Paranoia from Cannabis

Smoking marijuana can cause terrifying effects in some people (often referred to as a ‘bad trip’) although other people find it is a stimulant. It has been used for instance, by soldiers to give them ‘fanatical courage’. Some people use it to relieve pain in conditions such as multiple sclerosis and spinal injury. While for others it is the hallucinogenic effects of the marjuana that attracts them to its use. Like all drugs, how a person responds to the drug is related to the person’s individual susceptibility and whether other drugs are used in combination.

One person who had been a marijuana user for years found himself in a very worrying state after using LSD and marijuana in combination. He came very paranoid and developed many night sweats. Nightmares and hypersensitivity to light and noise disturbed his sleep and he experienced strange sensations like his head ‘opening and shutting’ and a feeling he was walking above the ground.

These are known symptoms of marijuana use and in most people may be felt for a short time while using the substance. However for this young man, the symptoms continued unabated for18 months even after he stopped smoking marijuana. The homeopath in this case gave Cannabis indica as a homeopathic medicine. Within a week of taking the medicine the symptoms went and when they returned a month later a repetition of the dose again brought relief. Six years later the person became troubled with anxiety when driving in a car and once again a repetition of the Cannibis homeopathic medicine brought relief.

Cannabis indica (the name given to the homeopathic medicine made from marijuana) may be useful in mental illness where there is paranoia or hallucinogenic symptoms generally. One young woman developed an anxiety that her throat was going to close up from swallowing her tonsils. She was repeatedly worried by this thought and would ask everyone if she was going to die from it. This symptom along with her general anxiety was much improved when she took the homeopathic medicine made from Cannabis indica. While never having smoked marijuana herself she had been exposed to it through her father’s heavy use prior to conception.

(From article in Healthy Options, Winter 2006 "Drugs and Homeopathy" by Angela Hair)