Endometriosis: Marijuana Treatment

Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician, Toxicologist and Pharmacologist.

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I don't think I have to explain what this is to anybody. If you have it, you know it. Endometriosis is graded in stages I,II, III & IV, with stage I being "minimized" inconvenience while stage IV is severe and usually requires surgery.

As a physician, I had known about endometriosis for years and that some women become narcotic addicts because of it. Pre Menstrual Tension (PMS) may be concurrent though different and I had many PMS patients as well. Some of them became addicts also. I was not surprised when lady patients came to our clinics offering chart notes that they had been prescribed every conceivable analgesic and other medications but they also told me marijuana works better than any regular prescription.

I have a severe pain problem myself caused by too high of a concentration of spinal anesthesia. I got disgusted by the anesthesiologist telling me he didn't cause it but I got a new understanding for patients in pain.

If the patient says marijuana works for pain, I believe them. Actually in Oregon about sixty percent of patients have some chronic pain syndrome of nerve, muscle, joint, bone, intestinal or genitourinary. It doesn't seem to matter whatever the source of pain, the bottom line is that MJ gives relief.

I presume stage I endometriosis and minor PMS are effectively treated with aspirin-like drugs, but when the pain etc. is in the moderate/severe level, the ladies have found out by themselves that marijuana/cannabis is effective without the hazard of narcotic addiction or alcoholism.

The U.S. government publicizes that as many as 77 million Americans have used marijuana and perhaps ten million use it frequently.

Marijuana as folk medicine has been used in the U.S. since the middle 1800's and probably in Mexico and Latin America since the Spanish introduced it in the late 1500's.

It is no longer amazing to me when a patient tells me of some new disease for which they have discovered marijuana treatment is beneficial.

It is time the DEA and its hoodlums backed off and allow the therapeutic use of medical marijuana, as more and more people are reverting to this tried and true "folk medicine" everyday.

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More information on the history of Leveque can be found in his book, General Patton's Dogface Soldier of Phil Leveque about his experiences in WWII.
Order the book by mail by following this link: Dogface Soldier.
If you are a World War II history buff, you don't want to miss it.

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Click on this link for other articles and video segments about PTSD and medical marijuana on Salem-News.com: Dr. Leveque INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES

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tessa February 17, 2011 9:31 am (Pacific time)

Hi, i am a high school senior living with endometriosis, i am on naproxen right now along with a birth control,but my naproxen is canceling out my birth control.. i have a long line of family members who are addicts i dont want anything stronger but the naproxen doesnt help me.. i want to get my medical marijuana card so i can medicate legally how do i go about this please help!!

tara October 20, 2008 5:48 am (Pacific time)

i have been to so many physicians, as well as a few e.r.'s. none of the handfulls of pills i have taken in the past do anything for my cramping. instead just make me extremely wasted and sleepy but i cant sleep because of the pain. i have to not only take pain meds,(that dont touch the pain i feel) but on top of that, pills that will take away the nausia i get from taking the pain meds and that is on top of the nausia i already get from the cramping. the only thing i have found to make the pain subside is to smoke some marijuana. i dont understand why the ONLY pain reliever i have found is illegal. so much for the land of the free and our constitutional right to take any medicine administered by a physician. this is literally the ONLY thing i have found that relieves my pain enough so that i can function normally. but what is my pain or anyone's for that matter, compared to all the money the government makes off of marijuana being illegal?!? plus the fact that the pharmaceutical co.s would lose out due to all of the medicinal purposes marijuana actually has.

Neal Feldman January 5, 2008 12:26 am (Pacific time)

Margaret M - Because it grows so easily and readily and requires no special processing so if legalized Big Pill could not really make a lot of money off it. Failed policy is failed policy and Prohibition is some of the worst failed policy there is. Nowadays the govt just piles more bad policy on top of existing bad policy just to try and defend all the failed policy preceding. It gets to be almost like quicksand in a way. They just cannot bring themselves to admit that the War on Some Drugs is not only completely failed but should never have been attempted in the first place. Ah well...

Margaret M January 4, 2008 11:06 am (Pacific time)

Thank you Dr. Leveque for this article! I was diagnosed with endometriosis while in my 20s. I didn't have a hysterectomy until I was 43 and it was stage IV. In the interim, I was in horrible pain 2 weeks out of every month, and I had to deal with treatment that was worse than the disease: hormone therapy that made me depressed and suicidal without relieving the pain. I wish I had the option of using medical marijuanafor relief. For what it is worth, I am a working professional, not some teenager looking to "party." I just don't understand why a useful and natural drug should be kept from patients in need.

Chef January 4, 2008 5:18 am (Pacific time)

I have stage 4 endo and even after a hyst it still remains as aggressive as can be. I also have severe adhesions from this and from several surgeries. I can have any pain med I want and I have tried em all. morpine, fentyl ect..... Pot is really the ONLY thing that helps and it is tragic that this prohibitin countines in "the land of the free"

Jo ann January 3, 2008 1:30 pm (Pacific time)

Thanks for the info on this. Doctors always try to give me "arthritis" type medicines for endometriosis. This medicine does not help and the doctors I have dealt with don't offer any other alternatives. Once you have the surgery for this, the pain does not necessarily diminish and many times it comes back. It did not for me. Thank you for bringing this into light. It is not PMS, I know as I have had days where walking was difficult due to the pain.

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Endometriosis: Marijuana Treatment

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