Before I go on about the topic of hemp and how it became illegal, I’d like to provide a little information about the issue of marijuana.
You don’t have to be for the legalization of marijuana if you are for the legalization of industrial hemp farming. The two issues can remain under law as separate issues, and not one and the same. In other words, you can be a hemp legalization advocate without advocating for a change in the marijuana laws.
One of the reasons that this book is not endorsed by Vote Hemp, a lobbying group in Washington, D.C., is that Vote Hemp chooses to remain centered on the issue of the legalization of industrial hemp farming, and does not endorse books or organizations that may express a viewpoint advocating a change in the law as it applies to marijuana.
While I would like this book to be focused on hemp, I don’t see how I could write it without also covering some aspects of the marijuana issue. As I mention elsewhere, anyone who would like to know more about marijuana should read the book Cannabis: A History, by Martin Booth.
Those considering smoking marijuana should make themselves aware of the laws relating to the substance. They would also likely do themselves a favor by studying up on both the possible pros and cons of marijuana, including in issues relating to health and marijuana law.
There are so many rumors about marijuana that the number of mistruths surrounding its use and effects are legendary. One that I heard growing up was that marijuana causes chromosomal damage, which can turn you into a retard as well as cause horrible birth defects in your children. Out of all of the information I have studied, I could find no evidence to back these claims. However, I found ample amounts of information that petroleum and its byproducts, as well as farming and industrial and household chemicals made from petroleum, can cause brain damage and birth deformities.
No matter what your age, if you live in the U.S., you can lose some of your rights if you have a felony drug conviction on your record. Under a law that took effect in 2000, this includes being banned from receiving federal financial aid for college for up to a year after a student has been convicted. Some of those with lesser drug offenses become eligible for the funds only after they have completed a drug treatment program. Those with three drug-use convictions or two drug-sale convictions are permanently banned from receiving federal college aid.
It seems to me that denying financial aid for education to someone who is trying to advance his or her life by going to college would not be constructive for the person or society. Those who want to go to school should be able to get all the help they can find, and not be denied financial aid based on a drug conviction. It is also odd that convicted murderers and rapists who have served their time in prison are not denied financial aid for college, nor should they be denied it.
“It’s a very poor way for the government to fight the War on Drugs. I don’t think that the government should find more and more ways to deprive students of a means to an education.”
– David Israel Wasserman, Associated Students of Berkeley. In protest to the federal government’s denial of financial aid to those with drug convictions, the ASB opened up a $400-per-year scholarship program of the student government to include those with drug convictions on their records. Students must maintain a 2.5 grade-point average, perform 20 hours of community service, and then contribute to the program after becoming financially stable after graduation. Berkeley Students Counter Federal Drug Rule, by Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, January 26, 2007
“If you are enabling self-destructive behavior by supporting it, condoning it, or even paying for it, you’re probably not helping the person get the help they need to deal with their disease.”
– David Murray, chief scientist with the George W. Bush White House Office on national Drug Control Policy. In response to the news that the Associated Students of Berkeley will allow financial aid to those with drug convictions. Berkeley Students Counter Federal Drug Rule, by Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, January, 26, 2007
Those considering the use of marijuana should consider the negative aspects of its use, including potential legal and social issues.
1. You can lose school grants and scholarships.
2. You can be denied acceptance to certain internship programs.
3. You can lose your job.
4. You can lose your professional license.
5. You can lose your health insurance.
6. You can be denied welfare as well as inclusion in other government programs.
7. If you live in government-subsidized housing and are caught with marijuana, you can lose your home.
8. In 1996, Congress passed a law allowing the Temporary Aid for Needy Families program to permanently deny food stamps or cash assistance to people convicted of possessing or selling drugs. However, most states opted out of the ban.
9. A conviction of one person may cause a member of their family to lose their job if they are employed in certain professions.
