If one understands himself, there can be no harmful effects in using it. Marijuana doesn't make me do anything that I wouldn't be capable of doing otherwise. I find it far more pleasant than drinking, less messy and more private. I never had the patience to sit in a bar and drink. Having a joint is far more economical and more immediate. I'm able to switch into certain inner places with marijuana. I've also taken a couple of trips that have been incredible. - Elliot Gould
Although these facts have been almost forgotten, our forebears were well aware that hemp is softer than cotton, warmer than cotton, more water absorbent than cotton, has three times the tensile strength of cotton and is many times more durable than cotton. - Jack Herer
While the legalization of marijuana now enjoys majority support, according to recent polls, support drops precipitously for relaxing the laws around any other drugs. Pot's closest competitors, ecstasy and cocaine, each have only 8 percent support for legalization. Heroin and meth are even lower at 6 percent each. So, legalizing pot won't open the floodgates, in fact, the increased visibility of marijuana in American society only serves to highlight the stark differences between cannabis and most other illicit substances. - Angus Reid Public Opinion
Marijuana dispensaries have lower crime rates than either banks or liquor stores, according to the Denver Police Department, which certainly should know, since they have 300 of them in town. The police chief of Los Angeles agrees. He says that banks are more likely to get robbed than medical marijuana dispensaries. - L.A. Police Chief Charlie Beck - Los Angeles Daily News
By juicing the leaves of the cannabis plant, patients are able to drink CBD in its pure, natural form, which has been proven to treat countless medical conditions. CBD has anti-inflammatory, anti-biotic, anti-depressant, anti-psychotic, anti-oxidant, sedative, and immune modulatory properties, and has been shown to relieve convulsions, inflammation, anxiety, and nausea. It's perhaps the most medicinal of all of the marijuana plant's components, and it's even been shown to inhibit cancer cell growth. - MarijuanaDoctors.com
Though native cultures around the globe have long used it as a folk remedy, the value of marijuana, the common name of the flowering herb, Cannabis Sativa, has been the subject of vigorous debate within Western Medicine. Does the plant belong on the shelves next to legitimate drugs, like morphine, Vicodin, and Oxycontin? Is marijuana ever a medically valid treatment? We think so. Physicians prescribe more dangerous, addictive, and mind altering drugs than marijuana all the time. So why shouldn't they be able to prescribe marijuana, which is nearly impossible to overdose on? Marijuana is hardly a panacea, but the evidence for its benefits is solid enough that it should be allowed to be legally prescribed. - Penn State News
People United for Medical Marijuana or PUFMM, has announced that its United For Care Campaign has succeeded in collecting more than enough signatures to send the petition to legalize medical marijuana in Florida to the state's Supreme Court for a review of the initiative's language and constitutionality. If the Court approves the petition, the vote to legalize medical marijuana in Florida will be added to the state's 2014 general election docket.
Wherever political issues are discussed, one will usually find propaganda, from both sides. Susan C. Boyd and Connie Carter focus their book on how, since the start of the 20th century, cannabis grow operations have been characterized as a dangerous criminal activity of epidemic proportions. They further focus their attention on British Columbia, Canada, by studying media reports where various police and media representatives have disseminated this information to create the wrong impression of cannabis growth and distribution. To create this book, they analyzed 15 years of newspaper coverage to reveal how such a perception was intentionally created. According to Boyd and Carter, when it comes down to seeing the truth between two feuding parties, it's important to pay close attention and read between the lines. - Culture
Researchers have found evidence for the medicinal use of cannabis in people with Cancer and Multiple Sclerosis. Australian doctors are testing a cannabis mouth spray called Sativex in Cancer patients with pain that does not respond well to traditional painkillers such as Morphine. Cannabinoid receptors are like Morphine receptors in the body, they mediate how the pain is sensed and how that pain message is transmitted to the brain and therefore perceived, so it reduces the conduction of that message to say there is pain occurring. Sativex could be a safer answer to Aspirin.
There are strains that help minimize anxiety while providing a happy, euphoric high. There are also strains that help individuals to focus, the new adderall anyone? Instead of a natural medication, I am lucky enough to ingest chemicals everyday. What are they doing? I don't know and neither does my doctor, but I guess they're helping. Oh and make sure you don't take too many because those "life saving" medicines will certainly kill you in excess. If taken in excess, marijuana won't kill you, it'll make you very sleepy. Thank God the government is protecting us from getting some natural sleep. Marijuana won't kill you, but be careful because every approved medication, if taken in excess, can and will. - Word Press
How can anyone doubt the medical values of cannabis? For years and years even before written history people have consumed cannabis and used its oils and seeds to heal themselves. Why are we so different? Just like when it seems that infection is an old idea, the idea of medicinal cannabis being illegal quickly slides into a strikingly ironic spot. Look at the drug Marinol (Dronabinol), the pharmaceuticals response to cannabis, a synthetic form of THC. Why would they even make that if they do not support that there is medicinal benefits to cannabis use alone?
