CHAIN THE DOGMA

I've been a member of the BCCCS for 9 years and served on its board for 3 years.

Lester Grinspoon, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is the coauthor of "Marijuana, the Forbidden Medicine." He has been on the board of the BC Compassion Club since its inception.

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly ``cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

The size of seeds mixed in with the leaves in the sample indicate the cannabis came from a cultivated strain.

A scientific society advocating the improvement of the legal situation for the use of the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa L.) and its pharmacologically most important active compounds, the cannabinoids, for therapeutic applications

Recent scientific reports suggest that pot doesn't destroy your brain, that it doesn't cause lung damage like tobacco -- but you won't hear it in the corporate media.

Since the discovery of the cannabinoid receptor system in the body (and the production of endogenous cannabinoids), scientists haven't been at all surprised at the medical properties of the plant.

Not only is there abundant evidence that cannabinoids kill cancer cells, investigators now understand how and why cannabinoids kill cancerous cells and halt the spread of malignant tumors.

Marijuana has been smoked for its medicinal properties for centuries. Preclinical, clinical, and anecdotal reports suggest numerous potential medical uses for marijuana.

The country's largest physician group, the AMA, has reversed its long-held position that marijuana has no medical worth.

Medical marijuana may have a host of advantages over other treatments for traumatized vets, but the VA won't even study its efficacy.

Medical-marijuana advocates maintain that whole-plant drugs will be the most effective. Research has shown that the synergy of multiple cannabinoids works better than any single molecule in the plant.

Research into natural chemicals that mimic marijuana's effects in the brain could help to explain--and suggest treatments for--pain, anxiety, eating disorders, phobias and other conditions

Editors: Current restrictions on marijuana research are absurd

Emerging Clinical Applications For Cannabis & Cannabinoids A Review of the Recent Scientific Literature, 2000 — 2006

Based on the clinical results, cannabinoids present an interesting therapeutic potential mainly as analgesics in chronic neuropathic pain, appetite stimulants in debilitating diseases (cancer and AIDS), as well as in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Reality: In a White House-commissioned 1999 report, the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine declared that "nausea, appetite loss, pain, and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting and all can be mitigated by marijuana."

Join Marijuana Policy Project's Sara Cannon as she takes a look at some untruthful statements made by the Drug Free America Foundation.

A historic document from the 124,000-member American College of Physicians certifies the medical value of marijuana.

Indeed, marijuana is less toxic than many of the drugs that physicians prescribe every day. It is simply wrong for the sick and suffering to be casualties in the war on drugs. Let's get rid of the myths and institute sound public-health policy.

People have used cannabis for medicinal purposes for centuries. Queen Victoria used it in tea to help with her period pains, and people with a variety of conditions say that it helps alleviate their symptoms.

The Supreme Court ruling, following the Obama administration's decision not to raid medical marijuana clubs acting in accordance with state law, removes one of the last barriers to full implementation of the state law.

The decision was a victory for a group of patients who challenged the federal regulations, arguing that the government-issued pot is too weak and that they should have the option to find their own supply.

Ruling relaxes the government's grip as the sole distributor of medical marijuana to sick patients

Now that the Federal Court of Appeal has struck down the government's monopoly on supplying medical marijuana, Nash believes commercial agricultural production of pot is around the corner and the sky's the limit.

Fresh marijuana fried in ghee, a form of clarified butter, is used in about 18 different traditional medicines for treating a wide variety of ailments

Upholding the October 2006 ruling, the higher court said that "exceptional circumstances" meant an "illegal scheme can be justified when committed out of necessity.

A history of the battle between politics and science over the use of marijuana as a medicine.

Michigan's new law goes into effect on December 4th, at which time nearly one-quarter of the US population will live in a state that authorizes the legal use of medical cannabis.

Scientific studies indicate that marijuana can halt the spread of numerous cancer cells, including the type that Kennedy suffers from.

While the the American Medical Association claims pot has no medical value, Big Pharma is busy getting patents for marijuana products.

Research exploring new ways of exploiting the full medicinal uses of cannabis while avoiding unwanted [by some] side-effects

Ohio State University scientists are finding that specific elements of marijuana can be good for the aging brain by reducing inflammation there and possibly even stimulating the formation of new brain cells.

