Pubdate: Mon, 06 Jun 2005
Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Vancouver Courier
Contact:  http://www.vancourier.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474
Author: Geoff Olson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Rochfort+Bridge (Rochfort Bridge)

RESEARCH SHOWS POTENTIAL FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

When a violent loner killed four RCMP agents last March, after a call to 
repossess a truck on his property, the story immediately went sideways.

The discovery of pot plants at James Roszko's residence gave the tragedy a 
ready-made, reefer madness angle.

Suddenly a news item about rural property crime and an unhinged cop-killer 
was spun as grow-op bust gone bad. After weeks of ballyhoo about deadly 
bud, any media shill with a talent for the bleeding obvious could have 
offered a different take: had marijuana growing been decriminalized in 
Canada, the four police officers could well have avoided a lethal 
confrontation with the disturbed Rozko.

They don't call it dope for nothing: no other naturally occurring substance 
accretes such a sticky coating of blather, bafflegab and outright 
disinformation. There are some signs of change on the dope horizon, 
however-even the Fraser Institute, sounding more like Peter Tosh than 
Gordon Gecko, says legalize it and tax it up the wazoo.

The most hopeful signs of reasoned thinking involve the health benefits of 
medicinal marijuana, from studies all over the world-except of course the 
United States, where marijuana's schedule one status makes it illegal for 
researchers to study. (As if that weren't weird enough, the toxic and 
addictive cocaine and heroin are schedule two drugs, of a lesser juridical 
grade.)

Researchers suspect cannabis is useful for more than pain and nausea. 
According to a recent article in the science journal Nature, researchers in 
Geneva have discovered the active ingredient of cannabis can prevent blood 
vessels in mice from becoming blocked by arteriosclerosis-the inflammation 
that is the primary cause of heart disease and stroke in human beings.

In Spain, a synthetic marijuana compound has been found to suppress the 
brain inflammation associated with Alzheimer's. Researchers at Spain's 
largest neuroscience research center studied the brain tissue of deceased 
Alzheimer's patients, and discovered that many of these patients lose the 
function of important cannabinoid brain receptors, which seem to guard 
against cognitive decline.

And here's the key thing-and I do mean key, in the sense of fitting into a 
lock and opening a door. Whether smoked or ingested, the active ingredients 
in cannabis fit into receptors in the brain because our own internally 
made, marijuana-like substances fit into these same molecular slots.

The endocannibinoid system, according to a recent article in Scientific 
American, is a prime regulatory system within the human body. It is found 
throughout the animal kingdom and across phyla, from starfish to leeches 
and on up to human beings.

The broad range of reported health benefits from marijuana are no accident 
given the wide-ranging function of our naturally-made cannibinoids in human 
biochemistry. So it may well turn out that the lowly hemp plant is 
something of a pharmacological philosopher's stone.

Enter the drug companies.

This peer-reviewed research is now accompanied by talk of the development 
of a broad range of drugs synthesizing or drawing from the cannibinoids 
found in marijuana.

Studies indicate cannibinoid-derived medicines may offer new treatments for 
cystic fibrosis, anorexia, autism and other hard-to-treat ailments and 
syndromes than may arise because of a dysfunctional endocannibinoid system.

The hopeful angle is that some intractable health conditions may soon be 
treatable, following the openly acknowledged benefits of cannibinoid-like 
chemicals. The darker scenario is that special interests may co-opt the 
legal issues indefinitely, by having non-medicinal dosages of synthesized 
dope doled out, while personal cultivation or use of the marijuana plant 
remains in legal limbo.

We already have the plant; why extract or synthesize what God, Gaia, or 
Darwin is offering for free? Given the scandalous recent history of drugs 
like Viagra, Vioxx, Celebrex, and SSRI antidepressants, there's reason to 
be skeptical about pharmaceutical companies poking around with reefer.

But I for one am hopeful we'll one day find a wiser, more adult approach to 
naturally occurring plants and substances, somewhere between the 
nano-second focus of the recreationally stoned and the drug war 
hallucinations of bureaucratic control freaks.

I also hope that this middle ground isn't just about 60-second spots 
flogging some corporate-endorsed Soma. It should also include 
self-medicating home gardeners, who know their bodies and needs better than 
the suits do.

No space cookies for Granny's arthritis.

Just another trip to the doctor, on everyone's dime, for some expensive 
sim-ganga, with the profits going to a faceless few in the executive lounge.

That would be a Pyrrhic victory for both Granny and Mary Jane.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom