Still Believe Nature Got It Wrong? Top 10 Health Benefits of Marijuana

Still Believe Nature Got It Wrong? Top 10 Health Benefits of Marijuana | True Activist.

May 1, 2013

True Activist

There is no plant on Earth more condemned than marijuana. We’re talking about a living organism which governments have taken upon themselves to designate as an illegal substance. Despite no existing evidence of anyone ever dying of a marijuana overdose, possession of this plant is still illegal in many parts. Marijuana has been found to suppress cancer, reduce blood pressure, treat glaucoma, alleviate pain and even inhibit HIV. It is an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective. Can you understand more now why it’s illegal?

No Independent Study Has Ever Linked Marijuana To Psychosocial Problems

Cannabis is one of the most powerful healing plants on the planet. Dozens of studies have made pseudoscientific attempts to indicate that young people who use cannabis tend to experience psychological, social problems and mental decline. However, there is no evidence that marijuana use is directly linked with such problems, according to the results of a study published in The Lancet.

“Currently, there is no strong evidence that use of cannabis of itself causes psychological or social problems,” such as mental illness or school failure, lead study author Dr. John Macleod of the University of Birmingham in the UK told Reuters Health.

“There is a great deal of evidence that cannabis use is associated with these things, but this association could have several explanations,” he said, citing factors such as adversity in early life, which may itself be associated with cannabis use and psychosocial problems.

Macleod and his team reviewed 48 long-term studies, 16 of which provided the highest quality information about the association between illicit drug use reported by people 25 years old or younger and later psychological or social problems. Most of the drug-specific results involved cannabis use.

Cannabis use was not consistently associated with violent or antisocial behavior, or with psychological problems.

In another study, Scientists from King’s College, London, found occasional pot use could actually improve concentration levels.

The study, carried in the American Journal of Epidemiology, tested the mental function and memory of nearly 9,000 Britons at age 50 and found that those who had used illegal drugs as recently as in their 40s did just as well, or slightly better, on the tests than peers who had never used drugs.

‘Overall, at the population level, the results seem to suggest that past or even current illicit drug use is not necessarily associated with impaired cognitive functioning in early middle age,’ said lead researcher Dr Alex Dregan.
Dr Dregan’s team used data on 8,992 42-year-olds participating in a UK national health study, who were asked if they had ever used any of 12 illegal drugs. Then, at the age of 50, they took standard tests of memory, attention and other cognitive abilities.

Overall, the study found, there was no evidence that current or past drug users had poorer mental performance. In fact, when current and past users were lumped together, their test scores tended to be higher.

The Age of Deception is Ending

In 2003, the U.S. Government as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services filed for, and was awarded a patent on cannabinoids. The reason? Because research into cannabinoids allowed pharmaceutical companies to acquire practical knowledge on one of the most powerful antioxidants and neuroprotectants known to the natural world.

The U.S. Patent 6630507 was specifically initiated when researchers found that cannabinoids had specific antioxidant properties making them useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention.

In a historic and significant moment in American history, last November, Colorado became the first US state to legalize marijuana for recreational use. The impact of the decision could ripple across the entire country with vast opportunities to educate millions on the top health benefits of marijuana.

With the passage of I-502 in the 2012 Washington State election, marijuana also became legal in Washington–not just for medical use, but also for recreational use. Weed is still illegal as far as the United States government is concerned, but Washington and Colorado both have yet to figure out how that will work. It’s certain that this issue will continue to evolve and smooth out as time goes by, but the remaining states will eventually follow suit or be left behind with outdated laws.

Top Health Benefits

It’s no surprise that the United States has decreed that marijuana has no accepted medical use use and should remain classified as a highly dangerous drug like heroin. Accepting and promoting the powerful health benefits of marijuana would instantly cut huge profits geared towards cancer treatment and the U.S. would have to admit it imprisons the population for no cause. Nearly half of all drug arrests in the United States are for marijuana.

According to MarijuanaNews.com editor Richard Cowan, the answer is because it is a threat to cannabis prohibition “…there really is massive proof that the suppression of medical cannabis represents the greatest failure of the institutions of a free society, medicine, journalism, science, and our fundamental values,” Cowan notes.

Besides the top 10 health benefits below, findings published in the journal PLoS ONE, researchers have now have now discovered that marijuana-like chemicals trigger receptors on human immune cells that can directly inhibit a type of human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) found in late-stage AIDS.

Recent studies have even shown it to be an effective atypical anti-psychotic in treating schizophrenia, a disease many other studies have inconsistently found it causing.

