Smoking marijuana effective for mild pain relief

By QMI Agency, Toronto Sun

 

A small dose of marijuana can help reduce pain, improve sleep and reduce anxiety, a landmark study published today has found.

 

"Our results support the claim that smoked cannabis reduces pain, improves mood and helps sleep," write the researchers from McGill University in Montreal.

 

In what is being heralded as the first study in which the effects of smoking cannabis were studied — albeit on a small group of only 23 participants — the study is now hoping to examine long-term effects of cannabis consumption.

 

The participants in the study, all between the ages of 25 and 77, were asked to smoke a 25mg dose of marijuana three times per day for five days. Then they took a nine-day hiatus to clear their system and started again. They completed these cycles four times.

 

"We used a low dose to minimize exposure to smoke and to reduce psychoactive effects," the study reads. Indeed, in the side-effects section of the study, only one person reported a craving for candy and other sweets over the course of the entire study.

 

"Euphoria or 'high' was reported on only three occasions throughout the trial."

 

The study isn't new, though.

 

Funding for the study was first announced in 2001, and participants were recruited and screened for participation between 2003 and 2006. By 2008, though, even Canada's major pharmaceutical companies were paying attention.

 

Lead author Mark Ware was awarded Pfizer Canada's neuropathic pain research award in 2008.

 

Even outside of the pharmaceutical industry, marijuana has been reportedly used to help treat pain since the third millennium BC.