Chronic pain is defined as pain that persists longer than the temporal course of natural healing, associated with a particular type of injury or disease process.
The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.” Pain is subjective in nature and is defined by the person experiencing it, and the medical community’s understanding of chronic pain now includes the impact that the mind has in processing and interpreting pain signals.
Recently, at the University of California at Davis, a clinical trial concluded that marijuana provides significant relief of neuropathic pain stemming from a variety of ailments. “This is yet more proof that the American College of Physicians was right that the U.S. government policy on medical marijuana is totally divorced from scientific reality.”