One of our goals at Utahmarijuana.org is to educate consumers about Medical Cannabis. To that end, we often say patients can “find more relief with less risk than harsher prescription medications.” Patients ultimately want to know more about harsher prescription drugs and why Medical Cannabis is referred to as less harsh.
When the medical community refers to a prescription medication as harsh, the reference is mainly to side effects. Every prescription medication comes with side effects of some sort. Most are mild and minimally uncomfortable. But some side effects are just the opposite. The more serious and uncomfortable a drug’s side effects are, the harsher that drug is said to be.
The harshness of a medication is relative. Making any kind of judgment about a particular medication requires looking at a number of different things. Primarily though, the drug in question needs to be compared against alternatives. Take ether, for example.
Ether has long been regarded as an effective anesthetic. It used to be the standard for surgical procedures. But ether’s downside is its potential for severe side effects, which include nausea, vomiting, and dizziness. It was not unusual for surgical patients to experience severe discomfort after ether anesthesia.
Today, we have more effective anesthetics that do not produce nearly the same uncomfortable side effects. So when you compare ether to these other medications, it is considered more harsh. Modern anesthetics are less harsh.
In order for us to confidently say that Medical Cannabis is less harsh than other drugs, we need to quantify what those other drugs are. An easy way to do this is to consider the number one complaint listed by Utah Medical Cannabis patients on their Med Card applications: pain.
Here at Utahmarijuana.org, our KindlyMD clinics have assisted untold numbers of chronic pain patients obtain their Med Cards. Many of those patients came to us after having tried more traditional treatments that included prescription narcotics. There is our baseline for discussing Medical Cannabis as less harsh.
Prescription narcotics have their side effects. Those side effects can be extremely harsh. What’s more, many patients report that the level of pain relief they experience from their prescription medications is not enough to warrant the side effects those medications produce. They report finding more relief with Medical Cannabis along with side effects that are more manageable and less uncomfortable.
We can take this one step further by comparing Medical Cannabis medications containing both THC and CBD. As you know, THC and CBD are naturally occurring cannabinoids found in cannabis plants. Both can be used as medicines to treat pain, nausea, seizures, and a long list of additional conditions.
In terms of side effects, THC is less harsh than prescription narcotics. CBD is less harsh than THC. But that’s not all. There is also the issue of addiction potential. Research has shown that THC has a lower potential for addiction and dependence than prescription narcotics. CBD presents little to no addiction risk at all – because it is not psychoactive. So when comparing all three, CBD is the least harsh.
Now you know what medical science is talking about when they refer to harsh medications. One of the reasons we believe so much in Medical Cannabis is that it has shown itself to be less harsh than other medications while still offering the relief patients are looking for. If you have been diagnosed with a qualifying condition and would like to know more, make an appointment to see a Utah QMP.
