliders in my opinion is pharmaceuticals. That's the wrong medication for us vets...Cannabis saved my life...I was prescribed over a dozen of toxic drugs that made me worse of. I've been using Cannabis for over 2 years now and I take absolutely no OTC....Or prescription drugs.nothing but cannabis....I haven't got a migraine in over a year. So much more has happened positively speaking with regards to this natural herbal plant....
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