Sister Vee
Active Member
The dangers of synthetic THC products today: A review of the differences between whole-plant Cannabis Medicine and synthetic cannabinoids
When ii heard the story of the death of little Tanner Clements in May 2022 in Virginia County USA, as reported on the Hotbox Show #224 ii was devastated, both for the child and for the plant. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the difference between plant and synthetic THC medicine as well as to emphasize the high safety margin of whole-herbal Cannabis medicine compared to synthetic THC drugs. It is very important that people understand the difference and realize that you cannot even compare plant medicine to the wicked synthetic medicines that are being produced today, not only Cannabis medicines, all of them.The story follows that the child consumed medicated ‘gummies’ containing synthetic THC. In this case Delta-8 THC was detected in the child’s bloodstream. Although the plant does naturally produce this cannabinoid, the amounts are so minimal that it is not worth extracting and this is why people use synthetic Delta-8 THC which is just one of the 13 odd analogues or versions of the THC molecule. Synthetic Delta-8 THC is known to come with ‘serious health risks’ and contain various contaminants.
30 year old Dorothy Clements is the mother of little Tanner and she was arrested for the murder and neglect of her child and is apparently still sitting inside without ‘bail’ application being an option. This terribly unfortunate event highlights the need for more education and an even more urgent need for adult responsibility in the private home space.
How is it possible that a substance like plant-extracted THC has almost no effect on small children?
Personally ii have been treating small children with Cannabis medicine since the 1980’s when ii was still in high school. Asthma, epilepsy, allergies, cancer...all the conditions and never in my life have ii seen the plant harm a child. However, ii have seen a few cases where the child has received too much THC, this is why it is so important to me that at least one person in every household understands the workings of the ECS and how to work with the plant.
If ii had stayed in the Babylon medical system ii would most likely have specialized in paediatrics and ii really enjoyed my 6 months at Red Cross Hospital during my training, so ii have always been a keen researcher of child medicine and ii am a huge fan of the solid research work of Professor Ester Fride in the realm of Pediatric Cannabis Medicine research.
Professor Ester Fride Ph.D. passed away on 1 January 2010 age 56. She was the Dutch-born Israeli scientist who worked very closely with Professor Mechoulam, and they shared a lab since the 1990’s. He graced her with the title of Chairperson at the Department of Behavioural Sciences and the Department of Molecular Biology at The College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel Israel. She led and co-authored over 66 published peer-reviewed scientific papers.
Thanks to her research we now know the following:
1. That the activation of our Cannabinoid receptors by our natural Endocannabinoids is crucial to the suckling response in new- born babies. [1]
2. That Endocannabinoids are naturally present in human breast milk. [2]
3. The Endocannabinnoid system (ECS) is implicated in the embryonic implantation process that is controlled by our Endocannabinoids known as Anandamide and 2-AG. This means that Cannabis and the ECS literally give us life! [3] [4]
4. That the ECS is critical to pre and post-natal brain development. [5] [6] [7]
5. That Endocannabinoids help to stimulate the tongue muscles, and treat various swallowing difficulties in adults and children with Cannabis medicine because the research results are so successful. [8]
6. That dose-controlled whole-herbal plantTHC has no adverse effects on small children because of the delayed expression of ECS receptors in early human development. [9] [10] [11]
7. That stress depletes the ECS, the ECS receptors as well as the endocannabinoids, in particular Anandamide. [12] [13]
Professor Fride’s work proved that Cannabinoid receptors develop very slowly during the post-natal stage. This ties up with observations that small children appear to be insensitive to the psychoactive effects of controlled Cannabinoid treatment, and specifically to THC. Because of Professor Fride’s revelation, we now know that this gradual increase of EC system activity in the human body is accompanied by a gradual maturation in the response to the psychoactive properties of THC.
In studies of post-natal mice a gradual increase in the density of THC receptors was recorded in the brain, and this led to the important discovery that small children can benefit from Cannabis medicine without any harsh side-effects. There are numerous studies from Hebrew University in Israel where children between the ages of 3 and 13 undergoing chemotherapy were administered high THC doses, approximately 0.64 mg/kg per treatment. Some of these children were given doses for long periods of time, up to 114 treatments based on 4 treatments per 24-hour period. The anti-emetic effects were also impressive with no real side-effects at all. [9]
In another of her studies eight children between the ages of 3 and 14 years with severe neurological damage were treated with between 0.04 – 0.12 mg/kg per day. Across the board, improvements in behaviour included reduced spasticity, improved dystonia (muscle movements), increased interest in surroundings and anti-epileptic activity, all with no notable side-effects. This same study included the case of an 11-year-old girl, who, after a motor accident suffered a spinal contusion with total paraplegia and a frontal skull fracture. The patient suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder, mood disturbances and lack of appetite. The daily THC dose administered improved her appetite and mood, as well as her spasticity, with no side-effects. [10]
“Noteworthy, fully functional eCB system does not seem to emerge until adulthood, as acute challenge of mouse pups with AEA (20 mg/kg i.p.) does not produce anticipated analgesia and motor depression (Fride and Mechoulam, 1996).
