Marijuana Facts

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The Emperor Wears No Clothes

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Chapter 6
The Body of Medical Literature on Cannabis Medicine

Our authority here is the 'Body of Literature,' starting with ancient materia medicae; Chinese and Hindu pharmacopoeia and Near Eastern cuneiform tablets, and continuing all the way into this century, including the 1966-76 U.S. renaissance of cannabis studies - some 10,000 separate studies on medicines and effects from the hemp plant. Comprehensive compendia of these works are designated as the prime sources for this medical chapter, as well as ongoing interviews with many researchers.

Affordable, Available Herbal Health Care

For more than 3,500 years, cannabis/hemp/marijuana has been, depending on the culture or nation, either the most used or one of the most widely used plants for medicines. This includes: China, India, the Middle and Near East, Africa, and pre-Roman Catholic Europe (prior to 476 A.D.).

Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, NORML, High Times and Omni magazines (September 1982) all indicate that if marijuana were legal it would immediately replace 10-20% of all pharmaceutical prescription medicines (based on research through 1976). And probably, Mechoulam estimates, 40-50% of all medicines, including patent medicines, could contain some extract from the cannabis plant when fully researched.

(Read the U.S. government-sponsored research as outlined by Cohen & Stillman, Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, 1976; Roffman, Roger, Marijuana as Medicine, 1980; Mikuriya, Tod, M.D., Marijuana Medical Papers, 1972; Also, the work of Dr. Norman Zinberg; Dr. Andrew Weil; Dr. Lester Grinspoon; and the U.S. Government's Presidential Commission reports [Shafer Commission] from 1972; Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, Tel Aviv/Jerusalem Univ. 1964-97; W.B. O'Shaunessy monograph, 1839; and the long term Jamaican studies I & II, 1968-74; Costa Rican studies through 1982; U.S. Coptic studies, 1981; Ungerlieder; U.S. military studies since the 1950s and '60s.)

Superstar of the 19th Century

Marijuana was America's number one analgesic for 60 years before the rediscovery of aspirin around 1900. From 1842 to 1900 cannabis made up half of all medicine sold, with virtually no fear of its high.

The 1839 report on the uses of cannabis by Dr. W.B. O'Shaugnessy, one of the most respected members of the Royal Academy of Sciences, was just as important to mid-19th Century Western medicine as the discoveries of antibiotics (like penicillin and Terramycin) were to mid-20th Century medicine.

In fact, the Committee on Cannabis Indica for the Ohio State Medical Society concluded that "High Biblical commentators [scholars]" believe "that the gall and vinegar, or myrrhed wine, offered to our Saviour immediately before his crucifixion was in all probability, a preparation of Indian hemp."

(Transcripts, Ohio State Medical Society 15th annual meeting June 12-14, 1860, pg. 75-100.)

From 1850 to 1937, the U.S. Pharmacopoeia listed cannabis as the primary medicine for more than 100 separate illnesses or diseases.

During all this time (pre-1000 B.C. to 1940s A.D., researchers, doctors and drug manufacturers (Eli Lilly, Parke-David, Squibb, etc.) had no idea what the active ingredients of cannabis were until Dr. Mechoulam discovered THC in 1964.

20th Century Research

As outlined in the previous chapters, the American Medical Association (AMA) and drug companies testified against the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act because cannabis was known to have so much medical potential and had never caused any observable addictions or death by overdose.

The possibility existed, they argued, that once the active ingredients in cannabis (such as THC Delta-9) were isolated and correct dosages established, cannabis could become a miracle drug.

Twenty-nine years would pass, however, before American scientists could begin to even look into cannabis medicine again.

THC Delta-9 was isolated by Dr. Raphael Mechoulam at the University of Tel Aviv in 1964. His work confirmed that of Professor Taylor of Princeton, who had lead the research and identification of natural THC Delta-9 precursors in the 1930s. Kahn, Adams and Loewe also worked with the structure of cannabis' active ingredients in 1944.

Since 1964, more than 400 separate compounds have been isolated in cannabis from over a thousand suspected compounds. At least 60 of the isolated compounds are therapeutic. The United States, however, forbade this type of research through the bureaucratic authority of Harry Anslinger util 1962, when he was forced to retire. (Omni Magazine, Sept. 1982)

Growing Acceptance

By 1966, millions of young Americans had begun using marijuana. Concerned parents and government, wanting to know the dangers their children were risking, started funding dozens and later hundreds of marijuana health studies.

Entrenched in the older generation's minds were 30 years of Anslinger/Hearst scare stories of murder, atrocity, rape, and even zombie pacifism.

Federally sponsored research results began to ease Americans' fears of cannabis causing violence or zombie pacifism, and hundreds of new studies suggested that hidden inside the hemp plant's chemistry lay a medicinal array of incredible therapeutic potential. The government funded more and more studies.

Soon, legions of American researchers had positive indications using cannabis, anorexia, tumors and epilepsy, as well as for a general use antibiotic. Cumulative findings showed evidence of favorable results occurring in cases of Parkinson's disease, anorexia, multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy; plus thousands of anecdotal stories all merited further clinical study.

Prior to 1976, reports of positive effects and new therapeutic indications for cannabis were almost a weekly occurrence in medical journals and the national press.

National Conference Praised Cannabis Therapy Potential

In November 1975, virtually all of America's leading researchers on marijuana met at Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, California. Seminars were sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to address a compendium of studies from their earliest to most recent findings.

When the seminars were over, practically all the scientists concluded that the federal government, with the hard evidence collected so far on the therapeutic potential of marijuana, should be rushing to invest tax money into more research.

They felt the taxpayers should be informed that there was every legitimate reason for the field of public health to continue large scale research on cannabis medicine and therapies. All the participants, it seems, believed this. Many of them (such as Mechoulam) believed that cannabis would be one of the world's major medicines by the mid-1980s. In March 1997, Mechoulam, in a speech at the Bio-Fach in Frankfort, Germany, still believed that cannabis is the world's best overall medicine.

Marijuana Research Banned

However, in 1976, just as multi-disciplined marijuana research should have been going into its second, third, and fourth generation studies (see Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana and NORML federal files), a "surprise" United States government policy again forbade all promising federal research into marijuana's therapeutic effects.

This time, the research ban was accomplished when American pharmaceutical companies successfully petitioned the federal government to be allowed to finance and judge 100% of the research.

The previous ten years of research had indicated a tremendous promise for the therapeutic uses of natural cannabis, and this potential was quietly turned over to corporate hands - not for the benefit of the public, but to suppress the medical information.

This plan, the drug manufacturers petitioned, would allow our private drug companies time to come up with patentable synthetics of the cannabis molecules at no cost to the federal government, and a promise of "no highs."

In 1976, the Ford Administration, NIDA and the DEA said in effect, no American independent (read: university) research or federal health program would be allowed to again investigate natural cannabis derivatives for medicine. This agreement was made without any safeguards guaranteeing integrity on the part of the pharmaceutical companies; they were allowed to regulate themselves.

Private pharmaceutical corporations were allowed to do some "no high" research, but it would be only Delta-9 THC research, not any of the 400 other potentially therapeutic isomers in cannabis.

Why did the drug companies conspire to take over marijuana research? Because U.S. government research (1966-76) had indicated or confirmed through hundreds of studies that even "natural" crude cannabis was the "best and safest medicine of choice" for many serious health problems.

1988: DEA Judge Rules that Cannabis has Medical Value

The DEA's own conservative administrative law judge, Francis Young, after taking medical testimony for 15 days and reviewing hundreds of DEA/NIDA documents positioned against the evidence introduced by marijuana reform activists, concluded in September 1988 that "marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man."

But despite this preponderance of evidence, then DEA Director John Lawn ordered on December 30, 1989 that cannabis remain listed as a Schedule I narcotic - having no known medical use. His successor, Robert Bonner, who was appointed by Bush and kept in office by Clinton, was even more draconian in his approach to hemp/marijuana as medicine. Clinton's current DEA administrator; Thomas Constantine (appointed 1993), upholds policies for worse even than Bonner's.

So. . . if all this has been known since 1975, what is our government waiting for?

Protecting Pharmaceutical Companies' Profits

NORML, High Times, and Omni (September 1982) indicate that Eli Lilly, Abbott Labs, Pfizer, Smith, Kline & French, and others would lose hundreds of millions, to billions of dollars annually, and lose even more billions in Third World countries, if marijuana were legal in the U.S.* 6

* Remember, in 1976, the last year of the Ford Administration, these drug companies, through their own persistence (specifically intense lobbying) got the federal government to cease all positive research into medical marijuana.

Putting the Fox into the Health Care Chicken Coop

The drug companies took over all research and financing into analogs of synthetic THC, CBD, CBN, etc., promising "no high" before allowing the products on the market. Eli Lilly came out with Nabilone and later Marinol, synthetic second cousins of THC Delta-9, and promised the government great results.

Omni Magazine, in 1982, stated that after nine years, Nabilone was still considered virtually useless when compared with real, home-grown THC-rich cannabis buds; and Marinol works as well as marijuana in only 13% of patients.

Marijuana users mostly agree, they do not like the effects of Lilly's Nabilone or Marinol. Why? You have to get three or four times as high on Marinol to sometimes get the same benefits as smoking good cannabis bud.

Omni also stated in 1982 (and it's still true in 1999), that after tens of millions of dollars and nine years of research on medical marijuana synthetics, "these drug companies are totally successful," even though raw, organic cannabis is a "superior medicine" which works so well naturally, on so many different illnesses.

Omni also suggested the drug companies petition the government to allow "crude drug extracts" on the market in the real interest of public health. The government and the drug companies, to date, have not responded. Or rather, they have responded by ignoring it. However, the Reagan/Bush/Clinton administrations absolutely refused to allow resumption of real (university) cannabis research, except under synthetic pharmaceutical studies.

Omni suggests, and NORML and High Times concur, the reason the drug companies and Reagan/Bush/Clinton wanted only synthetic THC legal is that simple extractions of the hundreds of ingredients from the cannabis crude drug would be enjoyed without pharmaceutical company patents which generate windfall monopolized profits.

Undermining the Natural Medicines' Competition

Eli Lilly, Pfizer and others stand to lose at least a third of their entire, highly profitable, patent monopoly on such drugs as Darvon, Tuinal, Seconal, and Prozac (as well as other patented medications ranging from muscle ointments to burn ointments, to thousands of other products) because of a plant anyone can grow: cannabis hemp. Isn't it curious that American drug companies and pharmacist groups* supply almost half the funding for the 4,000 "Families Against Marijuana" type organizations in America? The other half is supplied by Action (a federal VISA agency) and by tobacco companies like Philip Morris, and by liquor and beer makers like Anheuser Busch, Coors, etc., or as a "public service" by the ad agencies who represent them.

* Pharmacists Against Drug Abuse, etc. See appendices.

Poisoning the Third World

Columbia's largest newspaper, Periodical el Tiempo (Bogota), reported in 1983 that these same anti-marijuana crusading American pharmaceutical companies are guilty of a practice known as "product dumping," wherein they "sell on the over-the-counter markets of Columbia, Mexico, Panama, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, over 150 different illegal, dangerous drugs." This report has not been disputed by the U.S. government or American pharmaceutical companies and the practice continues in 1998.

Some of these drugs have been forbidden by the FDA for sale or use in the U.S. or its counterparts in Europe because they are known to cause malnutrition, deformities and cancer. Yet they are sold over-the-counter to unsuspecting illiterates!

The World Health Organization backs up this story with a conservative estimate: they say that some 500,000 people are poisoned each year in Third World countries by items (drugs, pesticides, etc.) sold by American companies but which are banned from sale in the U.S.*

* Mother Jones magazine, 1979, "Unbroken Circle" June, 1989; The Progressive, April 1991, et al.

Destroying the Public Record

Some 10,000 studies have been done on cannabis, 4,000 in the U.S., and only about a dozen have shown any negative results and these have never been replicated. The Reagan/Bush Administration put a soft "feeler" out in September of 1983 for all American universities and researchers to destroy all 1966-76 cannabis research work, including compendiums in libraries.

Scientists and doctors so ridiculed this unparalleled censorship move that the plans were dropped. . . for the moment.

However, we know that large amounts of information have since disappeared, including the original copy of the USDA's own pro-marijuana film Hemp for Victory. Worse yet, even the merest mention of the film was removed from the official record back to 1958, and has had to be painstakingly reestablished as part of our national archives. Many archival and resource copies of USDA Bulletin 404 have disappeared. How many other such priceless historical documents have already been lost?

In late 1995 and early 1996, Dennis Peron, founder of the Cannabis Buyers' Club in San Francisco, gave California voters Proposition 215, a statewide initiative to make cannabis legal as medicine. The medical marijuana initiative collected 750,000 signatures, made the California ballot and it passed by 56% of the vote in November 1996. Now, in 1998, hundreds of thousands of Californians are growing medical marijuana legally. Nonetheless, the federal government, in clear opposition to the people's mandate, has found ways to harass and close down most of the cannabis buyers'/cultivators' clubs including Peron's.

Interestingly, in 1996, more voters in California voted for medical marijuana than voted for Bill Clinton.

In August of 1997, almost one full year after the passage of Proposition 215 by the majority vote, an L.A. Times poll found that more than 67% of Californians would now vote for it - an increase of 11% in the first year.

Ninety-six percent (nearly 25,000) of the people responding to an ongoing CNN Internet poll, in March of 1998, said they "support the use of marijuana for medical purposes." By contrast, only 4% of respondents (less than 1,000 voters overall) said they opposed the use of cannabis by seriously ill patients.

Californians taking advantage of the new medical marijuana law include police officers, district attorneys and mayors. Some of the same people who formerly arrested and prosecuted citizens for marijuana, medical or otherwise, are now using it themselves or for their families in ever increasing numbers.

Upon reentering the United States from Canada, in March of 1998, California resident Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the highest scoring professional basketball player in history, was busted for possession of a small amount of marijuana. He paid a $500 fine to U.S. Customs and explained to the press that, as a California citizen, he had a doctor's recommendation to use medical marijuana.

Professional and collegiate athletes who live in California and have a doctor's recommendation for medical marijuana theoretically do not have to undergo urine testing for cannabis.

Among the thousands of California actors, musicians and writers who legally use medical marijuana was famed author Peter McWilliams, who suffered from AIDS and cancer. He said, "If it weren't for the illegal pot dealers (before Proposition 215), there would have been no marijuana and I wouldn't be alive today. Marijuana eases nausea and makes it possible for me to keep down food and the pills I must take to combat my diseases. Fuck the federal government. Use it if you need it."

An Unfair Rap for Hemp

After 20 years of study, the California Research Advisory Panel (RAP) in 1989 broke with the state Attorney General's office (AG), under which it works, and called for the relegalization of cannabis.

"There is no point to continuing unmodified, much less intensified, the policies and laws that have so obviously failed to control the individual and societal damages associated with drug use," summarized Vice Chairman Frederick Meyers, M.D., in a letter released with the group's recommendations after the attorney general had suppressed the report and panel members elected to publish it at their own expense.

This was a complete turnaround from the RAP's long history of suppressing medical usage. The long-term impact of this shift remains to be seen.

Chairman Edward P. O'Brien, Jr. appointed by the AG, who dissented from the panel's conclusions, had for years dominated this group, rigidly controlling what research could be performed - and limiting those applications to control of nausea and vomiting that is secondary to cancer chemotherapy.

Under O'Brien, the panel systematically welshed on its mandate to provide compassionate medicinal access to cannabis. Any applications for using cannabis including the control of pain, spastic neurological disorders, etc., have been rejected. Cannabis used to be the treatment of choice for vascular or migraine headache. (Osler, 1916; O'Shaugnessey, 1839)

Cannabis has the unique characteristic of affecting the vascular circulation of the covering of the brain - the meninges. The reddened eyes of the marijuana user are a reflection of this action.

Unlike other drugs, however, cannabis has no apparent affect on the vascular system in general, except for a slight speeding up of the heart during the onset of the effects of the drug.

RAP has discouraged the use of smoking cannabis in favor of synthetic Delta-THC capsules, despite crude cannabis' favorable comparative results reported to the Food and Drug Administration.

