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Tag: marijuana science

Legal Marijuana Is Inevitable – Here’s Why You Should Vote In Favor

Legal Marijuana is going to happen, the only question is when. The most recent polls show 54% of Americans favor legalizing marijuana. Here’s why you should get behind it, too.

Marijuana is packed with medicinal uses we can’t legally exploit here in the United States, but why? Are we still stuck in the Reefer Madness of the 30s? Or is the idea of a pain-curing plant you can grow in your backyard too great a threat to the powerful pharmaceutical industry?

Marijuana is not a gateway drug. The science is overwhelming. While some users do go on to use other drugs, most do not. No significant connection can be made.

The Medicine and the Science

The human body has a vast system of of cannabinoid receptors embedded in cell membranes. When stimulated, cannabinoid receptors respond with a variety of physiologic processes.

Cannabinoid receptors are stimulated by -wait for it- cannabinoids. The two cannabinoids that have been studied most are delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and cannabidiol (CBD).

The medicinal properties of marijuana are well documented. The earliest pharmacopeia documentation shows that marijuana was cultivated for medical purposes in 2,700 B.C. to treat rheumatic pain, intestinal constipation, disorders of the female reproductive system, malaria, and other health issues.

Today, cannabinoids are under study for treatment of:

And many more serious health concerns. But legal issues continue to impede the progress of scientific study, and much of the science is contradictory.

Cannabinoids and Mental Health

In addition to the physical health benefits, cannabinoids in the form of CBD oil have been used to treat mental disorders like schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and the debilitating effects of chronic stress…without the psychoactive side effects of THC.

Nora D. Volkow, Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse, is cautiously optimistic on the subject of CBD. In a presentation to the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, she said, “Rigorous clinical studies are still needed to evaluate the clinical potential of CBD for specific conditions. However, pre-clinical research (including both cell culture and animal models) has shown CBD to have a range of effects that may be therapeutically useful, including anti-seizure, antioxidant, neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-tumor, anti-psychotic, and anti-anxiety properties.”

Accessibility

Marijuana is a hardy plant that can grow almost anywhere. While it naturally adapts well to outdoor conditions, most commercial crops are grown and CBD oil is manufactured in greenhouses for faster maturation, using light deprivation techniques in a carefully controlled environment.

Small crops for personal use can be grown in a very small area. Laws vary; in the most lenient states like Colorado (for example), anyone 21 and older can grow up to six marijuana plants, with three at a time in the flowering stage. Even though it’s easy to grow, most people opt for commercially grown product, making legal marijuana a $1 billion industry.

The Opposition

With all this evidence about the positive aspects of legalized weed, low price, popularity, ease of access and use, you might be wondering who is against it. To answer that, it’s a good idea to follow the money. If chronic conditions can be managed with a plant you can grow in your yard, who loses profits? Pain management is roughly a $300 billion dollar industry that affects 100 million Americans. It’s not hard to imagine why the powerful pharmaceutical industry would put up big money to oppose a free treatment.

The Opioid Crisis

In 2014, 28,647 people died from opioid abuse. That’s 78 people every day. Tens of thousands of Americans are addicting and killing themselves with prescription drugs. In the same year, the number of marijuana deaths was…zero.

The opioid epidemic is significant in this discussion because the deadly addiction usually starts with a prescription for pain management. Marijuana is a viable and far less destructive option for people in chronic pain.

The Changing Tide

For the first time in history, the tide has begun to change. Legal Marijuana legislation is proposed in many states and voters are speaking up. Colorado collected $88 million in marijuana taxes last year, and used it to fund schools.

The reality is that people smoke pot – 49% say they’ve tried it. It’s easy to grow, easy to find, and relatively cheap. Decriminalization would give science the opportunity to study its medicinal properties and growers the leeway to produce marijuana’s relative, hemp, a fast-growing fibrous plant with tons of uses.

