Real Marijuana as Herbal Medicine?

[Nemo]

Interesting, it can make schizophrenia or OCD worse. Smoking anything, even too much incense, will give you cancer and wreck your cardiovascular system.

It is used in some traditional Ayur Vedic medicines. But they incinerate it first to get rid of it's toxic properties. The remaining ash or bhasma is what is in them.

Pot was never an important herbal medicine in India. There are better medicines and herbs with fewer negative side effects. Wu Cha Seng is much better for nausea for instance. Ginseng is better for appetite. Recreational use is something different. Can't people just admit they like smoking up? I drink the occasional glass of wine. I get it. The same game was played with alcohol years ago.

[Wesley1982]

As for ingesting Cannabis, I think it could possibly be worked with in a Shamanistic way (empowering with Mantras, etc.); that is if we are sincere, as opposed to using that as an excuse to indulge in it recreationally.

The potent effects of hydroponic pot can certainly be used for religious or ritualistic purposes.

[Wesley1982]

I'm wondering if you can get a license/permit in some countries to legally grow & cultivate the plant.

[Nemo]

You can in Ontario Canada. But you need a clean criminal record to get a medicinal growers permit. Most medicinal users have switched back to illicit. They felt the legal weed they were getting was schwag. Hopefully quality will improve. The Zetas don't need anymore business.

[conebeckham]

I'm wondering if you can get a license/permit in some countries to legally grow & cultivate the plant.

Amsterdam....???

[Wesley1982]

Medical patients would rather get quality cannabis product from a dealer than their legal presciption?..

[Virgo]

The same game was played with alcohol years ago.

Actually, Guinness was prescribed by doctors in the past in Ireland for people who felt weak. I guess it was more of a folk remedy but people, including many doctors, believed it.

Kevin

[Wesley1982]

I'm wondering if you can get a license/permit in some countries to legally grow & cultivate the plant.

Amsterdam....???

Yea, Amsterdam is one place. You would have make a costly $$ transition from N. America to that part of Europe. But it is possible

[tomamundsen]

I'm wondering if you can get a license/permit in some countries to legally grow & cultivate the plant.

Medical patients in California are allowed to grow. It varies from county to county on the number of plants and amount of dried material you can possess at once.

[tomamundsen]

Most medicinal users have switched back to illicit. They felt the legal weed they were getting was schwag. Hopefully quality will improve. The Zetas don't need anymore business.

Really? That's odd. In California, the legal stuff is much higher quality than the illegal.

[tomamundsen]

As for ingesting Cannabis, I think it could possibly be worked with in a Shamanistic way (empowering with Mantras, etc.); that is if we are sincere, as opposed to using that as an excuse to indulge in it recreationally.

The potent effects of hydroponic pot can certainly be used for religious or ritualistic purposes.

Not really in Buddhism.

[seeker242]

We could also decriminalize it and stop pretending it's this super amazing cure all medicine. Let's just say it is as medicinal as my glass of red wine after dinner for my arthritis. (Pom Wonderful works just as well by the way. Don't tell my wife.)

It's not a cure all but it has been shown to be a bit (a lot) more effective than wine, etc. for a number of different ailments. For example, glaucoma, epilepsy, MS, AIDS, cancer, ALS, etc. The fact that it is illegal for doctors to prescribe to people is completely ridiculous. Of course there are 'THC pills" actually prescribed to people AKA Marinol, it's basically synthetic THC pills, one of the active ingredients in Cannabis. I know this guy who took them a while ago. He said the pills cost him $800 a month...because he didn't have insurance. He also did not live in a state where it is legal. It quite nonsensical to force someone to pay $800 a month for something they can grow in their garden for free. Unless of course, you are the one selling the pills!

It's also quite ridiculous for the us government to continue to assert that is has no medical benefit, when at the same time, they have approved synthetic versions of it for doctors to prescribe! Ok I will stop ranting now,

[dharmagoat]

Marijuana seems to enhance the "special effects" one can experience in meditation. Because buddhist meditation generally dismisses such experiences as distracting side-effects, marijuana serves no useful purpose in buddhism. If anything, its effects interfere with proper meditation practice, and these can persist for many years after the last high. I speak from my own experience.

[dharmagoat]

Oh yes, and if you smoke dope, even to celebrate a friend's success, you will be sent to a hell realm where you will be deprived of your genitalia and have nasty black-skinned, orange-eyed demons thrust red-hot iron rods into your lungs, roasting you from the inside out...

[Wesley1982]

Not really in Buddhism.

It can easily be turned into a tribal or shamanistic ritual in other non-buddhist religious practices.

[tomamundsen]

Not really in Buddhism.

It can easily be turned into a tribal or shamanistic ritual in other non-buddhist religious practices.

For sure.

[Jesse]

Can't people just admit they like smoking up?

I don't like smoking at all, it gives me anxiety.. but if I am ever in a deep depression, it's about the only thing that can snap me out of it. I use a very tiny amount.

So, it does have genuine medical uses, imho.

[Ikkyu]

In my opinion, there is no problem with many psychedelics in and of themselves unless a person acts with heedlessness because of them. They don't help much with meditation either. (Then again there are some Vajrayana practitioners in the Ngak'phang lineage who would suggest otherwise.) Marijuana, along with other psychedelics, can recreate some experiences gained hrough meditation and absorption in the jhanas, such as loss of ego and self, and insight into emptiness, but this is never lasting. At most you get 8 hours out of magic mushrooms. The biggest problem is when people equate psychedelic experiences gained through the use of substances like marijuana with enlightened experiences. There simply is no real connection between, say, LSD and actual kensho. However I see no problem with occasionally using marijuana for enjoyment. It doesn't, in my opinion, go against the fifth precept, especially if done in moderation, with mindfulness and right intent.

In terms of medicinal use, it is much healthier to vaporize Cannabis or to eat it than to smoke it. Smoking too much Cannabis can cause emphesema.

[Ikkyu]

Oh yes, and if you smoke dope, even to celebrate a friend's success, you will be sent to a hell realm where you will be deprived of your genitalia and have nasty black-skinned, orange-eyed demons thrust red-hot iron rods into your lungs, roasting you from the inside out...

You can't be serious.

[Ikkyu]

Interesting, it can make schizophrenia or OCD worse. Smoking anything, even too much incense, will give you cancer and wreck your cardiovascular system.

It is used in some traditional Ayur Vedic medicines. But they incinerate it first to get rid of it's toxic properties. The remaining ash or bhasma is what is in them.

Pot was never an important herbal medicine in India. There are better medicines and herbs with fewer negative side effects. Wu Cha Seng is much better for nausea for instance. Ginseng is better for appetite. Recreational use is something different. Can't people just admit they like smoking up? I drink the occasional glass of wine. I get it. The same game was played with alcohol years ago.

I think the key phrase here is "too much".