Facts About Marijuana Essays - Entheogens, Medicinal Plants

Facts About Marijuana Marijuana originated in the middle east (Taiwan, Korea). China plays an important part in Marijuana's history. Hoatho, the first chinese physician to use Cannabis for medical purposes as a painkiller and anesthetic for surgery. In the Ninth Century B.C., it was used as an incense by the Assyrians Herbal, a Chinese book of medicine from the second Century B.C., was first to describe it in print. It was used as an anesthetic 5,000 years ago in ancient china. Many (*) ancient cultures such as the persians, Greeks, East Indians, Romans, and the Assyrians for many things. These were what they used it for: the control of muscle spasms, reduction of pain, and for indegestion. Imagine that if they still practiced this, instead of taking an Alka Seltzer after you had mom's Chili or Tacos, you might be sitting in the living room on the LAY-Z Boy, smoking a joint or however they would take it. The folk medicine of Africa and Asia have used it as an herbal preparation. A "mythical" and "legendary" pharmacist and emperor Shen Nung thought using it as a seditive was all right. In 2,700 B.C. that same "mythical" emperor said it helped female weakness, gout, rheumatism, malaria, beri-beri (?), contipation, and absentmindedness. In 1979 (A.D.) Carlton E. Turner visited China and found marijuana was not in use in formal medical places. J. D. P. Graham of the Welsh National School of Medicine wrote, "One not need take to seriously the anecdotal use of it's use for many purposes in China or by the Hindus in the pre-Christian Millennia ...and by the Arabs!" In 1890 in England's "Lancet" said cannabis extract was good for neuralgia, fits, migraine and psychosomatic disorders but not for rheumatic conditions. It is not easy to tell the dosage because of the variations in potency and the irregularity in absorbtion. The time delay before the onset of the possible effects of marijuana lowered it's popularity as a medicine as did the introduction of a variety of new and better medicines like aspirin, morpheine (habit forming), chloral, barbituates tranquilizers, and when it got on the list of drugs thought by the world community to require legal restrictions. Our first President, George Washington, grew cannabis on his plantation. The cannabis he grew was more fibrous and is better known as hemp. Hemp was used to make rope, twine, paper and canvas (the word "canvas" comes from Cannabis) and was an important crop in the american colonies. In Jamestown, Virginia it was grown for it's fiber qualities in 1611. (Snyder, 1985) The U.S. Pharmacopeia had it listed as a useful medicine from the year 1870 to 1941. A Pharmacopeia is "a book of directions and requirements for the preparations of medicines, generally published by an authority; a collection or stock of drugs." This tells us the U.S. Pharmacopeia was an authority on the use of drugs for medical purposes, and said that the use of marijuana for said purposes was helpful. The U.S. Pharmacopeia last listed cannabis ("the dried flower tops of the pistillate plants of cannabis sativa") in 1936.(Lovinge,1985,p434) That years epitome of the pharmacopeia and the national formula described the drug for physicians thus:"a narcotic poison, producing a mild delirium. Used in sedative mixtures but of doubtful value. Also employed to color corn remedies." The next pharmacopeia released in 1942 (I gather they were relaesed every six years) did not have cannabis sativa in it. "The 1937 U.S. dispensatory said:"Cannabis is used in medicine to relieve pain, encourage sleep, and to soothe restlessness. We have very little definite knowledge of the effects of therapeutic quantities, but in some persons it appears to produce a euphoria and will often relieve migrainic headaches. One of the great hindrances to the wider use of this drug is the great variability and the potency of different samples of Cannabis which renders it impossible to approximate the proper dose of any individual smaple except by clinical trial. Because of occasional unpleasant symptoms from unusually potent preparations, physicians have generally been overcaustious in the quantities administered. The only way of determining the dose of an individual preparation is to give it in ascending quantities until some effect is produced. (The

Interview of Medical Information Professional Essay Example

Interview of Medical Information Professional Essay Example Interview of Medical Information Professional Paper Interview of Medical Information Professional Paper The debates in the arena of health care provision always center on the quality, availability and the sustainability of the medical provision system. There are a myriad of challenges facing both the receivers and the providers of health care In the center of all these is the state and federal government regulatory framework. To analyze these legal regulatory frameworks and th0eir correlation to health information practice it is prudent to analyze the views from health information professional. This is a comprehensive interview report carried out with a health information professional regarding the legal issues and regulatory challenges they face. The preceding report is presented in question-answer format for easy comprehension and reference. Interview of Medical Information Professional Question: To promote electronic data interchange in the health care system, a number of measure have been put into place including the HIPAA Act of 1996. what are the major contents of this act? Answer: The Health Insurance and Accountability act enacted by Congress protects workers and their families health insurance coverage in case they lose or change their jobs. Through the Administrative Simplification, usually known as AS provisions, it stipulated that national standards for electronic data interchange be established to offer a regulation in this sector. These provisions also address the privacy and security of such data. Title I of the act has specific articles that regulate health care access, the portability of health care provision and renewability. Title II has policies that ensure the prevention of health care fraud, the AS, and the medical liability reform. Several chapters ensure that there is privacy and security of data, that transactions are carried in accordance with the transactions and code rule. The regulation of the activities of the relevant health care providers are enshrined in the unique identifiers rule and the enforcement rule. All these sought to promote and provide a regulated free and safe electronic data interchange. Question: What major role does Medicare and Medicaid play in dealing with insurance coverage? Answer: The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is the principal organ controlling the countries health care insurance. Medicaid operates as a joint, voluntary entitlement program between the states and the federal government to offer health insurance coverage to the poor, disabled or the elderly impoverished members of the society. Guidelines are developed by the government prescribe minimum eligibility and coverage standards and requirements. Medicare healthy insurance program offers insurance to those over sixty five years of age. Question: What major role does Medicare and Medicaid play in dealing other   emerging challenges? Answer: CMS has both an administrative and a regulatory role. It administers health care insurance portability standards, administrative simplification standards, quality standards for nursing facilities and clinical laboratory standards. Using powers vested in the institution it therefore ensures that all health care providers work in compliance with laid down codes of conduct in clinical practice. Question: Are there other institutions that assist health care providers to ensure compliance? Answer: There are legal institutions that lead the sophisticated and sometimes very complex business transactions in health care. They also offer litigation in legal challenges for their clients. Additionally they are leaders in health care information systems and technology and health care insurance policies and plans. Because of the complex evolving rules and regulations,   through their billing and reimbursement services they assist medical providers in the development and implementation of legal strategies so that they can achieve Medicare compliance. As a health information professional these institutions form the yard stick of our operations because compliance to the stringent legal framework is the only way that an ethical practice can be achieved. Question: There is a growing concern of professional malpractice and negligence. Are these litigious claims substantive? Answer: There are cases where court cases have been won as regards professional misconduct or negligence by health information professionals. Such cases are individual isolated cases even though due to publicity and the sensitivity of such cases they have continued to draw unfathomable public furor. These cases are important starting points of carrying out full intellectual discourse and policy debates. However, malpractice litigation is a negligible variable in health care reform. There is infrequent compensation of victims of medical negligence while providers are rarely held accountable.