At Prime Wellness of Pennsylvania, we take tremendous pride in our patient-preferred prime line of products, which are expertly crafted to the highest standards to help cultivate better lives for patients and caregivers across the Commonwealth.
As a company, we strive to provide patients with the medication — and education — they need to find potential relief from the 23 qualifying conditions outlined in Pennsylvania’s Medical Marijuana Program. Our new Qualifying Conditions Series will take a closer look at these conditions and medical marijuana’s potential therapeutic benefits, focusing on cancer in this installment. We hope Pennsylvanians living with this qualifying medical condition will find this information useful in making decisions about which medical marijuana products may help them- for a better quality of life.
Importantly, we recognize October as an important month for breast cancer awareness and extend support to all patients, who have battled or are currently affected by this disease.
QUALIFYING CONDITION: Cancer
“A term for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and can invade nearby tissues.”
About the qualifying condition: Cancer refers to several diseases that are linked to abnormal cell division, resulting from either inherited or damaged genes.The abnormal cells may generate malignant tumors in the body. Cancer may spread or “metastasize” within a patient, progressing from stages one through four.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health estimates over 78,000 Commonwealth residents will either receive or already suffer from a cancer diagnosis during 2020. Over 12,000 of these diagnoses are expected to be new cases of breast cancer.
History: Medical marijuana-related cancer treatments date back to ancient periods. These treatments are not considered to be a cure for cancer, but researchers are studying their medical potential to help treat some of the related symptoms that come from the disease. For example, cancer patients experiencing appetite loss might benefit from the potential hunger response produced by THC in medical marijuana.
Cancer survivor Rick Simpson has championed medical marijuana treatments for the disease since discovering early-stage carcinoma on his arm. Simpson began extracting and applying a thick, dark marijuana oil to topically treat his cancer in 2003. Now known as Rick Simpson Oil (RSO), this concentrated medical marijuana oil is approved for topical or oral use within the Pennsylvania medical marijuana program.
Medical Literature: Researchers are interested in medical marijuana’s potential to improve cancer-related side effects stemming from chemotherapy and radiation, such as nausea, appetite loss, insomnia, anxiety and chronic pain.
Studies performed in rodents have demonstrated THC’s potential to reduce nausea without these side effects, by interacting with CB1 and CB2 receptors in the brain stem. THC and CBD may also dampen these receptors to the body’s inflammatory response, potentially reducing opioid dependency among cancer patients.
Cannabinoids: Cannabinoids are naturally occurring compounds within marijuana, which may work with receptors throughout the human body to produce a potentially therapeutic effect. Studies suggest that the cannabinoid THC and its non-psychoactive counterpart CBD may have the potential to prevent spread in early cases of breast cancer, by triggering “apoptosis” or cell death of abnormal tissues.
Every product we produce has an extensive list of cannabinoids, which contribute to the potential effects users may feel from our high quality medicine. Check the label on your medical marijuana packaging to learn about the specific levels of cannabinoids and terpenes in each of our prime products.
