High Society: Medical-marijuana experts say that cannabis can provide relief for many diseases affecting the black community, but the stigma of the drug keeps some folks away.
Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing series that looks at the growing legal marijuana industry and its effect on the black community.
If you search “babies cured with cannabis” on YouTube, you come up with a plethora of emotional videos. There’s California’s Dr. William Courtney from 2013, using X-rays to show what he says is the cure of an 8-month-old baby suffering from a brain tumor with cannabis oil.
Then there’s an excerpt from the 2014 documentary The Culture High, in which California resident Jason David explains how a cannabis extract helped his child stop having literally hundreds of seizures a day.
But very few of the people in the pages of videos appear to be people of color.
“It’s time for us as a community to embrace this plant and understand what it means. We need to start helping our children,” says activist and entrepreneur Wanda James. She is the African-American co-founder and CEO of the Colorado-based dispensary Simply Pure, and she thinks blacks are missing out on what she says are the major medical benefits of marijuana.
“I’m not seeing black children with cancer lining up to get cannabis oil. I’m not seeing our kids take advantage of what I’m seeing a lot of other children take advantage of,” James says. “Cannabis helps with brain cancer and epilepsy. … Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have said there is a medicinal value. We know this plant will increase the appetite in people who can’t eat. We know it will stop nausea. But most of the people who use medical marijuana are white.”
In Washington, D.C., where medical marijuana was first approved in 2010, a report (pdf) from May notes that “it is important to remember that the substance does have legitimate medical uses.”
It cites 1999 research from the Institute of Medicine reporting that weed is effective in controlling some forms of pain, alleviating nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, treating wasting due to AIDS, and combating muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis.
It confirms that marijuana low in THC—or tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical that causes the high—has “shown promising results for managing seizures in children,” and that research suggests marijuana may be helpful for everything from Alzheimer’s disease to asthma, arthritis and glaucoma.
“We’re scared to use it,” says Macias, who also has an MBA and owns the National Holistic Healing Center dispensary in Washington, D.C.’s trendy DuPont Circle neighborhood. “We used it—sometimes as medicine—before it was legalized, and in some cases we were incarcerated for it. Now, even though treatment and science are pointing to the benefits, we’re still skeptical. …
We’re not sure what the bottom line is; we’re not sure what the repercussions are, especially in places where there’s medical [marijuana]. And then the other question is access to that.”
In some states where medical marijuana is allowed, Macias notes, some employers still do drug testing for weed and other illegal substances. That means people of color who might be potential patients could be blocked from entry-level positions and lose a chance of employment.
But Macias says that there are several strains, and different uses of marijuana, that could help mitigate health problems suffered disproportionately by African Americans, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
“I treat black males with prostate cancer. It’s an epidemic in the black community, and often metastasized to bone [cancer]. … It blocks the pathway to void the bladder, and men were coming in because they were having that obstruction,” Macias explains. “With a certain strain of medication—we have over 50 different strains we can align with your ailment—we were able to allow that muscle relaxation and could void the bladder without using other medications, like Flomax.”
She says that she has helped veterans of color suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and insomnia, cancer patients suffering loss of appetite from chemotherapy treatments and HIV/AIDS patients who need pain management.
“For example, women use Botox for the straight cosmetic effect, but Botox has caused people to feel better,” Macias says. “People didn’t understand. Come to find out that Botox is a muscle relaxant for the muscles in the head and it also helps with headaches, so you have people going in for a specific element but being treated for another. … That’s why you need to go through the truth questionnaire and surveys to understand exactly what you need. It’s not just the strain that’s important, it’s also the method of consumption.”
“Even with heart disease, there’s no engagement in our community. I’ve seen it in other communities,” Macias explains, adding that her practice has close to 1,000 patients, with marijuana strains ranging from $13 to $22 per gram. “I’ve seen HIV and cancer [patients] because those are known, but not lots of diabetes, even though we know [weed] has a big effect on diabetes and ALS [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease], but our community doesn’t engage.”
Macias and other medical-marijuana experts add that people using weed to deal with ailments don’t have to end up sitting on their couches, too stoned to deal with their everyday lives, as seen in a variety of anti-drug television commercials.
“Lots who experience ‘couch lock’ and what you see on TV are overmedicated, and you shouldn’t have to be,” Macias says. “If you are overmedicating, you can’t really be functional, but if you medicate at what you need, it’s like taking a Tylenol. Some have the desire to overmedicate, but that isn’t the typical person in this community.”
If you search “babies cured with cannabis” on YouTube, you come up with a plethora of emotional videos. There’s California’s Dr. William Courtney from 2013, using X-rays to show what he says is the cure of an 8-month-old baby suffering from a brain tumor with cannabis oil.