1. Cancer
Cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana, inhibit tumor growth in laboratory animals and also kill cancer cells. Western governments have known this for a long time yet they continued to suppress the information so that cannabis prohibition and the profits generated by the drug industry proliferated.

THC that targets cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 is similar in function to endocannabinoids, which are cannabinoids that are naturally produced in the body and activate these receptors. The researchers suggest that THC or other designer agents that activate these receptors might be used in a targeted fashion to treat lung cancer.

2. Tourette’s Syndrome
Tourette’s syndrome is a neurological condition characterized by uncontrollable facial grimaces, tics, and involuntary grunts, snorts and shouts.

Dr. Kirsten Mueller-Vahl of the Hanover Medical College in Germany led a team that investigated the effects of chemicals called cannabinols in 12 adult Tourette’s patients. A single dose of the cannabinol produced a significant reduction in symptoms for several hours compared to placebo, the researchers reported.

3. Seizures
Marijuana is a muscle relaxant and has “antispasmodic” qualities that have proven to be a very effective treatment for seizures. There are actually countless cases of people suffering from seizures that have only been able to function better through the use of marijuana.

4. Migraines
Since medicinal marijuana was legalized in California, doctors have reported that they have been able to treat more than 300,000 cases of migraines that conventional medicine couldn’t through marijuana.

5. Glaucoma
Marijuana’s treatment of glaucoma has been one of the best documented. There isn’t a single valid study that exists that disproves marijuana’s very powerful and popular effects on glaucoma patients.

6. Multiple Sclerosis
Marijuana’s effects on multiple sclerosis patients became better documented when former talk-show host, Montel Williams began to use pot to treat his MS. Marijuana works to stop the neurological effects and muscle spasms that come from the fatal disease.

7. ADD and ADHD
A well documented USC study done about a year ago showed that marijuana is not only a perfect alternative for Ritalin but treats the disorder without any of the negative side effects of the pharmaceutical.

8. IBS and Crohn’s
Marijuana has shown that it can help with symptoms of the chronic diseases as it stops nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

9. Alzheimer’s
Despite what you may have heard about marijuana’s effects on the brain, the Scripps Institute, in 2006, proved that the THC found in marijuana works to prevent Alzheimer’s by blocking the deposits in the brain that cause the disease.

10. Premenstrual Syndrome
Just like marijuana is used to treat IBS, it can be used to treat the cramps and discomfort that causes PMS symptoms. Using marijuana for PMS actually goes all the way back to Queen Victoria.

Mounting Evidence Suggests Raw Cannabis is Best

Cannabinoids can prevent cancer, reduce heart attacks by 66% and insulin dependent diabetes by 58%. Cannabis clinician Dr. William Courtney recommends drinking 4 – 8 ounces of raw flower and leaf juice from any Hemp plant, 5 mg of Cannabidiol (CBD) per kg of body weight, a salad of Hemp seed sprouts and 50 mg of THC taken in 5 daily doses.

Why raw? Heat destroys certain enzymes and nutrients in plants. Incorporating raw cannabis allows for a greater availability of those elements. Those who require large amounts of cannabinoids without the psychoactive effects need to look no further than raw cannabis. In this capacity, it can be used at 60 times more tolerance than if it were heated.
Raw cannabis is considered by many experts as a dietary essential. As a powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, raw cannabis may be right u there with garlic and tumeric.

Marco Torres is a research specialist, writer and consumer advocate for healthy lifestyles. He holds degrees in Public Health and Environmental Science and is a professional speaker on topics such as disease prevention, environmental toxins and health policy.

Sources:
scribd.com
bigbudsmag.com
berkeleypatientscare.com
washingtonpost.com
about.com
safeaccess.ca

Read more: http://www.trueactivist.com/still-believe-nature-got-it-wrong-top-10-health-benefits-of-marijuana/

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Latest Studies on Marijuana and Health: Good news for Crohn’s Disease Sufferers

http://norml.org/

May 17, 2013

Marijuana and diabetes

Subjects who regularly consume cannabis possess favorable indices related to diabetic control as compared to occasional consumers or non-users, according to trial data published today online in the American Journal of Medicine. Commenting on the study, Editor-in-Chief Joseph S. Alpert, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, said: “These are indeed remarkable observations that are supported, as the authors note, by basic science experiments that came to similar conclusions.”

Full article:

Study: Regular Cannabis Use Associated With Reduced Risk Factors For Type 2 Diabetes | NORML Blog, Marijuana Law Reform.

Marijuana and Crohn’s disease

Inhaling cannabis reduces symptoms of Crohn’s disease compared to placebo in patients non-responsive to traditional therapies, according to clinical trial data published online ahead of print in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. The study is the first placebo-controlled clinical trial to assess the consumption of cannabis for the treatment of Crohn’s.

Full article:

Study: Inhaled Cannabis Reduces Crohn’s Symptoms | NORML Blog, Marijuana Law Reform.

Marijuana and lung cancer

In a recent presentation given at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research, investigators from the university of California, Los Angeles provided the latest data reaffirming that cannabis consumption is not associated with an elevated risk of lung cancer. “Our pooled results showed no significant association between the intensity, duration, or cumulative consumption of cannabis smoke and the risk of lung cancer overall or in never smokers,” investigators reported.

Full article:

Study: No Association Between The Cumulative Consumption Of Cannabis Smoke And The Risk Of Lung Cancer | NORML Blog, Marijuana Law Reform.

Marijuana and HIV

The administration of synthetic cannabinoid agonists limits HIV infection in macrophages (white blood cells that aid in the body’s immune response), according to preclinical data published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. Investigators at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia assessed the impact of three commercially available synthetic THC agonists on HIV-infected macrophage cells. Following administration, researchers sampled the cells periodically to measure the activity of an enzyme called reverse transcriptase (RT), which is essential for HIV replication. By day 7, investigators reported that the administration of all three compounds was associated with a significant decreased in HIV replication.

Full article:

Study: Cannabinoid Agonists Mitigate HIV Infection | NORML Blog, Marijuana Law Reform.

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Rep. Cohen Tears Into AG Holder On Marijuana: End the Prohibition – 1 min video

Rep. Cohen Tears Into AG Holder On Marijuana – YouTube.

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David Simon: ‘I don’t want anybody in jail for using drugs’

David Simon: ‘I don’t want anybody in jail for using drugs’ | Society | The Observer.

The creator of TV’s The Wire will take part in an Observer debate on the war on drugs later this month

Interview by Andrew Anthony

I don’t mean to sound like a complete cynic but I am when it comes to the drug war. This is not a war to control dangerous drugs. This is a war to control the poor.

The Observer, Saturday 11 May 2013

Blunt speaking: David Simon. Photograph: Graham Jepson/Writer Pictures

 

 

 

How did you get involved in The House I Live In [Eugene Jarecki's prize-winning documentary on US drugs policy]?

He just called and asked if I’d talk about the drug war. At that time I didn’t have much expectation. I’d done interviews before about the drug war and they had not come out with any complexity in thought. It’s my own fault – I hadn’t researched Eugene’s work well enough when I first encountered him. It was only subsequent to the interview that I saw Why We Fight and realised he was for real.

The film puts you in the position of being spokesperson against the “war on drugs”. Is that a role you’re happy to play?

I’ve been doing it now since I worked on The Corner [forerunner of Simon's influential HBO TV series, The Wire]. And I was working on that book in ’93. That was the journalism that convinced me the drug war was untenable. If you read The Corner, it’s pretty clear that I have little faith in the idea of a drug prohibition. But The Wire was an opportunity to be more editorial about it. The Wire is a very fundamental argument against the drug war, and since it came out I’ve been speaking very bluntly about the low regard I have for drug prohibition.

The picture painted in The Wire and The House I Live In is bleak, and people don’t like to look at bleak pictures. How can America turn and face this huge problem?

It won’t happen from leadership. There are two things politicians in my country pay attention to. One is money and the other is votes, and the two are inextricably linked in many respects. For a long time the inner city hasn’t voted. In the inner city you have an incredibly disenfranchised American population that understands the burden of the drug war. One of the fundamental ways in which they’ve disconnected is that if you’re convicted of a felony you lose your right to vote for ever. So this is an agenda that has no immediate gain for a politician. That’s why jury nullification and a refusal to co-operate with drug prohibition is going to be a grass roots movement.

Are you for decriminalisation or legalisation?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6eVxRk11go&feature=player_embedded

I’m for decriminalisation but I don’t care. I don’t want anybody in jail for using drugs. I think that’s a waste of our money. A waste of resources that could be used elsewhere. I think it’s treating a symptom. Drugs are a destructive force in human lives and I’ve seen what they can do, but the war against them has wiped out whole communities. If it was draconian and it worked, that would be one thing. But the purity level of drugs after half a century of this crap is higher than ever. They haven’t taken back a single drug corner in my city [Baltimore]. All it’s done has burden us with the highest level of incarceration in the world. We have more people in jail than China. Not higher per capita but in total.

This question of decriminalisation and legalisation does seem critical…

No, it’s not. It only seems to be critical to people on the outside of what’s happening. Let me put it this way: drugs are legal in Baltimore. Right now there are 60,000 addicts in Baltimore. If they could lock up 100 or 200 of them a day, they would have a record number of arrests. But they can’t, that’s too many. By the numbers, not by the fucking law, drugs are legal in my city.

