Stop The Lies: Legalize it Already

Imagine a naturally occurring plant that when consumed kills cancer cells, grows new brain cells, can stop seizures, relieves nausea during chemotherapy, treats pain more effectively than morphine, reduces muscle spasticity for people with multiple sclerosis, slows the onset of blindness in people with glaucoma, can treat tourettes syndrome, is impossible to overdose on, and makes people who use it really happy. It almost sounds too good to be true, yet it is. The plant is called Cannabis Sativa, or what is known on the streets as “marijuana.”

This November people in Michigan will have the choice to vote on whether or not a doctor can prescribe marijuana to sick people who would benefit from its use. Many have been told for years that marijuana is a dangerous drug that causes brain damage, violence, and insanity. Many wonder how it is possible that a dangerous illegal drug like marijuana could ever be considered medicine when the federal government says that it is not medicine. The truth is, the American people, and much of the world have been lied to about Cannabis Sativa and anyone with a casual interest in the subject that has access to a database of medical journals knows that.

The current medical marijuana debate began in 1996 when Californian voters passed proposition 215. This allowed doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients they thought would benefit from the drug. Since this time debate has raged among the people of this nation about whether or not marijuana could be considered medicine. Doctors and scientists invested a lot of time and money researching marijuana and the chemicals that give it its special properties.

The chemicals that give marijuana its medical and recreational properties are called cannabinoids. There are sixty-six known cannabinoids in marijuana each with slightly different biochemical effects. In the 1990's researchers discovered that the brain and body actually has receptors for cannabinoids. The two receptors are called CB1 and CB2. Shortly after the discovery of their receptors two endogenous cannabinoids also known as endocannabinoids were discovered. Their names are anandamide and 2-arachidonoyl glycerol. Both of these compounds are derivatives of arachidonic acid and both endocannabinoids appear to bind to CB1 and CB2. Biochemical research into these receptors and their agonists reveal the exact biochemical cascade of events that happens when these receptors are agonized. The overall view of the endocannabinoid system is that it mediates the effects of over stimulation, reduces inflammation, and promotes growth of new neurons in response to overstimulation.

Over the past several years researchers have been finding more and more evidence that the most prominent cannabinoid in marijuana THC can actually destroy cancer cells(Jia, 2006). When cells become cancerous their cellular clocks are damaged. Most cells go through a cycle where they grow, divide, then die. In cancer cells the cycle is broken and the cancer cells do not die. When THC is injected into cancer cells, the cancer cells cycle is reactivated and cancer cells commit apoptosis, which is just a fancy word for cellular suicide(Athanasiou, 2007). Far more research has been done on the destruction of cancer cells via marijuana than has been presented here, yet the federal government denies that there is any possible medical use for marijuana.

For most of the twentieth century our government has been claiming that marijuana kills brain cells, and that medicine shouldn't destroy your brain. The problem with the assertion the government is making is that it is patently false. There has never been any studies accepted by the medical community that proves marijuana kills brain cells. In fact recent research has suggested the exact opposite, THC actually stimulates the brain to grow new neurons in a process called neurogenesis. In a study done at the Neuropsychiatry Research Unit at the University of Saskatchewan researchers found that “Cannabinoids promote embryonic and adult hippocampus neurogenesis...”(Jiang, 2005). The hippocampus is the part of the brain responsible for forming new memories. If the underlying assumption is that the destruction of brain cells results in stupidity then is it also true that the creation of new brain cells results in superior intelligence? Maybe, because according to research done by the Department of Psychology at Ohio State University, activation of cannabinoid receptors in older mice improved their spatial memory(Yannick, 2007) . This would explain how it is possible that intellectuals like science popularizer and astronomer Carl Sagan can use marijuana regularly and still retain their brilliance. Yet despite this evidence the federal government still believes that marijuana is just as dangerous as heroin, and that anyone who uses it is so dangerous that they belong in a cage.

In addition to marijuana being able to grow new brain cells the cannabinoid THC is able to stop a seizure dead in its tracks and reduce the number of them. Research at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Virginia Commonwealth University found that if THC is given to rats before a seizure is induced the rats have fewer seizures than they do if they are given standard anti-seizure medication like phenobarbital(Wallace, 2002). Also researchers at the same university but in the department of neurology found that cannabinoid receptor agonists stopped seizures in cultures of hippocampal neurons where seizure was induced at 1% the concentration of the leading anti-convulsant pharmaceutical phenobarbital (Deshpande, 2007). A statement from a medical marijuana patient who goes by the name buzz at the medical marijuana community at www.marijuana.com says it all.
“I have had epilpesy for a while. Four years ago my sezuires were out of control. All my meds made me sucidal and I tried to take my own life. Now I use weed instead of the pills and I have taken back my life. I had both grand and petite. Some times petite as high as 20 per day. Now I can go for days sezuire free”
Yet despite this overwhelming evidence the federal government routinely breaks into medical marijuana pharmacies, steals the medicine, and then arrests the pharmacists.

