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by Marco Torres
September 1, 2013
from
PreventDisease Website
Spanish version
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Marco Torres
is a research specialist, writer and consumer advocate
for healthy lifestyles.
He holds degrees in Public
Health and Environmental Science and is a professional
speaker on topics such as disease prevention,
environmental toxins
and health policy.
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More than a dozen U.S. states have now
completely decriminalized the act of possessing marijuana and both
Colorado and Washington have made it legal to possess, sell,
transport and cultivate the plant.
But soon it may be legalized across the
entire country following a decision Thursday by the federal
government.
In a historic and significant moment in American history,
last November, Colorado became the first US state to
legalize marijuana for recreational use.
The impact of the
decision could soon ripple across the entire country with vast
opportunities to educate millions on the top health benefits of
marijuana.
With the passage of I-502 in the 2012 Washington State election,
marijuana also became legal in Washington - not just for medical
use, but also for recreational use - and,
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Alaska
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California
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Connecticut
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Maine
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Massachusetts
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Nevada
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New York
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Nebraska
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North
Carolina
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Ohio
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Oregon
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Vermont,
...have all decriminalized
marijuana.
Consumption and sale of marijuana is still illegal in all other
states, though some cities and towns have passed local laws
decriminalizing it or making it a low priority for law enforcement
officers.
There are also movements in many states to legalize pot, including
legalization bills introduced in many other states.
For other states to mimic the systems in Colorado and Washington,
they will first have to get legalization laws on their ballots or in
their state houses, which could post a challenge, he said.
After Washington state and Colorado passed laws in November 2012
legalizing the consumption and sale of marijuana for adults over 18,
lawmakers in both states waited to see whether the federal
government would continue to prosecute pot crimes under federal
statutes in their states.
Both Colorado and Washington have
been working to set up regulatory systems in order to license and
tax marijuana growers and retail sellers, but have been wary of
whether federal prosecutors would come after them for doing so.
They
are the first states to legalize pot, and therefore to go through
the process of trying to set up a regulatory system.
Ruling Signals The End
is Near For Marijuana Prohibition
Last Thursday, the Department of Justice
announced that it would not prosecute marijuana crimes that were
legal under state law, a move that could signal the end of the
country's longtime prohibition on pot is nearing.
"It certainly
appears to be potentially the beginning of the end," said Paul Armantano, deputy director of the pot lobby group NORML.
The memo sent to states Thursday by the
DOJ said that as long as states set up comprehensive regulations
governing marijuana, there would be no need for the federal
government to step in, a decision that will save the Justice
Department from having to use its limited resources on prosecuting
individuals for growing or smoking marijuana.
"This memo appears to be sending the
message to states regarding marijuana prohibition that is a
recognition that a majority of the public and in some states
majority of lawmakers no longer want to continue down the road
of illegal cannabis, and would rather experiment with different
regulatory schemes of license and retail sale of cannabis,"
Armantano said.
In 2011 the federal government
decreed that marijuana had no accepted medical use use and
should remain classified as a highly dangerous drug like heroin.
Accepting and promoting the powerful
health benefits of marijuana would instantly cut huge profits geared
towards cancer treatment and the U.S. would have to admit it
imprisons the population for no cause.
Nearly half of all drug
arrests in the United States are for marijuana.
According to MarijuanaNews.com editor Richard Cowan, the answer is
because it is a
threat to cannabis prohibition,
“...there really is
massive proof that the suppression of medical cannabis
represents the greatest failure of the institutions of a free
society, medicine, journalism, science, and our fundamental
values,” Cowan notes.
While Colorado and Washington have not
yet set up their regulatory systems, both states will likely sell
licenses to farmers who want to grow marijuana as well as to
manufacturing plants and retail sellers.
The marijuana will also likely be taxed
at each stage of its growth, processing, and sale.
"In both Colorado and Washington,
legalization was done by citizens with no participation by
elected representatives until they had to pass laws to comply
with the initiative.
In other initiative states I would expect
such measures - I would expect a new one in California, for
instance - and roughly half the states permit this and the rest
don't.
"In the states that do have
initiatives I expect efforts to get it on the ballot. The other
half it will be much tougher. It's hard to get elected
representatives to do this," Collins said.
Paul Armantano is more optimistic about the
spread of legalized pot.
He compared the DOJ's announcement to
the federal government's actions toward the end of alcohol
prohibition in America a century ago, when states decided to stop
following the federal ban on alcohol sales and the federal
government said it would not step in and prosecute crimes.
"For first time we now have clear
message from fed government saying they will not stand in way of
states that wish to implement alternative regulatory schemes in
lieu of federal prohibition," Armantano said.