Decriminalisation still leaves an international criminal network and distribution business in place. With legalisation there is a basis on which to start unpicking all of that.

When I make the distinction for decriminalisation I don’t care about laws any more because the first step will not be to change any laws. And certainly there will not be a sufficient number of politicians with enough courage to legalise drug use. The mistake you’re making is that you’re leading from the rear. You’re having a dilettante’s argument about something that will never be considered by the political infrastructure. Getting them to stop jailing people for this crap is plausible. To start talking about legalising heroin and cocaine, you might as well go to a university and shave your head into a point.

Marijuana has been legalised in Colorado and Washington. Do you see any sign of a larger movement?

While I see the changes in marijuana laws as good, I do worry that if they could fix it that white suburban people could get high in their own way, it would be a return to apathy about what’s happening in the rest of the country. I don’t mean to sound like a complete cynic but I am when it comes to the drug war. This is not a war to control dangerous drugs. This is a war to control the poor.

You’ve said of the American system that you don’t think things will get better.

Unless you marry capitalism to a social compact that has meaning, all it is is a tool for generation of wealth but not for building a functioning society. I read the eulogies for Margaret Thatcher and I thought that woman mistook capitalism as the framework by which you build a just and viable society. When someone starts saying there is no such thing as society, there’s only you and your family, that’s a horse with blinkers on.

You take a keen interest in the newspaper industry. What do you think about proposals to regulate the press in Britain.

There should be no prior restraint. You already have too much prior restraint of the British press. I couldn’t operate under your press law, couldn’t do good journalism consistently. Your ability to criticise people in public or reveal secrets that are in the public’s interest are much more constrained than ours. And I find that to be unworkable in terms of democracy.

You’re working on several projects, one on the CIA. Will they materialise?

No, there’s no green light. I’m working on scripts. The company’s called Blown Deadline Productions for a reason. We don’t turn in scripts until we’re totally satisfied with the story. When I ask HBO for tens of millions of dollars, I’ve got to believe we’re making the best possible story or I’m an asshole. I feel that way about everything and therefore generally I’m late on everything.

Join David Simon to debate the war on drugs with film director Eugene Jarecki and others at the Royal Institution, London, on Thursday 23 May. The event will be hosted by Observer editor John Mulholland. Buy tickets at: guardian.co.uk/extra

Who Is Trying To Patent Marijuana?

Who Is Trying To Patent Marijuana? – Waking Times : Waking Times.

April 23, 2013

By Dylan Charles 

Kent Mao, Contributor
Waking Times 

The secret is out: marijuana is medicine. And not to the surprise of the pharmaceutical industry, who is slowly but surely gaining exclusive rights to the medical properties of this age-old plant.

But wait. How can a company, other than Monsanto, patent a plant? That’s not a serious question, but it brings up a serious point. Patents on marijuana have yet to cover genetic modifications of the plant itself, but rather involve the cannabinoids found in marijuana that are responsible for its medical effects.

Phytocannabinoids in the treatment of cancer (Patent No. US20130059018)

The most recent patent filing on cannabinoids comes from none other than GW Pharmaceuticals – the UK-based company that manufactures Sativex (1). Sativex is an oral spray that contains cannabinoids derived from the cannabis plant itself, specifically THC and CBD. Although Sativex is not yet available in the U.S., it has already gained approval in Canada, the UK and eight other European countries.

GW Pharma has been quick to recognize the market potential of cannabis and their most recent patent application makes this more than clear. Just from the title of the patent, one gets a good sense of what GW Pharma has been trying to claim as their own. “Phytocannabinoids” simply means cannabinoids derived from plants, referring to the cannabis plant in this case.

 Unsurprisingly, it appears as though GW Pharma encountered difficulties in trying to claim such a broad “invention”. In fact, the updated version of their patent application shows that more than half of their original patent claims were retracted, and for good reason too. Looking back in time, GW Pharma made claims to just the use of isolated cannabinoids in the treatment of cancer, which is no more of an invention than it is a theft from individuals who first proclaimed marijuana’s cancer-fighting abilities decades ago.

On the other hand, GW Pharma’s remaining claims might just pass through the Patent Office without further questioning. GW Pharma seems to be familiar with the pharmaceutical industry’s shrewd patent strategies, which involves modifying pre-existing compounds that have already been proven to work.