10. Some say that marijuana induces insomnia, and other say it helps them to sleep.
11. Some who have used marijuana say they have experienced paranoia, mental discomfort, as if the people they are with dislike them and are mildly conspiring against them. Some say it gives them the uncomfortable feeling of being a self-parody. Other say that it makes them feel the opposite, inverse-paranoia, where they think everyone likes them and is out to do them good. Some people say that getting high makes them enjoy being around people and animals.
12. Smoking or injesting cannabis often causes reddening of the eyes (conjunctival vascular congestion), which can allow others to know or suspect that you are high, including employers or law enforcement officers. (Marijuana does not cause pupil dilation.)
13. It is illegal to drive while under the influence of marijuana.
14. Some say that marijuana debilitates them because it seems to reduces their drive, fogs their memory, causes them to procrastinate on important issues, and otherwise makes them lazy. Others say that it stimulates them and they use it before they go bike riding, snowboarding, swimming, hiking, or working out. Others do it prior to engaging in a creative endeavor, or enjoying what others have created, such as art, music, literature, theatre, film, or dance.
15. Getting high on marijuana can give a person “the munchies,” which is the desire to eat more than they should. People who get the munchies often choose low-quality foods that degrade their health. Some people attribute their weight issues to their use of smoking marijuana.
On the other hand, this is also why marijuana can be used medicinally by people who suffer from anorexia or AIDS wasting syndrome, or who experience loss of appetite while undergoing cancer treatment.
Some people say that they don’t get hungry when they smoke marijuana, and that they only want to drink water.
16. While marijuana is not physically addictive and does not cause withdrawal symptoms experienced by hard or “addictive” drugs (cocaine, heroin, morphine, meth, alcohol, nicotine, etc.), some people say that a person who uses marijuana may form a psychological dependence.
17. Because marijuana can increase heart rate, it may cause uncomfortable sensations in those sensitive to changes in blood pressure.
18. Marijuana smoke contains carbon monoxide, cyanide, and tar, which can play a role in respiratory disorders.
19. People on waiting lists for organ transplants have been denied a transplant partially based on their use of marijuana. This includes patients who have held a medical prescription for marijuana.
The United Network for Organ Sharing oversees the transplant system in the U.S. They do not make the rules of which patient gets a transplant. Instead, they leave it up to the medical staff at each hospital where transplants are performed.
Health insurance companies may require potential organ transplant patients to undergo drug tests. A positive result for any sort of illegal substance can result in the cancellation of the insurance, or refusal to pay for the transplant.
Some hospital organ transplant boards consider the use of marijuana to be a sign that the patient is likely to become addicted to other drugs. Some cite that the introduction of smoke into the lungs can impact the immune system, which is already challenged in someone who has undergone an organ transplant and is on anti-rejection drugs. Others believe that molds found on tobacco and marijuana may lead to an aspergillosis infection in a patient who has undergone a transplant.
Some hospital transplant boards will allow a patient with a history of marijuana use to undergo an organ transplant if the patient stays clean for a number of months and/or enters a drug rehab program.
20. Using marijuana can interfere with relationships.
21. Some people have stated that marijuana was a factor in alienating them
from friends and family, and in deepening troubled relationships. It is likely that they already had issues that they weren’t managing, and perhaps marijuana use added another layer to their life problems.
22. Marijuana use can be used against you in a divorce or child custody case.
23. Some speak about the money they have spent on marijuana, and say they would have been much better off if they had invested the money, saved it, or spent it in other ways.
24. Some say that the professional and legal problems marijuana caused them ruined their life.
25. In the U.S. you can be sentenced to as much as life in prison for breaking certain marijuana laws.
26. You can drink any variety of alcohol till you puke and pass out and remain sick for several days, but if you are caught smoking one puff of a marijuana joint you are sharing with friends in the privacy of your own home, you may get as much as 20 years in prison.
27. If you have enough weed that it appears you may be selling it, you can get several years in prison.
28. If you were caught exchanging weed within 1,000 feet of a school or
public housing facility, or within 100 feet of a youth center, your sentence can be doubled. You would also not be eligible for probation or early parole.
