Hey everyone,
Yup i have returned to this thread once again, i don't know why but there is something in my head that say's that i should give my final decision on the use of cannibis in sikhism. Even though i full agree with Randip Singh statement:
" Just as we have alcohol in medicine, so I think this would be allowable as a medicine."
But some how this topic still bother's me religiously and personally, but i do not know why. So i hope me giving my final decision will put my mind at ease, and so i can move on in life.
So i believe using cannibis as a medicine is okay, as long as you take it wisely and not like a ******. Because medicine being made today by doctor do, do the trick but there are side effect that cause harm to your body. But cannibis is the same, but the harm are less something like a short term memory lost and relaxes your muscle. But when used wisely it won't have an effect on you.
So yeah this is my awnser, hopefully my mind can just chill out. And don't worry you won't ever catch me with cannibis, unless i have a sympton which only cannibis can ease than.
P.S sorry my brother and sister that you had to see me go insane over this topic, even though my question was already awnsered. Cheer's for tolerating moi.
Blazinsikh ji
You seem to be looking for straightforward justification such as more attention to the alcohol fact in medicines as stated by Randip ji.
The argument is NOT that simple in the real world as you will see.
Let me just clarify this a little more- Alcohol is used in majority of liquid medicine forms. 2 Main Reasons-
1) This alcohol is not your standard whiskey,rum or vodka, it is usually ethanol, isopropyl or derivatives. This is very concentrated normally 80% and above compared to your 40% liquor drink
. But it is in VERY SMALL amounts to PRESERVE the liquid. If the liquid medicine had all the other ingredients in it but NO preservative, then it would only last about a week before mould and bacteria start multiplying.
This very small amount, no more than 5ml for every 100ml of liquid medicine is there to preserve the medicine and give it a longer shelf life.
So, in majority of these cases it is used as a
preservative, these amounts are too small to cross over into your brain/blood suppply so you won't feel any effects of alcohol like intoxication in your blood.
2) Some traditional medicines use alcohol for cough medicnes as Randip ji has correctly stated.
This again is in very small amounts but higher than that used for preservatives, but still, very small amounts that can cross your brain/blood supply.
In this case Large quantities.. ie.. more than the recommended medicine amount
will give intoxicating effects. (If you have the correct dose it may be a little effect, but higher than that would give a high.)
The old formula of benylin was abused for this reason, party goers would be swigging whole cough bottles at a time.
The reason for this 2nd use is because of its
drying effect, or it's absorption of water. You see alcohol is very concentrated and it has a great affinity for moisture and water.
Many alcohol drinkers can verify that they often feel dehydrated after because of this very reason.
Infact if you put 2 glasses in an active steam room and one is empty while the other has some alcohol inside it. Then after a while the steam will cool near the glass surface and you will observe water inside both glasses. However the glass with alcohol inside it will attract more steam and moisture and it's level of cooled water will be much higher. This is because the alcohol will attract and pull more moisture towards itself.
So what use is this as a medicine?
Well one classic use of this drying effect is for chesty or wet coughs, the coughs that are associated with lots of mucus and 'raishaa'.
The alcohol in the cough mixture will help dry your mucus filled throat and chest because of this strong affinity and attraction for moisture and water. This will result in less mucus or 'raisha' and a better feeling for the patient.
Now , you can see 2 fundamental differences and reasons of why alcohol is used.
Getting back to your cannabis issue, you can see it is much different and a different ball game.
We know that it helps in pain by relaxing muscles but there are
many medicinal drugs that can do this as well.
Only in extreme cases when
ALL else is NO LONGER an option is medicinal cannabis used to help the patient in pain. These can be tablets, liquid or a nasal spray.
However, there is NOT a single use where the only cure or help is cannabis. Other medicinal drugs are always tried and used first.
However, if someone cannot tolerate side effects of opiods or morphine based drugs and all other pain killers, then it may be suggested as an alternative.
This is never the weed form to smoke as far as I know.
If a sikh has a debilitating disorder causing extreme pain and all other options have not been successful, then of course it's fine for him to use it as a medicine. He will be a very 1% minority who gets benefit from cannabis only and NOT other medicines or other medicines are deemed unsuitable for him.
Blazin ji, I hope you get the point here as it does NOT have the multiple beneficial uses as alcohol does- You can't use that as a valid argument.
It's sole use of success where others can't be used for some reason OR don't work is a VERY VERY SMALL Percentage
NOTE_ More than 50% of people suffer some sort of frequent pain like back pain, headaches, joints, arthritis...etc...
ALSO NOTE_A small number of these try to justify that they NEED cannabis and will be forever harrassing their doctor. In reality they have
usually used the illegal street version in most cases and are now trying to obtain it legally.
Their concerns are more recreational even though it may help the pain and they will simply refuse to try any other medicines first.
It is just that they will have something prescribed that gives them euphoria and tackles the pain. The doctor will try to offer something that specifally tackles the pain only. This is what they will refuse because they want the feel good euphoria as well not just pain relief!!!
This is how the situation stands with medicinal cannabis at the moment.
The GENUINE cases of people that really need it and have no other option are VERY VERY SMALL and usually suffering a life threatening condition.
So, the real genuine suffering sikh is probably not going to be your average sikh at the gurdwara but someone with far more to worry about than shall I use or not.
Bottom line, the % percentage of GENUINE medicinal ONLY users is very very low, no more than 3%.
So, there you have it- some real facts and information.
If you need any furthe clarification or you can't understand a certain point, then just ask.
Waheguru
Lucky Singh