This has been frankly misrepresented in their reports to the legislature and testimony in the NORML vs. DEA case. Additionally, these memoranda favorably comparing smoked marijuana to oral THC have been buried in appendices to their reports - available in only four locations in the entire state of California!

On September 30, 1989, the medical marijuana program quietly expired, based on the staff's assessment that no enough people had been treated to justify its extension. - Tod Mikuriya, M.D. Berkeley, CA 1990

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The Emperor Wears No Clothes

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Chapter 7

Therapeutic Use of Cannabis

There are more than 60 therapeutic compounds in cannabis that are healing agents in medical and herbal treatments. The primary one is THC, and the effectiveness of therapy is directly proportionate to the herb's potency or concentration of THC. Recent DEA reports of increasingly potent marijuana therefore represent a major medical advance; but, incredibly, the government uses these very numbers to solicit bigger budgets and harsher penalties.

On November 5, 1996, 56% of California citizens voted for the California Compassionate Use Act (medical marijuana initiative) ending all legal state efforts to keep marijuana from being used as medicine by California citizens.

Arizona citizens, in November 1996, also passed, by an even greater margin - 65% - a drug declassification initiative that included medical marijuana, backed by, among others, the late U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater.

Arizona's governor and legislature, exercising their veto override ability on their state initiative laws for the first time in 90 years, struck down this popular initiative passed by the people Arizona citizens angrily responded by re-collecting more than 150,000 signatures in a 90-day referendum period and promptly returned the medical marijuana initiative to the ballot for November 1998.

The following explains how people will benefit when the freedom of choice of doctors and patients is once again respected.

Warning:

This writer, responsible scientists and doctors advise:

There is no pharmacological free lunch in cannabis or any drug. Negative reactions can result. A small percentage of people have negative or allergic reactions to marijuana. Heart patients could have problems, even though cannabis generally relieves stress, dilates the arteries, and in general lowers the diastolic pressure. A small percentage of people get especially high heart rates and anxieties with cannabis. These persons should not use it. Some bronchial asthma sufferers benefit from cannabis; however, for others it may serve as an additional irritant.

For the overwhelming majority of people, cannabis has demonstrated literally hundreds of therapeutic uses. Among them:

ASTHMA

More than 15 million Americans are affected by asthma. Smoking cannabis (the "raw drug" as the AMA called it) would be beneficial for 80% of them and add 30-a60 million person-years in the aggregate of extended life to current asthmatics over presently legal toxic medicines such as the Theophylline prescribed to children. "Taking a hit of marijuana has been known to stop a full blown asthma attack." (Personal communication with Dr. Donald Tashkin, December 12, 1989 and December 1, 1997.) The use of cannabis for asthmatics goes back thousands of years in literature. American doctors of the last century wrote glowing reports in medical papers that asthma sufferers of the world would "bless" Indian hemp (cannabis) all their lives. Today, of the 16 million American asthma sufferers, only Californians, with a doctor's recommendation, can legally grow and use cannabis medicines, even though it is generally the most effective treatment for asthma.

(Tashkin, Dr. Donald, UCLA Pulmonary Studies (for smoked marijuana), 1969-97; Ibid., asthma studies, 1969-76; Cohen, Sidney & Stillman, Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, 1976; Life Insurance Actuarial rates; Life shortening effects of childhood asthma, 1983.)

GLAUCOMA

Fourteen percent of all blindness in America is from glaucoma, a progressive loss of vision. Cannabis smoking would benefit 90% of our 2.5 million glaucoma victims, and is two to three times as effective as any current medicines for reducing ocular pressure! Cannabis use has no toxic side effects to the liver and kidneys; nor is there any danger of the occasional sudden death syndromes associated with the legal pharmaceutical glaucoma drugs/drops. Many California eye doctors, through the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, discreetly advised their patients to use "street" marijuana in addition to (or to mitigate) their toxic legal glaucoma medicines. Since November 1996, California doctors can legally recommend, advise or tacitly approve cannabis use by their glaucoma patients who may then grow and smoke their own marijuana, or go to the few remaining Cannabis Buyers' Clubs to acquire medical marijuana. (Harvard; Hepler & Frank, 1971, UCLA; Medical College of Georgia; U. of North Carolina School of Medicine, 1975; Cohen & Stillman, Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, UCLA, 1976; National Eye Institute; Records of Bob Randolph/Elvy Musika, 1975, 1998.)

TUMORS

A tumor is a mass of swollen tissue. Researchers at the Medical College of Virginia discovered that cannabis is an incredibly successful herb for reducing many types of tumors, both benign and malignant (cancerous). The DEA and other federal agencies had ordered these tumor studies done after hearing erroneous reports of possible immunicological problems associated with cannabis smoke. But, in 1975, instead of health problems, an apparent medical breakthrough occurred and successful tumor reductions were recorded! Following this remarkably positive discovery by the Medical College of Virginia, orders were immediately handed down by the DE and the National Institute of Health to defund all furter cannabis/tumor research and reporting! Millions of Americans who might be alive today are dead because of these and other DEA orders regarding marijuana. Since 1996, the Medical College of Virginia has again applied to receive grants for cannabis research and has been turned down by the DEA.

NAUSEA RELIEF (e.g., AIDS, CANCER THERAPY, SEA SICKNESS)

Though it is known to be extremely damaging to the immune system, chemotherapy is claimed by practitioners to benefit cancer and AIDS patients. But chemo has some other serious side effects too, including nausea. "Marijuana is the best agent for control of nausea in cancer chemotherapy," according to Dr. Thomas Ungerleider, who headed California's Marijuana for Cancer research program from 1979 to 1984. This is also true in AIDS and even in the unsettled stomach common in m otion sickness. Pharmaceutical nausea control drugs come in pills that are often swallowed by the patient, only to be thrown back up. Because cannabis can be ingested as smoke, it stays in the system and keeps working even if vomiting continues. Throughout the state's 10-year Compassionate Marijuana Medical law, George Deukmejian, both as attorney general and as governor, with no regard for the suffering or dying cancer patients, made it virtually impossible for them to get cannabis. Californa Governor Pete Wilson was following the same course until the medical marijuana initiative passed in November 1996.

EPILEPSY, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, BACK PAIN, MUSCLE SPASMS

Cannabis is beneficial for 60% of all epileptics. It is definitely the best treatment for many, but not all types of epilepsy, and for victims' post-seizure mental traumas. Cannabis extract is more effective than Dilantin (a commonly prescribed anti-epileptic with severe side effects). Medical World News reported in 1971: "Marijuana . . . is probably the most potent anti-epileptic known to medicine today." (Mikuriya, Tod H., M.D., Marijuana Medical Papers, 1839-1972, page xxii.) Cannabis users' epileptic seizures are of less intensity than the more dangerous seizures experienced by users of pharmaceuticals. Similarly, smoking cannabis has proven to be a major source of relief for multiple sclerosis, which affects the nervous system and is characterized by muscular weakness, tremors, etc. Aside from addictive morphine, cannabis, whether smoked or applied as an herbal pack or poultice, is also the best muscle relaxant, back spasm medicine and general antispasmodic medication on our planet. In September 1993, in Santa Cruz County, California, Sheriffs rearrested eqileptic Valerie Corral and confiscated the five marijuana plants she was growing for medicine even though 77% of the citizens of Santa Cruz voted in November 1992 to instruct local law enforcement not to prosecute medical marijuana users. Charges against Corral had been dropped earlier in March 1993 because she was the first person in California to meet all six points of a medical necessity defense. In 1997, Valerie, who runs a compassionate use club, was named Citizen of the Year in Santa Cruz. (Cohen & Stillman, Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, 1976; Consult U.S. Pharmacopoeia prior to 1937; Mikuriya, Tod H., M.D., Marijuana Medical Papers, 1839-1972.)

ANTIBIOTIC CBD DISINFECTANTS

Young un-budded hemp plants provide extractions of CBDs (cannabidiolic acids). There are many antibiotic uses of the cannabidiols, including treatment for gonorrhea. A 1990 Florida study indicated its use in treating herpes. The acid side of tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiols occur inversely to the amount of the plant's THC and is therefore more acceptable to prohibitionists because "it won't get you high." For virtually any disease or infection that can be treated with terramycin, cannabis derivatives did better in Czechoslovakian studies, 1952-1955. The Czechs in 1997 still published farm crop reports on strategies to grow cannabidiol rich hemp. (Also see Cohen & Stillman, Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana; Mikuriya, Tod H., M.D., Marijuana Medical Papers; Roffman, Marijuana as Medicine, 1982; International Farm Crop abstracts.)

ARTHRITIS, HERPES, CYSTIC FIBROSIS AND RHEUMATISM

Cannabis is a topical analgesic.2 Until 1937, virtually all corn plasters, mustard plasters, muscle ointments, and fibrosis poultices were made from or with cannabis extracts. Rheumatism was treated throughout South America until the 1960s with hemp leaves and/or flower tops heated in water or alcohol and placed on painful joints. In fact, this form of herbal medicine is still widely used in rural areas of Mexico, Central and South America, and by California Latinos for relief of rheumatism and arthritis pain. Direct contact with THC killed herpes virus in a University of South Florida (Tampa) 1990 research study by Dr. Gerald Lancz, who warns that "smoking marijuana will not cure herpes." However, anecdotal reports indicate a faster drying and healing of the outbreak after topical application of "strong bud," soaked in rubbing alcohol and crushed into a paste.

LUNG CLEANER AND EXPECTORANT

Cannabis is the best natural expectorant to clear the human lungs of smog, dust and the phlegm associated with tobacco use. Marijuana smoke effectively dilates the airways of the lungs, the bronchi, opening them to allow more oxygen into the lungs. It is also the best natural dilator of the tiny airways of the lungs, the bronchial tubes - making cannabis the best overall bronchial dilator for 80% of the population (the remaining 20% sometimes show minor negative reactions). (See section on asthma - a disease that closes these passages in spasms - UCLA Tashkin studies, 1969-97; U.S. Costa Rican, 1980-82; Jamaican studies 1969-74, 76.) Statistical evidence - showing up consistently as anomalies in matched populations - indicates that people who smoke tobacco cigarettes are usually better off and will live longer if they smoke cannabis moderately, too. (Jamaicna, Costa Rican studies.) Millions of Americans have given up or avoided smoking tobacco products in favor of cannabis, which is not good news to the powerful tobacco lobby - Senator Jesse Helms and his cohorts. A turn-of-the-century grandfather clause in U.S. tobacco law allows 400 to 6,000 additional chemicals to be added. Additions since then to the average tobacco cigarette are unknown, and the public in the U.S. has no right to know what they are. Many joggers and marathon runners feel cannabis use cleans their lungs, allowing better endurance. The evidence indicates that cannabis use will probably increase these outlaw American marijuana-users' lives by about one to two years - yet they may lose their rights, property, children, state licenses, etc., just for using that safest of substances: cannabis.

SLEEP AND RELAXATION

Cannabis lowers blood pressure, dilates the arteries and reduces body temperature an average of one-half degree, thereby relieving stress. Evening cannabis smokers in general report more restful sleep. Using cannabis allows most people a more complete rest with a higher amount of "alpha time" during sleep as compared with prescription or sleep-inducing patent sedatives. Prescription sleeping pills (the so called "legal, safe and effective" drugs) are often just synthesized analogs of truly dangerous plants like mandrake, henbane and belladonna. As late as 1991, doctors, pharmacists and drug companies were fighting off new legislation to restrict these often abused compounds. (L.A. Times, April 2, 1991). Unlike Valium, cannabis does not potentiate the effects of alcohol. It is estimated that cannabis could replace more than 50% of Valium, Librium, Thorazine, Stelazine, other "-zine" drugs and most sleeping pills. It is unconscionable that, over the past two decades, tens of thousands of parents have committed their own children, aged 11 to 17, to be treated by massive doses of so-called "-zine" drugs in order to get them off pot, at the urging of parent groups, the PDFA, the feds and administrators and doctors from federally approved, private and high-profit drug rehabilitation centers. Often, "-zine" drugs do work to stop these youths from using pot. They also stop a kid from loving his or her dog, too - and children stand a one-in-four chance of suffering from uncontrollable shaking for the rest of their lives.* But at least they're not high. * The U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta said that 20-40% of "-zine" drug users have or will develop permanent lifetime pasies (shakes), November 1983. These prescription neurotoxins are chemically related to the pesticide and warfare nerve gas Sarin. Hundreds of private drug-rehabilitation centers and their leaders keep this policy alive and in front of the media, often quoting discredited reports from NIDA or DEA (see Chapter 16, debunking) - because they earn fat profits selling their useless or destructive "marijuana treatment" for children. After all, a relapse just means using marijuana against after a number of bouts with an "authority." This is mind control and an attempt to destroy individual free will.

THERAPEUTIC EMPHYSEMA POTENTIAL

Medical research indicates that light cannabis smoking might be useful for a majority of mild emphysema victims. It would improve the quality of life for millions of sufferers and extend their life spans. The U.S. government and DEA (since 1976) say the side effect of being "high" is not acceptable, no matter how many years or lives it saves; even though some 90 million Americans have tried marijuana and 25 to 30 million still smoke marijuana relaxationally, or use it responsibly as a form of daily self-medication, without one single death from overdoes - ever! All research into the oxygen blood transfer effects cause by cannabis indicates that the chest (lung) pains, extremity pains, shallowness of breath, and headaches we may experience on heavy smog days are usually alleviated by cannabis smoking throughout the day. Dr. Donald Tashkin, the U.S. government's leading scientist on marijuana pulmonary research, told us in December 1989*, and again in December 1997, that you cannot get or potentiate emphysema with cannabis smoking. * See Tashkin's Marijuana Pulmonary Research, UCLA, 1969-1997. Since 1981, this author has personally taken part in these studies and has continuously interviewed Tashkin on cannabis' medical indications; last personal interview was in December 1997.

STRESS AND MIGRAINE HEADACHE RELIEF

Most of all: it is best for the world's number one killer - stress. It can safely curtail or replace Valium, Librium, alcohol, or even Prozac, for millions of Americans. While cannabis intoxication varies with psychological set and social setting, "the most common response is a calm, mildly euphoric state in which time slows and a sensitivity to sights, sounds and touch his enhanced." In contrast to marijuana's safe, therapeutic action, benzodiazepine (Valium) abuse is the number one drug abuse problem in the country, and is responsible for more emergency room admissions in the United States than either cocaine-related problems or morphone and heroin-related admissions combined.* While tobacco constricts arteries, cannabis dilates (opens) them. Because migraine headaches are the result of artery spasms combined with over-relaxation of veins, the vascular changes cannabis causes in the covering of the brain (the meninges) usually make migraines disappear. Evidence of vascular change caused by cannabis can be seen in the user's red eyes, which are extensions of the brain. However, unlike most other drugs, cannabis has no apparent effect on the vascular system in general, except for a slightly increased heart rate during the onset of the high.

TO INCREASE APPETITE

Users of marijuana often (but not always) experience "the munchies," a stimulated appetite for food, which, at this time, makes cannabis the very best medicine on the planet for anorexia. Hundreds of thousands of Americans in old age, convalescent wards or hospital situations have anorxia. Most could be helped by cannabis - yet these Americans are being denied a healthy life by governmental policy dictated by government police! This effect can also extend the lives of AIDS and pancreatic cancer (eat or die). However, the DEA and U.S. government prevented any research or use of cannabis in pancreatic cancer therapy since 1976. They have effectively allowed tens of thousands of people to die each year, denying them the right to live otherwise normal, healthy and productive lives.

TO REDUCE SALIVA

Marijuana smoking can help dry your mouth for the dentist. This is the best way to dry the mouth's saliva non-toxically in what is known among smokers as its "cotton mouth" effect. According to the Canadian Board of Dentistry in studies conducted in the 1970s, cannabis could replace the highly toxic Probathine compounds produced by Searle & Co. This may also indicate that cannabis could be good for treating peptic ulcers.

IN ADDITION. . .