29. If you are caught growing marijuana you can lose the property you own where the weed was found growing. The government can also take away other personal property, including cars, boats, jewelry, furniture, and electronics.
30. Any marijuana seeds you have may be counted as a plant, which can increase your prison term.
31. Some countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore, and China, have been known to execute those who break certain marijuana laws.
Take note:
I, the author of this book, am not an attorney, a doctor, or a person who works in law enforcement.
Marijuana laws are complicated and they vary from state-to-state, and from country-to-country. Getting caught breaking marijuana laws may greatly complicate your life.
Those who think they may be in a situation that could appear to be in violation of marijuana laws should educate themselves about the laws. I have listed books and organizations that deal with various aspects of the marijuana issue in the resources section at the back of this book.
Those who are using weed to escape life’s problems may be compounding their difficulties and possibly making them worse. Some would counter this with the view that marijuana could allow people to view their problems from a different angle, and perhaps this perception will help them come to an understanding on how to handle the issues with which they are concerned.
Some may say that they spend less time and energy under the influence of marijuana doing things that are active, interesting, stimulating, and satisfying than many people who are sober all of the time, but who choose to spend their free time watching television and accomplishing nothing but weight gain and slothfulness.
If the use of weed stifles a person’s talents or intellect, that also is a detriment. As mentioned later in the book, there are many great works of art that have been created while the artist was under the influence of something, but that does not mean that a person couldn’t succeed in creating something amazing without being under the influence.
People who believe marijuana puts them in a state of consciousness during which they can function better with life should consider that the drug might only bring out what is already within a person. Perhaps their life would work better if they would learn how to release this desirable aspect of their being without the use of drugs.
Spending money on weed while neglecting basic needs is another drawback. If people claim they are smoking weed because they can’t cope with their financial situation, perhaps they should consider the amount of money and time they are spending on the marijuana.
It should be easy to understand why nobody should be operating an automobile or other heavy equipment, or making serious life decisions while under the influence of marijuana, or any mind-altering substance.
Some marijuana decriminalization/legalization advocates seem to give the message that everyone should smoke pot every day. There are certainly people who should not be smoking pot, such as doctors performing surgery. Children shouldn’t have access to it for nonmedical reasons, and the choice to smoke or consume it for recreational, artistic, and/or spiritual reasons should be an adult decision.
Plenty of information can be had about the benefits and risks of smoking marijuana. Just the act of breathing smoke into the lungs should be an indication that it might not be the best thing to do. Chronic users of marijuana may increase their likelihood of experiencing various ailments, including bronchitis, emphysema, and collapsed lung.
A 2007 study of 339 test subjects by the New Zealand Medical Research Institute and that was published in the journal Thorax concluded that a subject group with a long-term history of pot smoking had a 1.3 percent rate of emphysema. A subject group who smoked both marijuana and cigarettes had a 16.3 rate, and a subject group with a history of smoking only cigarettes had an 18.9 rate of emphysema. The study included four groups, nonsmokers, cigarette smokers who didn’t smoke weed, cigarette smokers who also smoked weed, and weed smokers who didn’t smoke wee. The study found that those who smoked pot on a regular basis had above average rates of coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, and phlegm. They also showed signs of damage to the finer airways within the lungs.
Some say that they avoid any potential respiratory matters in relation to weed by choosing instead to put the marijuana in food rather than smoke it, or to use a vaporizer rather than a pipe or joint. But they still should consider other issues that may result from being high.
When marijuana is grown using synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, and other fossil-based chemicals there is no doubt that the smoke from that pot is more toxic than weed that was grown using nothing but organic soil, water, and Sun.
Using a lighter to light pot can cause inhalation of burning butane, which is harmful. Those who choose to smoke weed should consider lighting it with a match, or using a vaporizer.
