Cannabis has been used to treat epilepsy for millennia. While 20th century prohibition stopped its use and hampered research, a recent study by the New England Journal of Medicine has finally proved what has been known anecdotally to medicine since at least the 1800s, that cannabis is effective in treating epilepsy.
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by repeated seizures. These episodes can be brief and infrequent, or in chronic and extreme cases, can last for hours and occur multiple times a day. Cannabis, in particular the cannabinoid CBD, is effective in alleviating both the severity and frequency of these seizures in the majority of patients. For those with chronic conditions, the improvement to their quality of life can be tremendous. It’s not only conditions like epilepsy either; sufferers of extreme tremor disorders, such as MS and Parkinson’s Disease, have also seen similar effectiveness when treated with cannabis and CBD extracts.
CBD oil and concentrates like rosin have become the preferred method of medicating with cannabis. Rosin especially is clean and solventless, the onset is swift, and the effects are powerful; they’re also easier on the lungs for those who don’t want to smoke flower. However, best of all, rosin can be safely made at home with products like the Rosin Tech Twist™, Smash™, or Go™. That’s especially useful for epilepsy sufferers who have found an effective strain but need the added strength of concentrates.
CBD oil is also helping kids with extreme seizure disorders. You may be familiar with the case of Charlotte Figis who sufferers from the rare and incredibly severe form of epilepsy that affects children, Dravet’s syndrome. Charlotte was experiencing hundreds of grand mal seizures a week and the syndrome itself was considered drug resistant and untreatable. That was, of course, until cannabis with high levels of CBD was administered by her parents with astonishing results. The high-CBD cannabis oil reduced the extreme frequency of her seizures drastically, even leading to the strain being named “Charlotte’s Web” in her honor.
It’s thanks to parents such as Charlotte’s that the effectiveness of cannabis and CBD in treating such disorders is now widely known. In turn, it has lead to the first FDA approved drug containing marijuana, Epidiolex, a 99% pure CBD extract. Double blind placebo tests have proved CBD’s effectiveness at treating disorders such as Dravet’s and the similar Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS).
While there is clearly much more to learn about cannabis’ medical properties, the future looks bright for CBD concentrates and treatments. Hopefully these medical trials will continue, further pushing back the veil on what cannabis can do.