In this case, all GW Pharma had to do was claim that they invented a cannabis-based botanical drug substance for treating cancer – botanical drug substance meaning any form of marijuana prepared by methods as simple as aqueous or ethanolic extraction. There you have it. GW Pharma invented neither cannabis nor a method of extraction, but still consider themselves to be inventors of “phytocannabinoids in the treatment of cancer”.

Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants (Patent No. US6630507)

Perhaps the most infamous marijuana-related patent belongs to the U.S. federal government themselves. Indeed, while federal agents have been keeping busy trying to defend their stance on pot prohibition, they also made sure to file patents on the medical components of the very same Schedule I drug. The funny thing is, this particular patent dates all the way back to 1998 when Bill “didn’t inhale” Clinton was still president.

Although federal patent writers made sure to include a long list of synthetic cannabinoids within their claims, carefully tucked away is none other than cannabidiol, also known as CBD. Once again, the inventive step in this patent seems to be severely lacking, but maybe the federal government gets more flexibility with their patent filings.

Regardless, it seems as though the use of CBD for the treatment of “stroke and trauma”, “Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia” and a “wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases” all belongs to the White House, at least for the next 10 years until their patent expires.

Private funding matters more

It might be easy to blame an outdated patent system for what seems to be just another one of the many injustices that plague the private health care system. But the truth is, it’s not really the Patent Office’s fault that marijuana is being taken over by capital-backed corporations and government agencies.

Rather, the fault lies in the restrictive nature of medical marijuana research, which is overseen by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) – the only source of legal marijuana in the U.S.

According to researchers (2) who have attempted to conduct clinical trials on cannabis, the NIDA is simply uninterested in supplying cannabis for medical studies, in accordance with a mandate from Congress that limits NIDA researchers to investigating the marijuana’s dangers. And being the overwhelmingly benign substance (3) that it is, marijuana hasn’t been the subject of many NIDA studies for a while now.

But perhaps the worst outcome of this situation is not the fact that clinical research on medical marijuana is severely lacking. No, the worst part is that the gap in research is eagerly being filled by corporations like GW Pharma. Indeed, while there were a total 37 clinical studies (4) conducted on cannabinoids between 2005-2009, only 8 of them involved actual marijuana. On the other hand, 9 of the 37 studies involved Sativex, with the rest consisting of a variety of synthetic THC formulations, no doubt sponsored by their respective manufacturers as well.

So where does this leave the rest of us? Not too far from where we started off it seems, since it’s no surprise to anyone that healthcare will continue to be driven by privately funded research, even in the case of marijuana. But all that research money has to come from somewhere, and you can bet it’s not coming from the deep pockets of GW Pharma’s executive board.

As it turns out, a couple of shrewd businessmen with knowledge of medicine realized long ago that sick and dying individuals will pay almost any price for the promise of relief, even if it happens to be all of their life savings and then some. What happened to these businessmen? Oh, they’re still around. We just call them Big Pharma.

About the Author

Kent Mao is a contributor to Waking Times and the editor of TruthOnPot.com, an online resource for medical marijuana facts, information and research. TruthOnPot.com actively engages in the online discussion of marijuana research and policy. You can learn more by visiting www.truthonpot.com. Kent is also a contributor to Waking Times.

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Canada: Marijuana reform high on electorate’s list

Marijuana reform high on electorate’s list – The Globe and Mail.

STEPHEN QUINN

Special to The Globe and Mail

Apr. 19 2013

Here’s something you won’t see happen on Saturday: Christy Clark or Adrian Dix’s campaign buses rolling up to the north lawn of the Vancouver Art Gallery to the cheers of thousands of marijuana activists. Neither Mr. Dix nor Ms. Clark will push their way through the happy crowds and skunk-scented smoke, glad-handing potential voters. It is even less likely that either will make their way to the stage brandishing a freshly rolled spliff, spark it up and declare 4/20 officially “on.”power

Neither will inhale deeply, nor extol the virtues of weed, nor pass the dutchie to the left-hand side. And you certainly won’t hear them making speeches calling for the decriminalization, legalization, or the regulation and taxation of pot.

A pair of polls released this week suggests that the party leaders are lagging behind their constituents when it comes to attitudes about the decriminalization and eventual legalization of marijuana in B.C.

In fact, if the poll numbers are right, not driving the campaign buses on to the art gallery lawn with Bob Marley blaring from the speakers and waving marijuana-leaf flags out the windows might be something of a missed opportunity.

Christy Clark. Liberals leader

The first poll comes from the Sensible Change Society of B.C., a group headed by one-time federal NDP candidate Dana Larsen, who withdrew from the 2008 race after a video showing him with a mouthful of joints surfaced on the Web. Three years later, Mr. Larsen ran for the leadership of the BC NDP and won just 2.7 per cent of the vote.