Marijuana is the 'Supreme Holistic Medicine'. The hypothesis, that marijuana balances the Autonomic Nervous System, which then sets the stage for health beyond the ordinary, is in keeping with the tenets of Yoga Science. Joan Bello's expertise was garnered through vigorous academic training in a specialized Master of Science Program accessible to only a few hand chosen students. She is fulfilling her mandate of bringing the Eastern wisdom to the West in this revolutionary handling of the abiding connection between esoteric discipline and the state of consciousness fostered with marijuana. - Joan Bello, author of The Benefits of Marijuana: Physical, Psychological & Spiritual
Hempseed produces no observable high for humans or birds. Only the most minute traces of THC are in the seed. Hempseed is also the favorite fish bait in Europe. Anglers buy pecks of hempseed at bait stores, and then throw handfuls into rivers and ponds. Fish come thrashing for the hempseed and are caught by hook. No other bait is as effective, making hempseed generally the most desirable and most nutritious food for humans, birds and fish. - Jack Herer
Nelson resident, Sarah Bergeron finds relief from her Rheumatoid Arthritis pain by using an herb. The only problem is that herb is illegal to grow, possess and sell. That's why she organized Nelson's first annual Marijuana March that saw about 50 local marijuana legalization activists parade down Baker Street and Vernon Street to City Hall on Sunday. Bergeron grew up around parents who smoked marijuana for relief from illness. "My dad has epilepsy, that's why he uses it," she said. "My mom has a lot of knee pain and thyroid problems and she uses marijuana too. But neither of them are on the government status. "I myself just realized about three and a half years ago that I have rheumatoid arthritis. It's really bad. My knee gets all swelled up." Until then, Bergeron had only used marijuana recreationally. But once the pain began, she started looking into the drug for its medicinal purposes. "I started to use it all the time and realized the benefit," she said. "I got a little further into the ways to make me not so sleepy like a typical recreational user. I didn't want to be a stoner. I wanted to get deep into the facts of medicinal use and how good it really is for us." That helped me uncover how wrong the laws (around marijuana) are because me, my mom and dad and so many other people I know aren't criminals. We shouldn't have two years in jail if we have some plants because we're growing for ourselves in our house." Bergeron said she hoped the march would help send a message to younger people that marijuana prohibition is an unjust law. - Nelson Daily News
The first thing you notice about Corvallis' first Medical Marijuana dispensary is that it doesn't look like a drug den. In fact, it looks like a cross between a doctor's office and a high end women's boutique. That's intentional, says Kayla Dunham, co-owner of The Agrestic Green Collective. "We were just trying to transcend the stereotypes," she said. "We wanted it to be an elegant kind of place, a place people wouldn't ever be embarrassed to come into." No consumption is allowed on the premises, and there are numerous security measures, including motion detectors, surveillance cameras and a separate room with safes for locking up marijuana when the business is closed. Patients who come in to purchase cannabis, or caregivers who want to buy for their patients, first must check in with the receptionist, presenting their OMMP (Oregon Medical Marijuana Program) cards and photo identification. The cards are scanned into the dispensary's computer system and stored in an encrypted database for record keeping purposes.
Our youth can not understand why society chooses to criminalize a behavior with so little visible ill effect or adverse social impact. These young people have jumped the fence and found no cliff. And the disrespect for the possession laws fosters a disrespect for laws and the system in general. On top of this is the distinct impression among the youth that some police may use the marijuana laws to arrest people they don't like for other reasons, whether it be their politics, their hair style or their ethnic background. Federal and state laws (should) be changed to no longer make it a crime to possess marijuana for private use. State laws should make the public use of marijuana a criminal offense punishable by a $100 fine. Under federal law, marijuana smoked in public would merely be subject to seizure. - President Richard M. Nixon's National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse "Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding" March 1972
Having reviewed all the material available to us we find ourselves in agreement with the conclusion reached by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission appointed by the Government of India (1893-94) and the New York Mayor's Committee (1944 - LaGuardia) that the long term consumption of cannabis in moderate doses has no harmful effects, the long asserted dangers of cannabis are exaggerated and that the related law is socially damaging, if not unworkable - 1968 UK ROYAL COMMISSION, THE WOOTTON REPORT