This outcome could be explained by the fact that effects of CB challenge require complex interplay between several components of eCB system that are only reaching their final levels and patterns of distribution in adulthood Lee et al., 2016)” [10]
This outcome could be explained by the fact that effects of CB challenge require complex interplay between several components of eCB system that are only reaching their final levels and patterns of distribution in adulthood Lee et al., 2016)” [10]
Over the past twenty years we have seen such excellent clinical results from Cannabis treatment in small children and young adults, especially in paediatric oncology and neurology conditions, where children have been suffering from serious neurological conditions and brain trauma such as epilepsy. All of these healings become possible because of the now scientifically proven fact that cannabinoid receptor expression is different in children.
It is interesting to learn that only a temporary presence of receptors is expressed during development, but not during adulthood, in certain regions of the brain at the Corpus Callosum and the anterior commissure, which connects the neuronal pathways between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. These expressions were studied between gestational day 21 and post-natal day 5, and this proves the important role of cannabinoids in human brain development. [12]
In my opinion this natural paediatric expression of the human ECS is so clearly and so obviously designed to be a biologically adaptive defence mechanism designed to protect children from illness because children are not supposed to be ill.
What about Human studies?
In her human studies Professor Ester confirmed the results of past studies where cannabinoid receptors were identified in the human embryo at week 14 of gestation.
In the 20th week of gestation in the human embryo a selective (lesser) expression of the receptors was identified in the hippocampus compared with a much wider expression in the adult human brain. An advanced increase in the concentration of these cannabinoid receptors was found in the frontal cortex, hippocampus, basal ganglia and cerebellum between the foetal period and adulthood.
This proves that these receptors are functionally active at all stages of human development. So, in other words, the receptor concentration in these parts of the brain increased progressively only as the human progressed and grew. We can clearly see how nature has accommodated small children by ensuring only progressive development of the highly evolved ECS. The most important finding was that the psychoactive effects of cannabinoid treatment are virtually absent, or extremely reduced, in children (in controlled studies) and now we know that this is because of the lower concentrations of the actual receptors at younger ages.
Every day we hear miraculous stories of what Cannabis can do for children, especially in respect of many types of cancers, epilepsy and autism. It was Professor Fride’s studies that revealed that the human version of THC, Anandamide, displayed a neuro-protective role in the post-natal brain. The fact that our Cannabis receptors are present in the white matter regions of the pre-and post-natal nervous system proves that the ECS plays a specific role in early brain development. Throughout our lives from conception to the end of life THC is required to ensure healthy human brain development. This is why we need the Cannabis plant in our daily lives.
Why is whole-plant Cannabis medicine so safe?
There are three main reasons why whole-plant Cannabis medicine as opposed to laboratory produced synthetic versions is so safe that it has never ever killed a single human being. The same cannot be said about the dangerous synthetic medicines that doctors are forced to prescribe instead of the actual plant. We have just looked at the work of Professor Fride who proved that THC does not harm small children because of the delayed and reduced expression of ECS receptors in early life.
The second reason is that the active component of the plant, THC only acts as a partial agonist of the ECS receptors. And thirdly, the reason why no one has ever overdosed from Cannabis and the biological reason why no one has ever died from Cannabis, is because there are no ECS receptors on the cardiac and respiratory cells in the brain stem.
In June 2003 a paper titled “Cannabis and the brain” was published in Volume 126 of the Brain Journal that confirms that the ‘relative absence of the cannabinoid receptors from brainstem nuclei accounts for the low toxicity of cannabinoids when given in overdose.”
Properly prescribed Cannabis plant medicine is the safest medicine in the world and it is so important to make sure that you know who made your medicine and what exactly is in the mix that you will put into your body. Better yet, make your own medicine because people have been self-medicating with this medicine for thousands of years already including treating their children.
The reason why there is such an increase in emergency room admissions, and even a few fatalities for Cannabis toxicity, is purely because of synthetic cannabis products
This increase in admissions, a far greater percentage, now 15%, involve severe psychotic episodes brought about by the extreme potency of these synthetic substances that the human body was not designed to consume.
It’s exactly like Ras Warren stated on the Hotbox Show #224, it really feels like governments and corporations worldwide have been trying to pin the death and schizophrenia tail on the ‘dagga-donkey’ for way too long now and it almost seems like they are desperate to proclaim the ‘first death by cannabis’ to the world.