Mr. Larsen has proposed what he calls “The Sensible Policing Act,” which would, first, direct police to ignore minor marijuana offences, and second, call on the federal government to repeal the prohibition on marijuana so the province could legally regulate pot the same way it regulates alcohol and tobacco.

Adrian Dix. NDP leader

The poll shows that roughly 70 per cent of respondents support both parts of the plan. It also shows that just under half of those surveyed say they would be more likely to support a political leader who called for marijuana reform.

A second poll, also timed to coincide with the annual 4/20 “cannabis celebration,” shows that nearly three-quarters of British Columbians would support further research into the regulation and taxation of marijuana. The Ipsos Reid poll shows significant support for leaders who would endorse such research.

In both polls, support for marijuana reform crosses all political stripes, geographic boundaries, age groups and levels of education.

This is, of course, not a new issue in our province. Stop the Violence B.C., a coalition of law enforcement, health and academic experts which commissioned the Ipsos Reid poll, has been arguing for marijuana reform since the coalition was founded in 2011.

Along with many others, Stop the Violence contends that regulating and taxing marijuana production and distribution would take the profits out of the hands of criminal gangs, and result in not only safer streets but also in a potential tax windfall for the province.

But so far, even with numbers that show support for reform, even with the arguments that regulation would curb violence and contribute significantly to provincial coffers, both Christy Clark and Adrian Dix have ducked the issue. When questioned, both have repeatedly pointed to the fact that drug enforcement is a federal responsibility.

Dana Larsen notes that neither leader has had trouble commenting on other issues that are regulated by the federal government.

“We take action and talk about federal issues all the time, whether it’s the Coast Guard station being closed or pipelines, or the long-gun registry back in 2003, so there’s really no reason the province can’t take action on this issue as well,” Mr. Larsen said in an interview.

Indeed, “Pressing for new Coast Guard resources to be placed in Vancouver” even appears in the Liberal Party’s platform.

As for the NDP, Mr. Larsen suspects that while the party may be sympathetic, it would be folly to tackle an issue as controversial as marijuana legalization during an election campaign.

Professor Neil Boyd, who teaches criminology at Simon Fraser University, agrees that making marijuana reform an issue during a provincial election campaign is difficult.

But like Mr. Larsen, Prof. Boyd says the province can play a part. “The province does have power over the administration of justice and could certainly decide not to spend, for example, the $10-million a year it currently spends enforcing marijuana possession laws,” he said.

Given that it happens to fall on Saturday, and in the middle of an election campaign, organizers of this year’s 4/20 rally estimate it will be the biggest gathering of its kind Vancouver has ever seen.

But it may have little impact once the smoke clears.

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THC (marijuana) Helps Cure Cancer Says Harvard Study – 4 min video

THC (marijuana) Helps Cure Cancer Says Harvard Study – YouTube.

This is not a new story but I feel like it should be spread until everyone knows about it. Lou.

---

Letter from Rick Simpson

My name is Rick Simpson. I have been providing people with instructions on how to make Hemp Oil medicines for about 8 years. The results have been nothing short of amazing. Throughout man’s history hemp has always been known as the most medicinal plant in the world. Even with this knowledge hemp has always been used as a political and religious football.

The current restrictions against hemp were put in place and maintained, not because hemp is evil or harmful, but for big money to make more big money, while we suffer and die needlessly. Look at a proposal such as this; if we were allowed to grow hemp in our back yards and cure our own illnesses, what do you think the reaction of the pharmaceutical industry would be to such a plan? Many large pharmaceutical companies that still exist today sold hemp based medicines in the 1800′s and early 1900′s. They knew then what I have recently found out. Hemp oil if produced properly is a cure-all that the pharmaceutical industry can’t patent.

Two years a go I contacted the Liberals, the Conservatives and the New Democratic Party about this situation. I also provided them with evidence to backup what I was saying. No one lifted a finger, in most cases I was lucky to get a reply. I contacted the R.C.M.P. along with many other organizations and Public Interest TV shows, with little or no response.

Why are all these people trying to avoid such a simple truth? If I am in some way wrong in what I have been saying then I invite the system to come and prove it. I would be happy to put on a public demonstration of what this oil can do. That would answer this question for the Canadian public once and for all. It seems unbelievable that we have a law in Canada that will not allow us to cure our own diseases with a natural herbal remedy.

Rick Simpson

Read full text—>>>

Phoenix Tears.

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Canada: Ecstasy pills OK’d for Vancouver PTSD-treatment trial

Ecstasy pills OK’d for Vancouver PTSD-treatment trial – Politics – CBC News.

