Too Much Marijuana Makes Pain Worse, Not Better
Although smoking “moderate” doses of cannabis helps reduce pain in healthy research volunteers, pain is actually increased at high doses, a new study shows. The November issue of the journal Anesthesiology features a study showing that marijuana, or cannabis , reduces pain only within a smaller dose range. “Our study suggests that there is a therapeutic window for analgesia, with low doses being ineffective, medium doses resulting in pain relief and high doses increasing pain ,” said lead author Dr. Mark S. Wallace of University of California, San Diego, in a news release. Wallace and colleagues evaluated the effects of smoking marijuana on pain responses in 15 healthy volunteers. On different days, the research subjects smoked low, medium or high doses of cannabis (based on the content of 9-delta-tetrahydrocannabinol, the main active chemical in marijuana), or an inactive placebo. Pain was induced by injecting capsaicin, the “hot” chemical found in chili peppers, into the skin . Caps...