However, I do think it is criminal that people are in jail for the possession of cannabis, and that the government spends billions of dollars on trying to control a substance that anyone can get if he or she wants it. The U.S. spends more money per marijuana prisoner than it does per schoolchild. There are many important things we can be doing with the billions we spend on trying to stop people from smoking pot.
The majority of people busted under pot laws are under the age of 25, and the U.S. spends more money on each of them than we do on individual college students. It would be less expensive and more beneficial to society to put these so-called marijuana criminals through college than it would be to send them to prison.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
– Nelson Mandela
It should be very obvious that the U.S. has a problem with priorities in relation to what it spends on the war on drugs, and what it spends on schools and the environment. What do you say about a country that spends more on prisons than on schools?
According to a report by the Pew Center’s Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Center on the States, at the beginning of 2008, there were 2,319,258 Americans were in prison or jail. That means that the U.S. incarcerates more people in both population and per capita than any other country. The number of prisoners keeps going up, and so do the costs. In the two decades ending in 2007, the U.S. went from spending $11 billion per year to spending $49 billion per year on the jail and prison industries. According to the Pew report, the inmate population in the state of Kentucky increased 600 percent in 30 years. California, which is in an enormous budgetary crisis, spent $8.8 billion on prisons in 2007. In the same year, Oregon spent 10.9 percent of its general fund on prisons.
Perhaps what are considered to be crimes should be thought of as something else, and handled in a different way that doesn’t include locking people in prisons – where they learn to do real crime.
“Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little need of reform in our prisons.”
– John Ruskin
Consider the possibility that many of the young people who are busted for selling marijuana are involved in “sales” because they are trying to make money they could make if they had skills to be learned in a trade school, tech school, or other school. If it were easier for them to go to college they may not be involved in selling cannabis. On the other hand, there are likely a number of students who pay their tuition by selling weed on the side.
Here are some facts provided by Common Sense for Drug Policy (CSDP.org):
“From 1984 to 1996, California built 21 new prisons, and only one new university.”
– Ambrosio, T. & Schiraldi, V., Trends in State Spending, 1987-1995, Executive Summary-February 1997; Washington, D.C.: The Justice Policy Institute, 1997
“California state government expenditures on prisons increased 30 percent from 1987 to 1995, while spending on higher education decreased by 18 percent.”
– National Association of State Budget Officers, 1995 State Expenditures Report; Washington, D.C.: National Association of State Budget Officers, 1996
“The total number of State and Federal inmates grew from 400,000 in 1982 to nearly 1,300,000 in 1999. This was accompanied by the opening of over 600 state and at least 51 federal correctional facilities. The number of local jail inmates also tripled, from approximately 200,000 in 1982 to 600,000 in 1999. Adults on probation increased from over 1.3 to nearly 3.8 million persons. Overall corrections employment more than doubled from nearly 300,000 to over 716,000 during this period.”
– Gifford, Sidra Lea, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 1999; Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, February 2002; Page 7
“Department of corrections data show that about a fourth of those initially imprisoned for nonviolent crimes are sentenced for a second time for committing a violent offense. Whatever else it reflects, this pattern highlights the possibility that prison serves to transmit violent habits and values rather than to reduce them.”
– Craig Haney, Ph.D., and Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., The Past and Future of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment; American Psychologist, Vol. 53, No. 7; July 1998; page 720
The marijuana sales industry is always going to be here because the plant can be grown in hidden gardens or “grow rooms.”
Nobody really knows how big the marijuana market is because it is mostly done subversively. According to Ed Rosenthal, co-author of the 2003 book Why Marijuana Should Be Legal, the marijuana sales industry does about $25 billion in business every year. Marijuana laws have helped increase the price of it and it has long been considered to be the biggest cash crop in the states of California, Hawaii, and Kentucky. A study conducted by the former head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws that was released on December 18, 2006 concluded that the U.S. marijuana business exceeds $35 billion. This figure would mean that marijuana is America’s biggest cash crop above corn ($23 billion), soybeans ($17.6 billion), hay ($12.2 billion), vegetables ($11.1 billion), and wheat ($7.4 billion).