Keeping outdated marijuana laws on the books is simply insane. Decriminalization is inevitable. The only question is how much longer we’re going to let money-grubbing lobbyists spread false information – and stand in the way of higher quality of life for people with dozens of conditions that might be better managed with cannabinoids.

 

Source:  Sherry Gray, Huffington Post

New Report Blasts DEA For Spending 4 Decades Obstructing Marijuana Science

The Drug Enforcement Administration has been impeding and ignoring the science on marijuana and other drugs for more than four decades, according to a reportreleased this week by the Drug Policy Alliance, a drug policy reform group, and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a marijuana research organization.

“The DEA is a police and propaganda agency,” Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said Wednesday. “It makes no sense for it to be in charge of federal decisions involving scientific research and medical practice.”

The report alleges that the DEA has repeatedly failed to act in a timely fashion when faced with petitions to reschedule marijuana. The drug is currently classified as Schedule I, which the DEA reserves for the “most dangerous” drugs with “no currently accepted medical use.” Schedule I drugs, which include substances like heroin and LSD, cannot receive federal funding for research. On three separate occasions — in 1973, 1995 and again in 2002 — the DEA took years to make a final decision about a rescheduling petition, and in two of the cases the DEA was sued multiple times to force a decision.

The report criticizes the DEA for overruling its own officials charged with determining how illicit substances should be scheduled. It also criticizes the agency for creating a “regulatory Catch-22” by arguing there is not enough scientific evidence to support rescheduling marijuana while simultaneously impeding the research that would produce such evidence.

A spokesperson at the DEA declined to comment on the report.

The feds have long been accused of only funding marijuana research that focuses on the potential negative effects of the substance, but that trend appears to be changing.

According to The Hill, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has conducted about 30 studies to date on the potential benefits of marijuana. NIDA oversees the cultivation, production and distribution of marijuana grown for research purposes at the University of Mississippi in the only federally legal marijuana garden in the U.S.— a process through which the only federally sanctioned marijuana studies are approved.

The joint report comes less than two weeks after the House approved three amendments taking aim at the DEA and its ability to enforce federal marijuana and hemp laws in states which have legal marijuana operations and industrial hemp programs. The medical marijuana amendment was sponsored by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.).

“Nobody should be afraid of the truth,” Rohrabacher said Wednesday. “There’s a lot of other drugs that have harmful side effects. Is the downside of marijuana a harmful side effect? Or is there a positive side that actually does help? That needs to be proven.”

The federal government’s interest in marijuana certainly appears to be growing. Since 2003, it has approved more than 500 grants for marijuana-related studies, with a marked upswing in recent years, according to McClatchy. In 2003, 22 grants totaling $6 million were approved for cannabis research. In 2012, that number had risen to 69 approved grants totaling more than $30 million.

“The DEA has obstructed research into the medical use of marijuana for over 40 years and in the process has caused immeasurable suffering that would otherwise have been treated by low-cost, low-risk generic marijuana,” Rick Doblin, executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, said in a statement. “The DEA’s obstruction of the FDA approval process for marijuana has — to the DEA’s dismay — unintentionally catalyzed state-level medical marijuana reforms.”

Currently, 22 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use. Eight other states — Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin — have legalized CBD oils, made from a non-psychoactive ingredient in marijuana frequently used to treat epilepsy, for limited medical use or for research purposes.

A number of recent studies have shown the medical potential of cannabis. Purified forms may attack some forms of aggressive cancer. Marijuana use also has been tied to better blood sugar control and may help slow the spread of HIV. One study found that legalization of the plant for medical purposes may even lead to lower suicide rates.

Nadelmann said the DEA has “demonstrated a regular pattern of abusing its discretionary powers.”

“We believe this authority would be better handled by another government agency in the health realm, or even better still, by an organization that is truly independent, perhaps something that involves the National Academy of Sciences,” he said. “We will be working to encourage greater congressional oversight and also to call for reforms of federal law.”

 The Huffington Post