AIDS, DEPRESSION & HUNDREDS OF OTHER PRIMARY MEDICAL USES

One well known effect of THC is to life the spirit, or make you "high." Cannabis users in Jamaica praise ganja's benefits for meditation, concentration, consciousness-raising and promoting a state of well being and self assertiveness.5 This kind of attitude adjustment, along with a healthier appetite and better rest, often represents the difference between feeling like you are "dying of" AIDS or cancer and feeling like you are "living with" AIDS or cancer. Cannabis also eases small pains and some big ones and helps senior citizens live with aches and pains like arthritis, insomnia and debilitating infirmities, and enjoy life in greater dignity and comfort. Legend has it, and medical evidence indicates, that cannabis is the best overall treatment for dementia, senility, and maybe Alzheimer's disease, for long-term memory "gain" and hundreds of other benefits. U.S. statistics of the 1970s indicated that you will live eight to 24 years longer if you substitute daily cannabis use for daily tobacco and alcohol use. New research is outlawed, of course.

ACCEPTABLE RISKS

Every U.S. commission or federal judge who has studied the evidence has agreed that cannabis is one of the safest drugs known. With all its therapeutic uses, it has only one side effect that has been exaggerated as a concern: the "high." The DEA says this is not acceptable, so cannbis continues to be totally illegal in utter disregard for both doctor and patient. Every day we trust physicians to determine whether the risks associated with therapeutic, yet potentially dangerous drugs are acceptable for their patients. Yet, doctors are not allowed to prescribe the herb that Federal Judge Francis Young in 1988 called "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." We don't put out doctors in charge of stopping violent crimes. The police, prosecutors and prison guards should not be in charge of which herbal therapies people may use to treat their personal health problems.


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Footnotes:

1. Cohen & Stillman, Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, UCLA, 1976; personal interviewd in Washington, D.C. (1982) with researchers from the Medical College of Virginia.

2. Cohen & Stillman, Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, UCLA, 1976; Mikuriya, Tod H., M.D., Marijuana Medical Papers 1839-1972, Medi-Comp Press, Oakland, CA, 1973. 3. The Antibiotic Effect of Cannabis Indica, 1952-53-55. The Antibacterial Effect of Cannabis Indica, 1955, from Marijuana Medical Papers; Cohen & Stillman, Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana, UCLA, 1976.

4. Harvard Medical School Mental Health Letter, Vol. 4, No. 5, November 1987.

5. Ruben, Vera & Comitas, Lambros, Ganja in Jamaica, A Medical Anthropological Study of Chronic Marijuana Use, Mouton & Co., The Hague an Paris, Anchor Books, U.S.A., 1976.

6. Stopping Valium Public Citizen Health Research Group, 2000 P St. NW, Washington, DC.

HEMPSEED NUTRITION

Cannabis hempseeds contain all the essential amino acids and essential fatty acids necessary to maintain healthy human life. No other single plant source provides complete protein in such an easily digestible form, nor has the oils essential to life in as perfect a ratio for human health and vitality.

Hempseed is the highest of any plant in essential fatty acids. Hempseed oil is among the lowest in saturated fats at 8% of total oil volume. The oil pressed from hempseed contains 55% linoleic acid (LA) and 25% llinolenic acid (LNA). Only flax oil has more linolenic acid at 58%, but hempseed oil is the highest in total essential fatty acids at 80% of total oil volume.

"These essential fatty acids are responsible for our immune response. In the old country the peasants ate hemp butter. They were more resistant to disease than the nobility." The higher classes wouldn't eat hemp because the poor ate it. - R. Hamilton, ED.D., Ph.D. Medical Researcher-Bichemist U.C.L.A. Emeritus.

LA and LNA are involved in producing life energy from food and the movement of that energy throughout the body.

Essential fatty acids govern growth, vitality and state of mind. LA and LNA are involved in transferring oxygen from the air in the lungs to every cell in the body. They play a part in holding oxygen in the cell membrane where it acts as a barrier to invading viruses and bacteria, neither of which thrive in the presence of oxygen.

The bent shape of the essential fatty acids keep them from dissolving into each other. They are slippery and will not clog arteries like the sticky straight-shaped saturated fats and the trans-fatty acids in cooking oils and shortenings that are made by subjecting polyunsaturated oils like LA and LNA to high temperatures during the refining process.

LA and LNA possess a slightly negative charge and have a tendency to form very thin surface layers. This property is called surface activity, and it provides the power to carry substances like toxins to the surface of the skin, intestinal tract, kidneys and lungs where they can be removed. Their very sensitivity causes them to break down rapidly into toxic compounds when refined with high heat or improper storage exposes them to light or air.

Nature provides seeds with an outer shell that safely protects the vital oils and vitamins within from spoilage.

It's a perfect as well as perfectly edible container. Hempseed can be ground into a paste similar to peanut butter only more delicate in flavor. Udo Erasmus, Ph.D. nutritionist says: "Hemp butter puts our peanut butter to shame for nutritiounal value." The ground seeds can be baked into breads, cakes and casseroles. Hempseed makes a hearty addition to granola bars.

Pioneers in the fields of biochemistry and human nutrition now believe cardiovascular disease (CVD) and most cancers are really diseases of fatty degeneration caused by the continued over-consumption of saturated fats and refined vegetable oils that turn essential fatty acids into carcinogenic killers. One out of two Americans will die from the effects of CVD. One out of four Americans will die from cancer. Researchers believe cancers erupt when immune system response is weakened. And more Americans are succumbing to immune deficiency diseases than ever before. Promising studies are now under way using the essential oils to support the immune systems of HIV virus patients.

The complete protein in hempseed gives the body all the essential amino acids required to maintain health, and provides the necessary kinds and amounts of amino acids the body needs to make human serum albumin and serum globulins like the immune enhancing gamma globulin antibodies.

The body's ability to resist and recover from illness depends upon how rapidly it can produce massive amounts of antibodies to fend off the initial attack. If the globulin protein starting material is in short supply, the army of antibodies may be too small to prevent the symptoms of sickness from setting in.

The best way to insure the body has enough amino acid material to make the globulins is to eat foods high in globulin proteins. Hempseed protein is 65% globulin edestin plus quantities of albumin (present in all seeds) so its easily digestible proteen is readily available in a form quite similar to that found in blood plasma.

Hempseed was used to treat nutritional deficiencies brought on by tuberculosis, a severe nutrition blocking disease that causes the body to waste away. (Czechoslovakia Tubercular Nutritional Study, 1955.)

The energy of life is in the whole seed. Hempseed foods taste great!

They will insure we get enough essential amino acids and essential fatty acids, to build strong bodies and immune systems, and to maintain health and vitality. Please copy. Excerpted from Hempseed Nutrition by Lynn Osburn. Produced by Access Unlimited, P.O. Box 1900, Frazier Park, CA 93225.

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HOW DANGEROUS IS MARIJUANA
COMPARED WITH OTHER SUBSTANCES?
Number of American deaths per year that result directly or primarily from the following selected causes nationwide, according to World Almanacs, Life Insurance Actuarial (death) Rates, and the last 20 years of U.S. Surgeon Generals' reports.
TOBACCO 340,000 to 450,000
ALCOHOL (Not including 50% of all highway deaths and 65% of all murders) 150,000+
ASPIRIN (Including deliberate overdose) 180 to 1,000+
CAFFEINE (From stress, ulcers, and triggering irregular heartbeats, etc.) 1,000 to 10,000
"LEGAL" DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental) from legal, prescribed or patent medicines and/or mixing with alcohol - e.g. Valium/alcohol 14,000 to 27,000
ILLICIT DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental) from all illegal drugs. 3,800 to 5,200
MARIJUANA 0
(Marijuana users also have the same or lower incidence of murders and highway deaths and accidents than the general non-marijuana using population as a whole. Crancer Study, UCLA; U.S. Funded ($6 million), First & Second Jamaican Studies, 1968 to 1974; Costa Rican Studies, 1980 to 1982; et al. LOWEST TOXICITY 100% of the studies done at dozens of American universities and research facilities show pot toxicity does not exist. Medical history does not record anyone dying from an overdose of marijuana (UCLA, Harvard, Temple, etc.).

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Why You Should Smoke More Pot

The average lifespan in the United States is 76 for a man and 78 for a woman. But if you smoke pot morning, noon and night, you will live an average of two years longer than if you don’t. People who smoke pot but don’t smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol will live approximately 8 to 24 years longer than those who do smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol. This was proven in studies done by Dr. Vera Ruben on Rastafarians in Jamaica from 1968 to 1974. The Rastafarians lived up in the hills and were the poorest people in Jamaica. Everyone expected them to have the shortest lives but instead they had the longest lives. They smoked pot morning, noon and night. This study cost $6,000,000.00 and was an extremely comprehensive study. If the same study was done today it would cost approximately $125,000,000.00.

In 1979 and 1980, the National Institute of Science did studies on Rastafarians in Costa Rica that proved the same results. There were only 100 copies of this study released to researchers who were working for the government. The only reason we have the results of this study is because someone managed to leak a copy to NORML in 1981.

Between 1968 and 1975, there were about 10,000 marijuana studies done all over the world, but mostly in American universities and colleges. Approximately 4,000 of the studies were universal health studies. Almost all of them proved marijuana to be beneficial in every way. The few that were unfavorable were never proven by a second study.

In 1974 and 1975, Dr. Donald Tashkin did research to prove marijuana was harmful to the lungs. He was the head of pulmonary research on marijuana at UCLA Hospital. He predicted that more people would develop lung cancer from smoking marijuana than from smoking tobacco. Dr. Tashkin was 100 percent positive that all of the studies about marijuana would come out negative in his lung research. He had the only study in the whole country from 1975 to 1999. After 1975 there was no more funding for positive marijuana studies of any type by the U.S. Government for any reason whatsoever. Only a negative study could get funding from the U.S. Government and Dr. Tashkin had almost all of it. I came out against Dr. Tashkin in 1979.

In 1981, I was approached by Dr. Tashkin to take part in his study. I was protesting the marijuana laws on the front lawn of the Federal Building, 500 yards away from the UCLA Hospital and University on Wilshire Boulevard. I signed up (along with about 50 other pot protesters) for Dr. Tashkin’s study because all of the UCLA students refused to participate in his study after Ronald Reagan took office in January 1981. Dr. Tashkin saw us pot protesters every day at the Federal Building for 102 days. We weren’t college students and we smoked pot morning, noon and night.

Once or twice a year I would have interviews with Dr. Tashkin. I told him about the positive effects of marijuana. We disagreed 100 percent and he was sure I was wrong. This was a long term study. I was paid $80.00 to $90.00 for each test from 1981 to the mid 1990s. Once or twice a year I would go smoke marijuana to get the pulmonary lung studies done and I would interview Dr. Tashkin as part of my research for my book, “The Emperor Wears No Clothes". I told Dr. Tashkin from 1981 to 1997 that no one gets lung cancer or any other type of cancer from marijuana because Dr. Vera Ruben and Dr. Todd Mikuriya had already each separately proven it. I had been doing research for my book since the early 1970s.

Now Dr. Tashkin has come out and is saying the same things I said to him 25 years ago. There is no link between marijuana and lung cancer or any other type of cancer. In fact, Dr. Tashkin has found that marijuana, by killing off old cells that could become cancerous, can actually prevent cancer.

If you want to live longer, smoke more pot.

Jack Herer
July 4, 2006


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The Emperor Wears No Clothes

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Chapter 10
Myth, Magic & Medicine:
A Look at the Sociology of Cannabis Use Throughout World History

Contrary to popular conception, "marijuana" is not a phenomenon rooted in the 1960s.

Cannabis hemp is part of our heritage and was the backbone of our most stable and longest surviving cultures.

Recent psycho-pharmacological studies have discovered THC has its own unique receptor sites in the brain, indicating man and marijuana have a pre-cultural relationship indeed, human culture could very well prove to be the blossom of our symbiosis with cannabis.

What's in a Name (Part 2)

The following is derived from the 1913 U.S.D.A. Agriculture Yearbook section on hemp by Lyster Dewey, p. 283-293:

The name "hemp," derived from the Old English "hanf," came into use in Middle English by 1000 C.E. and still belongs primarily to cannabis sativa. It is also used to designate the long fiber obtained from that plant: the earliest, best-known, and, until recently, the most widely used textile fiber on Earth.

It has long been regarded as the standard among long fibers. As such, its name has come to be used as a generic term for all long fibers, whereas Indian hemp or true hemp denotes cannabis hemp. Now commodity markets list names like "Manila hemp," abac¦; "sisal hemp," sisal, and henequen; "Mauritius hemp," for Furcraea fiber; "New Zealand hemp," phormium; "Sunn hemp," Crotalaria; and "India hemp," for jute. All these plants are unlike true hemp in appearance and in economic properties. Curiously, the name "hemp" is never applied to flax, which is more nearly like hemp than any other commercial fiber.

True hemp is known in different languages by the following names: cannabis, Latin; chanvre, French; canamo, Spanish; canhamo, Portuguese; canapa, Italian; canep, Albanian; konopli, Russian; konopi and penek, Polish; kemp, Belgian; hanf, German; hennup, Dutch; hamp, Swedish; hampa, Danish; kenevir, Bulgarian; ta-ma, si-ma, and tse-ma, Chinese; asa and taima, Japanese; nasha, Turkish; kanabira, Syrian; kannab, Arabic.

First Known Cannabis Users

Ancient and modern historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, philologists cite the physical evidence (artifacts, relics, textiles, cuneiform, languages, etc.) indicating that cannabis is one of humanity's oldest cultivated crops. The weaving of hemp fiber as an industry began 10,000 years ago, at approximately the same time as pottery making and prior to metal working.*

* Columbia History of the World, Harper & Row, NY, 1981.

From at least the 27th Century B.C.E. until this century, cannabis was incorporated into virtually all cultures of the Middle East, Asia Minor, India, China, Japan, Europe, & Africa. By the 27th Century B.C.E., the Chinese cultivated "Ma" (cannabis hemp) for fiber, medicine, and herbal use. 3,700 years later (circa 1000 C.E.), China called cannabis "Tai-Ma," or "great hemp," to differentiate it from the minor fiber plants, which were grouped under the generic fiber term "Ma." Their pictogram for true hemp is a large "man," indicating the strong relationship between man and hemp.

(Shen Nung Pharmacopoeia; Ponts'ao Ching; Han Dynasty classics; et al.)

Between 2300 B.C. & 1000 B.C.

Nomadic tribes, probably from central Asia and Persia (Iran and Iraq), and referred to in legend as "Aryans," invaded and overran virtually the entire Mediterranean and Middle East and spread out over the Caucasus and west into Europe.

In the course of these movements and invasions the nomads introduced cannabis and its various uses north and west through Greece, Europe, the Middle East, to Egypt and Africa, and south and east "over" the Himalayas to India.

Hemp was incorporated into the cultures of the Middle East and India for its vast food, oil, fiber, medicinal, and drug uses. Not only was hemp a staple of everyday life; hemp medicines and drugs were a ritual link to the gods.*

* Generally, those who grew and/or used hemp for everyday industrial uses did not know and were not taught (by religious law/threat/taboo) that their priest/shaman/witch doctor/etc. used different extractions from different parts of the exact same plant for sacrament, medicine, unguent, and as a commune with the Gods.

Hemp and the Scythe

Cannabis was undoubtedly used by the Scythians for many reasons. For example, the ancient Scythians grew hemp and harvested it with a hand reaper that we still call a scythe. Cannabis inhalation by the Scythians in funeral rituals was recorded by the Greek Historian Herodotus (circa 450 B.C.E.) in the early 5th Century B.C.E. The nomadic Scythians introduced the custom to other races such as the Thracians.

(Emboden, W.A., Jr., Flesh of the Gods, Praeger Press, NY, 1974.)

Thread of Civilization

From at least the 27th Century B.C.E. up until this century, cannabis was incorporated into virtually all the cultures of the Middle East, Asia Minor, India, China, Japan, Europe, and Africa for its superior fiber, medicines, oils, food, and for its meditative, euphoric, and relaxational uses.

Hemp was one of our ancestors' most important overall industries, along with toolmaking, animal husbandry, and farming.

Hemp to Enforce the Law

The hemp plant has had a curious relationship with the world's legal codes throughout the ages. As noted before, it has variously been illegal to grow hemp and not to grow it at different times. But hemp has also played a direct role in law enforcement.

