Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Juicing For Health - Hemp
Hemp
Hemp seeds are rich in protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins E, minerals such as calcium, iron, phosphorus, manganese, magnesium, zinc and copper. Hemp seeds are also a good source of dietary fiber.Hemp Seed Health Benefits
- Around 47% of hemp seed contains good fatty acids in the ideal balance of omega-3(alpha-linolenic acid) and omega-6 essential fatty acids(linoleic and gamma-linolenic acid). Hemp seeds are also a great source of monosaturated omega-9 fatty acids.
- Hemp seed is a brilliant raw source of complete protein. Around 65% of the protein in hemp seeds consists of globular edestin which is considered the most digestible form of protein. The other 35% of protein in hemp is albumin which is also another easily digestible form of protein.
- As has been said above hemp seeds are a rich source of essential fatty acids making them a great food for cardiovascular, mental health, skin health and much more.
- Hemp seeds are a great source of phyto-sterols which are good for lowering cholesterol.
- Hemp seeds aid weight loss as they help keep your appetite satisfied longer than other foods, which is down to there large protein, fiber and good fat content.
- Potent anti-inflammatory properties making it good for conditions such as arthritis.
- Hemp seeds may be good for lowering high blood pressure.
- Hemp oil has been shown to relieve eczema when applied topically.
Side Effects/Precautions
Some worry about hemp seeds potential content of THC(Tetrahydrocannbinol) which is one of marijuanas active compounds. The percent of THC found in hemp seeds is so low to none that it would cause no concern.*from the juicing forum
Juicing Raw Cannabis for Greater Health
18 September 2010 Laydeem - who has written 48 posts on Berkeley Patients Care Collective.
If you find yourself in the doctors chair at the office of Dr. William Courtney, Willits, California you will be advised; we shouldn’t be smoking our marijuana, we should be eating it! After I read the story in the Washington Post, “Form of medical marijuana won’t get you high but is creating quite a buzz” written by Karl Vick, I decided to look into it more.
CBD (Cannabidiol), one of the main constituents of the cannabis plant has been proven medically to relieve convulsion, inflammation, anxiety and nausea, as well as inhibit cancer cell growth. Recent studies have shown it to be an effective atypical anti-psychotic in treating schizophrenia. CBD also interferes with the amount of THC your brain processes, balancing the psychotropic effect of marijuana.
In my report,Sativex: Liquid medical marijuana, I talked about GW Phamacueticals, a British company who, with Japanese pharmaceuticals company Otsuka, have been granted permission by the New drug Administration and the FDA to enter into late stage trials here in the US for treatment of cancer pain and the side effects of chemotherapy with their cannabinoid based oral mouth spray, Sativex. The THC/CBD spray is already available to patients in the United Kingdom, Canada and Spain for the treatment of MS.
According to GW Pharma’s cultivation FAQ their scientists in the UK can precisely control the cannabinoid composition of the plant and they have bred an extremely CBD high strain. Both Dr. Courtney and some of his patients tried to find a similar strain available here in Northern California but to no avail. Recently, an emboldened lab, operating in the hope they can avoid DEA interference here in the Bay Area has begun testing plants for CBD, THC and pathogens like mold. Steep Hill Lab has found only one bankable strain, “Soma A+” that contained significantly more CBD than any other strain tested.
“What has happened is, almost all strains available in America through the black market are THC concentrates,” said Ethan Russo, a Seattle area physician who is senior medical adviser to GW. “The CBD in almost all cases has been bred out. The reason, cannabis in this country has been cultivated for its intoxicating effect.”
“It’s going to be a few years yet,” said Russo, who in the mid-’90s left his neurology practice in Montana, concerned by the toxic side effects of medicines he was prescribing. He returned from a sabbatical to Peru convinced that marijuana holds the greatest potential among medicinal plants.
“There’s a tendency to discount claims when something appears to be good for everything, but there’s a reason this is the case,” he said. “CBD works on receptors, and as it turns out, we have cannabinoids in our bodies, endogenous cannabinoids, that turn out to be very effective at regulating immune functions, nerve functions, bone functions.”
Russo: “The endogenous cannabinoid system acts as a modulator in fine-tuning a lot of these systems, and if something is deranged biochemically in a person’s body, it may well be that a cannabinoid system can bring things back into balance.”
On an important side note, laboratory studies on cannabinoids including CBD, by other companies and research schools has been largely hindered by federal restrictions on marijuana research.
The catch 22 is the continued classification of cannabis as a Schedule I drug. This impedes research on marijuana’s therapeutic value, thereby making it’s re-evaluation and re-scheduling through the normal drug approval process extremely unlikely. In fact, speaking to The New York Times in a January 19, 2010 article entitled, “Researchers Find Medical Study of Marijuana Discouraged,” NIDA spokeswoman Shirley Simson said: “As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use. We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana.”
In the perhaps $15 billion underground economy that flows from marijuana in California: No one knows for certain what they’re buying. “I can’t breed analytically,” said Jim Hill, a pot farmer in Mendocino’s Potter Valley. “I can only go by patient anecdote: ‘Yeah, that really worked for me.’ I can’t go by graph paper.” reports the Washington Post article.
Sixties activist Fred Gardner edits O’Shaughnessy’s, a quarterly devoted to medical marijuana and named for the physician who brought cannabis to the attention of European medicos. “I think people owe it to the industry, owe it to the people, to do something honestly medical,” Gardner said. “And CBD is honestly medical.”
CBD’s could finally be the link between medical marijuana and science.
Back to Dr. Courtney in Mendocino- maybe nowhere else in the country could a cannabis doctor advise growing 40 plants — enough for one juicing each day on the 45-day cycle required of the auto-flowering strain. What’s striking is the number of patients who truly do not want to get high. Juicing the fresh leaves instead of burning the dried plant matter does not deliver the same concentrate of THC (the psychoactive component) and recent research has shown that CBD works better consumed raw. The THC needs heat for activation and because of that, the raw leaves don’t produce a “high”. The doctor recommends that his patients mix the cannabis juice (1 part) with carrot juice (10 parts) to counteract the bitterness. Information I found online explained that any cannabis plant has the highest CBD at 70-90 days after sowing. After 90 days they rapidly produce more THC. He recommends drinking the juice three times a day.
Unfortunately for most of us, growing 40 plants on constant light cycles so you can provide yourself with enough fresh leaves for juicing will never be a viable option but it’s very interesting to see where this movement could go and what new cannabis products could come of it. Once labs can analyze the medicine, the cultivators can begin to use selective breeding techniques to develop strains that have a higher or more balanced CBD to THC ratio and then identify them as such.
Dr. William Courtney is pioneering the raw cannabis concept and for his own validation he explains, he only need look to his once seriously ill girlfriend who consumes the fresh juice daily and has made a recovery from several debilitating illness’ which are chronicled in her“New Settlement“ interview found on Dr. Courtney’s website, Leaves of Grass. His site includes links to several articles and studies regarding cannabinoid research and interviews with him on the topic so check it out for more information.
I’ve also been advised by a patient that is planning to grow medicine for fresh juicing, that a very CBD high strain was tested at Spannabis this year called “Cannatonic” and seeds may be available online. If anyone has any feedback on this topic or any experience with juicing cannabis, please comment.
Laydeem - who has written 48 posts on Berkeley Patients Care Collective.
CBD (Cannabidiol), one of the main constituents of the cannabis plant has been proven medically to relieve convulsion, inflammation, anxiety and nausea, as well as inhibit cancer cell growth. Recent studies have shown it to be an effective atypical anti-psychotic in treating schizophrenia. CBD also interferes with the amount of THC your brain processes, balancing the psychotropic effect of marijuana.
In my report,Sativex: Liquid medical marijuana, I talked about GW Phamacueticals, a British company who, with Japanese pharmaceuticals company Otsuka, have been granted permission by the New drug Administration and the FDA to enter into late stage trials here in the US for treatment of cancer pain and the side effects of chemotherapy with their cannabinoid based oral mouth spray, Sativex. The THC/CBD spray is already available to patients in the United Kingdom, Canada and Spain for the treatment of MS.
According to GW Pharma’s cultivation FAQ their scientists in the UK can precisely control the cannabinoid composition of the plant and they have bred an extremely CBD high strain. Both Dr. Courtney and some of his patients tried to find a similar strain available here in Northern California but to no avail. Recently, an emboldened lab, operating in the hope they can avoid DEA interference here in the Bay Area has begun testing plants for CBD, THC and pathogens like mold. Steep Hill Lab has found only one bankable strain, “Soma A+” that contained significantly more CBD than any other strain tested.
“What has happened is, almost all strains available in America through the black market are THC concentrates,” said Ethan Russo, a Seattle area physician who is senior medical adviser to GW. “The CBD in almost all cases has been bred out. The reason, cannabis in this country has been cultivated for its intoxicating effect.”
“It’s going to be a few years yet,” said Russo, who in the mid-’90s left his neurology practice in Montana, concerned by the toxic side effects of medicines he was prescribing. He returned from a sabbatical to Peru convinced that marijuana holds the greatest potential among medicinal plants.
“There’s a tendency to discount claims when something appears to be good for everything, but there’s a reason this is the case,” he said. “CBD works on receptors, and as it turns out, we have cannabinoids in our bodies, endogenous cannabinoids, that turn out to be very effective at regulating immune functions, nerve functions, bone functions.”
Russo: “The endogenous cannabinoid system acts as a modulator in fine-tuning a lot of these systems, and if something is deranged biochemically in a person’s body, it may well be that a cannabinoid system can bring things back into balance.”
On an important side note, laboratory studies on cannabinoids including CBD, by other companies and research schools has been largely hindered by federal restrictions on marijuana research.
