Cannabis is good for me and its good for you.

Who would have believed I would learn so much in a hotel room. May 3, 2011, I had the great honor to spend a day in a hotel room in West Palm with Dr. Denis Petro and Cathy Jordan learning how cannabis is good for me and good for you too.

Cathy is an ALS survivor. The doctors will tell you there is no such thing as an ALS survivor. But, what do you call someone who was given 3-5 years to live over 25 years ago?

In January 1986, Cathy’s disease was confirmed by the teaching hospital at the University of Pennsylvania. The prognosis was fatal. The disease would ravish her system, they encouraged her to get her affairs in order and advised her on protecting her pulmonary system (quit smoking). Since that first diagnosis, Cathy has seen dozens of specialists at some of the finest hospitals in the country. Duke University, University of Miami, the list goes on. Cathy jokes about neurologists thinking they are God, she quickly adds that even a god would not be so arrogant as to believe they were a neurologist…

Most of the doctors Cathy has seen are most interested in helping her die with dignity. Cathy is more interested in living.

Dr. Petro flew to Florida to participate as an expert witness in the Jeffrey Kennedy trial due to start May 2. The prosecution dropped the charges against Mr. Kennedy leaving Dr. Petro free to meet with Cathy. Cathy and Ervin Dargon of Mingo Productions have been working together for years documenting her struggle to legalize cannabis in Florida.

As a patient advocate, Cathy fights every day for people who cannot advocate for themselves. Dr. Petro is an incredibly approachable advocate himself. He knows the historic politics of cannabis, and had a front row seat for the evolution of cannabis science. Dr. Petro has worked on motor neuron disorders for over 35 years. In the 1980’s Dr. Petro performed double-blind clinical trials with Marinol on MS patients. In his opinion, no other drug has the same effect on spasticity as cannabis.

As a specialist in MS, Dr. Petro has seen thousands of patients and testified in hundreds of trials. Until recently, both International MS patient advocacy groups had opposed cannabis use, now the U.K. MS Society provides patients with details about the various strains of cannabis. In the U.S. at least 50,000 patients with MS use cannabis daily instead of the spending thousands of dollars each month on traditional MS drugs according to Dr. Petro, yet many of them are subject to arrest for their medical decision.

It was fascinating to hear the Doctor talk about the affect cannabis has on the hippocampus; some species will have more impact on the hippocampus than others. Currently, in Colorado vendors supply over 30 cannabis preparations available to treat various systems. The right strain of cannabis will increase your acuity while another strain might make you sleepy.

When asked to help us overcome the objection to smoked medicine, Dr. Petro was genus. He talked about how we take medicine tends to be cultural. We had to laugh when we learned that most French people on anti-depressants us a suppository. Contrary to some people’s belief, the distribution of cannabinoids works best if administered as an inhalant or spray in order to get it to the brain and system quickly. By using it as an inhalant you allow for faster absorption, only intravenous injections would come near the absorption rate and smoking it rather than taking a pill or eating a preparation eliminates the interaction in the liver.

When asked about the future of cannabis, Dr. Petro said he believes by the end of 2011 the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Agency will agree to schedule full spectrum cannabis based drugs as Schedule 3 products.

Cannabis-based drugs on the market, easily accessible to patients is a good thing if it happens. When Florida Cannabis Action Network designed its first strategy in 1999, we recognized moving Marinol to Schedule 3 as a positive step. When it was rescheduled, we celebrated it as a success. However, Marinol is expense, poorly promoted –therefore, rarely prescribed and even patients with access report it doesn’t work as well as smoked cannabis.

Cathy has no intention of giving up her plant in exchange for the next new thing. Just because the government has allowed pharmaceutical companies to take over a portion of the medical cannabis industry, Florida Cannabis Action Network is going to continue the crusade to give people access to this wonderful plant that can heal our bodies and prosper our planet.