“Cannabis is one of the best medicines for migraines. It’s so effective – it works rapidly, and it has limited toxicity, although lung damage from smoking is a concern.”June 2, 2005 – Click here for Source Info
David L. Bearman, MD, physician and medical marijuana expert, in a letter printed in the Feb. 3, 2005 edition of Los Angeles City Beat, wrote:“Not only are there thousands of migraine patients who benefit from cannabis, but cannabis has been cited by such historical medical luminaries as Sir William Osler, M.D. (considered the father of modern medicine) and Dr. Morris Fishbein (long-time editor of JAMA) as the best treatment for migraines (back in the days before the Congress ignored the AMA and over the AMA’s objection, passed the Marijuana Tax Act).”
[Editor’s Note: Dr. Bearman responded to the Con statements in a Jan. 11, 2011 email to ProCon.org:
“A couple of the con statements on the use of cannabis to prevent and/or relieve the symptoms of migraine headaches correctly note that there have been no double blind studies done. This observation does not abrogate thousands of years of anecdotal evidence and over one hundred years of support by prominent figures in the medical establishment… While double blind studies are certainly important, in the United States such studies have not been allowed…
Dr. Russo, a well respected neurologist, author, researcher and North American Consultant to GW Pharmaceuticals, tried for four years to get the federal government to approve just such a double blind research project. They refused…
Just as a historical note; when aspirin was first used for treating headaches no double blind studies were done, yet we still believe that aspirin treats headaches. Aspirin was based on centuries of use of willow bark by Native Americans. Aspirin was grand-mothered in by the 1938 Food, Cosmetics and Drug Act and to the best of my knowledge has never received modern FDA approval because it never had to. Many experts say that if aspirin had to undergo the contemporary FDA approval process it would be far from a shoe in to receive that approval.”]
Feb. 3, 2005 – Click Here for Source Info
Jack Herer, author and pro-marijuana activist, wrote in his Nov. 2000 book The Emperor Wears No Clothes:“Because migraine headaches are the result of artery spasms combined with over-relaxation of veins, the vascular changes cannabis causes in the covering of the brain (the meninges) usually make migraines disappear.”Nov. 2000 – Click Here for Source Info