The catch 22 is the continued classification of cannabis as a Schedule I drug. This impedes research on marijuana’s therapeutic value, thereby making it’s re-evaluation and re-scheduling through the normal drug approval process extremely unlikely. In fact, speaking to The New York Times in a January 19, 2010 article entitled, “Researchers Find Medical Study of Marijuana Discouraged,” NIDA spokeswoman Shirley Simson said: “As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use. We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana.”
In the perhaps $15 billion underground economy that flows from marijuana in California: No one knows for certain what they’re buying. “I can’t breed analytically,” said Jim Hill, a pot farmer in Mendocino’s Potter Valley. “I can only go by patient anecdote: ‘Yeah, that really worked for me.’ I can’t go by graph paper.” reports the Washington Post article.
Sixties activist Fred Gardner edits O’Shaughnessy’s, a quarterly devoted to medical marijuana and named for the physician who brought cannabis to the attention of European medicos. “I think people owe it to the industry, owe it to the people, to do something honestly medical,” Gardner said. “And CBD is honestly medical.”
CBD’s could finally be the link between medical marijuana and science.
Back to Dr. Courtney in Mendocino- maybe nowhere else in the country could a cannabis doctor advise growing 40 plants — enough for one juicing each day on the 45-day cycle required of the auto-flowering strain. What’s striking is the number of patients who truly do not want to get high. Juicing the fresh leaves instead of burning the dried plant matter does not deliver the same concentrate of THC (the psychoactive component) and recent research has shown that CBD works better consumed raw. The THC needs heat for activation and because of that, the raw leaves don’t produce a “high”. The doctor recommends that his patients mix the cannabis juice (1 part) with carrot juice (10 parts) to counteract the bitterness. Information I found online explained that any cannabis plant has the highest CBD at 70-90 days after sowing. After 90 days they rapidly produce more THC. He recommends drinking the juice three times a day.
Unfortunately for most of us, growing 40 plants on constant light cycles so you can provide yourself with enough fresh leaves for juicing will never be a viable option but it’s very interesting to see where this movement could go and what new cannabis products could come of it. Once labs can analyze the medicine, the cultivators can begin to use selective breeding techniques to develop strains that have a higher or more balanced CBD to THC ratio and then identify them as such.
Dr. William Courtney is pioneering the raw cannabis concept and for his own validation he explains, he only need look to his once seriously ill girlfriend who consumes the fresh juice daily and has made a recovery from several debilitating illness’ which are chronicled in her“New Settlement“ interview found on Dr. Courtney’s website, Leaves of Grass. His site includes links to several articles and studies regarding cannabinoid research and interviews with him on the topic so check it out for more information.
I’ve also been advised by a patient that is planning to grow medicine for fresh juicing, that a very CBD high strain was tested at Spannabis this year called “Cannatonic” and seeds may be available online. If anyone has any feedback on this topic or any experience with juicing cannabis, please comment.
Laydeem - who has written 48 posts on Berkeley Patients Care Collective.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Cannabis Oil and Skin Cancer: Robert Melamede, PhD - NORML Live Show
It's time people America is Waiting, including All of our Friends and Families!
Healing 'Leaf' - Film About Raw Cannabis Juice
Plants do help in the healing process: America is behind on the Healing curve as far as I know, there is an epidemic of CANCER My friends, Lets End IT NOW!!!
Money Spent on the War on Drugs in 2012, So Far.
It's Great to want to save lives: But the War on drugs Has cost more people than it has saved.
Foolish Spending on things of this nature isn't helping our great nation grow and flourish as we once did. America, Please stand up and say no more, after all it is your money that could go for the GOOD
and not for Bad.
Legalizing pot: What if it's not just medicine?
Local business owners ponder implications of Amendment
64
Janet
UrquhartThe Aspen Times
Aspen CO Colorado
Colorado's Amendment 64 could be a game changer for
those in the business of selling medical marijuana in Aspen and around the
state.
Amendment 64 provisions
• Adult possession of an ounce or less of marijuana would
be legal. Consumption also would be legal, but the amendment does not permit
public consumption.
• The growing of as many as six plants, with no more than three being mature, flowering plants at any one time, would be permitted, provided the plants are in an enclosed, locked space. The plants cannot be sold.
• Driving under the influence of marijuana would remain illegal.
• An individual jurisdiction (a city or county, for example) may prohibit any aspect of the recreational marijuana business either through adoption of an ordinance or by a public vote.
• The growing of as many as six plants, with no more than three being mature, flowering plants at any one time, would be permitted, provided the plants are in an enclosed, locked space. The plants cannot be sold.
• Driving under the influence of marijuana would remain illegal.
• An individual jurisdiction (a city or county, for example) may prohibit any aspect of the recreational marijuana business either through adoption of an ordinance or by a public vote.
ASPEN — While Colorado voters mull the outright
legalization of marijuana when they head to the polls next week, some local
business owners are taking a particularly keen interest in the ramifications of
Amendment 64.
They're already selling marijuana of the medical variety. Amendment 64, which would let adults possess limited quantities of pot and buy it from state-regulated outlets, could be a game changer in many respects.
“I don't really know what's going to happen. I don't think anybody does,” said Jordan Lewis, owner of Silverpeak Apothecary in downtown Aspen.
Lewis' dispensary was among a number of such establishments that opened in Aspen and around the Roaring Fork Valley during a medical marijuana boom in 2009. Since then, some shops have closed, and those that remain continue to work through the regulatory hurdles spawned by the burgeoning industry.
“I could not have imagined how much work it would be to get this far,” Lewis said. “It has not been easy.”
Today, medical marijuana operators might be in the best position to sell what's been dubbed recreational pot if Amendment 64 passes. They have the required security measures in place, they're licensed or in the process of becoming so (an effort that includes criminal background checks), and they've either arranged suppliers to grow the plants or taken that on, as well, complying with yet another set of regulations.
Amendment 64 would give medical marijuana purveyors a break on the license application fee if they choose to move into the recreational marijuana business, as they've already paid once, but the enterprises must be completely separate. A medical dispensary cannot sell pot to anyone who's not a registered marijuana patient, nor can it purchase marijuana from a source that isn't authorized under the state's medical marijuana code. Medical and recreational marijuana could not be sold under the same roof.
However, medical marijuana sales would be exempt from the excise tax of as much as 15 percent that would be imposed on recreational marijuana — a cost pot shops would logically pass on to consumers. The amendment requires the first $40 million in revenues raised annually to go into a public school construction-assistance fund.
Opponents of the marijuana measure, as well as some in the medical pot industry who philosophically support the legalization move, wonder if the state will face even closer federal scrutiny if Amendment 64 passes.
“I'm afraid, because it's still against federal law, that we'd only be asking for trouble,” said one area dispensary owner, who asked not be identified.
Another declined to comment on 64 at all.
While Colorado dispensaries that operated within 1,000 feet of a school were directed by the feds to shut down, there has been no heavy-handed crackdown on the industry as a whole in Colorado.
Lauren Maytin, an Aspen defense attorney who advocates legalization of pot for adults and represents a number of clients on the medical side of the business in the Roaring Fork Valley and around the state, said she believes medical marijuana will have a place even if Amendment 64 passes.
For one thing, registered patients have not been a target of federal drug agents, she noted.
“I personally think that a medical patient is better off remaining a medical patient any way you cut it,” Maytin said. “We've really seen a largely hands-off approach for patients.”
If pot is readily accessible at state-sanctioned stores, though, some purveyors of medical marijuana wonder if a viable niche market for their goods will continue to exist. They're wondering whether they should stay the course if 64 passes or switch to selling recreational marijuana. The latter, however, might garner a harsher level of scrutiny and greater threat of arrest and prosecution because the possession and sale of pot remain federal crimes.
Maytin said many of her clients aren't sure where they stand in the Amendment 64 debate as a result.
Having already jumped through the hoops of getting established, though, expanding under 64 is an attractive option, said the dispensary owner who asked not to be named.
“If it did go through, we would definitely be in the right place at the right time,” he said.
Lewis is taking a wait-and-see approach.
“What's going to happen if it does pass is a wild card,” he said. “It could help my business. It could destroy my business.”
What it won't do is put pot shops on every corner the day after the Nov. 6 election.
The amendment calls for the adoption of state regulations for the recreational marijuana industry by July 1 2013. The Legislature is to enact the excise tax and plan for its collection by Jan. 1, 2017.
“It's not going to be, ‘Oh my God — we have a new business.' It's going to be, ‘Oh my God — we have a new business to regulate,'” Maytin said.
Proponents compare the legalization of marijuana to the end of Prohibition. On a nationwide level, such a move would bring an end to the black-market pot industry, persecution of users and the spending of millions on at least one segment of the drug war. Allowing the cultivation of hemp, a less potent form of the plant that has manufacturing uses ranging from fabrics to soap, could prove an agricultural boon, they further argue. Amendment 64 allows for the growing of hemp.
Opponents don't want Colorado to be the first to flout federal drug laws or to gain a reputation as the place to get high with something other than elevation. It could have company, though; Oregon and Washington both have legalization measures on the ballot, as well.
Others have voiced fears that Amendment 64 will ultimately make pot more accessible to underage consumers, though buyers must be at least 21 years old, and sales would be regulated. Individuals would have to show proof of their age to make a purchase, and the amendment's language makes it clear that providing marijuana to an underage person is illegal.
Lewis said he supports Amendment 64 for all of the pro-legalization arguments despite the uncertainties it poses for his dispensary.
“My business might go down the drain, but I'm still going to vote for it,” he said.
They're already selling marijuana of the medical variety. Amendment 64, which would let adults possess limited quantities of pot and buy it from state-regulated outlets, could be a game changer in many respects.
“I don't really know what's going to happen. I don't think anybody does,” said Jordan Lewis, owner of Silverpeak Apothecary in downtown Aspen.
