A Cognitive and Psychiatric Study

Originally, those asserting that crude marijuana should be approved for medical use claimed that it should be available for the terminally ill or those suffering from intractable pain. The scope of projected uses rapidly expanded to include “debilitating” conditions, which might be anything that the user perceived was a handicap or impairment. 

Marijuana contains numerous unique compounds known as cannabinoids.  Several of these have been synthesized and developed into useful drugs for specific medical use but these drugs are devoid of the more than 2000 impurities found in smoked cannabis, and the potency and dose of these manufactured drugs can be carefully adjusted to the patient.

In a recent study by Drs. Ghaffar and Feinstein, in the journal Neurology, 2008:71:164-169,(Multiple sclerosis and cannabis: a cognitive and psychiatric study),  found that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who were regular smoking of street cannabis had more extensive cognitive abnormalities compared to patients with MS who don’t use cannabis.  The study did not note this disparity in the controlled pharmaceutical use of cannabis-based medicinal extracts (CBMEs).  The authors, in response to an inquiry in the January 6, 2009 issue of Neurology, stated that “Based on the existing literature, it seems unlikely that the cognitive problems identified in our cannabis smokers are a function of a withdrawal syndrome, but we cannot be certain this given the limitations in our data.”   This statement acknowledges that there is a “withdrawal syndrome” for cannabis and that “cognitive problems” are associated with withdrawal from cannabis. 
Source:  Journal Neurology, 2008:71:164-169