“Despite years of effort by law enforcement, they’re not getting rid of it. Not only is the problem worse in terms of magnitude of cultivation, but also production has spread all around the country. To say the genie is out of the bottle is a profound understatement.
… Marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the economy of the United States.
… The contribution of this market to the nation’s gross domestic product is overlooked in the debate over effective control.
… Like all profitable agricultural crops marijuana adds resources and value to the economy.
… The focus of public policy should be how to effectively control this market through regulation and taxation in order to achieve immediate and realistic goals, such as reducing teenage access.”
– Jon Gettman, public policy analyst and former head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML); author of report concluding that America’s top moneymaking crop is marijuana; December 18, 2006. The study based its figures on government reports and purposefully worked to give a low estimate of the possible cash value of marijuana being produced in America.
As expected, Tom Riley, the spokesman for the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, rejected Gettman’s suggestion that marijuana should become legal and taxed. He stated that more teenagers are in treatment centers for marijuana issues than for all other drugs. He failed to mention that courts are ordering teenagers into treatment, which is the reason for the increase.
Some may ask why there are more people going into treatment centers for marijuana use.
“Although admissions to drug rehabilitation clinics among marijuana users have increased dramatically since the mid-1990s, ‘this rise in marijuana admissions is due to a proportional increase in the number of people arrested by law enforcement for marijuana violations and subsequently referred to drug treatment by the criminal justice system.’ Primarily, these are young people arrested for minor possession offenses, brought before a criminal judge (or drug court), and ordered to rehabilitation in lieu of jail or juvenile detention. As such, this data is in no way indicative of whether the person referred to treatment is suffering from any symptoms of dependence associated with marijuana use; most individuals are ordered to attend supervised drug treatment simply to avoid jail time.”
– Marijuana: Myth vs. Fact, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NORML.org, quoting from the Drug and Alcohol Services Information System report, March 29, 2005, Treatment Referral Sources for Adolescent Marijuana Users. U.S. Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; Washington, DC
Some studies conclude that not only is marijuana smoke far less likely than tobacco to cause health problems, it may even prevent some.
“We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use. What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”
– Dr. Donald Tashkin, Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection, by Marc Kaufman, Washington Post, May 26, 2006.
Tashkin, et al. presented the study Marijuana Use and Lung Cancer: Results of a Case-Control Study, the American Thoracic Society International Conference, May 24, 2006. The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). It involved 1,200 people in Los Angeles who had lung, neck or head cancer, and an additional 1,040 people without cancer matched by age, sex, and neighborhood. “Conclusion: We did not observe a positive association of marijuana use – even heavy long-term use – with lung cancer.”
Meanwhile, tobacco cigarettes are sold throughout the country to any adult who wants them, are more addictive than cocaine and heroin, result in billions of dollars in health costs, and every year tobacco use leads to more than 400,000 miserable deaths. The U.S. tobacco industry collected $88 billion in 2006.
As I wrote this book, my neighbor, the granddaughter of Al Capone, was diagnosed with lung cancer. Over the next several months the cancer ravaged her body as it spread throughout her tissues. The last several weeks of her life were agonizing as she became extremely thin and had to be cared for around the clock. In the last days, her suffering intensified and she spent her last few days moaning in misery. Then, she died. This was a woman who started smoking cigarettes when she was a teenager. As an indication of the addictive qualities of cigarettes, as her daughter was taking care of her during the last weeks, the daughter took breaks several times a day to sit outside and smoke cigarettes.
Alcohol, which is similarly available to adults, also causes massive health problems, is an issue in the majority of domestic abuse cases, is often part of child abuse and neglect, plays a central role in tens of thousands of fatal car accidents, results in billions of dollars in health costs, and kills well over 100,000 Americans every year. (I am one who thinks drunk driving laws should be stricter, and should allow no one with over a .04 level of alcohol concentration to get behind the wheel of a car. Currently, the state of California’s legal driving limit is .08. Studies have shown that some driving skills become impaired at .05 or less.) Alcohol pollution, in the form of broken bottles, bottle caps, beer cans, packaging, and advertising litters the American landscape.
