Saturday, December 31, 2011

Cannabis as Medicine

By Castulo Zane


Marijuana goes by many names, like indica, sativa, cannabis sativa, cannabis indica, etc., but they are all the same. People all over the world use marijuana for all sorts of different purposes.

It's use has a very long history. Depending on your point of view it can be portrayed as simply fun, evil, useful,or harmless. Western medicine is just beginning to discover the uses of marijuana - some say "re-discovering".

Chinese medicine, on the other hand, has long used marijuana as a basic building block of treatment.Given marijuana's increasing popularity it's only a matter of time before we see many more uses for marijuana developed

Currently medical marijuana therapy is still a new field New applications are being tried all the time New techniques, usually pioneered by activists, are being shared through the internet and through cannabis culture participants Marijuana can be divided into two broad categories - the indicas and the sativas

You can divide the two main categories into lots of sub-categories and strains These indica/sativa lines have been crossed by breeders to create even more variety.There are literally thousands of strains, breeds and hybrids as a result

They all have different characteristics in terms of effect and cannabis profile. Indica grows faster than the sativas, and that means they mature faster as well. They can generally be traced to places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tibet and Morocco. Traditionally these places grew marijuana to make hash, and indicas are good for that.

Indicas are short, darker green, and have wide leaves After flowering starts they're mature in 6 -8 weeks The buds are stinky and big They are great for pain blocking and management, and so are good for medicinal marijuana The size and shape of indica make it a good candidate for indoor gardens.

Sativas grow slower and grow taller than indicas. They are harder to grow indoors, and are hard to grow outside as you get further north. They grow in places like Mexico, Colombia, the Caribbean and South east Asia.

These are the giant plants that you can see on pictures growing well over 12 feet high. Long, skinny (both in plant size and leaf size) they tend to be lighter green than indicas. They also take longer to mature once budding starts (2-4 months). Sativas account for the paranoia that some people attribute to marijuana, and can cause an irregular heartbeat. Their use in medicinal marijuana is, as a result, more problematic.

Now, that doesn't mean sativas are bad. There are many strains of both sativa and indica. Since they can be crossbred, there can be some interesting breeds developed. The qualities they display tend to break out along the percentage breakdown of indica/sativa in each new strain.

That's what breeders try to accomplish They breed for results - more resear4ch leads to more knowledge about what strains do what This leads to more strains and hybrids than the original pure strains.The results are hybrids that are called sativa/indica crosses or indica/sativa crosses, depending on the mix and which is in the majority.

Sativa hybrids are mostly sativa but with some indica balancing It's the reverse for indica/sativa blends While sativas aren't good pain blockers they are useful as motivators if the paranoia effect is reduced They help raise appetites that are suppressed by other drugs, and help with depression Indicas are the better pain blocker, however, and so have the widest medical use at present One popular indica hybrid is Northern Lights - the first strain I ever grew with hydroponics.




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