The potential of medical marijuana and pure cannabidiol – an active substance in the cannabis plant – for neurologic conditions is highly controversial. However, according to a [s]Daily Mail[/s] report, US research has now suggested the drug could help people with severe epilepsy. Dr Orrin Devinsky, director of the [b]Comprehensive Epilepsy Centre[/b] at [b]New York University Langone Medical Centre[/b], said: ‘While cannabis has been used to treat epilepsy for centuries, data from double-blind randomised, controlled trials of CBD or THC in epilepsy is lacking. [b]Inkatha Freedom Party[/b] politician Mario Oriani-Ambrosini has credited the use of alternative treatments, including the administration of cannabis oils as a suppository, for clearing his lung cancer, reports [s]Business Day[/s]. In February, Oriani-Ambrosini introduced to Parliament a private member’s bill, the [b]Medical Innovations Bill[/b], which aimed to legalise and regulate alternative treatments for cancer, including cannabis.
[link url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2636067/Another-medical-use-cannabis-scientists-helps-reduce-seizures-people-severe-epilepsy.html]Full Daily Mail report[/link]
[link url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/epi.12631/abstract]Epilepsia abstract[/link]
[link url=http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/2014/05/22/mp-mario-oriani-ambrosini-hails-alternative-medicines]Full Business Day report[/link]