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Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 10:49 am | By: Radical Russ
I have about a half dozen Vietnam vets as friends who would tell you, “no shit,” but it’s always good to get the official science on our side.
Newswise — Use of cannabinoids (marijuana) could assist in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder patients. This is exposed in a recent study carried out at the Learning and Memory Lab in the University of Haifa’s Department of Psychology. The study, carried out by research student Eti Ganon-Elazar under the supervision of Dr. Irit Akirav, was published in the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience.
The present study, carried out by Dr. Akirav and research student Eti Ganon-Elazar, aimed to examine the efficiency of cannabinoids as a medical treatment for coping with post-traumatic stress. The researchers used a synthetic form of marijuana, which has similar properties to the natural plant, and they chose to use a rat model, which presents similar physiological responses to stress to that of humans.
Dr. Akirav and Ganon-Elazar also examined hormonal changes in the course of the experiment and found that synthetic marijuana prevents increased release of the stress hormone that the body produces in response to stress.
According to Dr. Akirav, the results of this study show that cannabinoids can play an important role in stress-related disorders. “The results of our research should encourage psychiatric investigation into the use of cannabinoids in post-traumatic stress patients,” she concludes.
I agree with Willie Nelson when he says “The biggest killer on the planet is stress and I still think the best medicine is and always has been cannabis.” I think cannabis is good not just for PTSD, but for everyday stress most of us feel from time to time. How much could we reduce road rage, ulcers, and domestic abuse if our hyper-stressed, always-on culture embraced a little more cannabis and a little less caffeine?
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 6:16 pm | By: Radical Russ
The folks who follow the big money at CBS MarketWatch can see the handwriting on the wall – there is too much money going underground in the War on Drugs that corporate America is missing out on:
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Mexican drug lord “El Chapo” made the Forbes list of billionaires earlier this year. No, you can’t make this stuff up: He runs the Sinaloa cartel, a major supplier of cocaine to the United States. He’s an assassin, another bin Laden … and Forbes honors him right up there with the world billionaires.
Psychologist Anne Wilson Schaef saw the trend coming a couple decades ago: We’re a “Nation of addicts … our society is deteriorating at an alarming rate.” Why? We refuse to face the real problem: Demand. Legalizing it will.
Till then we’re losing the war. In a “nation of addicts” it doesn’t matter if drugs are legal or not … where the drugs come from … who gets hurt … nor if we have to waste hundreds of billions fighting ineffective wars to protect suppliers … a corrupt Afghan government, the source of 95% of the world’s heroin … or Mexico, the main traffic route for wholesalers feeding America’s addicts … or Big Pharma the biggest pusher for prescription drug addicts. When a “nation of addicts” needs a fix, they always find it.
Seriously, drugs are a megabusiness. America spends about $2.5 trillion on health care annually — including $315 billion in Big Pharma revenues last year. They must be secretly exploring the untapped market in illicit drug traffic that siphons off an estimated $400 billion annually — plus keep in mind another $175 billion on alcohol addiction.
If Big Pharma can capture part of the market share that’s now going to competing Mexican and Afghan drug warlords, then they can feed their shareholders addiction to earnings, feed their CEOs’ addiction for megamillion paychecks, while capitalizing on the American addicts need for a fix. We just need to end our moralistic charade, decriminalize and control all illicit drugs.
The truth is, there’s no war on drugs to win, nor to lose, just millions of addicts who need help. I’ve been in recovery 36 years. Back in the ’80s I worked professionally with hundreds who went through places like Betty Ford Center. Statistics show that over 10% of Americans are physiologically predisposed to addictive behavior. That will never change. It’s in our DNA.
Given that painful reality, Big Pharma should wise up and get ahead of the legalization trend. Lead it. If Big Pharma capitalizes on their unique experience, they can capture new products and new markets driven by the relentless demand for a fix. Lead in the development of a new national policy shifting away from military action to treatment, decriminalization and regulation, generate new sources of tax revenues, and help millions of addicted Americans.
Big Pharma is already on that trend, examining different ways of synthesizing the therapeutically-active cannabinoids in marijuana in pill, spray, lozenge, and inhaler form. The problem for Big Pharma is that their bar-coded, marked-up, highly-profitable cannabis drugs can’t compete with the raw cannabis plant itself. They need a system wherein raw plant cannabis is prohibited, but synthesized cannabinoid extracts are allowed. This would be somewhat like a cookie maker requiring a law that chocolate chip cookie dough is illegal, but a box of Chips Ahoy is not.
Furthermore, Big Pharma is also aware of reports from medical marijuana patients around the country who’ve found they can cut their need for prescription opioids and benzodiazepenes in half by using natural raw cannabis. Big Pharma can’t have a free plant competing with their cannabinoid drugs and reducing demand for their other products!
Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 10:30 am | By: Radical Russ
Ooh, do I love charts! This landed in my Facebook account courtesy of Donna Lambert, another victim of San Diego’s Operation Green RX / Endless Summer.