Lewis' dispensary was among a number of such establishments that opened in Aspen and around the Roaring Fork Valley during a medical marijuana boom in 2009. Since then, some shops have closed, and those that remain continue to work through the regulatory hurdles spawned by the burgeoning industry.
“I could not have imagined how much work it would be to get this far,” Lewis said. “It has not been easy.”
Today, medical marijuana operators might be in the best position to sell what's been dubbed recreational pot if Amendment 64 passes. They have the required security measures in place, they're licensed or in the process of becoming so (an effort that includes criminal background checks), and they've either arranged suppliers to grow the plants or taken that on, as well, complying with yet another set of regulations.
Amendment 64 would give medical marijuana purveyors a break on the license application fee if they choose to move into the recreational marijuana business, as they've already paid once, but the enterprises must be completely separate. A medical dispensary cannot sell pot to anyone who's not a registered marijuana patient, nor can it purchase marijuana from a source that isn't authorized under the state's medical marijuana code. Medical and recreational marijuana could not be sold under the same roof.
However, medical marijuana sales would be exempt from the excise tax of as much as 15 percent that would be imposed on recreational marijuana — a cost pot shops would logically pass on to consumers. The amendment requires the first $40 million in revenues raised annually to go into a public school construction-assistance fund.
Opponents of the marijuana measure, as well as some in the medical pot industry who philosophically support the legalization move, wonder if the state will face even closer federal scrutiny if Amendment 64 passes.
“I'm afraid, because it's still against federal law, that we'd only be asking for trouble,” said one area dispensary owner, who asked not be identified.
Another declined to comment on 64 at all.
While Colorado dispensaries that operated within 1,000 feet of a school were directed by the feds to shut down, there has been no heavy-handed crackdown on the industry as a whole in Colorado.
Lauren Maytin, an Aspen defense attorney who advocates legalization of pot for adults and represents a number of clients on the medical side of the business in the Roaring Fork Valley and around the state, said she believes medical marijuana will have a place even if Amendment 64 passes.
For one thing, registered patients have not been a target of federal drug agents, she noted.
“I personally think that a medical patient is better off remaining a medical patient any way you cut it,” Maytin said. “We've really seen a largely hands-off approach for patients.”
If pot is readily accessible at state-sanctioned stores, though, some purveyors of medical marijuana wonder if a viable niche market for their goods will continue to exist. They're wondering whether they should stay the course if 64 passes or switch to selling recreational marijuana. The latter, however, might garner a harsher level of scrutiny and greater threat of arrest and prosecution because the possession and sale of pot remain federal crimes.
Maytin said many of her clients aren't sure where they stand in the Amendment 64 debate as a result.
Having already jumped through the hoops of getting established, though, expanding under 64 is an attractive option, said the dispensary owner who asked not to be named.
“If it did go through, we would definitely be in the right place at the right time,” he said.
Lewis is taking a wait-and-see approach.
“What's going to happen if it does pass is a wild card,” he said. “It could help my business. It could destroy my business.”
What it won't do is put pot shops on every corner the day after the Nov. 6 election.
The amendment calls for the adoption of state regulations for the recreational marijuana industry by July 1 2013. The Legislature is to enact the excise tax and plan for its collection by Jan. 1, 2017.
“It's not going to be, ‘Oh my God — we have a new business.' It's going to be, ‘Oh my God — we have a new business to regulate,'” Maytin said.
Proponents compare the legalization of marijuana to the end of Prohibition. On a nationwide level, such a move would bring an end to the black-market pot industry, persecution of users and the spending of millions on at least one segment of the drug war. Allowing the cultivation of hemp, a less potent form of the plant that has manufacturing uses ranging from fabrics to soap, could prove an agricultural boon, they further argue. Amendment 64 allows for the growing of hemp.
Opponents don't want Colorado to be the first to flout federal drug laws or to gain a reputation as the place to get high with something other than elevation. It could have company, though; Oregon and Washington both have legalization measures on the ballot, as well.
Others have voiced fears that Amendment 64 will ultimately make pot more accessible to underage consumers, though buyers must be at least 21 years old, and sales would be regulated. Individuals would have to show proof of their age to make a purchase, and the amendment's language makes it clear that providing marijuana to an underage person is illegal.
Lewis said he supports Amendment 64 for all of the pro-legalization arguments despite the uncertainties it poses for his dispensary.
“My business might go down the drain, but I'm still going to vote for it,” he said.
How Cannabinoids May Slow Brain Aging
Oct. 29, 2012
Stoners aren’t known for their memory prowess but a new review suggests that drugs similar to marijuana’s active ingredients may hold promise for preventing— or even reversing— brain aging and possibly Alzheimer‘s and other degenerative brain diseases.
Since the mid 2000′s researchers have been building an appreciation for the power of marijuana-like substances that make up the brain’s cannabinoid systems. In animal experiments, for example, synthetic compounds similar to THC—marijuana’s main psychoactive component—have shown promise in preserving brain functions. A 2008 study even demonstrated that a THC-like substance reduced brain inflammation and improved memory in older rats.
MORE: Ballot Initiative of the Day; Will Recreational Marijuana Get the Green Light in Three States?
The latest review, published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, suggests that activating the brain’s cannabinoid system may trigger a sort of anti-oxidant cleanse, removing damaged cells and improving the efficiency of the mitochrondria, the energy source that powers cells, ultimately leading to a more robustly functioning brain.
Previous studies have linked cannabinoids to increased amounts of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a substance that protects brain cells and promotes the growth of new ones. Since new cell growth slows or stops during aging, increasing BDNF could potentially slow the decline in cognitive functions.
MORE: Study: Legal Medical Marijuana Doesn’t Encourage Kids to Smoke More Pot
Activation of cannabinoid receptors can also reduce brain inflammation in several different ways, which may in turn suppress some of the disease processes responsible for degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Andras Bilkei-Gorzo of the Institute of Molecular Psychiatry at the University of Bonn in Germany and an author of the study, is encouraged by the expanding knowledge of the brain’s cannabinoid system and its potential for leading to new understanding of aging in the brain. “[C]annabinoid system activity is neuroprotective,” he wrote, and increasing it “could be a promising strategy for slowing down the progression of brain aging and for alleviating the symptoms of neurodegenerative disorders.”
Still, Gary Wenk, professor of neuroscience, immunology and medical genetics at Ohio State University, who conducted some of the research Bilkei-Gorzo included in the review, is aware of the delicate nature of cannabinoid research, given the controversial nature of medical marijuana issues. “The literature is a mess and he’s done a nice job organizing it,” he says. “He was positive about developing cannabinoid drugs without going overboard.”
VIDEO: Weed Be Gone: Will Amsterdam Ban Pot for Tourists?
Other studies covered in the review showed that mice bred to lack the cannabinoid receptors have better memories early in life but have more rapid cognitive decline as they age, including inflammation in the hippocampus, a key region for memory. “This finding suggests that, at some point during aging, cannabinoid activity helps maintain normal cognitive functions in mice,” says Daniele Piomelli, professor of neurobiology, anatomy and biological chemistry at the University of California – Irvine, who was not associated with the study.
Piomelli cautions that the review doesn’t support the idea of using marijuana to improve brain aging among the elderly, not least because of its psychoactive effects. “This is definitely an important area of investigation but we are still far from a consensus,” he says.
MORE: The Link Between Marijuana and Schizophrenia
Moreover, some of the research covered in the review had conflicting results. Although three clinical trials studied cannabinoids for the treatment of Parkinson's Disease, these studies “did not provide a clear answer whether cannabinoids modify the progression or the outcome of the disease,” wrote Bilkei-Gorzo. He found similar results for Huntington’s Disease, which, like Parkinson’s, is a progressive, degenerative brain disorder. And for the most common form of dementia, “Despite the promising preclinical results, the detailed clinical evaluation of cannabinoids in [Alzheimer's] patients is missing,” he said in the paper.
The social and political challenges to conducting such research, however, mean that it may be a while before we see such scientific gaps filled. Scientists have yet to conduct, for example, a solid study in which they follow marijuana smokers to see if they are more or less likely to develop Alzheimer’s— or to compare the cognitive decline of marijuana smokers to those who do not smoke. Doing so is too controversial to attract funding.
MORE: Medical Marijuana
“In my experience, working in this area is like touching the third rail,” says Wenk, “I get hate and love mails that are bizarre and phone messages from people too high to talk. Some of my colleagues have left the area after seeing their names in the National Enquirer… I do not blame a war on marijuana but rather the public’s prejudice and extreme bias. I’ve now discontinued my research on this system.”
He and others in the field are not completely pessimistic, however. He says, “I’ve been trying to find a drug that will reduce brain inflammation and restore cognitive function in rats for over 25 years; cannabinoids are the first and only class of drugs that have ever been effective. I think that the perception about this drug is changing and in the future people will be less fearful.”
Given that Alzheimer’s already affects one in eight people over 65— and nearly half of those over 85—and there have been few successes at treating or preventing it so far, that would certainly be a welcome change.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/29/how-cannabinoids-may-slow-brain-aging/#ixzz2AnH1vGtn
Stoners aren’t known for their memory prowess but a new review suggests that drugs similar to marijuana’s active ingredients may hold promise for preventing— or even reversing— brain aging and possibly Alzheimer‘s and other degenerative brain diseases.
Since the mid 2000′s researchers have been building an appreciation for the power of marijuana-like substances that make up the brain’s cannabinoid systems. In animal experiments, for example, synthetic compounds similar to THC—marijuana’s main psychoactive component—have shown promise in preserving brain functions. A 2008 study even demonstrated that a THC-like substance reduced brain inflammation and improved memory in older rats.
MORE: Ballot Initiative of the Day; Will Recreational Marijuana Get the Green Light in Three States?
