Contributor: Matthew B. Barnett
The wealth of positives that coincide with medical marijuana are tremendous. You’d be hard-pressed to find an ailment or illness that doesn’t directly benefit from cannabis, to be honest. And, while there is a plethora of diseases and whatnot out there in the world, one of the afflictions that seems to utilize the greatness of cannabis on a more consistent basis has got to be lupus.
Lupus and marijuana, essentially, go hand-in-hand. The amount of patients using marijuana for lupus pain and discomfort continues to grow with each passing day. And it makes nothing but sense as to why, as marijuana is far more effective than any prescription drug on the market. Which, not for nothing, can be said about cannabis, in general.
The fact that doctors still stubbornly rely on these chemical-laden pills, capsules, and tablets, instead of the naturally-growing, completely non-addictive cannabis substitute is beyond me. It really doesn’t add up when you think about it.
Dealing With Lupus? No Worries – Cannabis Is Here To Help Out
Opioids are, without a doubt, the most plaguing addiction crisis going on in this country at the moment. These super-addictive pills hook the user in one way or another. And what’s really crazy, is while they advertise themselves as end-all, be-all solutions to a litany of diseases and ailments, they rarely deliver on those inherent promises of relief. In fact, they are famous for their horrendous collection of negative side effects.
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These opioids adhere themselves to various receptors in the user’s body and brain, making them feel like they need more and more, in order to feel better. When, in reality, they are actually making their conditions far worse than ever before. And, on top of that, they are adding a new problem that they must deal with, and that problem, ladies and gentlemen, is a lethal addiction to prescription pills.
Thousands of Americans are losing their lives in senseless opioid overdoses, and even more are losing their quality of life, and most of their money, trying to support their doctor-prescribed habit. Had their “trusted” physicians never recommended such a route to relief in the first place, they would’ve never become addicted to these insanely pricey pills, and therefore, would’ve been able to avoid this addictive habit from the start.
But, sadly, as the federal government continues to hold their stubborn stance on cannabis, and vehemently claim that they believe marijuana has no medicinal properties, it will only impede on the progress that the medical community has made in the last handful of years, with mountains upon mountains of statistical evidence proving that cannabis is not only medicinal (in a multitude of ways), but it is also non-addictive, completely safe, and the epitome of natural.
Many speculate that the federal government has maintained this criminally incorrect stance against cannabis for all these years, strictly for the revenue they stand to gain from pharmaceutical companies. These prescription pill lobbyists are deep in the pockets of Congress, who’s members continue to look the other way, and pass pro-opioid laws and legislations, while marijuana routinely took a backseat, if a seat at all, by being placed at the bottom of the government’s priority list.
But, as insanely incorrect as our governing powers are for that despicable stance, the fact remains that cannabis, especially medical-grade marijuana, can be incredibly useful for those suffering from serious illnesses, such as lupus.
For those of you who may be unaware, lupus is defined as any, “…various diseases or conditions marked by inflammation of the skin, especially lupus vulgaris or lupus erythematosus.”
In a more broad sense of the word, many medical experts would describe lupus as a, “disease of the immune system. It is chronic, which means it does not go away. It is an autoimmune disease, where the person’s immune system attacks their own body. The immune system is partly made up of white blood cells in your body that fight off disease.”
In short, the body becomes abundantly confused as to what to “attack.”
Lupus makes your body’s immune system incorrectly attack healthy tissue. They see this healthy part of your body as a bacteria-filled enemy, so they attack it with all the antibodies they can muster. This attack on healthy portions of a person’s body, obviously, leads to a laundry list of effects, like aches, pains, and various things of this nature.
The bad news is, there is no definitive cure for lupus. However, the symptoms can be treated with prescription meds, but like I alluded to above, those don’t always deliver the most reliable results. In fact, many have reported an array of negative side effects from just such medicines, which has led the lupus community to search for other, more positive ways to deal with their symptoms. And one of the sure-fire, super-safe ways that they have found to work more often than not, is medicinal cannabis.
What it all comes down to is these poor people are looking for some much-needed relief from their pain and symptoms. And, lucky for them, that’s precisely what marijuana is tailor-made to do. The implementation of cannabis into a person’s routine can greatly decrease their inflammation and pain, especially if they have to deal with lupus-related ailments and aches.
One sufferer of lupus was quoted as saying, “Cannabis seems to be the only safe, natural, and effective treatment that exists for lupus. The key to treating lupus with cannabis is high levels of CBD orally ingested daily. Capsules seem to be the most convenient but can be difficult to locate.”
That sentiment might’ve been true in the past, but with the cannabis industry being as abundant as it is today, I’d venture to guess that the average dispensary has more than a few CBD capsules to choose from nowadays. Which, honestly, is how it should be. Frankly, it’s how it should’ve been for decades now – and it could’ve been this way, too, had the federal government not put an immediate end to cannabis research all those years ago.
Lucky for us, the powers that be in Washington D.C. have recently eased up on their anti-cannabis stance as of late, and more laboratories across the nation have been legally allowed to resume their medical research on cannabis, and how it can help various people deal with various illnesses and ailments. Which is how it should’ve been all along. But, I suppose, later is better than never, right?
Hopefully, this trend will continue, and more and more doctors will start to realize that cannabis is the way to go, especially for lupus. Fingers crossed.
