What is Glaucoma?

Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that affect the optic nerve. This condition can cause vision loss and blindness. The symptoms are not very noticeable so the only way to find out if you have glaucoma is to get a comprehensive dilated eye exam.  

 Anyone can get glaucoma, but you’re at higher risk if you:  are over age 60, especially if you’re Hispanic/Latino, African American and over age 40, and/or have a family history of glaucoma.

There’s no cure for glaucoma, but early treatment can stop or slow down damage to your vision. Treatments that lower the pressure in the eye both lower the risk of developing the optic nerve damage and the risk of pre-existing damage getting worse.

Despite the mainstream treatments available for lowering eye pressure, there are some patients who experience unpleasant side effects or the treatments do not sufficiently lower the eye pressure. Medical marijuana might be helpful in these cases.

How does medical marijuana help?

THC has been shown to lower intraocular pressure in 60% to 65% of patients with and without glaucoma. An ocular hypotensive effect has been reported when medical marijuana is inhaled (dry leaf, cartridges, or concentrate) or administered orally (edibles, RSO, distillate, and capsules), and sublingually (tinctures). The duration of action is short, about 3 to 4 hours when inhaled but may extend when consumed orally. Although there appears to be a relationship between the amount of medical marijuana consumed and the degree of IOP reduction,  the length of efficacy does not improve at higher doses so do not over consume in hopes of extending the benefits.