The latest review, published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, suggests that activating the brain’s cannabinoid system may trigger a sort of anti-oxidant cleanse, removing damaged cells and improving the efficiency of the mitochrondria, the energy source that powers cells, ultimately leading to a more robustly functioning brain.
Previous studies have linked cannabinoids to increased amounts of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a substance that protects brain cells and promotes the growth of new ones. Since new cell growth slows or stops during aging, increasing BDNF could potentially slow the decline in cognitive functions.
MORE: Study: Legal Medical Marijuana Doesn’t Encourage Kids to Smoke More Pot
Activation of cannabinoid receptors can also reduce brain inflammation in several different ways, which may in turn suppress some of the disease processes responsible for degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Andras Bilkei-Gorzo of the Institute of Molecular Psychiatry at the University of Bonn in Germany and an author of the study, is encouraged by the expanding knowledge of the brain’s cannabinoid system and its potential for leading to new understanding of aging in the brain. “[C]annabinoid system activity is neuroprotective,” he wrote, and increasing it “could be a promising strategy for slowing down the progression of brain aging and for alleviating the symptoms of neurodegenerative disorders.”
Still, Gary Wenk, professor of neuroscience, immunology and medical genetics at Ohio State University, who conducted some of the research Bilkei-Gorzo included in the review, is aware of the delicate nature of cannabinoid research, given the controversial nature of medical marijuana issues. “The literature is a mess and he’s done a nice job organizing it,” he says. “He was positive about developing cannabinoid drugs without going overboard.”
VIDEO: Weed Be Gone: Will Amsterdam Ban Pot for Tourists?
Other studies covered in the review showed that mice bred to lack the cannabinoid receptors have better memories early in life but have more rapid cognitive decline as they age, including inflammation in the hippocampus, a key region for memory. “This finding suggests that, at some point during aging, cannabinoid activity helps maintain normal cognitive functions in mice,” says Daniele Piomelli, professor of neurobiology, anatomy and biological chemistry at the University of California – Irvine, who was not associated with the study.
Piomelli cautions that the review doesn’t support the idea of using marijuana to improve brain aging among the elderly, not least because of its psychoactive effects. “This is definitely an important area of investigation but we are still far from a consensus,” he says.
MORE: The Link Between Marijuana and Schizophrenia
Moreover, some of the research covered in the review had conflicting results. Although three clinical trials studied cannabinoids for the treatment of Parkinson's Disease, these studies “did not provide a clear answer whether cannabinoids modify the progression or the outcome of the disease,” wrote Bilkei-Gorzo. He found similar results for Huntington’s Disease, which, like Parkinson’s, is a progressive, degenerative brain disorder. And for the most common form of dementia, “Despite the promising preclinical results, the detailed clinical evaluation of cannabinoids in [Alzheimer's] patients is missing,” he said in the paper.
The social and political challenges to conducting such research, however, mean that it may be a while before we see such scientific gaps filled. Scientists have yet to conduct, for example, a solid study in which they follow marijuana smokers to see if they are more or less likely to develop Alzheimer’s— or to compare the cognitive decline of marijuana smokers to those who do not smoke. Doing so is too controversial to attract funding.
MORE: Medical Marijuana
“In my experience, working in this area is like touching the third rail,” says Wenk, “I get hate and love mails that are bizarre and phone messages from people too high to talk. Some of my colleagues have left the area after seeing their names in the National Enquirer… I do not blame a war on marijuana but rather the public’s prejudice and extreme bias. I’ve now discontinued my research on this system.”
He and others in the field are not completely pessimistic, however. He says, “I’ve been trying to find a drug that will reduce brain inflammation and restore cognitive function in rats for over 25 years; cannabinoids are the first and only class of drugs that have ever been effective. I think that the perception about this drug is changing and in the future people will be less fearful.”
Given that Alzheimer’s already affects one in eight people over 65— and nearly half of those over 85—and there have been few successes at treating or preventing it so far, that would certainly be a welcome change.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/29/how-cannabinoids-may-slow-brain-aging/#ixzz2AnH1vGtn
Monday, October 29, 2012
When Medical Marijuana Is About Survival
By Nicole Flatow on Oct 29, 2012 at 9:00 am
Watch video of Ted Chapman speaking to ThinkProgress at Harborside Health Center in Oakland, Calif., below:
Ted Chapman was an engineer living in Hong Kong when doctors first diagnosed him with an aggressive form of brain cancer that could not be surgically removed. He was put on a regimen of radiation and chemotherapy, but it soon became clear that he was severely allergic to the primary anti-nausea medication typically prescribed to cancer patients.
Chapman suffered through nine months of a life that many would call unlivable — vomiting for hours at a time, his stomach lining torn apart by the abuse. But even more crucial to his recovery, his nausea was so severe that he struggled to keep the chemotherapy pill down long enough for it to be effective.
His condition stabilized, for a while, but when it returned, Chapman went looking for another form of relief. A self-professed “science guy,” Chapman found that the data suggested medical marijuana was his answer. This time, he was living in Oakland, Calif., where medical marijuana is legal under state law and widely available. He turned to his doctor:
I sat down with my oncologist before we started the treatment plan and I told her, look, we know that I have an issue with anti-medics, anti-nausea drugs and had a really bad experience. And my plan is to take whatever you do give me, because maybe it’ll work, and use cannabis.Chapman is now being treated with an experimental therapy, and he marvels that his doctors are authorized to experiment with a genetically modified virus injection but not with an age-old plant that keeps him going. This is because marijuana — even for medical purposes — is both federally illegal and listed as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning it is considered a dangerous drug with no currently accepted medical value.
And my oncologist said something that is never gonna leave my brain, which is, hospital policy prevents me from suggesting you do that. But I personally wholeheartedly endorse that decision, and by the way, many of my patients who are using cannabis use me this way. And she gave me instructions about how it’s been effective.
… I had nine months of chemotherapy in which I didn’t vomit, as opposed to a year of chemotherapy back in Hong Kong where I vomited multiple times every day. To say that it was a positive change in my quality of life is just the biggest understatement there could ever be.
Stress, Chapman claims, is thought to be particularly detrimental to cancer patients. And the stress of worrying that his dispensary will be shut down by the federal government, that he will no longer be able to keep living a life that allows him to spend quality time with his wife and family, and that his job will be at risk due to their drug-free policy, are not improving his condition. Medical marijuana has done more than ease his debilitating nausea; it has enabled him to sleep, and to keep down the medicine he needs to survive. He explains:
Compare that to waking up vomiting in the middle of the night or potentially not even being able to keep the chemotherapy in my system more than ten minutes, the probability of my survival dramatically changes.
Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal
Forbes : 7/05/2011 @ 3:09PM |293,182 views
Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts.
Ten years ago, Portugal decriminalized all drugs. One decade after this unprecedented experiment, drug abuse is down by half:
Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts.
Ten years ago, Portugal decriminalized all drugs. One decade after this unprecedented experiment, drug abuse is down by half:
Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugal’s decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.
“There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal,” said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law.
The number of addicts considered “problematic” — those who repeatedly use “hard” drugs and intravenous users — had fallen by half since the early 1990s, when the figure was estimated at around 100,000 people, Goulao said.
Other factors had also played their part however, Goulao, a medical doctor added.
“This development can not only be attributed to decriminalisation but to a confluence of treatment and risk reduction policies.”
Many of these innovative treatment procedures would not have emerged if addicts had continued to be arrested and locked up rather than treated by medical experts and psychologists. Currently 40,000 people in Portugal are being treated for drug abuse. This is a far cheaper, far more humane way to tackle the problem. Rather than locking up 100,000 criminals, the Portuguese are working to cure 40,000 patients and fine-tuning a whole new canon of drug treatment knowledge at the same time.
None of this is possible when waging a war.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Indian Hemp Drugs Commission
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report, completed in 1894, was a British study of marijuana usage in India.
2 March 1893, the British House of Commons was concerned with the effects of hemp drugs in the province of Bengal, India. The Government of India convened a seven-member commission to look into these questions, commencing their study on 3 July 1893. Lord Kimberley suggested modifying the scope of the investigation to be expanded to include all of India.
The report the Commission produced was at least 3,281 pages long, with testimony from almost 1,200 "doctors, coolies, yogis, fakirs, heads of lunatic asylums, bhang peasants, tax gatherers, smugglers, army officers, hemp dealers, ganja palace operators and the clergy."[1]
The President of the commission was Mr. W. Mackworth Young, and other members include H.T. Ommanney, A.H.L. Fraser, Surgeon-Major C.J.H. Warden, Raja Soshi Sikhareshwar Roy, Kanwar Harnam Singh, and Lala Nihal Chand. Serving as secretary was Mr. H.J. McIntosh.[2]
This extensively well-prepared and thorough report summarized the Effects (potentially negative) of Marijuana in a chapter dedicated to that. Here is the end of that chapter:
"Conclusions
The Commission have now examined all the evidence before them regarding the effects attributed to hemp drugs. It will be well to summarize briefly the conclusions to which they come. It has been clearly established that the occasional use or hemp in moderate doses may be beneficial; but this use may be regarded as medicinal in character. It is rather to the popular and common use of the drugs that the Commission will now confine their attention. It is convenient to consider the effects separately as affecting the physical, mental, or moral nature.