“I just can’t stop smoking cigarettes for the life of me. I’m as addicted to that as the biggest junkie is addicted to heroin. But then, millions of us are.
… I consider booze to be far more harmful than any other available drug, far more damaging to the body, to the mind, to the person’s attitude.”
– Keith Richards, interviewed by Victor Bockris, Heroin, Old Age, Rhythm and Blues, High Times magazine, January 1978
“We could sit here with any number of policemen and doctors and they would all tell you if everybody who had a dependence on alcohol changed their mind and had a dependence on weed, the world would be a much easier place to live in.”
– Singer George Michael to ITV talk show host Michael Parkinson, May 2007
Over-the-counter drugs, such as aspirin, kill tens of thousands of Americans, and prescription drugs play a part in even more deaths. According to a study published in the September 18, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, every year at least 700,000 Americans enter emergency rooms while experiencing adverse reactions to prescription drugs. The researchers agreed that 700,000 is a very conservative figure. Bad reactions to prescription drugs are often not recognized.
“To draw a real world comparison, millions of Americans safely use ibuprofen as an effective pain reliever. However, among a minority of the population who suffer from liver and kidney problems, ibuprofen presents a legitimate and substantial health risk. However, this fact does not call for the criminalization of ibuprofen.”
– Cannabis, Mental Health and Context: The Case for Regulation, by Paul Armentano, Senior Policy Analyst, National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws/NORML Foundation; January 27, 2006; NORML.org
There is no record of anyone dying from an overdose of marijuana.
“Nearly all medications have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality.
Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.
… Marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for [the] DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record.”
– DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young, September 8, 1988
“There is no conclusive evidence that marijuana causes cancer in humans, including cancers usually related to tobacco use.”
– Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base, National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, 1999; page 5
Interestingly, as mentioned earlier, some studies have concluded that smoking weed doesn’t appear to lead to lung cancer. One theory speculating why this may be so is that there could be something in the marijuana smoke that protects the lungs, and perhaps helps the lungs to slough off old cells. Other studies have concluded that there may be anticancer substances in weed. However, I am not suggesting that people should use this as an excuse to smoke weed.
Some of the health problems tobacco caused were recognized early on when tobacco was first brought to Europe from America. In 1604 King James worked to prohibit tobacco by placing a high tax on the stuff. The result of this was an underground market served by tobacco smugglers. In 1608 James changed the taxation on tobacco to allow it, giving the Earl of Montgomery, Phillip Herbert, the right to collect the tax. That lasted until James canceled that arrangement in 1615 and worked a taxation that favored keeping tobacco at a price that prevented smuggling. By this time the American colonists were increasing their tobacco acreage to satisfy the British and the European markets. But it was not welcome in all parts. Some countries treated it with disdain and punished those found in possession of it. In 1634 Moscow created a law under which some who used tobacco could be hanged. India and Iran punished tobacco smokers with physical torture and/or disfigurement. Even so, the tobacco trade continued to grow to feed those who became addicted to it. By 1700 there were hundreds of ships being used to carry tobacco to European ports while in America the African slaves were being used to farm it on plantations that spread across the south. In the 1700s there were also some Americans who were outspoken against the use of tobacco, considering it a filthy habit that led to the consumption of hard liquor. In 1798, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Benjamin Rush, spoke against tobacco in a document titled “Observations upon the influence of the habitual use of tobacco upon health, morals, and property.” Nothing much came of these antitobacco opinions because America was making too much money from tobacco to stop it, including many politicians who owned tobacco farms where slaves labored.
Today of course the laws governing tobacco have been changed. It is now a multibillion-dollar industry that is beneficial to governments because tobacco sales bring in large tax revenues. However, when used as advertised, tobacco leads to serious health problems that burden society with huge medical costs.