For example: The most serious punishment/rehabilitation meted out in many African tribes for capital crimes was forcing the transgressor to smoke massive amounts of dagga (cannabis) non-stop for hours on end in a small, enclosed hut until he passes out literally unconscious from inhaling the fumes. The equivalent of a year or two's supply for a heavy American smoker is consumed in just an hour or so. Does it work? African users say the rate of repeat criminal offenses after dagga treatment is virtually non-existent.

European and American cultures used hemp to enforce their laws in a more terminal form of capital punishment: the hangman's noose* of hempen rope.

* "Merry boys are we / As e're did sing / In a hempen string / Under the gallows tree." John Fletcher Rollo, Duke of Normandy; Act III, sc. 3; 1639. "We're bound to stop this business, or hang you to a man / For we've hemp and hand enough in town to hang the whole damn clan." From a horse thief's tombstone in Rapid City, SD, 1877: Shushan, E.R.; Grave Matters; Ballantine Books, NY, 1990. Also see Hemp for Victory, USDA film; 1942.

Cannabis Herbal Medicines

The secret art of hemp medicine was found effective as wound healer, muscle relaxant, pain reliever, fever reducer, and unparalleled aid to childbirth, not to mention hundreds of other medicinal applications.

(Mikuriya, Tod H., M.D., Marijuana: Medical Papers, 1839-1972, Medi-Comp Press, Oakland, CA 1973; Shultes, R.E., Harvard Botanical; Ency. Brittanica; Abel, Ernest, Marijuana: The First 12,000 Years; Plenum Press, 1980; Vera Rubin, Cannabis and Culture, Institute for the Study of Man; et. al.)

The division of information about this sacred herb and its industrial hemp uses were strictly maintained by the priests for thousands of years, up until the last few centuries. Those outside the priestly class who possessed drug knowledge were considered (by the priests, of course) to be witches/soothsayers/outlaws and the ilk, and were often condemned to death.

The Mystic Philosophers

Cannabis legend and consumption are fundamental aspects of many of the world's great religions. For example:

SHINTOISM (Japan) Cannabis was used for the binding together of married couples, to drive away evil spirits, and was thought to create laughter and happiness in marriage.

HINDUISM (India) The God Shiva is said "to have brought cannabis from the Himalayas for human enjoyment and enlightenment." The Sardu Priests travel throughout India and the world sharing "chillum" pipes filled with cannabis, sometimes blended with other substances. In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna states, "I am the healing herb" (Ch. 9:16), while the Bhagarat-purana Fifth Canto describes hashish in explicitly sexual terms.

BUDDHISTS (Tibet, India, and China)From the 5th Century B.C.E. on ritually used cannabis; initiation rites and mystical experiences were (are) common in many Chinese Buddhist Sects. Some Tibetan Buddhists and lamas (priests) consider cannabis their most holy plant. Many Buddhist traditions, writings, and beliefs indicate that "Siddhartha" (the Buddha) himself, used and ate nothing but hemp and its seeds for six years prior to announcing (discovering) his truths and becoming the Buddha (Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path). Regarding the

ZOROASTRIANS or Magi (Persia, circa 8th to 7th Centuries B.C.E. to 3rd to 4th Centuries C.E.), it is widely believed by many Christian scholars, commentators, etc., that the three "Magi" or Wise Men who attended the birth of Christ were cult references to the Zoroastrians. The Zoroastrian religion was based (at least on the surface) on the entire cannabis plant, the chief religious sacrament of its priest class, and its most important medicine, (e.g., obstetrics, incense rites, anointing and christening oils), as well as lighting or fire oils in their secular world. The word "magic" is generally considered derived from the Zoroastrians "Magi."

The ESSENES (ancient Israeli sect of extreme Hebrewites approx. 200 B.C.E. to 73 C.E.) used hemp medicinally, as did the THERAPUTEA (Egypt), from whom we get the term "therapeutic." Both are believed by some scholars to be disciples of, or in a brotherhood with, the priests/magician of the Zoroastrians.

EARLY JEWS As part of their holy Friday night services in the Temple of Solomon, 60-80,000 men ritually passed around and inhaled 20,000 incense burners filled with kanabosom (cannabis), before returning home for the largest meal of the week (munchies?).

SUFIS OF ISLAM (Middle East)Moslem "mystical" priests who have taught, used, and extolled cannabis for divine revelation, insight, and oneness with Allah, for at least the last 1,000 years. Many Moslem and world scholars believe the mysticism of the Sufi Priests was actually that of the Zoroastrians who survived Moslem conquests of the 7th and 8th Centuries C.E. and subsequent conversion (change your religion and give up liquor or be beheaded).

COPTIC CHRISTIAN (Egypt/Ethiopia)Some sects believe the sacred "green herb of the field" in the Bible ("I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more." Ezekiel 34:29) and the Biblical secret incenses, sweet incenses, and anointing oils to be cannabis.

The BANTUS (Africa) had secret Dagga Cults,* societies which restricted cannabis use to the ruling men. The Pygmies, Zulus, and Hottentots all found it an indispensable medication for cramps, epilepsy, and gout, and as a religious sacrament.

*Their "Dagga" cults believed Holy Cannabis was brought to earth by the Gods, in particular from the "Two Dog Star" system that we call Sirius A and B. "Dagga" literally means "cannabis." Interestingly, the surviving Indo-European word for the plant can also be read as "canna," "reed" and "bi," "two," as well as 'canna,' as in canine; and 'bis,' meaning two (bi) ß "Two Dogs."

The RASTAFARIANS (Jamaica and elsewhere) are a contemporary religious sect that uses "ganja" as its sacred sacrament to communicate with God (Jah).

"Natural Mind"

United States government-funded studies at St. Louis Medical University in 1989 and the U.S. government's National Institute of Mental Health in 1990 moved cannabis research into a new realm by confirming that the human brain has receptor sites for THC and its natural cannabis cousins to which no other compounds known thus far will bind.

In order for a chemical to affect the brain it must bind to a receptor site capable of receiving it.

(Omni, August 1989; Washington Post, Aug 9, 1990)

Although morphine fits the receptor sites of beta-endorphin roughly, and amphetamines correspond loosely to dopamine, these drugs as well as tricyclics and other mood altering drugs present grave danger to the subtle balance of the nerves' vital fluids. Omni and the Washington Post cited no physical dangers in natural cannabis.

One reason cannabis is so safe to use is that it does not affect any of the involuntary muscles of breathing and life support. Rather, it affects its own specific receptor cites for motion (movement strategy) and memory (mental strategies).

On the molecular level, THC fits into receptor sites in the upper brain that seem to be uniquely designed to accommodate THC. This points to an ancient symbiosis between the plant and people.

Perhaps these neuronal pathways are the product of a pre-cultural relationship between humans and cannabis. Carl Sagan proposes evidence using the Bushmen of Africa to show hemp to have been the first plant cultivated by humanity dating to when he was a hunter-gatherer. Some scientist assume that these receptor sites did not evolve for the purpose of getting high: "There must be some kind of neuronal pathway in the brain that developed, whether there were cannabis plants or not," speculated mystified St. Louis University pharmacology professor Allyn Howlett in 1989.

But, maybe not. In his book Intoxication: Life in Pursuit of Artificial Paradise, Dr. Ronald K. Siegel, psycho-pharmacologist at UCLA indicates the motivation to achieve altered states of consciousness or moods is a fourth drive akin to hunger, thirst, and sex. And humans aren't the only ones to get high. Siegel recorded numerous observations of animal intentionally getting intoxicated during his experiments.

Cannabis hemp is part of our cultural, spiritual, and physiological heritage, and was the backbone of our most stable and long surviving cultures. So, if you want to know the long term effects of marijuana use look in the mirror!

Cloaked in Secrecy

The dawn of religious beliefs for all races and peoples Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Egyptian, Persian, Babylonian, Greek, Doric, Germanic and other European tribes, and even those of Africa and North, South, and Central American derived from accidental discoveries.

There were near-death experiences, deprivations starvation, fasting, breath control, thirst, fever and uncontrolled revelry due to accidental fermentation or extraction of wine, beer, psilocybe and Amanita mushrooms, cannabis wine (bhang), and other psychoactives which, when consumed, induced inexplicable, elevated experiences (compared to normal brutish experience). Chemicals in these sacred plants and herbs gave our ancestors unexpected, unprepared for, unbelievable visions and journeys into the far corners of incredible consciousness and, sometimes into feelings of universal brotherhood.

Understanding these drug-induced experiences and medications eventually became the most wondrous, desirable, and necessary spiritual knowledge for each tribe. Healing! From which extraction? At what dose?

Holding this mystical tribal knowledge for future generations was a priceless task. To know which plants induced which experiences at what level and mixture meant power for the bearer of such wisdom!

Thus, this "sacred store" of knowledge was jealously guarded by the herbal doctor/priest, and cryptically encoded in oral and written traditions and myths. Plants with psychoactive powers were embued with human or animal attributes, for example, the Amanita Muscaria mushroom ring was represented by faeries.

To keep their political power, the priests, witch doctors, and medicine men deliberately withheld these traditions from the "common" tribal members (and all other tribes). This also prevented the dangerous "sin" of accidental ingestion, concoction, or experimentation by the children of the tribe; nor could captured tribal members give up this sacred knowledge to their enemies.

These "old-time" drug and out-of-body religions and rituals, dating back to pre-history, were called "Oriental Mystery Religions" by the Romans from the Caesars' time on.

Judaic Line

Hemp was a major industry in biblical times. As in other cultures throughout the Middle East, the Hebrew tradition of mysticism (e.g., Cabala) was aware of, and entwined with, regional sects using natural intoxicants in their rituals. As usual, they hid this knowledge behind rituals, symbols and secret codes to protect natural sacraments like "sacred mushrooms" and mind-elevating herbs, including cannabis.

Allegro, J.M.; Sacred Mushroom & the Cross, Doubleday Co., 1970.

What Does the Bible Say?

Finding the encoded references to cannabis and other drugs is made more difficult by the lack of botanical names, discrepancy in translations, use of different "books" by different denominations, commentaries added to original texts, and periodic priestly purges of material considered inappropriate.

However, we find that the use of cannabis is never forbidden or even discouraged in the Bible. Some passages directly refer to the goodness of using herbs like cannabis - and even go on to predict prohibition.

"And the Earth brought forth grass and herb-yielding seed after its kind and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed after its kind and: and God saw that it was good."Genesis: Chapter 1: Verse 12 (King James Version of the Bible, unless noted).

"God makes the Earth yield healing herbs, which the prudent man should not neglect."Sirach: 38:4 (Catholic Bible).

"Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; That which cometh out of the mouth defileth a man." Jesus quoted: Matt. 15:11.

"In later times, some shall . . . speak lies in hypocrisy . . . commanding to abstain from that which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and now the truth." Paul: 1 Tim. 4:1

Early Christianity

Historians, early artworks, Bibles, manuscripts, Dead Sea Scrolls, Gnostic Gospels, letters from early church fathers, etc., indicate that for the first 300-400 years A.D., many early Christian sects were gentle and loving. They were usually open, tolerant and unstructured: a poor man's or slave's religion.

Rome considered Christianity to be simply another bothersome Oriental Mystery Cult, like those of Mithra or Isis, then the most popular in the Empire.

The Holy Roman Empire

Faced with a crumbling empire, political corruption, and a series of ruinous wars with barbarians, the old Roman Empire hovered on the brink of disaster. The religious contortions undertaken by the ruling body in Rome to maintain its earthly power led the political leaders to crack down on healthy diversity in the field of individual cults and religions.

To save itself politically, the formerly pantheistic (meaning tolerant of different worships) government of the empire changed its policy.

Starting in 249 C.E., various emperors launched a string of bloody persecutions, which included the troublesome Christians. By 306 C.E., it was clear that this was not working. Emperor Constantine called off the executions and began to patronize the Christian clergy, which promptly adopted a dogma lifted from "Mithraism," among other religions: "Royal Blood by Birth," the "Divine Right to Rule other humans."

The ambitious Constantine saw that while underground, the church had developed into an intolerant, tightly-knit hierarchy; a well organized network second in influence only to his own. By combining church and state, each was able to double its power and seek out the crimes/sins of all its political rivals and enemies with the full support/blessing of the other.

Columbia History of the World, Harper & Row, NY, 1981.

Constantine soon converted to Christianity and declared one mandatory, monistic, state-empowered religion: the Roman Catholic Church (R.C.Ch.); literally, the Roman Universal Church ("catholic" is Latin for "universal"). This was now the absolute and official religion of the empire. In one sweep, all secret societies were outlawed which might have threatened his (and Rome's) mandate to rule the known world, as they had for the previous 400 consecutive years.

Church/State Aristocracy

After running from the Roman Empire's police for almost 300 years, Christian Orthodox priests had become their bosses. Starting in the 4th, 5th, and 6th Centuries C.E., pagan religions and all the different Christian sects, belief systems, knowledge, gospels, etc., such as the Essenes, Gnostics, and Merovingians (Franks), were either incorporated into or edited out of official doctrine and hierarchy.

Finally, in a series of councils, all contrary dogmas (e.g., that the Earth was round, and the sun and stars were more than five to 17 miles away) were summarily outlawed and driven underground during the Dark Ages, 400-1000+ C.E.

By the early Middle Ages, at the beginning of the 11th Century C.E., virtually all powers were placed in the hands of the Church and Pope; first, by Germanic conquerors, and later by powerful Spanish and French Kings and powerful Italian merchants and nobles (the Borgias, Medicis, and other megalomaniacs) probably to protect their trade secrets, alliances, and sources of wealth.

All European people were forced to adhere to the "Holy" Roman Empire policy: Zero tolerance by a fundamentalist church/police-state with blind faith in one, unquestioned version of how to worship God and the Pope's infallibility.

Political rulers aided and abetted the Church in this fraud, as their power now rested only on their new Christian dogma, the patriarchal "Divine right" to rule.

They enacted laws with fantastically vicious punishments for even the slightest infraction or heresy.* Heretics were mercilessly sought out by fanatical, sadistic inquisitors using perverted forms of torture to extract confessions and as punishment.

* Webster's dictionary defines "Her-e-sy (her‘e se)" as 1: a religious belief that is opposed to church dogma. 2: any opinion (in philosophy, politics, etc.) opposed to official or established views or doctrines. 3: the holding of any such belief or opinion.

This system kept most of the Western world's inhabitants in a state of constant terror, not only for their own physical safety and freedom, but also for their eternal spirit, with "Hell" lurking mere inches below the surface for those excommunicated by the church.

The Politics of Paper

Reference to cannabis and other spiritual drug use is often hidden in art during periods of repression. Stylized hemp leaves surround the angels' heads, and their halos resemble the cap of the amanita muscaria mushroom in The Third Day of Creation, entrance hall of San Marco painted in Venice, Italy. (Sixth to Seventh Century C.E.)

The masses of people, "the commons," were kept in check through a dual system of fear and enforced ignorance. All learning except the most rudimentary was controlled and strictly regulated by the priests.

The commons (about 95% of the people) were forbidden to learn to read or write not even an alphabet and often were punished or put to death for doing so.

The people were also forbidden to learn Latin, the language of the Bible. This effectively enabled the few priests who could read to interpret the scriptures any way they pleased for about 1,200 years, until the reformation in Europe, circa 1600.

To prohibit knowledge, people were literally kept in the dark, without a piece of paper to write on. The monasteries preserved and guarded hemp's secrets. They saw that it held two threats to this policy of absolute control: papermaking and lamp oil.

Something had to be done.

Cannabis Medicines Forbidden

While embracing wine as a Sacrament, and tolerating beer and hard liquor, the Inquisition outlawed cannabis ingestion in Spain in the 12th Century, and France in the 13th. Many other natural remedies were simultaneously banned. Anyone using hemp to communicate, heal, etc. was labeled "witch."

Saint Joan of Arc, for example, was accused in 1430-31 of using a variety of herbal "witch" drugs, including cannabis, to hear voices.

Church Sanctioned Legal Medicines

Virtually the only legal medical cures allowed to people of Western Europe by the Roman Catholic Church Fathers at this time were:

1. (a) Wearing a bird mask for plague (see picture). (b) Setting fractured bones or cleaning burns.

2. Bleeding pints and even quarts of blood from all flu, pneumonia, or fever patients (victims) was the most used treatment in Europe and America by doctors until the beginning of the 1900s. It does not work! And did not work for thousands of years no matter how much blood they took.