Scientists from Hungary, Germany and the U.K. have discovered that our own body not only makes chemical compounds similar to the active ingredient in marijuana (THC), but these play an important part in maintaining healthy skin.

Evidence from peer-reviewed scientific literature that supports the hypothesis that humans, and all animals, make and use internally produced cannabis-like products (endocannabinoids) as part of the evolutionary harm reduction program.

“It is clear that there is very realistic potential for cannabinoids as medicines. Scientists are looking at a range of possible applications.”

A considerable body of data shows that no state with a medical marijuana law has experienced an increase in youth marijuana use since its law’s enactment. All states have reported overall decreases...

Namisol® is indicated for the treatment of different diseases symptoms such as: Spasticity with pain, Chronic neuralgic pain, Nausea and vomiting, Palliative treatment of cancer and HIV/AIDS

A rash of new studies of marijuana has hit the mass media, generating absurd headlines like "Smoking Pot Rots Your Gums."

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health wants to clarify legislation so that prescribing cannabis to sufferers of chronic pain would no longer be automatically illegal.

"I think this verdict will help send a message to lawmakers to catch up with the way ordinary people really think,"

After a 40-year moratorium, credible research for treating illnesses and addictions with psychedelic compounds has made a miraculous comeback.

Today, Ketchum steadfastly maintains that cannabis and LSD are safe drugs compared to many legal substances. This is what the Edgewood experiments and other studies have shown, he contends.

Clinical trial data to be published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (JAIDS).

Positions on the medical use of marijuana vary, but thousands of patients suffering from cancer, AIDS, and other diseases claim marijuana provides them relief from devastating symptoms such as intractable nausea, vomiting and pain

Report cites "grossly psychotic, assaultive," schizophrenic "became calm, logical, nonviolent and cooperative within days" after taking THC.

Proponents of medicinal marijuana say it's disingenuous to hold up Marinol as a direct alternative to the more traditional form of the plant.

Marijuana is virtually non-toxic to healthy cells & major organs. The active components in marijuana – known as cannabinoids -- actually mimic chemicals naturally produced by the body (endocannabinoids) that are necessary for proper health

A California hipster can hit the vaporizer without fear of harassment, but a lower-class person smoking a blunt may not be so lucky.

We know — repeat, we know — that marijuana can be effective against certain types of pain. As The Lancet Neurology put it a few years ago, “cannabinoids inhibit pain in virtually every experimental pain paradigm.”

ScienceDaily (Nov. 27, 2008) Marijuana kills pain by activating a set of proteins known as cannabinoid receptors, which can also regulate appetite, inflammation, and memory.

Patients with fibromyalgia treated with a synthetic form of marijuana, nabilone, showed significant reductions in pain and anxiety in a first-of-its-kind study, published in The Journal of Pain.

The growing body of evidence that cannabis may be effective as a pain reliever has been expanded with publication of a new study in The Journal of Pain reporting that patients with nerve pain showed reduced pain intensity from smoking marijuana.

Cannabis significantly reduces HIV-associated neuropathic pain compared to placebo, and possesses an acceptable margin of safety for use, according to clinical trial data to be published in the journal Neurology.

Cannabis significantly reduces neuropathic pain compared to placebo and is well tolerated by patients with chronic pain conditions, according to clinical trial data to be published in The Journal of Pain.

Not only is there abundant evidence that cannabinoids kill cancer cells, investigators now understand how and why cannabinoids kill cancerous cells and halt the spread of malignant tumors.

New research shows there seems to be something in pot that actually undermines cancer, instead of causing it. -- and the media are doing their best to ignore it.

Lifetime marijuana use is associated with a ‘significantly reduced risk’ of cancer, specifically head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Cannabis has long been recognized as a medicinal plant. Researchers from ETH Zurich and Bonn University have now established anti-inflammatory properties in hemp oil.

Augmentation of the endocannabinoid system via exogenously administered cannabinoid receptor agonists may constitute an option to treat inflammation and fibrosis in chronic pancreatitis.