Physical Effects
In regard to the physical effects, the Commission have come to the conclusion that the moderate use of hemp drugs is practically attended by no evil results at all. There may be exceptional cases in which, owing to idiosyncrasies of constitution, the drugs in even moderate use may be injurious. There is probably nothing the use of which may not possibly be injurious in cases of exceptional intolerance. There are also many cases where in tracts with a specially malarious climate, or in circumstances of hard work and exposure, the people attribute beneficial effects to the habitual moderate use of these drugs; and there is evidence to show that the popular impression may have some basis in fact. Speaking generally, the Commission are of opinion that the moderate use of hemp drugs appears to cause no appreciable physical injury of any kind. The excessive use does cause injury. As in the case of other intoxicants, excessive use tends to weaken the constitution and to render the consumer more susceptible to disease. In respect to the particular diseases which according to a considerable number of witnesses should be associated directly with hemp drugs, it appears to be reasonably established that the excessive use of these drugs does not cause asthma; that it may indirectly cause dysentery by weakening the constitution as above indicated; and that it may cause bronchitis mainly through the action of the inhaled smoke on the bronchial tubes (1:263-4).
Mental Effects
In respect to the alleged mental effects of the drugs, the Commission have come to the conclusion that the moderate use of hemp drugs produces no injurious effects on the mind. It may indeed be accepted that in the case of specially marked neurotic diathesis, even the moderate use may produce mental injury. For the slightest mental stimulation or excitement may have that effect in such cases. But putting aside these quite exceptional cases, the moderate use of these drugs produces no mental injury. It is otherwise with the excessive use. Excessive use indicates and intensifies mental instability (1:264).
Moral Effects
In regard to the moral effects of the drugs, the Commission are of opinion that their moderate use produces no moral injury whatever. There is no adequate ground for believing that it injuriously affects the character of the consumer. Excessive consumption, on the other hand, both indicates and intensifies moral weakness or depravity (1:264).
Discussion
Viewing the subject generally, it may be added that the moderate use of these drugs is the rule, and that the excessive use is comparatively exceptional. The moderate use practically produces no ill effects. In all but the most exceptional cases, the injury from habitual moderate use is not appreciable. The excessive use may certainly be accepted as very injurious, though it must be admitted that in many excessive consumers the injury is not clearly marked. The injury done by the excessive use is, however, confined almost exclusively to the consumer himself; the effect on society is rarely appreciable. It has been the most striking feature in this inquiry to find how little the effects of hemp drugs have obtruded themselves on observation. The large number of witnesses of all classes who professed never to have seen these effects, the vague statements made by many who professed to have observed them, the very few witnesses who could so recall a case as to give any definite account of it, and the manner in which a large proportion of these cases broke down on the first attempt to examine them, are facts which combine to show most clearly how little injury society has hitherto sustained from hemp drugs (1:264).
2 March 1893, the British House of Commons was concerned with the effects of hemp drugs in the province of Bengal, India. The Government of India convened a seven-member commission to look into these questions, commencing their study on 3 July 1893. Lord Kimberley suggested modifying the scope of the investigation to be expanded to include all of India.
The report the Commission produced was at least 3,281 pages long, with testimony from almost 1,200 "doctors, coolies, yogis, fakirs, heads of lunatic asylums, bhang peasants, tax gatherers, smugglers, army officers, hemp dealers, ganja palace operators and the clergy."[1]
The President of the commission was Mr. W. Mackworth Young, and other members include H.T. Ommanney, A.H.L. Fraser, Surgeon-Major C.J.H. Warden, Raja Soshi Sikhareshwar Roy, Kanwar Harnam Singh, and Lala Nihal Chand. Serving as secretary was Mr. H.J. McIntosh.[2]
This extensively well-prepared and thorough report summarized the Effects (potentially negative) of Marijuana in a chapter dedicated to that. Here is the end of that chapter:
"Conclusions
The Commission have now examined all the evidence before them regarding the effects attributed to hemp drugs. It will be well to summarize briefly the conclusions to which they come. It has been clearly established that the occasional use or hemp in moderate doses may be beneficial; but this use may be regarded as medicinal in character. It is rather to the popular and common use of the drugs that the Commission will now confine their attention. It is convenient to consider the effects separately as affecting the physical, mental, or moral nature.
Physical Effects
In regard to the physical effects, the Commission have come to the conclusion that the moderate use of hemp drugs is practically attended by no evil results at all. There may be exceptional cases in which, owing to idiosyncrasies of constitution, the drugs in even moderate use may be injurious. There is probably nothing the use of which may not possibly be injurious in cases of exceptional intolerance. There are also many cases where in tracts with a specially malarious climate, or in circumstances of hard work and exposure, the people attribute beneficial effects to the habitual moderate use of these drugs; and there is evidence to show that the popular impression may have some basis in fact. Speaking generally, the Commission are of opinion that the moderate use of hemp drugs appears to cause no appreciable physical injury of any kind. The excessive use does cause injury. As in the case of other intoxicants, excessive use tends to weaken the constitution and to render the consumer more susceptible to disease. In respect to the particular diseases which according to a considerable number of witnesses should be associated directly with hemp drugs, it appears to be reasonably established that the excessive use of these drugs does not cause asthma; that it may indirectly cause dysentery by weakening the constitution as above indicated; and that it may cause bronchitis mainly through the action of the inhaled smoke on the bronchial tubes (1:263-4).
Mental Effects
In respect to the alleged mental effects of the drugs, the Commission have come to the conclusion that the moderate use of hemp drugs produces no injurious effects on the mind. It may indeed be accepted that in the case of specially marked neurotic diathesis, even the moderate use may produce mental injury. For the slightest mental stimulation or excitement may have that effect in such cases. But putting aside these quite exceptional cases, the moderate use of these drugs produces no mental injury. It is otherwise with the excessive use. Excessive use indicates and intensifies mental instability (1:264).
Moral Effects
In regard to the moral effects of the drugs, the Commission are of opinion that their moderate use produces no moral injury whatever. There is no adequate ground for believing that it injuriously affects the character of the consumer. Excessive consumption, on the other hand, both indicates and intensifies moral weakness or depravity (1:264).
Discussion
Viewing the subject generally, it may be added that the moderate use of these drugs is the rule, and that the excessive use is comparatively exceptional. The moderate use practically produces no ill effects. In all but the most exceptional cases, the injury from habitual moderate use is not appreciable. The excessive use may certainly be accepted as very injurious, though it must be admitted that in many excessive consumers the injury is not clearly marked. The injury done by the excessive use is, however, confined almost exclusively to the consumer himself; the effect on society is rarely appreciable. It has been the most striking feature in this inquiry to find how little the effects of hemp drugs have obtruded themselves on observation. The large number of witnesses of all classes who professed never to have seen these effects, the vague statements made by many who professed to have observed them, the very few witnesses who could so recall a case as to give any definite account of it, and the manner in which a large proportion of these cases broke down on the first attempt to examine them, are facts which combine to show most clearly how little injury society has hitherto sustained from hemp drugs (1:264).
Thursday, October 25, 2012
HEMP: The Uses Are Endless
The uses Are Endless!!! If America wants REAL CHANGE, lets make the Change and use one of the most Useful & Sustainable Plant on the planet! Isn't it funny how a plant can make big business cringe? But, if big business was smart, they would use this Amazing plant as a Tool, instead of Being Afraid, Hemp is been on this planet for over 10k years, and will be here long after we are all gone! America Hemp is a Useful Commidity.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Prescription Drugs Kill 300 Percent More Americans than Illegal Drugs
| Monday, November 10, 2008 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer |
NaturalNews) A report by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission has concluded that prescription drugs have outstripped illegal drugs as a cause of death.
An analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in 2007 found that three times as many people were killed by legal drugs as by cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines put together. According to state law enforcement officials, this is a sign of a burgeoning prescription drug abuse problem.
"The abuse has reached epidemic proportions," said Lisa McElhaney, a sergeant in the pharmaceutical drug diversion unit of the Broward County Sheriff's Office. "It's just explosive."
In 2007, cocaine was responsible for 843 deaths, heroin for 121, methamphetamines for 25 and marijuana for zero, for a total of 989 deaths. In contrast, 2,328 people were killed by opioid painkillers, including Vicodin and Oxycontin, and 743 were killed by drugs containing benzodiazepine, including the depressants Valium and Xanax.
Alcohol directly caused 466 deaths, but was found in the bodies of 4,179 cadavers in all.
While the number of dead bodies containing heroin jumped 14 percent from the prior year, to a total of 110, the number of deaths influenced by the painkiller oxycodone increased by 36 percent, to a total of 1,253.
Across the country, prescription drugs have become an increasingly popular alternative to the more difficult to acquire illegal drugs. Even as illegal drug use among teenagers have fallen, prescription drug abuse has increased. For example, while 4 percent of U.S. 12th graders were using Oxycontin in 2002, by 2005 that number had increased to 5.5 percent.
It's not hard for teens to come by prescription drugs, according to Sgt. Tracy Busby, supervisor of the Calaveras County, Calif., Sheriff's Office narcotics unit.
"You go to every medicine cabinet in the county, and I bet you're going to find some sort of prescription medicine in 95 percent of them," he said.
Adults can acquire prescriptions by faking injuries, or by visiting multiple doctors and pharmacies for the same health complaint. Some people get more drugs than they expect to need, then sell the extras.
"You have health care providers involved, you have doctor shoppers, and then there are crimes like robbing drug shipments," said Jeff Beasley of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. "There is a multitude of ways to get these drugs, and that's what makes things complicated."
And while some people may believe that the medicines' legality makes them less dangerous than illegal drugs, Tuolumne County, Calif., Sheriff's Office Deputy Dan Crow warns that this is not the case. Because everybody reacts differently to foreign chemicals, there is no way of predicting the exact response anyone will have to a given dosage. That is why prescription drugs are supposed to be taken under a doctor's supervision.
"All this stuff is poison," Crow said. "Your body will fight all of this stuff."
Tuolumne County Health Officer Todd Stolp agreed. A prescription drug taken recreationally is "much like a firearm in the hands of someone who's not trained to use them," he said.