3. Praying to specific Saints for a miraculous cure, e.g., St. Anthony for ergotism (poisoning), St. Odilla for blindness, St. Benedict for poison sufferers, St. Vitus for comedians and epileptics\.

4. Alcohol was legal for a variety of problems. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII singled out cannabis healers and other herbalists, proclaiming hemp an unholy sacrament of the second and third types of satanic mass. This persecution lasted for more than 150 years.

Satanic knowledge and masses, according to the Medieval Church, came in three types:

To Summon or Worship Satan; To Have Witch's Knowledge (e.g., herbalists of chemists) of making, using, or giving others any unguent or preparation including cannabis as medicine or as a spiritual sacrament;

The Mass of the Travesty, which can be likened to "the Simpsons", "In Living Color", rap music, Mel Brooks, "Second City-TV", "Monty Python", or "Saturday Night Live" (Father Guido Sarducci-type group) doing irreverent, farcical, or satirical take-offs on the dogmas, doctrines, indulgences, and rituals of the R.C.Ch. mass and/or its absolute beliefs.

Because medieval priest bureaucrats thought they were sometimes laughed at, ridiculed, and scorned by those under its influence often by the most learned monks, clerics, and leading citizens ingesting cannabis was proclaimed heretical and Satanic.

Contradictions

Despite this centuries-long attack by the most powerful political and religious force in Western civilization, hemp cultivation continued in Northern Europe, Africa, and Asia. While the church persecuted cannabis users in Europe, the Spanish conquistadors were busy planting hemp everywhere around the world to provide sails, rope, oakum, clothes, etc.

Yet, Hemp Endured

The then sadistic Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt and, in the 16th Century C.E., tried to outlaw cannabis because Egyptian hemp growers along the Nile were leading tax revolts. The Turk complained that cannabis use caused Egyptians to laugh and be disrespectful to their Sultan and his representatives. In 1868, Egypt became the first modern (?) country to outlaw cannabis ingestion, followed in 1910 by white South Africa to punish and stop the blacks practicing their ancient Dagga cult and religions.

In Europe, hemp was widely used both industrially and medicinally, from the Black Sea (Crimean) to the British Isles, especially in Eastern Europe. The papal ban on cannabis medicines in the Holy Roman Empire in 1484 was quite unenforceable north of the Alps, and to this day the Romanians, Czechs, Hungarians, and Russians dominate the world cannabis agronomy.

In Ireland, already world famous for its cannabis linen, the Irish woman who wanted to know whom she would eventually marry was advised to seek revelation through cannabis.

Eventually, the hemp trades once again became so important to the empire builders who followed (in the Age of Discover/Reason, the 14th to 18th Centuries) that they were central to the intrigues and maneuverings of all the World's great powers.

The Age of Enlightenment

The 18th Century ushered in a new era of human thought and civilization; "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness!" declared the colonists in America. "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!" replied their French cousins. The concepts of modern constitutional government, which guaranteed human rights and separation of church and state, were unified into a policy designed to protect citizens from intolerant and arbitrary laws.

In his landmark essay, On Liberty, Ogden Livingston Mills, whose philosophy shaped our democracy, wrote that "Human liberty comprises, first, the inward domain of consciousness in the most comprehensive sense: liberty of thought and feeling, Scientific, moral or theological, Liberty of tastes and pursuits."

Mills asserted that this freedom of thought or of "mind" is the basis for all freedoms. Gentleman farmer Thomas Jefferson's immortal words, "I have sworn upon the alter of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man," are engraved into the marble of his Memorial in Washington D.C.

Abraham Lincoln was an avowed enemy of prohibition. His wife was prescribed cannabis for her nerves after his assassination. Virtually every president from the mid-19th Century up until prohibition routinely used cannabis medicines (See chapter 12: 19th Century use).

Close acquaintances of John F. Kennedy, such as entertainers Morey Amsterdam and Eddie Gordon* say the president used cannabis regularly to control his back pain (before and during his term) and actually planned on legalizing "marijuana" during his second term a plan cut short by his assassination in 1963. "How Heads of State Got High," High Times, April, 1980 (see appendix in paper version of this book).

* As reported directly to this author by Eddie Gordon, reknowned harmonica virtuoso, member of the Harmonicats, and the number-one harmonicist in the world, who smoked with Kennedy and performed numerous times for him.

More recently, former president Gerald Ford's son Jack and Jimmy Carter's son Chip admit to having smoked pot in the White House. George Bush's vice president Dan Quayle* had a reputation for smoking grass and using drugs in college. Ronald and even former first lady Nancy "Just Say No" Reagan are reported to have smoked pot in the California Governor's mansion.

* "Smoke Screen: Inmate Sues Justice Department Over Quayle-Pot Cover-up," Dallas Observer, August 23, 1990. Kelley, Kitty, Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography, Doubleday Co., NY, 1991.


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General Footnotes/Bibliography:

Hindu Vedas; Shen Nung Pharmacopoeia Herodotus; Abel, Ernest, Marijuana: The First 12,000 Years; Plenum Press, 1980; Dead Sea Scrolls; High Times Encyclopedia; Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Pharmacological Cults;" Roffman, Marijuana and Medicine, 1982; Ohio State Medical Society, 1860; British Indian Hemp Report, 1894; Ungerleider UCLA, 1982; U.S. Army, Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland (Multiples); Shultes, Harvard Botanical; EmBowden, UC Northridge; Micahel Aldrich, Ph.D.; Vera Rubin, Institute for the Study of Man; Wasson, R. Gordon, SOMA, Divine Mushroom of Immortality, Roffman, Marijuana and Medicine; etymologist Jay Lynn; Allegro, J.M., Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, Doubleday & Co., 1970, et al; "How Heads of State Got High," High Times, April, 1980 (see Appendix).


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Economics: The Very Model of a Modern Inquisition

For cannabis-related knowledge, or hundreds of other "sins": Owning a devil's tool (dinner fork), reading a sorcerer's book or speaking in tongues (foreign language), having a different faith, having a witch's habit (taking a bath or falling into a river), etc. From 10% to as many as 50% of the people in Western Europe were tortured or put to death without trial during the medieval Roman Catholic Church's 500-year Inquisition (12th to 17th Centuries).

While most suffered, some profited handsomely. The Pope could declare anything "heresy," and use it as an excuse to legally rob, torture, and kill his enemies or anyone else accused. For more than 300 years, inquisitors divided up the property forfeited to them by suspected witches and heretics. Whoever denounced you got 1/3 of your property, 1/3 went to the government, and 1/3 went to the Papal hierarchy.

"Beware the scribes which devour widow's houses."Jesus, quoted: Luke 20:46

This perverted prosecution-for-profit model, used almost exactly the same way today by state and federal drug warriors, and just as self-righteously, was given to us at the insistence of president Ronald Reagan in 1984 and was written for Congress by then Congressman Dan Lungren, former California Attorney General. In actuality, once the government seizes a property, more than 90% are never returned by the courts. Everyone from informant, to the police and the prosecutor now share in the bounty of forfeited goods.

In fact, while British common law is the basis for our modern legal system, forfeiture law relies on the medieval concept of the cursed object "deodand" (from the Latin "deo", god, and "dand", give; meaning that any object causing human death was forfeited to the crown). It is the basis for American laws of seizure and confiscation of property rather than against persons.

Why? Simple. People have guaranteed legal rights; property does not! Thomas Jefferson wrote and acted on behalf of hemp many times, smuggling rare seeds into America, redesigning the hemp brake, keeping his farm and garden journals in which, on March 16, 1791, he wrote: "The culture [of tobacco] is pernicious. This plant greatly exhausts the soil. Of course, it requires much manure, therefore other productions are deprived of manure, yielding no nourishment for cattle, there is no return for the manure expended. "It is impolitic. The fact well established in the system of agriculture is that the best hemp and the best tobacco grow on the same kind of soil. The former article is of first necessity to the commerce and marine, in other words to the wealth and protection of the country. The latter, never useful and sometimes pernicious, derives its estimation from caprice, and its value from the taxes to which it was formerly exposed. The preference to be given will result from a comparison of them: Hemp employs in its rudest state more labor than tobacco, but being a material for manufactures of various sorts, becomes afterwards the means of support to numbers of people, hence it is to be preferred in a populous country. "America imports hemp and will continue to do so, and also sundry articles made of hemp, such as cordage, sail cloth, drilling linen and stockings."


http://www.jackherer.com/chapter10.html

[i am all i am]

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The Emperor Wears No Clothes

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Chapter 15
The Official Story
Debunking "Gutter Science"
After 15 days of taking testimony and more than a year's legal deliberation, DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young formally urged the DEA to allow doctors to prescribe marijuana. In a September 1988 judgement, he ruled: "The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision . . . It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for the DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record. In strict medical terms, marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man."

Yet former DEA Administrator John Lawn, his successor, Robert Bonner, and current DEA Administrator John Constantine - non-doctors all! - have refused to comply and have continued to deprive persons of medical cannabis, according to their own personal discretion.

Wasting Time, Wasting Lives

More than 100 years have passed since the 1894 British Raj commission study of hashish smokers in India reported cannabis use was harmless and even helpful. Numerous studies since have all agreed: The most prominent being Siler, LaGuardia, Nixon's Shafer Commission, Canada's LeDain Commission, and the California Research Advisory Commission.

Concurrently, American presidents have praised hemp, the USDA amassed volumes of data showing its value as a natural resource, and in 1942 the Roosevelt administration even made Hemp for Victory, a film glorifying our patriotic hemp farmers. That same year, Germany produced The Humorous Hemp Primer, a comic book, written in rhyme, extolling hemp's virtues. (See appendix I of the paper version of this book.)

Yet even the humane use of hemp for medicine is now denied. Asked in late 1989 about the DEA's failure to implement his decision quoted above, Judge Young responded that administrator John Lawn was being given time to comply.

More than a year after that ruling, Lawn officially refused to reschedule cannabis, again classing it as a Schedule I "dangerous" drug that is not even allowed to be used as medicine.

Decrying this needless suffering of helpless Americans, the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML) and the Family Council on Drug Awareness quickly demanded Lawn's resignation. His successors, Bonner, and now Constantine, retain the same policy.

What hypocrisy allows public officials to scoff at the facts and deny the truth? How do they rationalize their atrocities? How? They invent their own experts.

Government Doublespeak

Since 1976, our federal government (e.g., NIDA, NIH, DEA*, and Action), police sponsored groups (like DARE*), and special interest groups (like PDFA*) have proclaimed to public, press, and parent groups alike that they have "absolute evidence" of the shocking negative effects of marijuana smoking.

* National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Drug Enforcement Agency, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, Partnership for a Drug Free America. All subsequent researchers found Heath's marijuana findings to be of no value, because carbon monoxide poisoning and other factors were totally left out.

When U.S. government sponsored research prior to 1976 indicated that cannabis was harmless or beneficial, the methodology of how each study was done was always presented in detail in the reports; e.g., read The Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana (1976) and you will see exactly what the methodology of each medical study was.

However, when our government bureaucrats deliberately sponsored negative marijuana research, time and time again Playboy magazine, NORML, High Times, etc. had to sue under the new Freedom of Information Act to find out the actual laboratory methodology these "experiments" employed.

What they found was shocking.

Dr. Heath/Tulane Study, 1974

The Hype:

Brain Damage and Dead Monkeys

In 1974, California Governor Ronald Reagan was asked about decriminalizing marijuana.

After producing the Heath/Tulane University study, the so-called "Great Communicator" proclaimed, "The most reliable scientific sources say permanent brain damage is one of the inevitable results of the use of marijuana."

(L.A. Times)

The report from Dr. Heath had concluded that Rhesus monkeys, smoking the equivalent of only 30 joints a day, began to atrophy and die after 90 days.

And ever since, dead brain cells found in monkeys who were forced to smoke marijuana has been given maximum scare play in federal booklets and government sponsored propaganda literature against pot.

Senator Eastland of Mississippi used it throughout the mid-1970s to horrify and stop national legislators from supporting NORML's decriminalization bills in Congress, mostly sponsored by the late Senator Jacob Javitts of New York.

Reports of the study have also been distributed by the hierarchy of drug rehabilitation professionals as part of their rationalization for wanting to get kids off pot, based on supposed scientific studies. It is used to terrorize parent groups, church organizations, etc., who redistribute it still further.

Heath killed the half-dead monkeys, opened their brains, counted the dead brain cells, and then took control monkeys, who hadn't smoked marijuana, killed them too, and counted their brain cells. The pot smoking monkeys had enormous amounts of dead brain cells as compared to the "straight" monkeys.

Ronald Reagan's pronouncement was probably based on the fact that marijuana smoking was the only difference in the two sets of monkeys. Perhaps Reagan trusted the federal research to be real and correct. Perhaps he had other motives.

Whatever their reasons, this is what the government ballyhooed to press and PTA, who trusted the government completely.

In 1980, Playboy and NORML finally received for the first time after six years of requests and suing the government an accurate accounting of the research procedures used in the infamous report:

When NORML/Playboy hired researchers to examine the reported results against the actual methodology, they laughed.

The Facts:

Suffocation of Research Animals

As reported in Playboy, the Heath "Voodoo" Research methodology involved strapping Rhesus monkeys into a chair and pumping them with equivalent of 63 Colombian strength joints in "five minutes, through gas masks," losing no smoke. Playboy discovered that Heath had administered 63 joints in five minutes over just three months instead of administering 30 joints per day over a one-year period as he had first reported. Heath did this, it turned out, in order to avoid having to pay an assistant's wages every day for a full year.

The monkeys were suffocating! Three to five minutes of oxygen deprivation causes brain damage "dead brain cells." (Red Cross Lifesaving and Water Safety Manual) With the concentration of smoke used, the monkeys were a bit like a person running the engine of a car in a locked garage for 5, 10, 15 minutes at a time every day!

The Heath Monkey study was actually a study in animal asphyxiation and carbon monoxide poisoning.

Among other things, Heath had completely (intentionally? incompetently?) omitted discussion of the carbon monoxide the monkeys inhaled.

Carbon monoxide, a deadly gas that kills brain cells, is given off by any burning object. At that smoke concentration, the monkeys were, in effect, like a person locked in a garage with the car engine left running for five, 10, 15 minutes at a time every day!

All subsequent researchers agree the findings in Heath's experiment regarding marijuana were of no value, because carbon monoxide poisoning and other factors were totally left out and had not been considered in the report. This study and others, like Dr. Gabriel Nahas' 1970s studies, tried to somehow connect the THC metabolites routinely found in the fatty tissue of human brains, reproductive organs, and other fatty areas of the body to the dead brain cells in the suffocated monkeys.

Now, in 1999, 17 years have passed and not a single word of Dr. Heath's or Dr. Nahas' research has been verified! But their studies are still hauled out by the Partnership for a Drug Free America, the Drug Enforcement Administration, city and state narcotics bureaus, plus politicians and, in virtually all public instances, held up as scientific proof of the dangers of marijuana.

This is U.S. government propaganda and disinformation at its worst! The public paid for these studies and has the right to the correct information and history being taught in our taxpayer sponsored schools.

In 1996, Gabriel Nahas, in France, sued Mishka, the translator of the French edition of this book, "L'Emperor est Nu!", for damages. Mishka wrote that Nahas' studies were viewed by the world as garbage. The French court, upon hearing all the testimony by Nahas, and after Nahas had spent an quivalent of tens of thousands of American dollars on legal fees, awarded him its highest insult: one franc, the equivalent of approximately 15 cents American for damages, and no legal fees!

Lingering THC Metabolites

The Hype:

It Stays in Your System for 30 Days

The government also claimed that since "THC metabolites" stay in the body's fatty cells for up to 30 days after ingestion, just one joint was very dangerous; inferring that the long range view of what these THC metabolites eventually could do to the human race could not even be guessed and other pseudo-scientific double-talk (e.g., phrases like: "might be," "could mean," "possibly," "perhaps," etc.)*

* "May, might, could, and possibly are not scientific conclusions." Dr. Fred Oerther, M.D., September 1986.

