There is yet to be a survey or study on AIDS medical marijuana users in the US, but polls reveal a number of patients are searching for relief from symptoms of AIDS. A case in point are the three organizations that dispense marijuana to patients which reported that more than 60% of their members requested the drug for AIDS treatment.
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here is an underlying belief that age is often cited as the reason why such a large number of medical marijuana users in the US are people with AIDS. Since HIV has infected members of an age bracket that grew up experimenting with marijuana, these patients are more willing to use it as a medicine. In comparison, cancer patients, who are generally older, are less likely to have tried marijuana, and therefore less inclined to use it. If reasoning is to be followed, there should be increasing numbers of cancer patients who will turn to medical marijuana as the baby boom generation ages.
Marijuana’s supposed ability to relieve a variety of debilitating symptoms is another factor that could have contributed to the popularity of medicinal marijuana among people with AIDS. Many of those patients have shared the belief that marijuana calms the stomach, stimulates the appetite, eases pain, and lifts the patient’s mood after taking the medication.
HIV assails the immune system and damages the whole body. With the immune system down, the disease may lead to infection and cancer, the virus also activates a lethal wasting syndrome, agonizing nerve damage, and dementia. Finally, in addition to the physical distress caused by HIV, many people with AIDS also have to contend with severe depression and anxiety.
Some AIDS patients say that Marijuana relieves them of all these problems.