While anyone taking a prescription medicine runs a risk of negative effects, the drugs are even more dangerous when abused. For example, many painkillers are designed to have a delayed effect that fades out over time. This can lead recreational users to take more drugs before the old ones are out of their system, placing them at risk of an overdose. Likewise, the common practice of grinding pills up causes a large dose of drugs to hit the body all at once, with potentially dangerous consequences.
"A medication that was meant to be distributed over 24 hours has immediate effect," Stolp said.
Even more dangerous is the trend of mixing drugs with alcohol, which, like most popularly abused drugs, is a depressant.
"In the case of alcohol and drugs, one plus one equals more than two," said Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Lt. Dan Bressler.
Florida pays careful attention to drug-related deaths, and as such has significantly better data on the problem than any other state. But a recent study conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) suggests that the problem is indeed national. According to the DEA, the number of people abusing prescription drugs in the United States has jumped 80 percent in six years to seven million, or more than those abusing cocaine, Ecstasy, heroin, hallucinogens an inhalants put together.
Not surprisingly, there has been a corresponding increase in deaths. According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, the number of emergency room visits related to painkillers has increased by 153 percent since 1995. And a 2007 report by the Justice Department National Intelligence Drug Center found that deaths related to the opioid methadone jumped from 786 in 1999 to 3,849 in 2004 - an increase of 390 percent.
Many experts attribute the trend to the increasing popularity among doctors of prescribing painkillers, combined with a leap in direct-to-consumer marketing by drug companies. For example, promotional spending on Oxycontin increased threefold between 1996 and 2001, to $30 million per year.
Sonora, Calif., pharmacist Eddie Howard reports that he's seen painkiller prescriptions jump dramatically in the last five years.
"I don't know that there is that much pain out there to demand such an increase," he said.
The trend concerns Howard, and he tries to keep an eye out for patients who are coming in too frequently. But he admits that there is little he can do about the problem.
"When you have a lot of people waiting for prescriptions, it's hard to find time to play detective," he said.
Still, the situation makes Howard uncomfortable.
"It almost makes me a legalized drug dealer, and that's not a good position to be in," he said.
Sources for this story include: www.nytimes.com; www.uniondemocrat.com
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/024765_drug_drugs_DEA.html#ixzz2A9fLU9zE
Hemp Healthy Today I vote for Industrial Hemp To win in the Debates! Every one I talk to still believes in the Marijuana stigma, however after I speak with people about the uses of Hemp, I get a totally different outcome. People are very interested and awaken. So Hemp supporters, Lets keep educating our fellow Americans, Friends and Family, because as fast as the word keeps spreading, the hemp will soon grow, and we know that hemp grows pretty fast! I love the SUSTAINABLE HEMP.
Monday, October 22, 2012
'Marijuana Majority': New Website Celebrates the Sanity Behind Pot Policy Reform
October 22, 2012 |
Photo Credit: Shutter Stock
The war on marijuana has failed. Pretty much everyone knows it.
But too many people
who support replacing marijuana prohibition with legalization or decriminalization are afraid to say so. Because they don't realize that a majority of Americans -- including some of the most influential voices from across the political spectrum -- feel exactly the same way, these silenced supporters see speaking out as risky.
Marijuana Majority , a new organization that we and other longtime drug policy reformers are launching today, seeks to help people understand that ending our ineffective and harmful marijuana prohibition laws not only makes perfect policy sense, but is a completely mainstream position that enjoys broad support.
On MarijuanaMajority.com, we've collected in one place quotes and videos from politicians, religious leaders, celebrities, medical professionals, members of law enforcement and others who think it's time to end the war on marijuana.
Opposing marijuana prohibition is probably the one and only thing that progressive comedian Bill Maher, conservative businessman David Koch, actor Morgan Freeman and rapper Snoop Dogg all have in common. These opinion leaders all think our marijuana criminalization laws don't work, cause harm and need to change. And more voters agree with them than disagree.
Even though more and more Americans are joining the Marijuana Majority every day, there's still a deafening silence about this issue from too many national politicians -- including President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
At a time when he needs to re-energize supporters (especially young people, a demographic that overwhelmingly favors marijuana reform) to turn out to vote for him, why has President Obama not only ignored or laughed off marijuana legalization questions nearly every time they've been posed to him, but overseen an unprecedented federal crackdown on state medical marijuana programs despite previous campaign pledges that he would respect such laws?
In an election year when young, libertarian-leaning voters brought new enthusiasm into the Republican primary process in support of pro-legalization candidate Ron Paul, why can't Mitt Romney seem to grasp that supporting marijuana reform would be an effective way to keep these young and energetic voters engaged with his party?
Thankfully, a growing number of state lawmakers and voters aren’t waiting for the federal government to act and are taking matters into their own hands by passing legislation or putting initiatives on the ballot.
Whether or not any of the marijuana legalization initiatives on the ballots in Colorado, Oregon and Washington pass this November -- and polls indicate there's a good chance at least one will -- it is absolutely clear that the movement to end marijuana prohibition is continuing to pick up steam and is not going away any time soon.
We hope that by shining a spotlight on many of the prominent voices who are speaking up in favor of reforming bad marijuana laws -- and are being universally praised, not attacked, for it -- Marijuana Majority can help more politicians realize that there are many votes to be gained, and very few to be lost, by joining the chorus for change.
But more than just merely tracking the large number of prominent people and organizations that are already a part of the Marijuana Majority, we are going to be regularly asking for your help to grow the majority and make the movement for change even more powerful.
By making the quotes and videos on our site easily sharable via social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, we've made it easy for you to help spread the word that most sensible people agree it is time to change the marijuana laws. Just think about how much more likely your dad or your aunt would be to tell their co-workers that they support legalizing marijuana if only they knew that they could say, "Even evangelical Christian leader Pat Robertson agrees!" When you take advantage of the sharing tools we've made available on MarijuanaMajority.com, you are helping to make it much more likely that these kinds of important conversations will take place.
And, even more excitingly, we've built the site in a way that makes it more likely that influential celebrities and opinion leaders will add their voices to the emerging marijuana policy debate. Whenever you visit MarijuanaMajority.com, you'll see that we've selected a handful of prominent people who we believe are likely to support changing marijuana laws but just haven't been given the opportunity to say so publicly yet. We've made it easy for you to tweet pre-written messages to these people with just a couple of clicks. When you and enough other supporters take action and inundate these celebrities and elected officials with tweet after tweet about marijuana policy, many will be sure to take note and speak up.
These are just a few of the ways that Marijuana Majority intends to influence the emerging debate about our failed marijuana laws and how to fix them.
So please, take some time to read the quotes and watch the videos we have compiled. But don't stop there. Make sure to share the content with your social networks and tweet at some celebrities. With your help, we can and will help more people understand that speaking out is the right thing to do.
Tom Angell is the founder and chairman of Marijuana Majority . Perry Rosenstein is a board member and website engineer.
But too many people
who support replacing marijuana prohibition with legalization or decriminalization are afraid to say so. Because they don't realize that a majority of Americans -- including some of the most influential voices from across the political spectrum -- feel exactly the same way, these silenced supporters see speaking out as risky.
Marijuana Majority , a new organization that we and other longtime drug policy reformers are launching today, seeks to help people understand that ending our ineffective and harmful marijuana prohibition laws not only makes perfect policy sense, but is a completely mainstream position that enjoys broad support.
On MarijuanaMajority.com, we've collected in one place quotes and videos from politicians, religious leaders, celebrities, medical professionals, members of law enforcement and others who think it's time to end the war on marijuana.
Opposing marijuana prohibition is probably the one and only thing that progressive comedian Bill Maher, conservative businessman David Koch, actor Morgan Freeman and rapper Snoop Dogg all have in common. These opinion leaders all think our marijuana criminalization laws don't work, cause harm and need to change. And more voters agree with them than disagree.
Even though more and more Americans are joining the Marijuana Majority every day, there's still a deafening silence about this issue from too many national politicians -- including President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
At a time when he needs to re-energize supporters (especially young people, a demographic that overwhelmingly favors marijuana reform) to turn out to vote for him, why has President Obama not only ignored or laughed off marijuana legalization questions nearly every time they've been posed to him, but overseen an unprecedented federal crackdown on state medical marijuana programs despite previous campaign pledges that he would respect such laws?
In an election year when young, libertarian-leaning voters brought new enthusiasm into the Republican primary process in support of pro-legalization candidate Ron Paul, why can't Mitt Romney seem to grasp that supporting marijuana reform would be an effective way to keep these young and energetic voters engaged with his party?
Thankfully, a growing number of state lawmakers and voters aren’t waiting for the federal government to act and are taking matters into their own hands by passing legislation or putting initiatives on the ballot.
Whether or not any of the marijuana legalization initiatives on the ballots in Colorado, Oregon and Washington pass this November -- and polls indicate there's a good chance at least one will -- it is absolutely clear that the movement to end marijuana prohibition is continuing to pick up steam and is not going away any time soon.
We hope that by shining a spotlight on many of the prominent voices who are speaking up in favor of reforming bad marijuana laws -- and are being universally praised, not attacked, for it -- Marijuana Majority can help more politicians realize that there are many votes to be gained, and very few to be lost, by joining the chorus for change.
But more than just merely tracking the large number of prominent people and organizations that are already a part of the Marijuana Majority, we are going to be regularly asking for your help to grow the majority and make the movement for change even more powerful.
By making the quotes and videos on our site easily sharable via social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, we've made it easy for you to help spread the word that most sensible people agree it is time to change the marijuana laws. Just think about how much more likely your dad or your aunt would be to tell their co-workers that they support legalizing marijuana if only they knew that they could say, "Even evangelical Christian leader Pat Robertson agrees!" When you take advantage of the sharing tools we've made available on MarijuanaMajority.com, you are helping to make it much more likely that these kinds of important conversations will take place.