Marijuana, in addition to treating epilepsy can also treat multiple sclerosis. Many patients with multiple sclerosis have reported relief of pain far superior than the relief experienced due to morphine or other dangerous legal drugs. Is there more than just pain relief? Research done in 2008 published in the Journal of Neuroimmunology found that high doses of cannabinoids actually reduces the disease, and at lower doses cannabinoids “slowed the accumulation of nerve loss and disability.”(Croxford, 2008). Furthermore a study published in 2005 in the journal Trends in Neuroscience stated, that after reviewing the literature on the subject concluded “cannabis not only relieves symptoms [of MS] but also is potentially neuroprotective and is involved in synaptic plasticity.” (Pryce, 2005). Disregarding this evidence the federal government still considers medical marijuana patients like Montel Williams, a talk show host with MS, a criminal that is a danger to society.

So what if marijuana can cure cancer, grow new brain cells, treat epilepsy and MS, the medical marijuana community is just a bunch of hippies that want to get high right? Well, thats not what was observed at the medical marijuana forums at marijuana.com. The community is incredibly diverse as it is composed of people from all across the United States and Canada. The people within the community typically range from fifteen to fifty years old. These people stand out from their other subcultures in a fairly uniform way, they are all criminals in the eye of the federal government. Therefore many are secretive about their involvement in this subculture. An example of this is a conversation in the community in which a student with ADHD describes how cannabis has helped him focus on his studies and has also helped him get along better with his family and friends. He goes as far as saying that his family and friends have complimented him on his strongly positive behavior change. However he is afraid to tell them that this positive behavioral change is due to marijuana. There is an intense paranoia about being “found out” within the community. Many people will say that marijuana makes people paranoid, this is not true. Marijuana prohibition makes marijuana users paranoid, consider that in 2007 marijuana arrests reached record breaking levels of 872,721 and cost the tax payers $41.8billion that year alone, for comparison 597,447 people were arrested for violent crimes in 2007. Nearly 300,000 more people are arrested for marijuana each year than for all violent crimes combined. It is for this reason that the vast majority of the medical marijuana community are silent observers and only a few actively contribute to the discussion.

Prohibition of medical marijuana makes people within the community skeptical of all government activity. These people know that marijuana is not anywhere near as harmful as heroin, and they know they aren't a danger to society that needs to be locked up. They know that the things the government says about marijuana are lies that medical science has disproved. When a mountain of research by medical science completely contradicts the claims of the government whose claims are not backed up by research it creates skepticism by anybody within the know. For instance during an interview with a member who goes by the name SpiralArchitect he said the government “should be [working in the best interests of the people]. It currently isn't ; private interests and personal agendas have taken priority.” and when further questioned about whether or not the government would knowingly lie to a person he simply said “Look at History.” Indeed this is a strong statement. Governments have been knowingly deceiving people for thousands of years, and the United States is no exception. Surprisingly this sort of sentiment is creeping its way into mainstream society an interview with an outsider about whether the government is looking out for the best interests of the people yielded this response “I think that the government, in general, takes advantage of its citizens. I think that if the government truly had the best interested of their people in mind, many things in society would be different. The government is just like any other business in the world - it is out to make a profit at the expense of the worker.”

There is ample evidence to suggest that marijuana has therapeutic potential. Marijuana has the ability to kill cancer cells through apoptosis. The ability to promote the growth of new neurons in the learning center of the brain. The ability to treat epilepsy, the ability to treat MS and slow its progression, and many others. Cannabis is a safe non-toxic plant that grows like a weed. It remains illegal because it would destroy the pharmaceutical companies ability to profit because none of their drugs can compete with cannabis. Next time you have severe pain try vaporizing some medical grade cannabis and see the difference for yourself. Its safe, non-toxic, and is not physically addicting unlike morphine and Vicodin.



Cited Sources:
Athanasiou, Andriani . "Cannabinoid receptor agonists are mitochondrial inhibitors: A unified hypothesis of how cannabinoids modulate mitochondrial function and induce cell death." Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 364(2007): 131-137 .

Croxford, Ludovic J.. "Cannabinoid-mediated neuroprotection, not immunosuppression, may be more relevant to multiple sclerosis." Journal of Neuroimmunology 193(2008): 120-129.

Deshpande, Laxmikant. "Endocannabinoids block status epilepticus in cultured hippocampal neurons." European Journal of Pharmacology 558(2007): 52-59.

Jia, Wentao . "{Delta}9-Tetrahydrocannabinol-Induced Apoptosis in Jurkat Leukemia T Cells Is Regulated by Translocation of Bad to Mitochondria ." Molecular Cancer Research 4(2006): 549-562.
Jiang, Wen. "Cannabinoids promote embryonic and adult hippocampus neurogenesis and produce anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects." The Journal of Clinical Investigation 115(2005): 3104–3116 .

Marchalant, Yannick. "Cannabinoid receptor stimulation is anti-inflammatory and improves memory in old rats." Neurobiology of Aging (2007):

Wallace, Melisa. "Evidence for a physiological role of endocannabinoids in the modulation of seizure threshold and severity." European Journal of Pharmacology 452(2002): 295-301.