Kathleen Harris,

CBC News

Apr 19, 2013 Ecstasy trial for PTSD10:16

A small group of soldiers, police officers and sexual assault victims suffering from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder will soon see if the rave party drug ecstasy can ease their symptoms.

The research group that will oversee the Vancouver-based study just received 9 grams of MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as ecstasy) from Switzerland after obtaining a long-awaited import permit for the prohibited drug.

Andrew Feldmar, a Vancouver psychologist who will help carry out the study with the synthetic drug — said there was a “whole hullabaloo” to meet the “Fort Knox” pharmacy-storage requirements.

“It’s as if the whole of Vancouver is waiting to see this drug and will rob the pharmacy to get it,” Feldmar told CBC News Network’s Power & Politics.

He said it would be easy to get the ecstasy off the street — but researchers needed it to be “legal and pure.”

Studies using ecstasy to treat PTSD are already underway in the U.S. and Europe by the non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. The Canadian pilot has taken years to get off the ground and win approval from Health Canada and the Institutional Review Board due to regulatory hurdles.

Feldmar said there has been much stigma and controversy around the ground-breaking study because ecstasy is known as a rave party drug and has been linked to several high-profile deaths. But he insists it’s an “incomparable experience” to use the drug in a therapeutic setting over a rave.

“The very same substance can be poison or medicine, depending on the dosage, depending on the circumstances in which it is ingested,” he told host Power & Politics host Hannah Thibedeau.

Severe, persistent PTSD symptoms

The study will work with 12 subjects who “have found no solace” — in other words, have suffered with the most severe, persistent symptoms of PTSD and have not responded to conventional pharmaceuticals or psychotherapy. About 40 potential subjects have already applied to participate in the Canadian study.

Ecstasy helps hurt and frightened patients address the root trauma and establish security and trust, Feldmar said.

“You’re shameless, your heart opens and you’re present” when taking the drug, he said.

Therapists will stay with the participants for eight hours after taking the ecstasy for each session.

Feldmar said the cutting-edge therapy could help a generation of Canadian soldiers who are battling PTSD after serving in Afghanistan. Eventually, he hopes ecstasy will become a prescription, rather than a prohibited, drug.

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• Mindfulness Therapy Might Help with Combat-Related PTSD (sciencedaily.com)

Canada: 8000 suspected pot cookies found in White Rock home

8000 suspected pot cookies found in White Rock home – British Columbia – CBC News.

CBC News

Apr 19, 2013

An armed home invasion in White Rock on Thursday led to the discovery of thousands of cookies believed to be laced with marijuana.

Just before noon, RCMP were called to a house near Earl Marriot Secondary School on North Bluff Road after reports two males were trying to break into a home. Police say the intruders fled by foot, forcing the school into a brief lockdown.

While officers were at the home, they discovered 8000 cookies believed to contain marijuana.

White Rock RCMP Const. Janelle Shoihet said it was a shocking discovery.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s an unprecedented number of cookies,” she said. “It was a bit like a bakery in there. So it was surprising to me.”

A male and two females were arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking.

The two male intruders have not yet been found.

On Saturday, thousands are expected to gather in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery for the annual marijuana smoking event known as “4/20.”

via 8000 suspected pot cookies found in White Rock home – British Columbia – CBC News.

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Pot Is Safer Than Booze: So Why Is Celebrating 4/20 a Crime, While It’s OK to Get Wasted on St. Paddy’s Day?

Pot Is Safer Than Booze: So Why Is Celebrating 4/20 a Crime, While It’s OK to Get Wasted on St. Paddy’s Day? | Alternet.

AlterNet / By Kristen Gwynne

Happy 4/20. Don’t get arrested.

Photo Credit: shutterstock.com

April 19, 2013  |

I spent last St. Patrick’s Day at the marijuana policy reform group NORML’s conference in Philadelphia. It was pouring rain when I arrived, and as I ran from my car through the University of Pennsylvania campus, I tried to discern the green-clad marijuana activists from St. Patrick’s Day revelers. I quickly realized it was not that hard: the pro-pot advocates, as quirky as the some of them were, appeared to have better control of their footing.

St. Patrick’s Day, though an Irish holiday rooted in history and tradition, is regarded by many Americans (perhaps on college campuses, in particular) as an opportunity to get wasted. Meanwhile, today, April 20, is known as the marijuana user’s holiday, 4/20. Across the country, stoners are gathering to defy the law and get high.