And, even more excitingly, we've built the site in a way that makes it more likely that influential celebrities and opinion leaders will add their voices to the emerging marijuana policy debate. Whenever you visit MarijuanaMajority.com, you'll see that we've selected a handful of prominent people who we believe are likely to support changing marijuana laws but just haven't been given the opportunity to say so publicly yet. We've made it easy for you to tweet pre-written messages to these people with just a couple of clicks. When you and enough other supporters take action and inundate these celebrities and elected officials with tweet after tweet about marijuana policy, many will be sure to take note and speak up.
These are just a few of the ways that Marijuana Majority intends to influence the emerging debate about our failed marijuana laws and how to fix them.
So please, take some time to read the quotes and watch the videos we have compiled. But don't stop there. Make sure to share the content with your social networks and tweet at some celebrities. With your help, we can and will help more people understand that speaking out is the right thing to do.
Tom Angell is the founder and chairman of Marijuana Majority . Perry Rosenstein is a board member and website engineer.
In this Time of Need:
Hemp Healthy Today "In this time of need, we can't oppose this weed, We Need A peoples President and an awaken America. Wake up please America! Cannabis can save more Lives that it has ever hurt. ZERO Overdose=No reason to be illegal. Hemp is a Plant that can boost Our economy and fuel our economy, not to mention FEED OUR NATION AND OTHER NATIONS that go hungry. Shame on the governments who don't see the Vital importance of this one Plant." D.C.
Medical Marijuana: Will Colorado's "green rush" last?
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50133577n&tag=re1.galleries
Rocky Mountain High, 60 Min. Episode!
PLEASE WATCH VIDEO
Rocky Mountain High, 60 Min. Episode!
PLEASE WATCH VIDEO
Sunday, October 21, 2012
"Not growing Industrial Hemp, is like starving next to a loaf of bread!" P.Koll
"Not growing Industrial Hemp, is like starving next to a loaf of bread!" P.Koll
Marijuana Fights Cancer and Helps Manage Side Effects, Researchers Find
Posted on October 18, 2012 at 5:09 pm
Photos
It's Breast Cancer Awareness month: Mounting evidence shows ‘cannabinoids’ in marijuana slow cancer growth, inhibit formation of new blood cells that feed a tumor, and help manage pain, fatigue, nausea, and other side effects.
[This article by Healdsburg author Martin A Lee was originally written for and posted by The Daily Beast.]
Cristina Sanchez, a young biologist at Complutense University in Madrid, was studying cell metabolism when she noticed something peculiar. She had been screening brain cancer cells because they grow faster than normal cell lines and thus are useful for research purposes. But the cancer cells died each time they were exposed to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive ingredient of marijuana.
Instead of gaining insight into how cells function, Sanchez had stumbled upon the anti-cancer properties of THC. In 1998, she reported in a European biochemistry journal that THC “induces apoptosis [cell death] in C6 glioma cells,” an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Subsequent peer-reviewed studies in several countries would show that THC and other marijuana-derived compounds, known as “cannabinoids,” are effective not only for cancer-symptom management (nausea, pain, loss of appetite, fatigue), they also confer a direct antitumoral effect.
A team of Spanish scientists led by Manuel Guzman conducted the first clinical trial assessing the antitumoral action of THC on human beings. Guzman administered pure THC via a catheter into the tumors of nine hospitalized patients with glioblastoma, who had failed to respond to standard brain-cancer therapies. The results were published in 2006 in the British Journal of Pharmacology: THC treatment was associated with significantly reduced tumor cell proliferation in every test subject.
Around the same time, Harvard University scientists reported that THC slows tumor growth in common lung cancer and “significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread.” What’s more, like a heat-seeking missile, THC selectively targets and destroys tumor cells while leaving healthy cells unscathed. Conventional chemotherapy drugs, by contrast, are highly toxic; they indiscriminately damage the brain and body.
There is mounting evidence, according to a report in Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry, that cannabinoids “represent a new class of anticancer drugs that retard cancer growth, inhibit angiogenesis [the formation of new blood cells that feed a tumor] and the metastatic spreading of cancer cells.”
Dr. Sean McAllister, a scientist at the Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, has been studying cannabinoid compounds for 10 years in a quest to develop new therapeutic interventions for various cancers. Backed by grants from the National Institute of Health (and with a license from the DEA), McAllister discovered that cannabidiol (CBD), a nonpsychoactive component of the marijuana plant, is a potent inhibitor of breast cancer cell proliferation, metastasis, and tumor growth.
In 2007, McAllister published a detailed account of how cannabidiol kills breast cancer cells and destroys malignant tumors by switching off expression of the ID-1 gene, a protein that appears to play a major role as a cancer cell conductor.
The ID-1 gene is active during human embryonic development, after which it turns off and stays off. But in breast cancer and several other types of metastatic cancer, the ID-1 gene becomes active again, causing malignant cells to invade and metastasize. “Dozens of aggressive cancers express this gene,” explains McAllister. He postulates that CBD, by virtue of its ability to silence ID-1 expression, could be a breakthrough anti-cancer medication.
“Cannabidiol offers hope of a non-toxic therapy that could treat aggressive forms of cancer without any of the painful side effects of chemotherapy,” says McAllister, who is seeking support to conduct clinical trials with the marijuana compound on breast cancer patients.
McAllister’s lab also is analyzing how CBD works in combination with first-line chemotherapy agents. His research shows that cannabidiol, a potent antitumoral compound in its own right, acts synergistically with various anti-cancer pharmaceuticals, enhancing their impact while cutting the toxic dosage necessary for maximum effect.
Investigators at St. George’s University in London observed a similar pattern with THC, which magnified the effectiveness of conventional antileukemia therapies in preclinical studies. THC and cannabidiol both induce apoptosis in leukemic cell lines.
At the annual summer conference of the International Cannabinoid Research Society, held this year in Freiburg, Germany, 300 scientists from around the world discussed their latest findings, which are pointing the way toward novel treatment strategies for cancer and other degenerative diseases. Italian investigators described CBD as “the most efficacious inducer of apoptosis” in prostate cancer. Ditto for cannabidiol and colon cancer, according to British researchers at Lancaster University.
Within the medical science community, the discovery that cannabinoids have anti-tumoral properties is increasingly recognized as a seminal advancement in cancer therapeutics.
Healdsburg resident Martin A. Lee is the author of Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana – Medical, Recreational and Scientific (Scribner, August 2012). He is the cofounder of the media watch group FAIR, director of Project CBD, and the author of Acid Dreams and The Beast Reawakens. For more information and regular updates, follow Smoke Signals—the book on Facebook.
Lee will be speaking on Fri. Oct. 26, 7pm: “Bringing Back CBD — advances in medical marijuana,” Venue: The Classroom of Sonoma County Collective, 3020 Santa Rosa Avenue, Suite B , Santa Rosa, CA
[This article by Healdsburg author Martin A Lee was originally written for and posted by The Daily Beast.]
Cristina Sanchez, a young biologist at Complutense University in Madrid, was studying cell metabolism when she noticed something peculiar. She had been screening brain cancer cells because they grow faster than normal cell lines and thus are useful for research purposes. But the cancer cells died each time they were exposed to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive ingredient of marijuana.
Instead of gaining insight into how cells function, Sanchez had stumbled upon the anti-cancer properties of THC. In 1998, she reported in a European biochemistry journal that THC “induces apoptosis [cell death] in C6 glioma cells,” an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Subsequent peer-reviewed studies in several countries would show that THC and other marijuana-derived compounds, known as “cannabinoids,” are effective not only for cancer-symptom management (nausea, pain, loss of appetite, fatigue), they also confer a direct antitumoral effect.
A team of Spanish scientists led by Manuel Guzman conducted the first clinical trial assessing the antitumoral action of THC on human beings. Guzman administered pure THC via a catheter into the tumors of nine hospitalized patients with glioblastoma, who had failed to respond to standard brain-cancer therapies. The results were published in 2006 in the British Journal of Pharmacology: THC treatment was associated with significantly reduced tumor cell proliferation in every test subject.
Around the same time, Harvard University scientists reported that THC slows tumor growth in common lung cancer and “significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread.” What’s more, like a heat-seeking missile, THC selectively targets and destroys tumor cells while leaving healthy cells unscathed. Conventional chemotherapy drugs, by contrast, are highly toxic; they indiscriminately damage the brain and body.
There is mounting evidence, according to a report in Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry, that cannabinoids “represent a new class of anticancer drugs that retard cancer growth, inhibit angiogenesis [the formation of new blood cells that feed a tumor] and the metastatic spreading of cancer cells.”
Dr. Sean McAllister, a scientist at the Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, has been studying cannabinoid compounds for 10 years in a quest to develop new therapeutic interventions for various cancers. Backed by grants from the National Institute of Health (and with a license from the DEA), McAllister discovered that cannabidiol (CBD), a nonpsychoactive component of the marijuana plant, is a potent inhibitor of breast cancer cell proliferation, metastasis, and tumor growth.
In 2007, McAllister published a detailed account of how cannabidiol kills breast cancer cells and destroys malignant tumors by switching off expression of the ID-1 gene, a protein that appears to play a major role as a cancer cell conductor.
The ID-1 gene is active during human embryonic development, after which it turns off and stays off. But in breast cancer and several other types of metastatic cancer, the ID-1 gene becomes active again, causing malignant cells to invade and metastasize. “Dozens of aggressive cancers express this gene,” explains McAllister. He postulates that CBD, by virtue of its ability to silence ID-1 expression, could be a breakthrough anti-cancer medication.
“Cannabidiol offers hope of a non-toxic therapy that could treat aggressive forms of cancer without any of the painful side effects of chemotherapy,” says McAllister, who is seeking support to conduct clinical trials with the marijuana compound on breast cancer patients.