The world must be educated in the severe differences between plant and synthetic Cannabis products and the dangers of the side-effects.
The most important difference between plant and synthetic medicine is that plant medicine acts as a partial agonist at its target. This means that these medicines only have partial efficacy at the receptors that they bind to and this is in respect of children and adults. For example, the chief chemical component of Cannabis is THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol, Delta 9 THC) and THC only acts as a partial agonist at the ECS receptors.
On the other hand, synthetic THC will work as a FULL AGONIST at the ECS receptors. This means that synthetic THC is far more potent than plant THC, around 800 times, if you can believe that there are no limits to the extreme behaviour of the beast that is corporate medicine. In the 2021 scientific paper led by Dr Vidyasagar Bukke, titled “Pharmacological and Toxicological Effects of Phytocannabinoids and Recreational Synthetic Cannabinoids: Increasing Risk of Public Health”, the authors unashamedly announce that
“-it is believed that synthetic cannabinoids are 800 times more potent than Cannabis.”
Not only are the effects of fake Cannabis much more intense, the crash or ‘come-down’ of these fake products is also a big concern and we will most likely continue to see an increase in emergency room admissions. This is because of the known medical fact that synthetic THC drugs are associated with severe negative psychiatric and medical symptoms. This is a very important piece of information and the very reason for the high safety margin of whole herbal Ganja medicine. Quite frankly reading statements like this make my brain and eyes bleed into my heart for how is it even possible to get away with these actions? Synthetic cannabinoids should be banned off the face of the Earth and the scientists should be arrested for murder because for the first time in the history of mankind we are now starting to see people dying from using synthetic Cannabis products designed to kill people and this in turn demonizes the actual plant. [14] [15] [17]
In another published scientific paper, Cohen and Weinstein 7 June 2018, that you can find on this site Synthetic and Non-synthetic Cannabinoid Drugs and Their Adverse Effects-A Review From Public Health Prospective the scientists opened their paper with the following statement:
“Synthetic cannabinoid products have effects similar to those of natural cannabis, yet, these drugs are more potent and dangerous, and have been associated with dangerous adverse effects. These synthetic drugs replicate the effects of natural cannabis and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol but they induce more severe adverse effects including respiratory difficulties, hypertension, tachycardia, chest pain, muscle twitches, acute renal failure, anxiety, agitation, psychosis, suicidal ideation, and cognitive impairment. Chronic use of synthetic cannabinoids has been associated with serious psychiatric and medical conditions and even death.” [16] [17] [18] [19]
The biggest problem with these products is that they contain no CBD to provide any assistance to the patient because it can be very difficult to control the dose of synthetic THC drugs. Oftentimes patients have no choice but to commit to the extreme potency and the sad side-effects of these synthetic THC products. The THC and CBD ratios must be aligned naturally otherwise the medicine will not be effective in calming the effects of the synthetic THC. [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25]
The second biggest problem with synthetic THC is that these products contain a wide range of highly-potent full agonists that mimic ‘THC-like’ effects, except that they are far more severe and can last for weeks. This will never ever happen when consuming the actual Cannabis plant. [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40]
Cannabis is known to induce psychotropic effects like euphoria, calm, relaxation, and an overall pleasant feeling that you will never achieve with synthetics that are riddled with toxins and severe side-effects
When you use synthetic THC drugs produced by the pharmaceutical industry you will look forward to some pretty undesirable effects like nausea and vomiting, severe agitation, irritability, confusion, tachycardia, anxiety, high blood pressure, seizures, heavy hallucinations accompanied by delusions, psychosis with depression and suicidal thoughts, and even death. [41] [42] [43]
You simply cannot compare synthetic THC medicine with organic Cannabis extracts
The third problem with synthetic THC medications, and even the synthetic CBD products, they just aren’t as effective as the plant. There are three reasons for this fact. First is the botanical concept of “the entourage effect” that dictates that all of the plants’ components are required in order to achieve true healing. The second reason is because the ECS does not recognize synthetic cannabinoids. The body is unable to break them down and they end up staying in the patient’s body for long periods of time wreaking havoc in the already diseased body. Dr Ware of Health Canada, He says:
“By virtue of purifying those resins, isolating them, and putting them into pharmaceutical products, you sort of give rise to a more standardized and clean product…the challenge is that even though we have these existing prescription cannabinoids that these prescription medicines don’t seem to work the same way that the herbal product does.”
Another reason why synthetic Cannabis medications are not as effective as the plant is because they are loaded with all sorts of extra ingredients that in themselves are toxic like preservatives, additives, fatty acids, amides, esters, benzodiazepines and substances that are even included in opioids like Tramadol.