Marijuana has taken a different path.
As mentioned elsewhere in the book, cannabis has been used as medicine for thousands of years. Even in the U.S. cannabis was a common medicine until after World War I. During that war the U.S. government guaranteed its own supply of medicinal cannabis by contracting with farmers in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia. The U.S. did this to maintain its supply of medicinal cannabis because it was aware that the war could cut off supplies of cannabis from other countries.
In modern times, medicinal uses of marijuana have been established for the relief of migraine headache, ocular migraine, cancer pain and nausea, anxiety, AIDS wasting syndrome, arthritis, asthma, anorexia, chronic pain, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, hepatitis C, insomnia, lupus, menstrual cramps, multiple sclerosis, paralysis, paraplegia, quadriplegia, and Tourette’s syndrome.
It is proven that marijuana reduces the intraocular (eye) pressure associated with glaucoma and that it can save the vision of those suffering from that condition.
“Our results indicate that cannabinoid receptors are important in the pathology of AD [Alzheimer’s disease] and that cannabinoids [substance in marijuana] succeed in preventing the neurodegenerative process occurring in the disease.”
– Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease Pathology by Cannabinoids: Neuroprotection Mediated by Blockage of Microglial Activation, Maria L. de Ceballos, Ph.D., et al., the Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 25 No. 8; February 23, 2005
Studies have concluded that marijuana shows qualities that appear to be beneficial for those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Most recently, researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California concluded that marijuana can prevent the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Marijuana’s active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was first identified by two Israeli chemists, Raphael Mechoulam and Yehiel Gaoni, in 1964. THC is effective at blocking clumps of protein that can inhibit cognition and memory, which is more effective than commercial prescription drugs in preventing the breaking down of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. (Molecular Pharmaceutics journal; A Molecular Link Between the Active Component of Marijuana and Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology; Aug. 9, 2006)
“After reviewing the recommendations of an expert panel, we have decided to add Agitation of Alzheimer’s Disease to the list of medical conditions for which a doctor may write a statement of support for the medical use of marijuana.”
– The Oregon Department of Health Services; June 14, 2000 press release
Many of the studies that have identified the medicinal benefits of marijuana were initially meant to find harm potentially caused by marijuana. This has caused conflict with those conducting the studies and institutions or agencies funding the studies.
“I was hired by the government to provide scientific evidence that marijuana was harmful. As I studied the subject, I began to realize that marijuana was once widely used as a safe and effective medicine. But the government had a different agenda, and I had to resign.”
– Dr. Tod Mikuriya, former director of marijuana research for the U.S. government quoted in Why Marijuana Should Be Legal, by Ed Rosenthal & Steve Kuby with S. Newhart; Green-Aid.com/EdRosenthal.htm
While it is often cited that marijuana has some effect on memory, short- and/or or long-term, it is known that many of the most common prescription drugs do have a negative impact on memory. These drugs include those given for depression, heart disease, cancer, anxiety, breathing difficulties, spasms, sleep, ulcers, and pain. Perhaps if people are looking to block medicinal substances based on information that they interfere with memory, they should consider a long list of medications that are more commonly used than marijuana, and that are prescribed by doctors as “legitimate” drugs. Many of these drugs also interact with each other, increasing the likelihood of adverse effects.
Studies on the health effects of marijuana use will continue. Anyone who chooses to partake of the substance would be wise to consider the findings.
There is more on marijuana, medical marijuana, and the massively expensive and corrupt War on Drugs later in the book.
Those interested in the legalities of marijuana should read the book Why Marijuana Should Be Legal, by Ed Rosenthal and Steve Kubby, with S. Newhart.
Those interested in more background about marijuana should read the book Cannabis: A History, by Martin Booth.
The book that many people consider to be the one that ignited the drive to change the laws covering marijuana and hemp is Jack Herer’s The Emperor Wears No Clothes.