McAllister’s lab also is analyzing how CBD works in combination with first-line chemotherapy agents. His research shows that cannabidiol, a potent antitumoral compound in its own right, acts synergistically with various anti-cancer pharmaceuticals, enhancing their impact while cutting the toxic dosage necessary for maximum effect.
Investigators at St. George’s University in London observed a similar pattern with THC, which magnified the effectiveness of conventional antileukemia therapies in preclinical studies. THC and cannabidiol both induce apoptosis in leukemic cell lines.
At the annual summer conference of the International Cannabinoid Research Society, held this year in Freiburg, Germany, 300 scientists from around the world discussed their latest findings, which are pointing the way toward novel treatment strategies for cancer and other degenerative diseases. Italian investigators described CBD as “the most efficacious inducer of apoptosis” in prostate cancer. Ditto for cannabidiol and colon cancer, according to British researchers at Lancaster University.
Within the medical science community, the discovery that cannabinoids have anti-tumoral properties is increasingly recognized as a seminal advancement in cancer therapeutics.
Healdsburg resident Martin A. Lee is the author of Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana – Medical, Recreational and Scientific (Scribner, August 2012). He is the cofounder of the media watch group FAIR, director of Project CBD, and the author of Acid Dreams and The Beast Reawakens. For more information and regular updates, follow Smoke Signals—the book on Facebook.
Lee will be speaking on Fri. Oct. 26, 7pm: “Bringing Back CBD — advances in medical marijuana,” Venue: The Classroom of Sonoma County Collective, 3020 Santa Rosa Avenue, Suite B , Santa Rosa, CA
Friday, October 19, 2012
Thanks to my readers!
I would like to thank all my Family & Friends who have taken the time to read my Blog: We have had OVER 4000 View's, over 1500 in the past month! I am happie to be able to H)elp E)ducate M)ore P)eople. Thanx, and keep on reading!
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Why Candy Crowley Should Have Asked Obama and Romney About Hemp
The debate was held in Hempstead, a town where farmers once cultivated the durable, lucrative crop that is illegal to grow today.
October 18, 2012 |
October 18, 2012 |
Photo Credit: http://pantanova.nl
On Tuesday, October 16, the second Obama-Romney debate was held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, Long Island, near where I grew up as a kid.
If I were moderator, I would have started by asking the candidates to explain the etymology of that quaint village name. Why is the town called Hempstead? Because once upon a time, farmers on Long Island grew hemp, marijuana’s durable, non-psychoactive twin. They grew hemp for fiber, cordage, paper, oil, and many other necessities. Many American farmers used to grow hemp – not just on Long Island.
Hemp was one of the first crops cultivated by Puritan settlers in New England. Early American households in some colonies were required by law to produce hemp because the plant had so many beneficial uses. Thomas Jefferson penned the original draft of the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper. Patriotic wives and mothers organized spinning bees with hempen thread to clothe the Yankee army. The first American flags were made of hemp cloth. Without enough hemp, American revolutionaries would not have prevailed in their struggle against the British.
But today it’s illegal to grow hemp in the United States. A plant once prized by our Founding Fathers, a plant with an impeccable patriotic pedigree, has been banished from the American agricultural landscape because of the war on drugs.
Concerned about the availability of marijuana, the federal government imposed tight restrictions on hemp, even though hemp contains minuscule amounts of THC, pot’s psychoactive ingredient, not nearly enough to make someone feel high. If marijuana is the funny stuff, then fiber hemp is its serious sibling, a sober, can-do ecologically sustainable plant with more than 25,000 known industrial applications – everything from hemp sneakers, lip balm, body lotion and granola to hemp surfboards, backpacks, building material and car panels.
Drug Enforcement Administration officials contend that if hemp were legal to grow, it would make marijuana law enforcement much more difficult because hemp and pot bear a resemblance. (They are actually the same species -- cannabis sativa – but are genetically distinct.) By misclassifying hemp as a drug, Uncle Sam essentially ceded a lucrative and expanding agricultural market to Canada, China, Russia, and the European Union, which subsidizes hemp farmers.
The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that prohibits commercial hemp cultivation. Yet it’s okay for American businesses to import hemp fiber and hempseed oil, as long as the plant itself is grown abroad.
That’s very frustrating to David Bronner, CEO of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, which use 20 tons of hempseed oil in soaps and other products every year. It would be more cost-effective for Bronner’s company and better for American farmers and the U.S. economy as a whole if American businesses could purchase hemp oil and hemp fiber from American rather than Canadian farmers. “The Canadian farmers are laughing at us all the way to the bank,” said Bronner.
Rough industry estimates indicate that several hundred million dollars worth of hemp products are sold annually in the United States.
Nine states – Maine, Vermont, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Dakota, Montana, Oregon and Hawaii – have passed laws permitting hemp cultivation and research. But unlike in states such as California where medical marijuana is legal and people can grow limited quantities of cannabis for therapeutic use, industrial hemp farming hasn’t taken hold anywhere in the United States.
There is no industrial hemp resistance like there is a medical marijuana resistance. That’s because the feds generally follow a policy of only busting cannabis grow-ops larger than 100 plants. Whereas a family or a collective can earn decent money from growing 99 pot plants (which command a high price relative to other crops), for an industrial hemp grow to be economically viable, it would have to exceed many times over the 100-plant limit, which would make it an automatic target of federal law enforcement.
In effect, pot prohibition makes it more difficult for a farmer to grow industrial hemp than granddaddy purple -- underscoring once again the sheer idiocy of the war on drugs, a venal and destructive policy that has fostered crime, police corruption, social discord, racial injustice and, ironically, drug abuse itself, while impeding medical advances and economic opportunity.
The politics of hemp and the politics of marijuana are inseparable – if only because the feds have made it so.
To unshackle hemp from the tyranny of pot prohibition, Bronner and other activists are supporting three state ballot measures this fall that would legalize cannabis for adult use in Colorado, Washington and Oregon.
Hemp is the botanical elephant in the living room of American politics. It’s off limits to grow and presidential candidates keep dodging the issue – even when they’re debating in a town called Hempstead.
If I were moderator, I would have started by asking the candidates to explain the etymology of that quaint village name. Why is the town called Hempstead? Because once upon a time, farmers on Long Island grew hemp, marijuana’s durable, non-psychoactive twin. They grew hemp for fiber, cordage, paper, oil, and many other necessities. Many American farmers used to grow hemp – not just on Long Island.
Hemp was one of the first crops cultivated by Puritan settlers in New England. Early American households in some colonies were required by law to produce hemp because the plant had so many beneficial uses. Thomas Jefferson penned the original draft of the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper. Patriotic wives and mothers organized spinning bees with hempen thread to clothe the Yankee army. The first American flags were made of hemp cloth. Without enough hemp, American revolutionaries would not have prevailed in their struggle against the British.
But today it’s illegal to grow hemp in the United States. A plant once prized by our Founding Fathers, a plant with an impeccable patriotic pedigree, has been banished from the American agricultural landscape because of the war on drugs.
Concerned about the availability of marijuana, the federal government imposed tight restrictions on hemp, even though hemp contains minuscule amounts of THC, pot’s psychoactive ingredient, not nearly enough to make someone feel high. If marijuana is the funny stuff, then fiber hemp is its serious sibling, a sober, can-do ecologically sustainable plant with more than 25,000 known industrial applications – everything from hemp sneakers, lip balm, body lotion and granola to hemp surfboards, backpacks, building material and car panels.
Drug Enforcement Administration officials contend that if hemp were legal to grow, it would make marijuana law enforcement much more difficult because hemp and pot bear a resemblance. (They are actually the same species -- cannabis sativa – but are genetically distinct.) By misclassifying hemp as a drug, Uncle Sam essentially ceded a lucrative and expanding agricultural market to Canada, China, Russia, and the European Union, which subsidizes hemp farmers.
The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that prohibits commercial hemp cultivation. Yet it’s okay for American businesses to import hemp fiber and hempseed oil, as long as the plant itself is grown abroad.
That’s very frustrating to David Bronner, CEO of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, which use 20 tons of hempseed oil in soaps and other products every year. It would be more cost-effective for Bronner’s company and better for American farmers and the U.S. economy as a whole if American businesses could purchase hemp oil and hemp fiber from American rather than Canadian farmers. “The Canadian farmers are laughing at us all the way to the bank,” said Bronner.
Rough industry estimates indicate that several hundred million dollars worth of hemp products are sold annually in the United States.
Nine states – Maine, Vermont, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Dakota, Montana, Oregon and Hawaii – have passed laws permitting hemp cultivation and research. But unlike in states such as California where medical marijuana is legal and people can grow limited quantities of cannabis for therapeutic use, industrial hemp farming hasn’t taken hold anywhere in the United States.
There is no industrial hemp resistance like there is a medical marijuana resistance. That’s because the feds generally follow a policy of only busting cannabis grow-ops larger than 100 plants. Whereas a family or a collective can earn decent money from growing 99 pot plants (which command a high price relative to other crops), for an industrial hemp grow to be economically viable, it would have to exceed many times over the 100-plant limit, which would make it an automatic target of federal law enforcement.
In effect, pot prohibition makes it more difficult for a farmer to grow industrial hemp than granddaddy purple -- underscoring once again the sheer idiocy of the war on drugs, a venal and destructive policy that has fostered crime, police corruption, social discord, racial injustice and, ironically, drug abuse itself, while impeding medical advances and economic opportunity.
The politics of hemp and the politics of marijuana are inseparable – if only because the feds have made it so.
To unshackle hemp from the tyranny of pot prohibition, Bronner and other activists are supporting three state ballot measures this fall that would legalize cannabis for adult use in Colorado, Washington and Oregon.
Hemp is the botanical elephant in the living room of American politics. It’s off limits to grow and presidential candidates keep dodging the issue – even when they’re debating in a town called Hempstead.
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