You have to ask yourself why would anyone want to destroy this perfectly natural medicine that works flawlessly without any intervention from mankind by adding all these extra toxins? Believe it or not, some people say that they are probably added to these drugs intentionally to ensure a greater psychoactive effect and to act as ‘masking agents’ to cause confusion in identifying the main psychoactive substances within in these dangerous designer drugs being forced onto people today.
Scientists Zuba and Byrska in their 2013 paper “Prevalence and co-existence of active components of ‘legal highs’ revealed the following about 449 samples:
“The most common ingredients of legal highs were (in descending order): MPDV, caffeine, butylone, TFMPP, lidocaine, 4-MEC, mephedrone, pFPP, BZP, and MDPBP. The scatter of substances changed over time, and piperazines were often ousted by cathinones. Most of the preparations were composed of two or more ingredients. Cathinones and piperazines were mixed mainly within the chemical classes (77.6% and 56.1% of dual links, respectively), caffeine was mixed both with piperazines (24 products) and cathinones (22 products), whereas lidocaine only with the latter class (47 products).”
Most of these ingredients are synthetic psychedelics, anesthetics, synthetic amphetamine stimulant drugs and other illicit recreational drugs that are masquerading as natural plant Cannabis medicine. In my opinion this is the ultimate form of deceit and reminds me of the biblical scripture in the Revelation 18 verse 23. [44] [45] [46]
Doctors and psychiatrists and nursing staff need to be educated in the ECS and how plant medicine naturally heals the body without disastrous side-effects. All of these implications need to be seized by medical schools and all medical training facilities, especially those who profess to care about community child-health or adolescent medicine. Doctors need to be introduced to the whole herbal plant and not only the dangerous synthetics that they will be allowed to sell.
The most disturbing observation of these fake Cannabis products is the extreme level of aggression and violence we are observing with its use. This together with the fact that these synthetic THC drugs are highly addictive is a huge red flag on the mental health safety radar, but it seems that no one is even watching.
Parents have been struggling for decades to obtain natural Cannabis medicine to cure their children’s illnesses. Charlotte Caldwell, mother of little Billy who suffers with severe epilepsy, had to leave Northern Ireland to go to America to help her son and then deal with the Minister of Medicine to issue an emergency license for her son’s treatment. It should never ever be so hard to use a plant to cure an illness.
Hannah Deacon also struggled for many years to treat her son Alfie who also suffers from epilepsy. Finally in 2018 she was able to bring in only 5 months of treatment into the UK from Amsterdam. Meanwhile Sophia Gibson a young child with Dravets syndrome and awaiting her medical licence was recently hospitalized and placed on life-support because she so desperately needs this medicine. No one should ever have to suffer like this to help their sick children.
And now a young mother in Virginia USA is facing life imprisonment for the murder of her 4 year old son who died from consuming synthetic Cannabis products. In my opinion she should be suing someone for complete medical malpractice in the supply of dangerous drugs to the population. I spent a lot of time reading all the different media reports on this case. In my opinion all evidence seems to indicate that 30 year old mom of Tanner, Dorothy Clements, had the full intention of purchasing CBD gummies from the shop in Fredericksburg near her hometown where she had clearly purchased from before. All the media reports are laden with confusing journalism that required me to thoroughly analyse all the information available.
Dorothy had been treating her little boy for a known cardiac condition with CBD, but in a strange twist of events, the police found an empty jar of THC gummies and everyone automatically assumed that the little boy had eaten the whole jar because of the high levels of synthetic Delta-8 THC in his blood.
On Saturday 5 November we celebrated National Children’s Day here in South Africa, and it got me thinking that if a child has to pass away in my country because of Cannabis irresponsibility then ii guarantee you that it won’t be too long and the government will most likely repeal the Privacy Bill in its entirety and believe me brothers and sisters...the corporate pharmaceutical world is looking for such an opportunity to seize total control; let us not give it to them at the cost of a child’s life. Let us be woke and treat Ganja with the respect it deserves as a medicine and not a party drug.
We can never ever allow this to happen so please people pack away the irresistible and tempting edibles that will also be so attractive to children and let us assume an air of responsible adulting and responsible Cannabis use by refusing to ever allow synthetic Cannabis medicines into your home. We also need to be mindful of the fact that today’s Ganja is so much stronger than back in the 1960’s when 6% was considered high THC! The quest for higher THC has led to far less plant-CBD and we must be conscious of the consequences of these breeding practices and the effects of extremely high THC on human mental health.
It is known that the ‘big pharma’ wishes to ensure that in the future all prescription Cannabis medicine will be synthetic, simply to continue their medical monopoly by keeping people sick. This will also remove the need for actual plants to produce these life-threatening drugs and this should be a huge concern to any conscious person.
Respect the plant ~ Respect yourself
CITATIONS:
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Never again... 
