Since you likely have PTSD from your stroke you can use that to get it prescribed. Luckily I now live in a legal state(MI) but I'll have to get seeds and grow my own, trip to Canada coming up.
With your 23% chance of stroke survivors getting PTSD.
My 13 reasons for marijuana use post-stroke.
Don't follow me, I'm not medically trained.
Alzheimer's added to Minnesota's medical marijuana list
Alzheimer’s
disease will become eligible for treatment with medical marijuana in
Minnesota next year, making it the 14th health condition approved since
the state’s cannabis program began in 2015.
The
Minnesota Department of Health announced Monday that it was adding the
degenerative neurological disorder to the program, despite limited
evidence on the effectiveness of treatment with cannabis. Some studies
have found that marijuana inhibits the formation of tau proteins that
accelerate dementia and memory loss related to the disease.
“Any
policy decisions about cannabis are difficult due to the relative lack
of published scientific evidence,” said state Health Commissioner Jan
Malcolm. “However, there is some evidence for potential benefits of
medical cannabis to improve the mood, sleep and behavior of patients
suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.”
Malcolm
declined to add six other conditions that had been submitted this summer
to a state advisory panel. The others were hepatitis C, juvenile
rheumatoid arthritis, opioid use disorders, panic disorder, psoriasis
and traumatic brain injury.
Other
conditions already approved in Minnesota include cancer pain, epileptic
seizures, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and autism.
Minnesota will join 12 states that permit medical marijuana either for Alzheimer’s or related symptoms.
Dr.
William Orr, a Minneapolis-based geriatric psychiatrist, supported the
petition and argued that advanced Alzheimer’s can make patients
confused, aggressive and combative. Benzodiazepines and narcotics can
calm these patients, he wrote, but those drugs aren’t federally approved
for the purpose and can cause severe, mood-altering side effects.
“I believe
that advanced dementia patients with tremendous anxiety, restlessness,
and pain will benefit,” he wrote. “Such patients are episodically
distraught and become quickly angered and paranoid of staff trying to
help them due to their confusion and inability to understand their
circumstances.”
The
Minnesota Association of Geriatrics took a neutral position, saying that
cannabis to treat Alzheimer’s is not well-studied but that it supported
further research.
Malcolm
said the limited favorable research combined with other factors
convinced her to OK Alzheimer’s, which afflicts an estimated 94,000
people in the state and caused 2,220 deaths in 2016.
The risks
of long-term marijuana use are unknown, but Malcolm said they aren’t as
much of a concern in an older Alzheimer’s population; the average age of
onset is 75.
The
absence of treatment options also was compelling. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration hasn’t approved a drug for Alzheimer’s since 2003.
Advocates
had mixed reactions Monday to the single addition. Some patients already
qualify for cannabis in Minnesota under the catchall category of
intractable pain, but some doctors refuse to certify them because their
specific diseases aren’t on the state list, said Heather Tidd of the
Sensible Minnesota marijuana advocacy group. She also led the state
panel that reviewed medical marijuana petitions for the commissioner.
Tidd predicted that cannabis would help families living with elderly parents or other loved ones with Alzheimer’s.
“It will help with anxiety and aggression,” she said.
Whether
cannabis will be accessible to Alzheimer’s patients in memory care
facilities or nursing homes is another question. Marijuana remains an
illicit controlled substance under federal law, which might discourage
nursing facilities that depend on state and federal revenue sources.
Malcolm said some nursing homes already support marijuana use for patients with qualifying conditions, but some don’t allow it.
Patients
seeking medical marijuana from the state’s two distributors must first
obtain certification from one of 1,391 authorized doctors or other
practitioners in the state. Cannabis products are then sold to them in
liquid or pill forms.
Curing Alzheimer’s — in mice
The state
uses data from certified patients to assess whether the potential
benefits of medical cannabis outweigh the known disadvantages, including
impaired judgment and addiction risks. One study earlier this year
found that 60 percent of surveyed patients with intractable pain
believed cannabis was helping, and that 43 percent of their doctors
agreed.
The state
listed 12,207 patients in its cannabis registry this September, up from
7,007 a year earlier. Last year’s additions of autism and sleep apnea as
qualifying conditions did not fuel the increase. Only 396 people with
either of those conditions were registered this September.
Most
people were registered due to intractable pain, a condition added in
2016. The 7,917 people with that condition made up 65 percent of the
registry. PTSD and muscle spasms were the next most common conditions.
Dr. Ronald
Petersen said he would consider the option if patients or their
relatives requested marijuana for Alzheimer’s — with the understanding
that it might relieve agitation, but that it hasn’t been proven to treat
the disease. A few of his patients are already taking it, but for
conditions other than Alzheimer’s, he noted.
Some
studies have found that cannabis disrupts the tau proteins that are a
hallmark of Alzheimer’s and inhibit brain function. But they were only
in animal models, said Petersen, who directs the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s
Disease Research Center and serves as a science adviser to the
Alzheimer’s Association.
“We have
cured Alzheimer’s disease time and time again” — in lab and animal
models, he said. “But that hasn’t translated to humans yet.”
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