Why would anyone want to give their child an
expensive pill... with unacceptable side effects,
when he or she could just go into the backyard,
pick a few leaves off a plant and make tea for him
or her instead? Cannabinoids are a very viable
alternative to treating adolescents with ADD and
ADHD
Video Medical Marijuana Cannabis for ADD and Its Good For
Kids!
WASHINGTON - As a California pediatrician and
49-year-old mother of two teenage daughters, Claudia Jensen says pot might
prove to be the preferred medical treatment for attention deficit disorder -
even in adolescents.
While some wonder whether Jensen was smoking some wacky weed
herself, the clinician for low-income patients and professor to first-year
medical students at the University of Southern California said her beliefs are
very grounded: The drug helps ease the symptomatic mood swings, lack of focus,
anxiety and irritability in people suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders
like ADD and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
"Cannabinoids are a very viable alternative to treating
adolescents with ADD and ADHD.I have a lot of adult patients who swear by
it."
Under California state law, physicians are allowed to
recommend to patients the use of cannabis to treat illnesses, although the
federal government has maintained that any use of marijuana - medicinal or
otherwise - is illegal. The federal courts have ruled that physicians like
Jensen cannot be prosecuted for making such recommendations.
Jensen said she regularly writes prescriptions recommending
the use of cannabis for patients -particularly those suffering pain and nausea
from chronic illnesses, such as AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and arthritis.
She has also worked with one family of a 15-year-old - whose family had tried
every drug available to help their son, who by age 13 had become a problem
student diagnosed as suffering from ADHD. Under Jensen’s supervision, he
began cannabis treatment, settling it on in food and candy form, and he has
since found equilibrium and regularly attends school.
But not everyone is so high on the idea of pot for students
with neurological illnesses. Subcommittee Chairman Mark Souder, R-Ind., who
invited Jensen to testify after reading about her ideas in the newspaper, was
hardly convinced by her testimony.
"I do believe that Dr. Jensen really wants to help her
patients, but I think she is deeply misguided when she recommends cannabis to
teenagers with attention deficit disorder or hyperactivity," he told
Foxnews.com. "There is no serious scientific basis for using marijuana to
treat those conditions, and Dr. Jensen didn’t even try to present one."
Dr. Tom O’Connell, a retired chest surgeon who now works
with patients at a Bay Area clinic for patients seeking medical marijuana
recommendations, is working on it. He said cannabis not only helps pain, but
also can treat psychological disorders. He is currently conducting a study of
hundreds of his patients, whom he said he believes have been self-medicating
with pot and other drugs for years, and he hopes to publish a paper on the
subject soon.
"My work with cannabis patients is certainly not
definitive at this point, but it strongly suggests that the precepts upon
which cannabis prohibition have been based are completely spurious,"
O’Connell said. Worse yet, he added, the prohibition has successfully kept
certain adolescents away from pot who now turn to tobacco and alcohol instead.
Jensen, who said she believes Souder invited her to testify to
"humiliate me and incriminate me in some way," suggested that a
growing body of evidence is being developed to back medical cannabis chiefly
for chronic pain and nausea. She said it is difficult, however, for advocates
like herself to get the funding and permission to conduct
government-recognized tests on ADD/ADHD patients.
"Unfortunately, no pharmaceutical companies are motivated
to spend the money on research, and the United States government has a
monopoly on the available cannabis and research permits," she told
Congress. Studies done on behalf of the government, including the 1999
Institute of Medicine’s "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science
Base," found that cannabis delivers effective THC and other cannabinoids
that serve as pain relief and nausea-control agents. But these same studies
warn against the dangers of smoking cannabis and suggest other FDA-approved
drugs are preferable.
"We know all too well the dangerous health risks that
accompany (smoking)," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., ranking member on
the subcommittee, who like Souder, was not impressed by Jensen’s arguments.
"It flies in the face of responsible medicine to advocate a drug that had
been known to have over 300 carcinogens and has proven to be as damaging to
the lungs as cigarette smoking," added Jennifer Devallance, spokeswoman
for the White House Office of Drug Control Policy.
The government points to Food and Drug Administration-approved
Marinol, a THC-derived pill that acts as a stand-in for marijuana. But many
critics say there are nasty side effects, and it’s too expensive for the
average patient.
On the other hand, Jensen and others say cannabinoids can be
made into candy form, baked into food or boiled into tea. They say that
despite the FDA blessing, giving kids amphetamines like Ritalin for ADD and
other behavioral disorders might be more dangerous.
"Ritalin is an amphetamine - we have all of these
youngsters running around on speed," said Keith Stroup, spokesman for the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
"Although it flies in the face of conventional wisdom,
it’s nevertheless true that cannabis is far safer and more effective than
the prescription agents currently advocated for treatment of ADD-ADHD,"
O’Connell said.
Stroup said if Souder’s intention was to harangue Jensen, he
was unsuccessful in the face of her solid and articulate testimony on April
1."It was a good day for her, and a good day for medical marijuana in
Congress," he said.
Nick Coleman, a subcommittee spokesman, said Souder doesn’t
"try to humiliate people.
"But to promote medical cannabis for teenagers with
ADD... he does not feel that is a sound and scientific medical practice,"
Coleman said. While the issue of treating adolescents with medical marijuana
is fairly new, the idea of using pot to treat chronically and terminally ill
patients is not. Nine states currently have laws allowing such practices. A
number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have added that they want the
states to decide for themselves whether to pursue medical marijuana laws.
Among those lawmakers are Reps. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a
physician; Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.; and Barney Frank, D-Mass. "(Rep.
Paul) believes there are some legitimate applications," like for pain and
nausea, said spokesman Jeff Deist. "But the real issue is that states
should decide for themselves."
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