India: Medical marijuana battle: 'Legalise cannabis' call finding support among lawyers, doctors

Eight-year-old Vedd Raaj has severe epilepsy and autism. His most violent seizures come once a month, triggered by infections he catches due to low immunity. They can last hours.

His parents, Bengaluru-based business consultant Amit and homemaker Rakhi Raj, 34, have been doing the rounds of hospitals, trying to find a doctor that can help him procure cannabis oil. This controversial flowering plant is indigenous to India, but its cultivation is banned because an extract can also be used to produce the intoxicant marijuana.

Yet the Raj family believes it is their son's only hope. There are many within and outside the medical fraternity that would agree with him.

Chemical compounds in cannabis react with cannabinoid receptors in the brain, which control physiological functions such as appetite, pain, nausea and others.

"Studies show that cannabis has a positive effect on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, for instance," says Dr Sameer Kaul,...

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URL: 
http://www.hindustantimes.com/wellness/struggle-to-legalise-cannabis-finding-support-among-lawyers-doctors/article1-1353235.aspx