[ApesForEvolution]

Regarding glaucoma, what, if any, 'relief' does 'medicinal' marijuana bring to inner eye pressure and the damage that results from it?

[MrLeRoy]

"In a number of studies of healthy adults and glaucoma patients, IOP [intraocular pressure] was reduced by an average of 25% after smoking a marijuana cigarette that contained approximately 2% THC—a reduction as good as that observed with most other medications available today." - Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base (1999), Institute of Medicine

[Vigilantcitizen]

"Regarding glaucoma, what, if any, 'relief' does 'medicinal' marijuana bring to inner eye pressure and the damage that results from it?"

THC, the active ingredient in MJ, is a vaso-dialator. In other words, it expands and relaxes blood vessels and tissues. This effect is what causes the munchies, the blood vessels in the stomach expand causing a "hungry" feeling.

This same vessel expanding effect also works on the blood vessels in the eye. By expanding the volume of the eye vessels, interoccular fluid pressure is lowered.