Marijuana's active cannabinoids and how they can help medicinally (click to enlarge)
Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 4:22 pm | By: Paul Armentano
[Or how your donations to NORML helped a Los Angeles woman avoid five months in a cage after failing nine consecutive urine screens for marijuana while on probation. -- "R"R]
At NORML’s Aspen Legal Seminar this past June I presented on the topic of cannabis pharmacokinetics and explained how an understanding RE: the science surrounding the metabolism and absorption of cannabinoids could be a valuable tool for defense attorneys. Recently I put my theoretical knowledge into practice as an expert witness in a federal evidentiary hearing in L.A. federal court.
At issue: defendant was under three years federal probation (probation period to expire on 8/13/09); defendant had a string of NINE consecutive failed UAs for carboxy THC beginning on 10/27/08 running through 1/08/2009. On four of the nine tests, defendant’s carboxy THC levels were HIGHER than they had been on the previous test. When the samples were normalized, defendant still failed all nine tests. Feds were willing to let the 10/27/08 test slide, as defendant showed a medical marijuana recommendation, but considered all eight positive tests thereafter to be evidence of new/continued use and a probation violation. Defendant alleged she had NOT used cannabis since 10/27/08 and that all the the positive tests since that time were residual (evidence of the use prior to 10/27/08). Feds brought in a toxicologist with 39 years experience who alleged that the string of positive tests as well as the spikes in the defendant’s test results could “absolutely not” be from residual use and instead were indicative of new drug use. Feds asked for 5 months prison time and additional three years probation.
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Kym Russell with People United for Medical Marijuana on her Florida initiative and the crazy labyrinthine process necessary for Floridians to enact their own laws by popular vote.
Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 2:41 pm | By: Radical Russ
Although a lot of work that has been done on cannabis, scientists have not identified every cannabinoid, so many research groups are continuing to identify and categorize the chemicals in cannabis. Samir Ross from the University of Mississippi led one such group in the discovery of nine new cannabinoids, and they published the structures and biological activities of these chemicals in an advanced article in the Journal of Natural Products.
The researchers grew plants from high-potency Mexican C. sativa seeds and harvested the whole buds of mature female plants. They performed chemical extraction and purification procedures on the plant material to isolate the nine cannabinoids. … After figuring out the chemical structures, it was crucial to know how useful these molecules might be in terms of medicinal properties. The first good news was that none of the cannabinoids were toxic to cells extracted from African green monkey kidneys, which meant that they have potential as drugs. Upon closer inspection, several of the compounds had respectable biological activities, as well.
Compound 5 had potent antileishmanial activity, which makes it a possible candidate against leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that is spread by the bite of the sandfly. Compound 8 was effective at killing Staphylococcus aureus, a frequent cause of staph infections, and compound 7 had good activity against Candida albicans, a fungus that gives people oral and genital infections. The other cannabinoids weren’t as biologically active, but they all had some drug potential. For insistence, compounds 2 and 6 were mildly affective against MRSA, and compound 1 had some antimalarial activity.
The identification of these biologically relevant cannabinoids will give natural product chemists new ideas for future drugs. Even the less active ones can turn out to be useful, as chemists can make modifications of the structures that are more potent.
RevRayGreen: I'll post a pic of me and my son....gimme a minute
Missippi Hippy: Guess what... I'm gonna be a new... ummmmm well, my pet piggie Ganja is in labor and they ain't mine in the same sense. See what your wife [...]
RevRayGreen: days they didn't talk back..or act disrespectful..
RevRayGreen: feel so lucky my son is 18 going 19 and my daughter 16 going on 17..relish the days that can't talk back
Urb Age: Congrats Spof thats awesome. My little Clara is about to hit 20 months. Im not the activist I used to be, but its made me a better man.
Urb Age: Heck I was gonna go up there, but just not feeling well this weekend..Dang it, I hate it when that happens..
RevRayGreen: wishing I was hanging at NORML cafe...
JohnH: Just a quick comment about tokin' and sperm motility....been tokin since age 14 and have 8 kids ranging in age from 30 to 9...(what can I say, I found 2 [...]
slash5city: really ..oprah 35 yr or more in the closet toker ...outed ....o my god !!
SneakerPimp: that would be huge news just imagen the headline
RevRayGreen: maybe Oprah smokes and keeps it on the DL...
SneakerPimp: and good afternoon
mr reuben: I could do without seeing Rob K. on tv. But Bruce and Eithan get a big thumbs up from me.
SneakerPimp: waitn for NSL and congrast for spofett.
mr reuben: I don't respect her opinion bluzguy.
Missippi Hippy: Something about the last year in a contract... folks become more ballsey... and Oprah has big ones.
Adam: Oprah won't actually go off air for over a year, 2011 sometime. Maybe with here leaving the network soon, she'll be more likely to speak out about MMJ.
Marijuana-Related Health Costs Minimal Compared To Those Of Alcohol, Tobacco; California Medical Association Says Pot Prohibition Is A "Failed Public Health Policy"; Oregon: State NORML Affiliate Opens First 'Cannabis Café'. […]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
Stash for Wed, Nov 4, 2009
waitn for NSL and congrast for spofett.
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; is she incognito like me 
, or can...