The Facts:

Government's Own Experts Say That Metabolites Are Non-Toxic, Harmless Residue

We interviewed three doctors of national reputation either currently working (or having worked) for the U.S. government on marijuana research:

- Dr. Thomas Ungerlieder, M.D., UCLA, appointed by Richard Nixon in 1969 to the President's Select Committee on Marijuana, re-appointed by Ford, Carter, and Reagan, and currently head of California's "Marijuana Medical Program;"

- Dr. Donald Tashkin, UCLA, M.D., for the last 29 years the U.S. government's and the world's leading marijuana researcher on pulmonary functions; and

- Dr. Tod Mikuriya, M.D., former national administrator and grant distributor of the U.S. government's marijuana research programs in the late 1960s.

In effect these doctors said that the active ingredients in THC are used-up in the first or second pass through the liver. The leftover THC metabolites then attach themselves, in a very normal way, to fatty deposits, for the body to dispose of later, which is a safe and perfectly natural process.

Many chemicals from foods, herbs, and medicines do this same thing all the time in your body. Most are not dangerous and THC metabolites show less toxic* potential than virtually any known metabolic leftovers in your body!

* The U.S. government has also known since 1946 that the oral dose of cannabis required to kill a mouse is about 40,000 times the dose required to produce typical symptoms of intoxication. (Mikuriya, Tod, Marijuana Medical Papers, 1976; Loewe, journal of Pharmacological and Experimental Therapeutics, October, 1946.)

THC metabolites left in the body can be compared to the ash of a cigarette: The inert ingredient left over after the active cannabinoids have been metabolized by the body. These inert metabolites are what urinary analysis studies show when taken to discharge military or factory or athletic personnel for using, or being in the presence of cannabis within the last 30 days.

Lung Damage Studies

The Hype:

More Harmful Than Tobacco

According to the American Lung Association, cigarettes and tobacco smoking related diseases kill more than 430,000 Americans every year. Fifty million Americans smoke, and 3,000 teens start each day. The Berkeley carcinogenic tar studies of the late 1970s concluded that "marijuana is one-and-a-half times more carcinogenic than tobacco."

The Fact:

Not One Documented Case of Cancer

There are lung irritants involved in any smoke. Cannabis smoke causes mild irritation to the large airways of the lungs. Symptoms disappear when smoking is discontinued.

However, unlike tobacco smoke, cannabis smoke does not cause any changes in the small airways, the area where tobacco smoke causes long term and permanent damage. Additionally, a tobacco smoker will smoke 20 to 60 cigarettes a day, while a heavy marijuana smoker may smoke five to seven joints a day, even less when potent high-quality flower tops are available.

While tens of millions of Americans smoke pot regularly, cannabis has never caused a known case of lung cancer as of December 1997, according to America's foremost lung expert, Dr. Donald Tashkin of UCLA. He considers the biggest health risk to the lungs would be a person smoking 16 or more "large" spliffs a day of leaf/bud because of the hypoxia of too much smoke and not enough oxygen.

Tashkin feels there is no danger for anyone to worry about potentiating emphysema "in any way" by the use of marijuana totally the opposite of tobacco.

Cannabis is a complex, highly evolved plant. There are some 400 compounds in its smoke. Of these, 60 are presently known to have therapeutic value.

Cannabis may also be eaten, entirely avoiding the irritating effects of smoke. However, four times more of the active ingredients of smoked cannabis are absorbed by the human body than when the same amount is eaten. And the prohibition inflated price of black market cannabis, combined with harsh penalties for cultivation, prevent most persons from being able to afford the luxury of a less efficient, though healthier, means of ingestion.

Lab Studies Fail to Reflect the Real World

Studies have proven that many of the carcinogens in cannabis can be removed by using a water pipe system. Our government omitted this information and its significance when speaking to the press. At the same time politicians outlawed the sale of water pipes, labeling them "drug paraphernalia."

How Rumors Get Started

In 1976, Dr. Tashkin, M.D., UCLA, sent a written report to Dr. Gabriel Nahas at the Rheims, France, Conference on "Potential Cannabis Medical Dangers." That report became the most sensationalized story to come out of this negative world conference on cannabis.

This surprised Tashkin, who had sent the report to the Rheims conference as an afterthought.

What Tashkin reported to the Rheims conference was that only one of the 29 pulmonary areas of the human lung studied the large air passageway Did he find marijuana to be more of an irritant (by 15 times) than tobacco. This figure is insignificant, however, since Tashkin also notes that tobacco has almost no effect on this area. Therefore, 15 times almost nothing is still almost nothing. in any event, cannabis has a positive or neutral effect in most other areas of the lung. (See Chapter 7, "Therapeutic Uses of Cannabis.")

(Tashkin, Dr. Donald, UCLA studies, 1969-83; UCLA Pulmonary Studies, 1969-95.)

Afterwards in 1977, the U.S. government resumed funding for ongoing cannabis pulmonary studies which it had cut two years earlier when Tashkin reported encouraging therapeutic results with marijuana/lung studies. But now the government limited funding only to research to the large air passageway.

We have interviewed Dr. Tashkin dozens of times. In 1986 I asked him about an article he was preparing for the New England Journal of Medicine, indicating that cannabis smoke caused as many or more pre-cancerous lesions as tobacco in "equal" amounts.

Most people do not realize, nor are the media told, that any tissue abnormality (abrasion, eruption, or even redness) is called a pre-cancerous lesion. Unlike lesions caused by tobacco, the THC-related lesions contain no radioactivity.

We asked Tashkin how many persons had gone on to get lung cancer in these or any other studies of long-term cannabis-only smokers (Rastas, Coptics, etc.)

Sitting in his UCLA laboratory, Dr. Tashkin looked at me and said, "That's the strange part. So far no one we've studied has gone on to get lung cancer."

"Was this reported to the press?"

"Well, it's in the article," Dr. Tashkin said. "But no one in the press even asked. They just assumed the worst." His answer to us was still that not one single case of lung cancer in someone who only smoked cannabis, has ever been reported. It should be remembered that he and other doctors had predicted 20 years ago, their certainty that hundreds of thousands of marijuana smokers would by now (1997) have developed lung cancer.

Another Fact:

Emphysema Suffers Benefit

During a later interview, Tashkin congratulated me on the tip I'd given him that marijuana used for emphysema produced good results among persons we knew.

He laughed at me originally, because he had presumed that marijuana aggravated emphysema, but after reviewing his evidence found that, except in the rarest of cases, marijuana was actually of great benefit to emphysema suffers due to the opening and dilation of the bronchial passages.

And so the relief reported to us by cannabis smoking emphysema patients was confirmed.

Marijuana smoke is not unique in its benefits to the lungs. Yerba Santa, Colt's foot, Horehound, and other herbs have traditionally been smoked to help the lungs.

Tobacco and its associated dangers have so prejudiced persons against "smoking" that most persons believe cannabis smoking to be as or more dangerous than tobacco. With research banned, these public health and safety facts are not readily available.

In December 1997, we asked Dr. Tashkin again, and he unequivocably stated that "marijuana does not cause or potentiate emphysema in any way." In addition, there has not been one case of lung cancer ever attributed to smoking cannabis.

. . . And So On

Most of the anti-marijuana literature we have examined does not cite as much as one single source for us to review. Others only refer to DEA or NIDA. The few studies we have been able to track down usually end up being anecdotal case histories, artificial groupings of data, or otherwise lacking controls and never replicated.

Reports of breast enlargement, obesity, addiction, and the like all remain unsubstantiated, and are given little credence by the scientific community. Other reports, like the temporary reduction in sperm count, are statistically insignificant to the general public, yet get blown far out of proportion when presented by the media. Still others, like the handful of throat tumors in the Sacramento area and the high rate of injuries reported in a Baltimore trauma unit are isolated clusters that run contrary to all other statistics and have never been replicated.

The spurious results of Heath, Nahas, and the pregnant mice and monkey studies at Temple University and UC Davis (where they injected mice with synthetic third-cousin analogues of THC) are now discredited in the body of scientific and medical literature.

Though these studies are not used in scientific discourse, mountains of DEA and pharmaceutical company-sponsored literature about the long-term possible effects of these metabolites on the brain and reproduction still goes to parent groups as if they were brand new studies. This disinformation is still very much alive in U.S. government, DEA, DARE, and PDFA reports.

(Read the 1982 N.I.H.; the National Academy of Science's evaluation on past studies; and the Costa Rica report, 1980.) No Harm to Human Brain or Intelligence Hemp has been used in virtually all societies since time immemorial as a work motivator and to highlight and renew creative energies.


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Nahas' Prescription for Bloated Police Budgets

Incredibly, a famous study which found that cannabis reduces tumors (see Chapter 7), was originally ordered by the Federal Government on the premise that pot would hurt the immune system. This was based on the "Reefer Madness" studies done by the disreputable Dr. Gabriel Nahas of Columbia University in 1972.

This is the same Dr. Nahas who claimed his studies showed pot created chromosome, testosterone (male hormone) damage, and countless other horrible effects which suggested the breaking down of the immune system. Nahas' background is in the OSS/CIA and later the U.S. where he worked closely with Lyndon LaRouche and Kurt Waldheim.

In 1998, Nahas is still the darling favorite of the DEA and NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) yet no anti-marijuana studies of Nahas' have every been replicated in countless other research attempts. Columbia University specifically disassociated itself from Nahas' marijuana research in a specially called press conference in 1975!

Old, discredited Nahas studies are still trotted out by the Drug Enforcement Administration today and deliberately given to unknowledgeable parents' groups, churches, and PTAs as valid research regarding the evils of pot.

The dissemination of Nahas'* dangerous horror stories is paid for with your tax dollars, even years after the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1976 specifically forbade Nahas from getting another penny of U.S. government money for cannabis studies because of his embarrassing research in the early 1970s.

* Nahas, in December 1983, under ridicule from his peers and a funding cut-off from NIDA renounced all his old THC metabolite build-up and unique chromosome Petri dish tissue damage studies, conclusions, and extrapolations.

Yet the DEA, NIDA, VISTA, the "War on Drugs," and now-deceased writer Peggy Mann (in Reader's Digest articles and her book Marijuana Alert, with foreword by Nancy Reagan) have used these discredited studies on parents' groups such as Parents for a Drug Free Youth, etc., often with Nahas as a highly paid guest lecturer, without a word of how his studies are really considered by this peers.

This, we assume, is done to scare parents, teachers, legislators and judges, using scientific terminology and bogus non-clinical statistics, ultimately aimed at selling more urine-testing equipment. Therefore, more profits are created for the drug-rehabilitation clinics and their staffs of professionals; and to maintain funding for the DEA, local police, judicial, penal, corrections and other government pork barrel, police state interests.

The "War on Drugs" is big money, so the shameless petitioning for more police and more jail cells continues. And we still have thousands of judges, legislators, police, Reader's Digest readers, and parents who have for years used and cited Nahas' studies in particular as the prime reasons to continue these unjust laws and to jail millions of Americans over the last decade.

The DEA, after Nahas' 1983 waffling renouncement, consciously and criminally continues to use his studies to polarize ignorant judges, politicians, press, and parent groups, who are unaware of Nahas' denouncement. These groups trust the government to tell them the truth their tax dollars paid for. Most of the media, press, and television commentators still use Nahas' 1970s, unreplicated studies as gospel, and much of the frightening folklore and street myths that are whispered around school yards spring from the deceitful "scientist's" work.

Refuted and never replicated results are still taught, while the honest researcher faces prison if he attempts to test any thoughts about the medical use of cannabis.

In fact, using Nahas' refuted and unreplicated synthetic THC Petri dish studies on the immune system, hysterical Families for Drug Free Youth, or "Just Say No" organizations have gotten the press to say marijuana could cause AIDS - which has no basis whatsoever, but the press published all this rhetoric creating more Reefer Madness!

Gabriel Nahas, in 1998, is living in Paris and goes around Europe teaching as gospel the same old lies to less informed Europeans. When asked to debate us (H.E.M.P.) on cannabis before the world press on June 18, 1993 in Paris, he first enthusiastically accepted until he found out that we would be speaking on all aspects of the hemp plant (e.g. paper, fiber, fuel, medicine). Then he declined, even though we met all of his requirements.



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Radioactive Tobacco: The Untold Story

Tobacco smoking kills more persons each year than AIDS, heroin, crack, cocaine, alcohol, car accidents, fire, and murder combined. Cigarette smoking is as addictive as heroin, complete with withdrawal symptoms, and the percentage of relapses (75%) is the same as for "kicking" cocaine and heroin users.

It is far and away the number one cause of preventable death in the U.S. today. Tobacco smokers have ten times the lung cancer of non-smokers, twice the heart disease, and are three times more likely to die of heart disease if they do develop it. Yet tobacco is totally legal, and even receives the highest U.S. government farm subsidies of any agricultural product in America, all the while being our biggest killer! What total hypocrisy!

In the U.S. one in seven deaths are caused by smoking cigarettes. Women should know that lung cancer is more common than breast cancer in women who smoke and that smoking on the pill increases cancer and heart risks dramatically.

Seven million dollars a day promotes the tobacco business, and it is estimated that the cigarette industry needs about 3,000 new smokers a day to replace those who quit or die each day from smoking.

Kentucky's principal business and agriculture for 100 years (until 1890) was the healthful, versatile, and useful cannabis hemp. It has since been replaced by non-edible, non-fibrous, soil-depleting tobacco, which is grown in soil fertilized with radioactive materials.

U.S. government studies have show that a pack-and-a-half of tobacco cigarettes per day over a year for just one year is the equivalent to your lungs of what some 300 chest x-rays (using the old, pre-1980s slow x-ray film and without using any lead protection) are to your skin. But while an x-ray dissipates its radioactivity instantly, tobacco has a radioactive half-life that will remain active in the lungs for 21.5 years.

Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop said on national television that radioactivity contained in tobacco leaves is probably responsible for most tobacco-related cancer. No radioactivity exists in cannabis tars.

(National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1964; American Lung Assn.; Dr. Joseph R. DiFranza, U. of Mass. Medical Center; Reader's Digest, March 1986; Surg. Gen. C. Everett Koop, 1990.)


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Some Studies the Feds Don't Talk About

The Coptic Study (1981)

No Harm to Human Brain or Intelligence

Hemp has been used in virtually all societies since time immemorial as a work motivator and to highlight and renew creative energies.

(Jamaican Studies; Coptic Studies; Costa Rican Studies; Vedas; Dr. Vera Rubin, Research Institute for the Study of Man; et al)

In 1981, a study showed that 10 of American's heaviest pot smokers (from the Coptic religion and residing in Florida) actually believed that using 16 huge high potency spliffs* a day had improved their minds somewhat over a period of 10 years.

They were studied by Drs. Ungerlieder and Shaeffer (UCLA) and who showed absolutely no brain differences between them and non-smokers nor did it confirm any increase in IQ that the Coptics had claimed.

* One spliff is generally equal to five average American joints.

Longer Life, Fewer Wrinkles

Most studies (matched populations, past and present) indicate that everything else being equal an average American pot smoker will live longer than his counterpart who does no drugs at all; with fewer wrinkles, and generally less stress thereby having fewer illnesses to upset the immune system, and being a more peaceful neighbor.

(Costa Rican and Jamaican Studies)

Jamaican Studies

(1968-74, 1975)

Definite Benefits For Marijuana Smokers

The most exhaustive study of hemp smoking in its natural setting is probably Ganja in Jamaica A Medical Anthropological Study of Chronic Marijuana Use by Vera Rubin and Lambros Comitas (1975; Mouton & Co., The Hague, Paris/Anchor Books, NY).

The Jamaican study, sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Center for Studies of Narcotic and Drug Abuse, was the first project in medical anthropology to be undertaken and is the first intensive, multi-disciplinary study of marijuana use and users to be published.

From the Jamaican Study introduction: "Despite its illegality, ganja use is pervasive, and duration and frequency are very high; it is smoked over a longer period in heavier quantities with greater THC potency than in the U.S. without deleterious social or psychological consequences. The major difference is that both use and expected behaviours are culturally conditioned and controlled by well established tradition." "No impairment of physiological, sensory and perceptual-motor performance, tests of concept formation, abstracting ability, and cognitive style and test of memory."

Positive Social Attitudes

The study outlines the positive reinforcement given socially to ganja smokers in Jamaica, the universal praise for the practice among users, who smoke it as a work motivator.