Then there’s an excerpt from the 2014 documentary The Culture High, in which California resident Jason David explains how a cannabis extract helped his child stop having literally hundreds of seizures a day.
But very few of the people in the pages of videos appear to be people of color.
“It’s time for us as a community to embrace this plant and understand what it means. We need to start helping our children,” says activist and entrepreneur Wanda James. She is the African-American co-founder and CEO of the Colorado-based dispensary Simply Pure, and she thinks blacks are missing out on what she says are the major medical benefits of marijuana.
“I’m not seeing black children with cancer lining up to get cannabis oil. I’m not seeing our kids take advantage of what I’m seeing a lot of other children take advantage of,” James says. “Cannabis helps with brain cancer and epilepsy. … Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have said there is a medicinal value. We know this plant will increase the appetite in people who can’t eat. We know it will stop nausea. But most of the people who use medical marijuana are white.”
In Washington, D.C., where medical marijuana was first approved in 2010, a report (pdf) from May notes that “it is important to remember that the substance does have legitimate medical uses.”
It cites 1999 research from the Institute of Medicine reporting that weed is effective in controlling some forms of pain, alleviating nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, treating wasting due to AIDS, and combating muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis.
It confirms that marijuana low in THC—or tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical that causes the high—has “shown promising results for managing seizures in children,” and that research suggests marijuana may be helpful for everything from Alzheimer’s disease to asthma, arthritis and glaucoma.
Fear of Using Medical Marijuana
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites serious health disparities for African Americans, including an increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, HIV/AIDS, diabetes and several kinds of cancer. Some marijuana-medical experts, such as Chanda Macias, Ph.D., an African-American cellular biologist, are trying hard to get blacks to take advantage of the ways the drug could help deal with some of those problems. But she says that the challenge is getting past the negative impact that weed has had on communities of color.“We’re scared to use it,” says Macias, who also has an MBA and owns the National Holistic Healing Center dispensary in Washington, D.C.’s trendy DuPont Circle neighborhood. “We used it—sometimes as medicine—before it was legalized, and in some cases we were incarcerated for it. Now, even though treatment and science are pointing to the benefits, we’re still skeptical. …
We’re not sure what the bottom line is; we’re not sure what the repercussions are, especially in places where there’s medical [marijuana]. And then the other question is access to that.”
In some states where medical marijuana is allowed, Macias notes, some employers still do drug testing for weed and other illegal substances. That means people of color who might be potential patients could be blocked from entry-level positions and lose a chance of employment.
But Macias says that there are several strains, and different uses of marijuana, that could help mitigate health problems suffered disproportionately by African Americans, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
“I treat black males with prostate cancer. It’s an epidemic in the black community, and often metastasized to bone [cancer]. … It blocks the pathway to void the bladder, and men were coming in because they were having that obstruction,” Macias explains. “With a certain strain of medication—we have over 50 different strains we can align with your ailment—we were able to allow that muscle relaxation and could void the bladder without using other medications, like Flomax.”
She says that she has helped veterans of color suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and insomnia, cancer patients suffering loss of appetite from chemotherapy treatments and HIV/AIDS patients who need pain management.
“For example, women use Botox for the straight cosmetic effect, but Botox has caused people to feel better,” Macias says. “People didn’t understand. Come to find out that Botox is a muscle relaxant for the muscles in the head and it also helps with headaches, so you have people going in for a specific element but being treated for another. … That’s why you need to go through the truth questionnaire and surveys to understand exactly what you need. It’s not just the strain that’s important, it’s also the method of consumption.”
A Treatment for Common Ailments
Marijuana can be smoked, vaporized, and used in edibles and as a topical treatment. Macias says that cannabidiol, or CBD—not the THC part of marijuana that causes the high—causes an anti-inflammatory response that can help with arthritis. She explains that strains higher in CBD can be used to treat epilepsy or multiple sclerosis.“Even with heart disease, there’s no engagement in our community. I’ve seen it in other communities,” Macias explains, adding that her practice has close to 1,000 patients, with marijuana strains ranging from $13 to $22 per gram. “I’ve seen HIV and cancer [patients] because those are known, but not lots of diabetes, even though we know [weed] has a big effect on diabetes and ALS [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease], but our community doesn’t engage.”
Macias and other medical-marijuana experts add that people using weed to deal with ailments don’t have to end up sitting on their couches, too stoned to deal with their everyday lives, as seen in a variety of anti-drug television commercials.
“Lots who experience ‘couch lock’ and what you see on TV are overmedicated, and you shouldn’t have to be,” Macias says. “If you are overmedicating, you can’t really be functional, but if you medicate at what you need, it’s like taking a Tylenol. Some have the desire to overmedicate, but that isn’t the typical person in this community.”
No comments:
Post a Comment