Into The Twenty First Century

Posted on February 16, 2013 by msgtvance


The following listed research is considered valid and meet the scientific standards to be considered empirical evidence.

1. Mark A. Ware, MD, MSc, et al., stated the following in their Aug. 30, 2010 study titled “Smoked Cannabis for Chronic Neuropathic Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal:

“Adults with post-traumatic or postsurgical neuropathic pain were randomly assigned to receive cannabis at four potencies (0%, 2.5%, 6% and 9.4% tetrahydrocannabinol) over four 14-day periods in a crossover trial. Participants inhaled a single 25-mg dose through a pipe three times daily for the first five days in each cycle, followed by a nine-day washout period. Daily average pain intensity was measured using an 11-point numeric rating scale.

Conclusion

A single inhalation of 25 mg of 9.4% tetrahydrocannabinol herbal cannabis three times daily for five days reduced the intensity of pain, improved sleep and was well tolerated.”

2. Ronald J. Ellis, MD, PhD, Professor In Residence in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of California at San Diego, et al., stated the following in their Aug. 2008 study titled “Smoked Medicinal Cannabis for Neuropathic Pain in HIV: A Randomized, Crossover Clinical Trial,” published in Neuropsychopharmacology:

“In a double-blind, randomized, clinical trial of the short-term adjunctive treatment of neuropathic pain in HIV-associated distal sensory polyneuropathy, participants received either smoked cannabis or placebo cannabis cigarettes…

Among completers, pain relief was significantly greater with cannabis than placebo. The proportion of subjects achieving at least 30% pain relief was again significantly greater with cannabis (46%) compared to placebo (18%). It was concluded that smoked cannabis was generally well-tolerated and effective when added to concomitant analgesic therapy in patients with medically refractory pain due to HIV-associated neuropathy.”

3. David J. Rog, PhD, from the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery at the University of Liverpool, et al., wrote in a Sep. 2005 article titled “Randomized, Controlled Trial of Cannabis-Based Medicine in Central Pain in Multiple Sclerosis” in the journal Neurology:

“BACKGROUND: Central pain in multiple sclerosis (MS) is common and often refractory to treatment…

CONCLUSIONS: Cannabis-based medicine is effective in reducing pain and sleep disturbance in patients with multiple sclerosis related central neuropathic pain and is mostly well tolerated.”

4. The Oct. 13, 2005 article “

Cannabinoids Promote Embryonic and Adult Hippocampus Neurogenesis and Produce Anxiolytic- and Antidepressant-like Effects” (1.5 MB) by Xia Zhang et al. from the peer-reviewed Journal of Clinical Investigation stated:

“We show that 1 month after chronic HU210 [high-potency cannabinoid] treatment, rats display increased newborn neurons [brain cell growth] in the hippocampal dentate gyrus [a portion of the brain] and significantly reduced measures of anxiety- and depression-like behavior.

Thus, cannabinoids appear to be the only illicit drug whose capacity to produce increased hippocampal newborn neurons is positively correlated with its anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects.”

5. A research study, published in the Sep. 2004 issue of the journal Neuropharmacology reported:

“Gliomas, in particular glioblastoma multiforme or grade IV astrocytoma, are the most frequent class of malignant primary brain tumours and one of the most aggressive forms of cancer. Current therapeutic strategies for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme are usually ineffective or just palliative.

During the last few years, several studies have shown that cannabinoids — the active components of the plant Cannabis sativa and their derivatives — slow the growth of different types of tumours, including gliomas, in laboratory animals.

Cannabinoids induce apoptosis of glioma cells in culture via sustained ceramide accumulation, extracellular signal-regulated kinase activation and Akt inhibition. In addition, cannabinoid treatment inhibits angiogenesis of gliomas in vivo….

Remarkably, cannabinoids kill glioma cells selectively and can protect non-transformed glial cells from death. These and other findings reviewed here might set the basis for a potential use of cannabinoids in the management of gliomas.”

6. Researchers with the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, Complutense University, Spain, in a study of the use of cannabis-based ointment on skin tumors, published Jan. 2003 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) stated:

“Local administration induced a considerable growth inhibition of malignant tumors generated by inoculation of epidermal tumor cells into nude mice. Cannabinoid-treated tumors showed an increased number of apoptotic cells…

These results support a new therapeutic approach [cannabis-based ointment] for the treatment of skin tumors.”



*The above listed research is but the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of studies showing marijuana’s ability to relieve pain and help in the treatment of many diseases including cancer. None of the above however meets the standards necessary to be considered valid by our Government because the Government either did not support the research or provided the marijuana for the research, and the Government will only support research on marijuana that is designed to show harm, not good.

Oh the lengths our Government will go to keep marijuana from competing with wood pulp, cotton and nylon! Do you think Mr. Hearst of the Hearst Newspaper Corporation is still worried about marijuana paper competing with the wood pulp he uses for his newspapers?

The people who gave us this destructive war on marijuana users are dead and gone! Could we please bring marijuana policy into the light of science and reason? Could we please bring marijuana policy into the 21st century?