Subjects described the effects of smoking making them "brainier", lively, merry, more responsible and conscious. They reported it was good for meditation and concentration, and created an general sense of well-being and self-assertiveness.

No Link to Criminal Behavior

Vera Rubin and her colleagues found no relation of cannabis to crime (except marijuana busts), no impairment of motor skills, and smokers and non-smokers alike had identical extroversion scores with no difference in work records or adjustment. Heavy use of ganja was not found to curtail the motivation to work.

From the psychological assessment the smokers seemed to be more open in their expressions of feeling, somewhat more carefree, and somewhat more distractable. There was no evidence of organic brain damage or schizophrenia.

No Physiological Deterioration

Marilyn Bowman, in a battery of psychological tests on chronic cannabis users in Jamaica in 1972, found "no impairment of physiological, sensory and perceptual-motor performance, tests of concept formation, abstracting ability and cognitive style and tests of memory." These Jamaicans had smoked anywhere from six to 31 years (16.6 mean average) and the average age at the first puff was at 12 years and six months.

In the 1975 study between users and non-users, no difference was found in plasma testosterone, no difference in total nutrition, slightly higher performance on the intelligence sub-tests (not statistically significant), and "a basic measure of cell-mediated immunity was no less vigorous in the users."

Finally, "Users in our matched pair sample smoked marijuana in addition to as many tobacco cigarettes as did their partners. Yet their airways were, if anything, a bit healthier than their matches."

"We must tentatively conclude either that marijuana has no harmful effects on such passages or that it actually offers some slight protection against the harmful effects of tobacco smoke. Only further research will clarify which, if either, is the case."

No "Stepping Stone"/Gateway Effect

As to the stepping-stone or gateway drug charges leveled against cannabis: "The use of hard drugs is as yet virtually unknown among working class Jamaicans no one in the study (Rubin's) had ever taken any narcotics, stimulants, hallucinogens, barbiturates or sleeping pills."

In America during the late 1800s cannabis was used in treating addiction. Opiate, chloral hydrate, and alcohol addicts were successfully treated with potent cannabis extracts. Some patients recovered with less than a dozen doses of cannabis extract.1 Likewise, smoking cannabis has been found to be valuable in modern alcohol addiction treatment.2

Costa Rican Study (1980)

The Jamaican results were largely confirmed by another Carribean study, the 1980 Cannabis in Costa Ricah - A Study in Chronic Marijuana Use edited by William Carter for the Institute for Study of Human Issues. (ISHI, 3401 Science Center, Philadelphia.)

Again researchers found no palpable damage to the native population's chronic cannabis smokers. Alcoholic social problems, so evident on neighboring cannabis-free islands, are not found in Costa Rica.

This study makes clear that socially approved ganja use will largely replace or mitigate the use of alcohol (rum) if available.

The Amsterdam Model

Since adopting a policy of tolerance and non-prosecution of cannabis/hashish smokers (it is available in cafes and bars) and rehabilitation and diversion programs for hard drug users, Holland has seen a substantial reduction in cannabis consumption among teenagers2 and a 33% drop in the number of heroin addicts. The strategy of separating cannabis sales from hard drug dealers by bringing pot above-ground has been quite successful. (L.A. Times, August 1989). In 1998, despite constant pressure from the U.S. government and the DEA, the Dutch government has totally refused to recriminalize marijuana!


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Footnotes:

1. "Cannabis Indica as an Anodyne and Hypnotic," J.B. Mattison, M.D., The St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. LVI, no. 5, Nov. 1891, pg 265-271, reprinted in Marijuana: The Medical Papers, Tod Mikuriya, M.D.

2. "Cannabis Substitution: An Adjunctive Therapeutic Tool in the Treatment of Alcoholism," Tod H. Mikuriya, M.D., Medical Times, vol. 98, no. 4, April, 1970, reprinted in Marijuana Medical Papers, Tod Mikuriya, M.D.)


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More Prohibitionist Deceptions

Scientific American reported in 1990: "The alarming statistics, cited by testing advocates, to demonstrate the high costs of drug abuse . . . do not always accurately reflect the research on which they are based. In fact, some of the data could be used to 'prove' that drug use has negligible or even beneficial effects." (March 1990, page 18)

One of the examples given is the often cited statistic former president George Bush utlized in 1989: "Drug abuse among American workers costs businesses anywhere from $60 billion to $100 billion a year in lost productivity, absenteeism, drug-related accidents, medical claims and theft." Yet according to a 1989 assessment by NIDA, all such claims derive from a single study that grew out of a 1982 survey of 3,700 households.

The Research Triangle Institute (RTI) found that households where at least one person admitted having used marijuana regularly reported average incomes 28% lower than average reported income of otherwise similar households. RTI researchers ascribed the income difference to "loss due to marijuana use."

RTI then extrapolated costs of crime, health problems and accidents to arrive at a "cost to society of drug abuse" of $47 billion. The White House "adjusted" for inflation and population increases to provide the basis for Bush's statement.

Yet the RTI survey also included questions about current drug use. The answers revealed no significant difference between income levels of households with current users of illegal drugs, including cocaine and heroin, and other households.

Thus the same statistics "prove" that current use of hard drugs does not result in any "loss," in contrast to a single marijuana binge in the distant past!


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Official Corruption: Carlton Turner

In all the research this author has done about the misapplication of public funds and trusts, nothing, it seems, compares with the either totally ignorant or willful manslaughter of fellow Americans by the bureaucrats and politicians of the following story:

One Man & His Drug Scams

The U.S. government policy, starting in the Nixon and Ford administrations and continuing under Carlton Turner* (Drug Czar under Reagan 1981-1986), allowed federal medical marijuana, supplied to the individual state marijuana medical programs, to consist only of the leaf of the marijuana plant, even though it's usually only one-third as strong as the bud and doesn't contain the same whole spectrum of the "crude drug," i.e. the THC and CBNs.

* Prior to becoming Special White Hose Advisor (read: National Drug Czar) Carlton Turner, from 1971 to 1980, was the head of all U.S. government marijuana grown for drugs by reason of his position at the University of Mississippi. The U. of Mississippi Marijuana Research Program is directed by state charter to discover initiate or sort out the constituents of Thc a "simple" crude cannabis drug that works as a medicine then synthesize the substances with beneficial medicinal properties to attain their full potential for pharmaceutical companies.

For example, the leaf's relief of ocular pressure for glaucoma patients is much shorter lasting and therefore unsatisfactory, compared to the bud. Also, the leaf sometimes gives smokers a headache. The federal government until 1986 used only the leaf. Turner said to the pharmaceutical companies and in interview, that leaf is all Americans would ever get although the bud works better. Still today in 1999, the seven legal marijuana users in the U.S. only get leaf, branch, and bud chopped up and rolled together. Although buds work better for chemotherapy, glaucoma, etc., the branches can be as toxic as smoking wood.

Turner said, in 1986, that natural marijuana will "never" be given as a medicine and, as of April 1998, it still hasn't. (Except in California, where citizens successfully voted, in November 1996, to overrule the federal government on medical marijuana!)

The Reasons Given:

- Buds are too hard to roll through a cigarette machine. (Forget the 25 million Americans who do quite well at rolling bud everyday.)

- By extracting compounds from the "crude drug" of the bud, there would be no pharmaceutical patents, therefore no profits. Therefore, his program would have worked against his former employers, the Mississippi University's legislative charter and funding.

(Interviews by Ed Rosenthal for High Times Magazine; Dean Latimer, et al; National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML.)

Although buds work better for chemotherapy, glaucoma, etc., Turner said they will "never" be given. It also became evident the famous marijuana 'munchies' (appetite stimulation) were not working for the cancer chemotherapy patients using federal leaf.

And even though no studies have been allowed to compare leaf with bud, we know of doctors who unofficially recommended bud and watch their wasting cancer patients put on weight (NORML).

Poisoning Pot Smokers

In August and September, 1983, Turner went on national television to justify the illegal marijuana spraying (by plane) of paraquat in Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee by the DEA. He said it would teach a lesson to any kid who died from paraquat-poisoned pot. Turner was forced to resign after announcing his conclusions in public that marijuana caused homosexuality, the breakdown of the immune system, and, therefore, AIDS.

Looking into the therapeutic potential of cannabis is the most controlled and discouraged research, but any tests pursuing negative or harmful effects of cannabis are promoted. Since these tests often backfire or are inconclusive, even this research is rare.

Turner quoted "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" to show how jazz (rock) singers are eroding the America "he" loves with this hallucinogenic drug marijuana! Which he meant to stamp out.

Phony Paraquat Kits

During the 1978 Mexican marijuana paraquat scare, and while still a private citizen working for the state of Mississippi marijuana farm, this same Carlton Turner called High Times magazine to advertise a paraquat tester. Unknown to Turner, High Times was not accepting ads for any paraquat testers because all evidence showed the testers didn't work.

Dean Latimer then a High Times associate editor, strung Turner along in virtually daily phone conversations for a month, listening to Turner talk about how much money Turner was going to make from sales of the device.

High Times wanted to see a sample. When Turner delivered his prototype version of the paraquat test kit to High Times, it was a total "Rube Goldberg" type rip-off, "just like the dozen or so phony kits other companies tried to buy ad space for at this time," wrote Latimer in an article published in 1984.

Turner apparently never thought High Times was ethical enough to check the contraption out. He assumed they would just take the ad money and run print the ad and make Turner rich.

He didn't care if some kid died or was bilked out of money believing in his bogus paraquat test kit.

After this attempted mail fraud, this man became President Reagan's national drug czar in 1981, recommended by George Bush and Nancy Reagan.

A Wanton Disregard For Life

Turner even said that he doesn't even care if hundreds of kids die from smoking pot the federal government has deliberately sprayed with paraquat.

Then at the April 25, 1985, PRIDE conference in Atlanta, Georgia, with Nancy Reagan and 16 foreign First Ladies in attendance (including Imelda Marcos), Turner called for the death penalty for drug dealers.

Turner was, after all, Reagan's, Bush's, and the pharmaceutical companies' own hired gun, who saw his entire mission as not against heroin, PCP, or cocaine, but to wipe out pot and jazz/rock music.

Carlton Turner was forced to resign after Newsweek magazine excoriated him October 27, 1986, in a large editorial sidebar. His resignation was a foregone conclusion after being lampooned in the Washington Post and elsewhere as no other public figure in recent memory for his conclusions (in public addresses) that marijuana smoking caused homosexuality, the breakdown of the immune system, and, therefore, AIDS.

He resigned December 16, 1986. What should have been front page headline news was buried in the back pages during the Iran-contra scandal that exploded that week.

Urine Testing Company

After his resignation, Turner joined with Robert DuPont and former head of NIDA, Peter Bensinger, to corner the market on urine testing. They contracted as advisors to 250 of the largest corporations to develop drug diversion, detection, and urine testing programs.

Soon after Turner left office, Nancy Reagan recommended that no corporation be permitted to do business with the Federal government without having a urine purity policy in place to show their loyalty.

Just as G. Gordon Liddy went into high-tech corporate security after his disgrace, Carlton Turner became a rich man in what has now become a huge growth industry: urine-testing.

This kind of business denies the basic rights of privacy, self-incrimination (Fifth Amendment) rights, unreasonable search and seizure, and the presumption of innocence (until proven guilty).

Submission to the humiliation of having your most private body parts and functions observed by a hired voyeur is now the test of eligibility for private employment, or to contract for a living wage.

Turner's new money-making scheme demands that all other Americans relinquish their fundamental right to privacy and self-respect.


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Bush Strikes Again

President Ronald Reagan, at the urging of then Vice President George Bush, appointed Carlton Turner as the White House Drug (czar) Advisor in 1981.

At conventions (1981-1986) of pharmaceutical companies and their lobbyist the American Chemical Manufacturers, Turner promised to continue the research ban on the 400 chemical compounds of cannabis.

Bush managed to continue to direct this effort, simply by not allowing any grants for private or public research with a positive implication to be issued by NIDA or NIH, or approved any recent FDA applications unless they pursued negative results. As of this writing (July 1998) President Clinton's policy has remained the same.


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Comparison to Alcohol

There are many terrible drug habits. The worst of which is alcohol, in both numbers of users and the anti-social behavior associated with extreme use. Alcoholism is the leading cause of teen-age deaths: 8,000 American teenagers are killed each year and 40,000 are maimed from mixing alcohol and driving. (MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving; SADD, Students Against Drunk Driving; NIDA, National Institute on Drug Abuse, etc.)

In fact, U.S. government/police statistics confirm the following strange numbers:

The mortality figure for alcohol use are 100,000 annually, compared with zero marijuana deaths in 10,000 years of consumption.

From 40-50% of all murders and highway fatalities are alcohol related. In fact, highway fatalities that are alcohol related might be as high as 90%, according to the Chicago Tribune and L.A. Times.

Alcohol is also indicated in the majority (69-80%) of all child rape/incest cases; wife beating incidents are in great majority (60-80%) alcohol influenced.

Heroin is indicated in 35% of burglaries, robberies, armed robberies, bank robberies, grand theft auto, etc.

And there were more than 600,000 arrests for simple marijuana possession in the U.S. in 1997 (up from 400,000 in 1992), according to the Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation.


http://www.jackherer.com/chapter15html

[21_12_2012]

I wonder where the facts of schizophrenia and psychosis are that weed has been proved to cause??

tut tut

Promoting harmful drugs...not very spiritual at all really is it !

In fact, it's demonic !

You may as well say "come one everybody...get addicted to drugs..it's great fun"

tut tut.

Never mind, what behaviour can you expect from drug users. (sorry...addicts)

[i am all i am]

Jack's Hemporium

(If you order online or by mail or by phone, Jack will be happy to sign your book!)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We are temporarily out of stock of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes." They will be reprinted and shipped out in February. If you order a copy now, Jack will send you a free surprise gift in the meantime.



The Emperor Wears No Clothes
(The Original Hemp Bible)

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$24.95 (plus shipping/handling)



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G.R.A.S.S.
(The Great Revolutionary American Standard System)

Jack Herer's first book, a best seller in 1973 and 1974 (18 months before High Times' Trans High Quotations!), is back in print with the original pot prices and 2000 pot prices. This humorous guide (and coloring book) helps you rate the quality of marijuana and your high on a 1-10 scale. It is hilariously illustrated and sure to delight. Find out the right price for lids (ounces), pounds and kilos.

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This is an hour-long documentary about Jack Herer. From his beginnings as a conservative "Goldwater Republican" to his present status as "the Father of the Hemp Movement", this big-budgeted film, produced by The Body Shop owner, Anita Roddick, masterfully and movingly tells the story of how Jack has devoted his life to telling the truth about Hemp. The film is a powerful teaching tool that cannot help but convince anyone who sees it that the simple Hemp plant can indeed - as Jack (repeatedly) puts it - SAVE THE WORLD!

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http://www.jackherer.com/hemporium.html

[i am all i am]

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The Emperor Wears No Clothes

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This is the book that started the hemp revolution. More than 600,000 copies have been sold to date. The print version of The Emperor Wears No Clothes is available in Jack's Hemporium. Jack wants this information to be available to everyone, so he has published the text of the book here on the internet for free. This is only half of what is actually in the book. If you want all the source material and graphics, please buy a copy of the book.
By selling his books, tapes, c.d.s, and movies, Jack has been able to help support the hemp movement for the last 20 years.