Both holidays, to some extent, celebrate mind-altering substances, but they couldn’t be seen as more different by the law. You wouldn’t speak with your boss about your 4/20 plans or come to the office in weed-themed garb. That’s because while alcohol is legal, marijuana is grouped alongside drugs like heroin in the most restrictive category of the Controlled Substances Act, Schedule I. This is despite the fact that marijuana is by far the safer substance of the two. A scene full of stoners is far more peaceful (and safer) than a bar or city full of people who are trashed. But while weed is the subject of a decades-old onslaught of government propaganda decrying its supposed harm, our society glamorizes alcohol.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana use is not linked to increase in injury or reckless behavior, nor is it linked to violence or sexual assault. Alcohol, however, is.

From the National Center for Alcohol Law Enforcement:

• Almost one in four victims of violent crime report that the perpetrator had been drinking prior to committing the violence.

• Over one-third of victims of rapes or sexual assaults report that the offender was drinking at the time of the act.

• It is estimated that 32 to 50 percent of homicides are preceded by alcohol consumption by the perpetrator.

• Between 31 percent and 36 percent of prisoners convicted of a violent crime against an intimate reported that they were drinking alcohol at the time of the offense.

Nonetheless, alcohol is so normalized and integral to our culture that it’s considered OK for hundreds of thousands of people to gather in one location — a football stadium, for example — and get drunk. Some will leave these mass drinking events inebriated, dangerously swerving down the road in their cars. 

While public celebrations and smoke-outs will occur across the country today, doing it is still very much illegal. Last year on 4/20, after smoking marijuana at a friend’s house, 23-year-old University of California-San Diego student Daniel Chong was thrown in a jail cell, handcuffed, for five days without food or water. Chong, who says agents offered to drive him home after saying he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” was not charged with any crime. Agents had raided the home where he was staying in the early hours of April 21, and uncovered marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms and 18,000 ecstasy pills, along with guns and ammunition. Seven of the nine people they arrested were taken to county jail, one was released, and one — Chong — was forgotten about, and effectively left for dead.

Forced to drink his own urine to survive, Chong says he lost 15 pounds while he was alone in the cell for five days. Hallucinating by the third day, he ate a “powdery substance” he found in the cell, later revealed to be methamphetamine. He tried to kill himself by breaking his glasses with his teeth and carving “Sorry mom” on his wrists. According to NBC, “He said nurses also found pieces of glass in his throat, which led him to believe he ingested the pieces purposefully.”

While Chong’s situation may extremely rare, a marijuana arrest occurred every 42 seconds in 2011. As Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said at the time:

“Being incarcerated, even for just a few days, can be devastating. People guilty of nothing more than possessing a little marijuana are locked up with people who may be violent criminals. Some are abused, beaten and raped, and others deprived of essential medication or contact with their families. A few commit suicide. Many are otherwise traumatized by the experience of being tossed into jail even when their jailers don’t forget about them. And even greater numbers suffer serious and sometimes permanent consequences from whatever conviction results, including loss of employment, housing and government assistance, loss of custody of one’s children, and much more.”

People who drink (and those around them) might face myriad consequences from alcohol use, but legal troubles raised by marijuana use are not among them. For this reason, many reformers argue that marijuana prohibition creates a drinking culture that pushes people who may otherwise use pot — a safer substance — toward booze. The idea that choosing weed over alcohol is a decision adults should be allowed to make without consequence played a large role in Colorado’s legalization legislation (Amendment 64), which was titled “Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.”

Like voters in Colorado and Washington, Americans participating in 4/20 activism today are pushing back against a false narrative that suggests alcohol is the vice that’s been chosen for America, and that legalizing pot would only add another, bad substance to the mix. They are not the minority. Draconian punishments for marijuana crimes continue in America despite public opinion shifting largely in favor of reform. A Pew Research Center poll recently found that a record breaking 52% of Americans now support marijuana legalization, with young people holding increasingly reformist opinions about marijuana policy. Increasingly, Americans — 77% of them, according to Pew —  think marijuana has medical purposes.

Despite a vast majority of Americans being way ahead of lawmakers when it comes to policy, Attorney General Eric Holder recently made remarks suggesting he is not interested in following the will of the people. Holder told Congress on Thursday that the Justice Department will make a decision about how to respond to marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado “As quick as we can.” Offering few details, other than that “We are certainly going to enforce federal law” and consider the impact of legalization on children, Holder offered little in the way of explaining why the federal government’s policy strays so far from public opinion.

President Obama’s drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, also said earlier this week that, “No state, no executive can nullify a statute that has been passed by Congress,” and said law enforcement will continue to pursue drug sellers. 

What gives?

Kristen Gwynne is an associate editor and drug policy reporter at AlterNet.  Follow her on Twitter: @KristenGwynne

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