Can a Joint a Day Keep the Psychiatrist Away?
Dr. Jeremy Spiegel
Psychology Today

Abstract
Dr. Jeremy Spiegel talks about using medical marijuana as a treatment for psychiatric disorders on the podcast Optimal Living. Dr. Spiegel begins with a general defense of medical marijuana. According to Dr. Spiegel marijuana has not been studied as a treatment due to political factors and beliefs that modern doctors have today; and adds with his own opinion: “ridiculous as it sounds, is like a scientist shunning a particular chemical system in the body for reasons that have nothing to do with science.”(@). Marijuana in this society has been seen and used recreationally, and because of this it keeps it out of place for medical treatment. What many do not know it that our body has its own natural cannabinoids and cannabinoid receptors which form the endocannabinoid system; this system regulates or mood, memory, appetite and pain sensation and marijuana enhances these present processes in our body. Dr. Spiegel then mentions two patient cases of his that he encountered over the past year and both patients have used medical marijuana to treat their disorders. The first case is about a young man living in Boston who suffered from a cancerous tumor in a place where there was no hope of removing surgically. His physicians dismissed the idea of using marijuana as medicine and were blind to the idea of using marijuana to improve his diminished appetite, chronic nausea, unbearable pain and even the will to live. The second case is about a patient who was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. After a period of time living with multiple antidepressants and other medications, the patient decided to use medical marijuana. Her mood, motivation and outlook significantly improved by the use of marijuana daily and she still remained the same person she was before. Dr. Spiegel mentions that after seeing the results of people with depression using marijuana, he put his prejudices aside and saw the possibility of this new treatment. Dr. Spiegel then mentions a study done by researchers at University College London who were trying to use classical conditioning to show how fear could be installed in a person. After their results they wondered if they administered marijuana to human subjects, could this undo the fear, the anxiety and the physical response to the conditioned stimulus. Their answers were of course yes. He then goes on to mention two other studies, one study was done on how the brain reacted to certain anxiety levels and fear and how can these levels be brought down. The other study was done on people who were depressed and have used marijuana to treat their depression; their results were that they were less depressed when using marijuana. He ends that medical marijuana is helpful and not a cure, and could eliminate the dependence of medications that people with mental disorders have to live with. While reading this article, it became clear to me that the author likes the idea of using medical marijuana as a treatment for mental disorders, not to mention really defensive about the use of it. It bothered me a little the tone of his voice throughout the article and I felt like he was pushing too hard. I did not come in contact with any negative effects of using marijuana, and he only provided the good effects. This made it suspicious to me, and left me doubting about his article. I believe if you are going to defend something you should show both the good and bad sides of the idea. I do agree with him in that marijuana is seen and used in society as something to have a good time and is been abused lately, and thus we have certain beliefs towards marijuana. I have never been against nor towards the use of marijuana, I suffer from symptoms of asthma and thus I cannot smoke since it would worsen my symptoms. My mother suffers from thyroid disease and for the past five years I have seen how she has struggled with many different medications, one medication would work but backfire later or would cause her to have high or low blood pressure. I have seen how every day these medications just take a little out of her, there are days where she is not herself and it worries me. The case of the woman made me think of my mother and could understand how she was tired of depending so much on medications and was looking for a better alternative and in her case marijuana helped her. I cannot say this could be a solution to my mother but it made me feel a little curious if that could help improve my mother’s mood as Dr. Spiegel mention. In the end I do believe that research studies should be done and how it could improve or affect diseases and mental disorders, of course this would be hard to do since our society has abused marijuana. Reference:
Spiegel, Jeremy . "Can a Joint a Day Keep the Psychiatrist Away?." Psychology Today. N.p., 11 Mar. 2013. Web. 2 Nov. 2013.