Does Marijuana help Parkinson’s disease?

Before we get started it’s important that we lay out some background about this disease. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic movement disorder that permanently affects the nervous system by causing progressive damage to it. The cause is unknown and even though there are several treatment options, there is presently no cure to this disease.

The Parkinson’s disease primary symptoms include but are not limited to:

• Tremor of the hands, arms, legs, jaw and face.
• Rigidity of the limb and trunk.
• Lack of balance and coordination on posture and movements.
• Slowness of movements.

Back in the 19th Century doctors used to prescribe Cannabis Indica Tincture to Parkinson’s patients to ease constant trembling. Though tinctures were once the norm, many affected people now find that smoking marijuana effectively help calm the tremors. But how does this work?

Marijuana contains more than 100 neuroactive chemicals that work with two types of cannabinoid receptors, type 1 (CB1) located in the brain and type 2 (CB2) located in the brain and peripheral immune system. Cannabinoids have power effects on these receptors, even though researchers are not sure how.

Cannabis can contain antagonist and agonists molecules that will positively interact with cannabinoid receptors. In addition to this, medical marijuana offers a combination of anti-anxiety, antioxidant and pain relief all in one.
Among the many studies and academic papers relating to the benefits of medical marijuana for Parkinson's disease, Sevcik J. and Masek K., of the Institute of Pharmacology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague had this to say:

"Cannabinoids might alleviate some parkinsonian symptoms by their remarkable receptor-mediated modulatory action in the basal ganglia output nuclei. Moreover, it was recently observed that some cannabinoids are potent antioxidants that can protect neurons from death even without cannabinoid receptor activation.

 It seems that cannabinoids could delay or even stop progressive degeneration of brain dopaminergic systems, a process for which there is presently no prevention. In combination with currently used drugs, cannabinoids might represent, qualitatively, a new approach to the treatment of PD, making it more effective."

In 2014, an observational study demonstrated the effect of medical marijuana on both motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s. The study involved 22 patients who were evaluated 30 minutes before and after they smoked medical marijuana. After the patients smoked, most of them had a significant improvement in their test scores. Furthermore, patients reported an improvement in motor symptoms such as tremors and rigidity.

Medical Cannabis is not meant to replace Parkinson’s patient medications entirely. However, people will see a noticeable improvement when taking their prescribed medication and using medical marijuana. If you have Parkinson and you live in a state that allows medical marijuana use, it’s important that you work in close collaboration with your doctor to monitor and identify any side-effects from the medicines.

If you are a patient or caregiver looking for legal counseling concerning Medical Marijuana? Are you in the medical marijuana business? For legal counseling contact our expert attorneys to talk about your legal and/or business issues today.