He predicted that within the next one to
three years, five or six other states may join Colorado and
Washington in legalizing the drug, setting the stage for the rest of
the country to follow.
The Age
of Deception is Ending
In 2003, the U.S. Government as represented by the Department of
Health and Human Services filed for, and was
awarded a patent on cannabinoids.
The reason? Because research into
cannabinoids allowed pharmaceutical companies to acquire practical
knowledge on one of the most powerful antioxidants and
neuroprotectants known to the natural world.
The
U.S. Patent 6630507 was specifically initiated when researchers
found that cannabinoids had specific antioxidant properties making
them useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of
oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related,
inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
The cannabinoids are found to
have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in
limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as
stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative
diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV
dementia.
Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are
particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is
encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in
the method of the present invention.
Besides the top 10 health benefits
below, findings published in the journal
PLoS ONE, researchers have now
have now discovered that marijuana-like chemicals trigger receptors
on human immune cells that
can directly inhibit a type of human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV)
found in late-stage AIDS.
Recent studies have even shown it to be an effective
atypical anti-psychotic in treating schizophrenia, a disease
many other studies have inconsistently found it causing.
Top 10 Health Benefits of Marijuana
1. Cancer
Cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana,
inhibit tumor growth in laboratory animals and also kill
cancer cells.
Western governments have known this for a long time
yet they continued to suppress the information so that cannabis
prohibition and the profits generated by the drug industry
proliferated.
THC that targets cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 is similar in
function to endocannabinoids, which are cannabinoids that are
naturally produced in the body and activate these receptors.
The
researchers suggest that THC or other designer agents that activate
these receptors might be used in a targeted fashion
to treat lung
cancer.
2. Tourette's Syndrome
Tourette's syndrome is a neurological condition characterized by
uncontrollable facial grimaces, tics, and involuntary grunts, snorts
and shouts.
Dr. Kirsten Mueller-Vahl of the Hanover
Medical College in Germany led a team that investigated the effects
of chemicals called cannabinols in 12 adult Tourette's patients.
A
single dose of the cannabinol
produced a significant reduction in symptoms for several hours
compared to placebo, the researchers reported.
Marijuana is a muscle relaxant
and has "antispasmodic" qualities that have proven to be a
very effective treatment for seizures. There are actually
countless cases of people suffering from seizures that have
only been able to function better through the use of
marijuana.
Since medicinal marijuana was
legalized in California, doctors have reported that they
have been able to treat more than 300,000 cases of migraines
that conventional medicine couldn’t through marijuana.
Marijuana’s treatment of
glaucoma has been one of the best documented. There isn’t a
single valid study that exists that disproves marijuana’s
very powerful and popular effects on glaucoma patients.
Marijuana’s effects on multiple
sclerosis patients became better documented when former
talk-show host, Montel Williams began to use pot to treat
his MS. Marijuana works to stop the neurological effects and
muscle spasms that come from the fatal disease.
A well documented USC study done
about a year ago showed that marijuana is not only a perfect
alternative for Ritalin but treats the disorder without any
of the negative side effects of the pharmaceutical.
Marijuana has shown that it can
help with symptoms of the chronic diseases as it stops
nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.
Despite what you may have heard
about marijuana’s effects on the brain, the Scripps
Institute, in 2006, proved that the THC found in marijuana
works to prevent Alzheimer’s by blocking the deposits in the
brain that cause the disease.
10.
Premenstrual Syndrome
Just like marijuana is used to
treat IBS, it can be used to treat the cramps and discomfort
that causes PMS symptoms. Using marijuana for PMS actually
goes all the way back to Queen Victoria.
Mounting Evidence Suggests Raw Cannabis is Best
Cannabinoids can
prevent cancer, reduce heart attacks by 66% and insulin dependent
diabetes by 58%.
Cannabis clinician Dr. William Courtney
recommends drinking 4-8 ounces of raw flower and leaf juice from
any Hemp plant, 5 mg of Cannabidiol (CBD) per kg of body weight, a
salad of Hemp seed sprouts and 50 mg of THC taken in 5 daily doses.
Why raw? Heat destroys certain enzymes and nutrients in plants.
Incorporating
raw cannabis allows for a greater availability of those elements.
Those who require large amounts of cannabinoids without the
psychoactive effects need to look no further than raw cannabis. In
this capacity, it can be used at 60 times more tolerance than if it
were heated.
Raw cannabis is considered by many experts as a dietary essential.
As a powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, raw cannabis may be
right there with
garlic and tumeric.
Sources
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