I have not written an article specifically speaking about cannabis, at least since the article on ballot question number four in Massachusetts, for a while. I am coming back to this subject with the happy appreciation that marijuana is now legal in Massachusetts. However, it will take another year and five months or so to actually be able to buy it from shops. So, possession and growing some plants is legal, but buying and selling it is not, putting marijuana in a “grey zone” which is very dangerous for many still. Here I will come back to the broader subject that marijuana is exceptionally, and I say that speaking relatively, healthy for individuals to inject chemically in some form or fashion. This means that it actually does not harm the physical body as much as other drugs, and can have positive effects for people cognitively and emotionally-speaking, though there are many ways to interpret this information. Most drugs will kill you with enough dosage. It takes longer to kill with cannabis however.

One way in which cannabis can be utilized, which is still being studied today, is to treat and cure glaucoma. Glaucoma is an eye disease that causes an increased pressure in the eyeball, damaging the optic nerve and causing eventual blindness if not treated. It is an inherited disease that is in my bloodline personally speaking. In the 1970s, studies done for the National Eye Institute demonstrated the re-occurring activity of cannabis decreasing pressure in the eyeball and thus being beneficial for the treatment of glaucoma. In the past few years, other scientists at the federal department of the Canadian government responsible for Canada’s health and their tests for cannabis and diseases named Health Canada, a nominal department within the Canadian government that researches cannabis.

Indeed, studies there have shown that the endocannabinoid system exists in a number of ocular tissues, with decreased levels of endocannabinoids in tissues taken in the ocular tissues from glaucoma patients. When cannabis is taken, it can lower the IOP (inter-optic pressure) up to 30 percent. The method of this reduction is yet be clear, but scientists have predicted the cause to be from a reduction of capillary pressure, decreased aqueous humour production and improved aqueous humour uveoscleral outflow and outflow facility

Canada Health did a well-controlled study of six patients with ocular hypertension and early primary open-angle glaucoma of a significant, though not exuberantly high level, they were in danger. After taking cannabis in doses of 5mg, it significantly reduced IPO in two hours. A test done with only 20mg of CBD cannabinoid did not have any effect; while a test with significantly higher cannabinoil (40mg had a much larger effect). Another test that was un-masked and uncontrolled, a clinical study, indeed reported that there was some improvement in IOP after oral ingestion of THC, in patients suffering from end-stage, open-angle glaucoma who were previously not responsive to medications or survey. Some patients reported gaining tolerance to these optic effects after some time of testing, so about half of patients discontinued treatment due to the symptom of being high from THC that they did not appreciate. These side effects are important to take note of and can happen to anyone who uses cannabis, including dizziness, dry mouth, sleepiness, depression, and confusion. There can be neuroprotective effects from the use of cannabis, the department notes.