Many people today know there are healing properties in cannabis yet assume that smoking a joint is not the most medicinal route to treat an illness; that an edible, oil or capsule would be more effective… If we are talking about illnesses that affect the eyes, that assumption is wrong.
What if being able to smoke a joint meant being able to retain your sight? For over 400,000 Canadians, this is a reality.
What does Glaucoma look like?
Glaucoma happens when the pressure in your eyes increases to the point where your optic nerves are damaged; most often leading to blindness.
Affecting everyone differently, some people just suffer from extreme eye pressure and severe pain, yet never go blind; others can go blind suddenly with mild pain. Glaucoma is incurable.
You are at risk if you have a family history, chronic high blood pressure or increased pressure in your eyes.
This disease affects over 67 million people worldwide.
Treatments for Glaucoma – The list of options is pretty horrible…
I had a lady come sign up to become a member of the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club the other day and she suffers from Glaucoma.
She told me that smoking weed had literally saved her from an operation where they were going to drill holes in her eyes; the procedure is called a Trabeculectomy and the other options are not much better.
Instead, smoke a joint!
- In the study released in 1971 by researchers R.S. Hepler & I.R.Frank, “Marihuana smoking and intraocular pressure”, it was noticed that specifically smoking cannabis reduced the intraocular eye pressure by approximately 25 percent after 30 minutes.
- In addition to that, there was a 50 percent reduction in tear flow and ocular pulse pressure, with no development of a tolerance.
Have you ever wondered why the government recognized smoking medicinal cannabis before edibles or oils? Thank Glaucoma!
Despite having very little research on cannabis from the medical community, the study on inhaling cannabis to treat intraocular pressure could not be ignored. In 1980, a follow-up study was conducted by Merritt JC, Crawford WJ, Alexander PC, Anduze AL, Gelbart SS titled, “Effect of marihuana on intraocular and blood pressure in glaucoma.” and it came to the same conclusion.
With the evidence clear for all to see, backed by medical professionals; when it comes to Glaucoma, the government had to recognize that distinctively smoking cannabis has medicinal properties. Thus, medicinal cannabis law began with smoking and for a very good reason.