Written by Bob Livingston
While arguing in court that marijuana has no medical value and is a dangerous drug on the one hand, the federal government is patenting marijuana extracts for health-related uses on the other. But it granted a license to GW Pharmaceuticals for treating patients with multiple sclerosis with a cannabinoid-based drug called Epidiolex.
We have discussed police power and assault on our person and property. But especially we have noted ongoing assault upon our psyche that twists our minds and makes us prisoners of conscience.
The system has never been short on hypocrisy. While we are force medicated with fluoride and chlorine in our drinking water and establishment medicine pushes on us mass vaccinations and inoculations, the personal use of marijuana is a federal crime with stiff federal penalties. Meanwhile, we are sold subsidized tobacco; our food is adulterated with millions of tons of life-destroying white sugar or fructose; oceans of toxic soft drinks are mass marketed as health or energy drinks; and crony corporations are granted license to peddle chemicals as natural ingredients.
Yet federal law prevents the mention of health benefits of natural products and foods like walnuts and cherries and how they can treat diseases, no matter how many scientific studies or real-world experience proves their effectiveness or value. Only synthetic drugs, created in a lab and patented by the pharmaceuticals, are allowed to be called “cures.”
The federal government has argued in court that pot is a dangerous drug with no medicinal value. The U.S. attorney’s office opposes any challenge to the long-standing federal law that classifies marijuana as a Schedule One drug along with heroin, LSD and ecstasy — substances that have a high potential for abuse and no safe medical use.
Decades of abuse of the public mind have succeeded in equating marijuana with heroin, LSD and ecstasy. People now lump them all together, thinking of all of them as hard drugs or controlled substances. This is the old trick of lumping one thing in with another to get a negative public image. See “conservatives,” “white supremacists,” and “domestic terrorists” with regard to the Capitol protests and you will have another prime example.
This means that whenever anyone proposes medical uses for marijuana or state legislation to legalize it for medical uses, a predisposed negative connotation automatically pollutes any chance of logical discussion. This is especially true of the so-called “conservative” voter and politician. When medical marijuana is the topic, visions of “stoned potheads” and “Democrat welfare voters” are all they can see.
This propaganda has the “conservative” voter foolishly advocating against his own health and liberty. It’s similar to the way progressive voters are fooled into believing that advocates for liberty and small government are crazy anarchists. Government plays both groups against each other, and more government oppression results.
Epidiolex treats several neurological disorders like epilepsy and multiple sclerosis. The FDA is also aware that “cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties … [making] cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of a wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular applications as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia.” (Statement from U.S. government patent 6630507, titled “Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants.”)
Cannabis marijuana medications have been used with complete safety for the treatment of many health problems, including asthma, glaucoma, nausea, tumors, epilepsy, infection, stress, migraines, anorexia, depression, rheumatism and arthritis.
As a food, pressed hemp seed contains some of the highest amounts of essential fatty acids in the plant kingdom. Essential oils are responsible for the immune responses and clearing the arteries of cholesterol and plaque.
Despite this knowledge, the federal government — and most of the Republican elected class — continues to fight tooth and nail against the use of cannabinoids for health reasons.
Meanwhile, The National Cancer Institute, an agency of the federal government, now lists on its website recent studies showing marijuana kills cancer cells. According to NCI, preclinical studies of cannabinoids have shown:
- Cannabinoids can kill cancer cells in animals while protecting normal cells.
- Cannabinoids protect against colon inflammation and may potentially reduce the risk of colon cancer in mice.
- In a laboratory study of delta-9-THC in hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) cells showed that cannabinoids damaged or killed the cancer cells. The same study of delta-9-THC in mouse models of liver cancer showed that it had antitumor effects. Delta-9-THC has been shown to cause these effects by acting on molecules that may also be found in non-small cell lung cancer cells and breast cancer cells.
- In a laboratory study of cannabidiol (CBD) in estrogen receptor positive and estrogen receptor negative breast cancer cells, CBD was shown to have caused cancer cell death while having little effect on normal breast cells. Studies in mouse models of metastatic breast cancer showed that cannabinoids may lessen the growth, number, and spread of tumors.
- A laboratory study of cannabidiol (CBD) in human glioma cells showed that when given along with chemotherapy, CBD may make chemotherapy more effective and increase cancer cell death without harming normal cells. Studies in mouse models of cancer showed that CBD together with delta-9-THC may make chemotherapy such as temozolomide more effective.
- In animal studies, delta-9-THC and other cannabinoids have been shown to stimulate appetite and can increase food intake. Reduced appetite is a common problem experienced by chemotherapy patients.
- Cannabinoids may prevent nerve problems (pain, numbness, tingling, swelling, and muscle weakness) caused by some types of chemotherapy, according to animal studies.
- Cannabinoid receptors found in brain cells may have a role in controlling nausea and vomiting. Animal studies have shown that delta-9-THC and other cannabinoids may act on cannabinoid receptors to prevent vomiting caused by certain types of chemotherapy.
The truth is, marijuana and its uses have been studied far more than most drugs the FDA approves for use on the general public — drugs that cure nothing but merely cover symptoms and generate billions of dollars for Big Pharma.
The federal government – and most local governments — is far more interested in using marijuana as a tax revenue stream than in allowing medical marijuana in its many forms to improve the lives of people with health problems.
