Cannabis Could Prevent Memory Loss and Alzheimer's

More news  on the medical cannabis front: recent studies have shown cannabis to prevent Alzheimer’s and prevent improve memory retention in small doses.

When given a compound similar to THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, rat brains displayed reduced levels of inflammation associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The drug also stimulated the production of proteins associated with memory formation and brain cell growth.
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Marchalant and fellow OSU psychologist Gary Wenk previously showed that marijuana can improve memory formation in rats. The latest research, presented at this week’s Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, provides a detailed look at THC’s effect on the brain.

via Technoccult | Wired story | The Daily Mail

American College of Physicians push for rescheduling of Cannabis

Purple Kush from jimmyjoints

A large and respected association of physicians is calling on the federal government to ease its strict ban on marijuana as medicine and hasten research into the drug’s therapeutic uses. [...]In a 13-page position paper approved by the college’s governing board of regents and posted Thursday on the group’s website, the group calls on the government to drop marijuana from Schedule I, a classification it shares with illegal drugs such as heroin and LSD that are considered to have no medicinal value and a high likelihood of abuse. Link

The ACP is the largest medical-specialty organization with over 124,000 members. It’s very good to see an organization like this supporting the rescheduling of cannabis. The closer we get to accepting the truth of the matter – that cannabis is not harmful. The only harm imposed by smoking ‘reefer’ is the harm that the government causes by prohibiting US citizens from deciding what to ingest.

Even federal judge Francis Young ruled:

…Marijuana’s therapeutic ratio, like its LD-50, is impossible to quantify because it is so high.

In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating ten raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death.

Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.

White House Rejects Cannabis Research and Promotes More Propaganda

The White House Drug Policy blog just released an article about recent medical research from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand (MRINZ). The institute has just concluded a study where they found that one joint a day apparently causes more cancer than a pack of cigarettes a day.

The lung cancer study was conducted on 79 patients in New Zealand. The risk of the disease rose 8% for each year of smoking one joint a day, and 7% for each year of smoking a packet of cigarettes a day.

Researchers at the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand admitted it was a small study, but said nonetheless “it shows clearly that long-term cannabis smoking increases lung cancer risk”. (emphasis added)

The funny thing about it is that this is a direct contradiction to a larger, more through study conducted a few years ago.Dr. Donald Tashkin of UCLA and his research team concluded:

The new findings “were against our expectations,” said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.

“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,” he said. “What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”

And this is coming from the largest case-control study ever done, involving over 2,000 people. Not only that, but in the original study, the difference in risk was 1%! Another thing I found very interesting was where the MRINZ gets its money from. Well, a quick check of their Project Grants page gives away some very interesting names.

AstraZeneca – major pharmacuetical company and makers of controversial drug, Seroquel
GlaxoSmithKline – major pharmacuetical company, makers of the very dangerous Paxil, and well-known industry bullies
Novartis – huge pharmacuetical company, makers of Ritalin and Trileptal, and previous owners of Gerber (?)

Yeah – so now this whole deal makes sense.

(via Drug WarRant)

Update: Found some more interesting details on this study. Turns out that it was even less important than I thought. The amount of people that they list in the MRINZ study is 79. But that was the entire group.

Cannabis smoking was not associated with a significantly increased risk of lung cancer [except for] those with the highest tertile of use.

The tertile group? 14 people and 4 controls. That’s insane – that’s not a study, that’s a flawed inference.

The $20,000 Medical Marijuana Challenge

The Marijuana Policy Project, the largest marijuana policy reform group in the US, has just doubled the amount of money that they will donate to a presidential campaign for proving that medical marijuana is bunk. The MPP will donate $10,000 (the maximum amount allowable) to a presidential candidate and another $10,000 to a campaign of their choice if any of them can show that medical marijuana is not a viable form of medication.

Methinks this will be a tough one since Federal Judge Francis Young ruled “that the substance marijuana is one of the greatest therapeutic substances on the planet”. Its okay – the candidates won’t even try. They know what they’re saying is bollux, and we know what they’re saying is bollux. This is what happens when you own too much stock in Big Pharmaceuticals.