Chapter 1 OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF CANNABIS HEMP
Chapter 2 BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE USES OF HEMP
Chapter 3 NEW BILLION DOLLAR CROP
Chapter 4 THE LAST DAYS OF LEGAL CANNABIS
Chapter 5 MARIJUANA PROHIBITION
Chapter 6 MEDICAL LITERATURE ON CANNABIS MEDICINE
Chapter 7 THERAPEUTIC USE OF CANNABIS
Chapter 8 HEMPSEED AS THE BASIC WORLD FOOD
Chapter 9 ECONOMICS ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Chapter 10 MYTH, MAGIC & MEDICINE
Chapter 11 THE (HEMP) WAR OF 1812, NAPOLEON & RUSSIA
Chapter 12 CANNABIS DRUG USE IN 19TH CENTURY AMERICA
Chapter 13 PREJUDICE: MARIJUANA AND JIM CROW LAWS
Chapter 14 MORE THAN SIXTY YEARS OF SUPPRESSION
Chapter 15 THE OFFICIAL STORY: DEBUNKING "GUTTER SCIENCE"
Chapter 16 THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES

Links to all chapters
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |


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SOME OF THE SOURCE MATERIALS

IN THE BACK OF THE BOOK:

Reign of Law: A Tale of the Kentucky Hemp Fields, 1900

Schlichten/Scripps letters

Movie review of "Hemp for Victory," 1988

Documentation of authenticity for "Hemp for Victory"

U.S. History entwined with Hemp; USDA Yearbooks

USDA Bulletin No. 404, 1916

American Midland Naturalist (excerpt)

HEMP, Farmer's Bulletin No. 1935, 1943

"Humorous Hemp Primer" German comic book

Isochanvre: Nature as Architect

"Making Fossils of Fossil Fuels" Utne Reader, 1991

"Reconsider Hemp," Pulp and Paper Magazine, 1991, 1993

"Marijuana Tax Act of 1937," House Hearings

The Hemperor's Classic Clip Collection, 1985-1998

"The Weed" (Gene Krupa) Time Magazine article, 1943

"From Test Tube to You," Popular Mechanics, 1939

American Peoples Encyclopedia (1953) DuPont history

"Pinch Hitters for Defense" Popular Mechanics, 1941

"Ford Tells of Stronger Cars" Popular Science, 1941

Science Newsletter, "Hemp Grown in U.S. as War Cuts Imports," "Marijuana Found Useful in Mental Ills"

"War Booms Hemp Industry," Newsweek, 1942

"Can We Have Rope Without Dope?" Popular Science, 1943

"Hemp Quota Cut," Business Week, 1944

"Hemp Slows Up," Business Week, 1944

"Army Study of Marihuana Smokers..." Newsweek, 1945

"Marijuana and Mentality," Newsweek, 1946

"Marihuana" (unattributed article), 1940

"Radioactivity: The New-Found Danger in Cigarettes," 1986

Diazepines (Valium): #1 in Abuse

Drug Charges, 1990

"Rather Fight Than Switch?" Whole Life Times, 1985

America, Russia, Hemp, and Napoleon, 1783-1812, Book, 1965

"Marihuana: New Tax Hits Potent Weed," Newsweek, 1937

"Marijuana More Dangerous Than Heroin or Cocaine," 1938

"Bush Intervenes on Tax," New York Times, 1982

"The Marijuana Conviction," The Birth of Prohibition, 1987

Ecology cover-story collage

Authorities Examine Pot Claims, 1989

Greenhouse Effect articles

"Urge Production of Dioxin-Free Paper from Hemp," 1990

Hemp for Fuel, 1989

Summaries of Research Papers on Hemp

"Authorities Examine Pot Claims," Athens News, 1989

"July Sets Record for Heat," Los Angeles Times, 1998

Cotton Vital Statistics, 1996

"How our Heads of State Got High," High Times, April 1980

"Iran Executes Over 30 Drug Traffickers," 1989

"Beatles High When Queen Decorated," National Enquirer, 1970

"Protect Youth Against Dope," Hearst clipping, c. 1935

"Paul's Pot-Bust Shocker," High Times, July 1980

Police States: Prohibition Through the Ages

Security Wrap-up: Drug Use, 1989

HR 4079 and Its Parellels with Nazi Germany

"U.S. Jails More People..." Bakersfield Californian, 1991

"The Chemistry of Reefer Madness," Omni, 1989

"Pro-Pot Police Teacher," Oklahoma City Times, 1975

"Teens Can Use Yet Not Abuse Drugs," c. 1986

"Herer Promotes Hemp Plant," Wall Street Journal, 1991

"Nancy Reagan Enlists John Paul II," c. 1982

"Court Gives CIA Power..." Oregonian, 1985

Doonesbury, by Garry Trudeau

"Voices for Legalization," High Times, 1990

"Why Drug War Cannot be Won," by George Soros, 1997

"Chemicals in Pot Cut Pain," Los Angeles Times, 1997

"Fat Solubility Scare - Nahas," High Times, April 1982

Trial by Jury: Cherished Heritage

"Collective Conscience Breeds Dutch Tolerance," 1989

DuPont Annual Report, 1937

Dana Beal's Coverage of DuPont Story

Seizure & Forfeiture Laws: Take Hands Off My Assets, 1989

Drug Legalization: Interest Rises in Prestigious Circles, 1989

Administrative Judge Urges Medicinal Use of Marijuana, 1988

Glaucoma and AIDS victims legal cannabis articles

"Science and the Citizen," Scientific American, 1990

"Response to Rosenthal," by Lynn Osburn, 1995

"Energy Farming," Chapter from Eco-Hemp, 1994

"Fighting the Police State," L.A. Times; Orange County Register, 1994

"Environmental Impact of Laws Against Marijuana," Orange County Register, 1994

"Hemp a Source of Energy," Albany Times-Union, August 1990

Letter from Tipper; Hemp Stamps

The Brawley Report, 1998

Various press reports, 1998



ALL SOURCE MATERIALS ARE IN THEIR ENTIRETY AND VERY READABLE AND MOSTLY IN THEIR ORIGINAL FORM, PICTURES INCLUDED.


http://www.jackherer.com/chapters.html

[edelweiss pirate]

And the truth will set you free....

[astral_girl]

Fact Attack

One problem in sorting out fact from fiction about marijuana is that the "facts" keep changing into fictions.

Need some examples? Try these:

In the 1930's, a "fact" everyone knew (or thought they did) was that pot was the dreaded "assassin of youth," a one-way ticket to a life of crime, madness, and despair.
By the '60s, that "fact" morphed into a brand-new, mirror-image "fact." Now pot was seen only as a "harmless giggle," maybe not actually good for you, but at least it didn't do any real harm -- like such legal drugs as alcohol and tobacco.
In the '80s, things started changing again. Conservatism was cool again (supposedly), and a whole new set of "facts" was produced to justify a nationwide campaign against a born-again "assassin of youth."
Today, the facts about marijuana are changing again.

It's not that there aren't still a lot of opinions out there, masquerading as facts. It's just that a growing body of scientific research is out there, too, and it's gradually starting to squeeze out all the fake little "facts" that have confused the issue for so long.

It's a good thing, too. Because a lot of the new facts really are facts, this time around. And they're worth thinking about if you're thinking about -- or on -- pot.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


..What's new about marijuana today?

A lot. But quite a bit has stayed the same.

Because even though people have been using the marijuana (or hemp) plant, Cannabis sativa, in medicine and manufacturing for at least 5,000 years, it's better known for its recreational drug uses. Nothing new about that.

Not much new in another fact, either: Pot is still the most-used illegal drug in America. More than 97.5 million Americans have tried it, according to a 2005 national survey, and some 14.6 million smoke it regularly.

What they keep coming back to is a swirl of sensation and fog of intoxication that the drug sets in motion.

When it's smoked or eaten, marijuana triggers a mild euphoria and increased sensitivity to bodily sensations, along with a range of other perceptual distortions that are usually experienced as pleasant -- but not always, and not by all users.

Effects usually peak within an hour or two and fade altogether in 3-4 hours. After-effects can include a slight hangover and impaired concentration.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


..How does pot work in the body?

Good question--but it's not an easy one to answer. Because the simple fact is that pot is a complicated drug.

For one thing, marijuana isn't a single drug molecule, like alcohol or cocaine, but a mix of more than 400 different chemical components.They're so different, in fact, that 60 of them (called cannabinoids) are unique to marijuana.

Since we're talking numbers, we'll point out that the main mind-altering cannabinoid is a little number called delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, for short. It's the chemical that trigger marijuana's main drug actions and effects in the body and brain.

THC is like a feel-good chemical bomb that explodes on contact, then breaks up into at least 80 different byproducts (or metabolites) before it's eliminated from the body. And that can take a while.

The process starts as soon as THC enters the bloodstream, and begins zeroing in on cannabinoid receptors (called anandamides) in the brain and central nervous system.

Once it checks into the brain, THC takes its own sweet time in checking out. Unlike many other drugs, which are excreted from the body within hours, THC metabolites stick around -- stored in fatty tissue, mostly -- for 3-5 days, even weeks, in heavy users.

What THC metabolites do, if anything, during this time is still mostly unknown. But it's this buildup of metabolites, and the duration of their hangtime in the body, that raises the most concern about possible long-term risks.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


..What risks are linked to pot?

We'll start with the heart, because pot can get things pumping faster there than a tricked-up drum machine at a techno music festival.

In fact, rapid heartbeat -- which, for some users, can speed up by as much as 50 percent--is one of the few universal physical effects of marijuana. (Another is increased appetite -- AKA "the munchies.")

Even though increased heart rate only lasts minutes and isn't a threat to most people, it could add strain for users with heart disorders or high blood pressure.

A bigger threat to more users is irritation to the lungs and respiratory airways, since users tend to inhale pot deeply and hold it in the lungs for as long as possible.

Even though a direct link with lung cancer is unproven, pot smoke does contain cancer-causing chemicals (known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), so it's not that farfetched, either.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


..Are other body systems affected?

They sure seem to be. Take the endocrine system, for example. It produces body hormones, the internal chemicals that control how and when we develop. Here's what pot does there:

Triggers a short-term drop in the hormones that direct growth and development.
Lowers sperm production in males, resulting in fewer normal sperm cells.
Tinkers with the balance of hormones that control the menstrual cycles of girls and women.
In adults, these changes are temporary. But researchers suspect that young people risk possible long-range developmental problems. As a precaution, they warn kids to avoid pot to reduce the risk.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


..How does pot affect the brain?

That's the trickiest question of all -- because nobody knows all the intricacies of how the brain works in the first place. And we know even less about how it works with a bongload of marijuana inside it.

Still, we're closer to real answers than ever before.

What we know for sure is that pot changes more than just the way people feel. It also triggers a number of changes in brain function and behavior.

Let's consider just a couple of the main ones:

Pot tilts the balance of chemicals in the brain that regulate mood, energy, appetite, and attention.
It affects learning and memory processes, and can cause forgetfulness and reduced concentration.
Pot also reduces logical thinking and calculation skills, and can impair a user's ability to perform complex tasks, including driving a car.
Uncovering the actual machinery of most of pot's effects in the brain is still probably years away.

But this much is known right now: Heavy smokers in general and longtime users in particular are more likely to experience ongoing problems than occasional smokers and nonsmokers.

And that's something else to think about if you're thinking about pot: Smoke enough of it and it could end up smoking you -- or, at least, part of the future you.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


..Can marijuana cause birth defects?

It doesn't cause full-blown birth defects, but that doesn't mean it's okay to smoke if you're pregnant. Because the fact is that pregnancy and unnecessary drug use just don't go together at all.

Not only that, but with pot, there's some evidence that use during pregnancy could lead to unnecessary problems for a developing fetus, even raising levels of miscarriage and stillbirth.

That's because THC metabolites (remember them?) freely cross the placenta, where they interact with developing body systems.

Possible effects include lowered birth weight, nervous system changes, and delayed learning.

And if you're pregnant (or you're planning to be), risks like those are too real to disregard -- and too important to ignore.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


..Final Facts

We still have a long way to go if we're ever going to round up all the facts about marijuana.

For that matter, we'll probably never have every answer to every possible question about its effects on the body and brain.

Still, you don't need to be a brain surgeon to know that pot poses far more serious risks for some people (particularly teens, pregnant women, and heavy users) than for others. And each is a risk that can be easily avoided.

And while pot's potential for causing problems in occasional users has been exaggerated in the past, a final, indisputable fact about marijuana is simply this: The only foolproof way to safeguard yourself against possible problems is to pass on it altogether.

Because of all the facts in a shifting mountain of facts (and pseudo-facts and fictions) about pot that has accumulated over the years, one that hasn't changed is that marijuana is a drug -- and a pretty complex one, at that.

And like every other drug that's ever been used and abused, it can cause real problems for real people.

And that's a fact that's likely to always be true.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


..Sidebar | Final Facts

For most people, getting off pot isn't that big a deal. All they need to do is stop -- and stay stopped. Quitting may not be fun, but it doesn't take much more than a little time and a lot of willpower.

For others, it can get more complicated -- usually, because they let THC & Company become a regular thing, like coffee in the morning or brushing their teeth at night.

For them, quitting is just the first step in a longer process of rebalancing their lives -- and finding alternatives to fill the spaces that leaving pot can leave behind. Places to start:

Get Moving! Any serious physical activity can boost your spirits and clear your head. Running, cycling, or just shooting hoops can turn on the same feel-good brain chemicals that pot does, without the risks--or the expense.

Undo the Dew! A junk-food-free diet can turn down any blues that can come from giving up pot. Taking a break from caffeine and sugar can't hurt, either.

Relax! Take it easy. Turn on to a new activity or a skill that you've let slide for a while. Now is as good a time as any to be experimental with who you're going to be from here on out.

If you think you need help, get it. And if you've thought about it before, be different and do it now. Now happens to be the only time there ever is for doing anything -- including getting your life back together.

And come to think of it, another installment of it is scheduled to begin again any second now.

[edelweiss pirate]

I love weed and always will.

I also love this guy:

Here is my final point, oh thank you God. About drugs, about alcohol, about pornography, whatever that is. What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, or take into my body as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet? And for those of you out there who're having a little moral dilemma in your head about how to answer that question, I'll answer it for you - none of your fucking business. Take that to the bank, cash it, and go fucking on a vacation out of my life.

[i am all i am]

And the truth will set you free....


EXACTLY !!!

Who do you think will post on this thread without having read the information first ???

My guess edelweiss is that the ones that are unwilling to allow you to do with your body whatever you so desire.

Freedom is making our own choices for ourselves.

Be free Edelweiss Pirate.


With LOVE.
______________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[i am all i am]

I love weed and always will.
Quote:
Here is my final point, oh thank you God. About drugs, about alcohol, about pornography, whatever that is. What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, or take into my body as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet? And for those of you out there who're having a little moral dilemma in your head about how to answer that question, I'll answer it for you - none of your fucking business. Take that to the bank, cash it, and go fucking on a vacation out of my life.

I also love this guy:


I read this after having posted to you (#14).

Thanks for putting the quote here.

Love your work.


With LOVE.
_______________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[astral_girl]

:D a forum is about debating -not just putting one point across

everyone has there own opinions;) ;)

[edelweiss pirate]

No... It's hanging with drug dealers which leads to other addictions...

If the stuff were legal that wouldn't happen.

I've smoked on and off for 10 years and have never touched a class A drug and never will.

It's absurd to say tha smoking weed leads to other addictions.

If that's the case then drinking coffee could be said to lead to other addictions.

You could probably do a case study of heroin users who started out drinking tea.... And therefore prove that drinking tea leads to heroin addiction.

[i am all i am]

:D a forum is about debating -not just putting one point across

everyone has there own opinions;) ;)

The heading of your post is "Fact Attack".

Did you bother to read the information posted on this thread before you posted a reply ???



With LOVE.
_____________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU,

[astral_girl]

Women risk losing their babies if they smoke cannabis at the time of conception or early in pregnancy, according to a study published yesterday.

Cannabis is the most widely-used illegal drug among women of childbearing age. Scientists studying mice have found that THC, the active ingredient in the drug, can retard embryo development and prevent it from reaching the womb.

The findings suggest that smoking cannabis may lead to miscarriages caused by embryos developing outside the womb, in the fallopian tubes.

[i am all i am]

Did you bother to read the information posted on this thread before you posted a reply ???



With LOVE.
_____________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[i am all i am]

Women risk losing their babies if they smoke cannabis at the time of conception or early in pregnancy, according to a study published yesterday.

Cannabis is the most widely-used illegal drug among women of childbearing age. Scientists studying mice have found that THC, the active ingredient in the drug, can retard embryo development and prevent it from reaching the womb.

The findings suggest that smoking cannabis may lead to miscarriages caused by embryos developing outside the womb, in the fallopian tubes.


Did you bother to read the information posted on this thread before you posted a reply ???



With LOVE.
_____________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU,

[astral_girl]

New experiments showed that smoking cannabis in early pregnancies could cause many problems like miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and developmental abnormalities.

These problems may occur due to the present of THC, the chemical in cannabis that gives the high. This chemical may change the balance of natural signaling molecules in the reproductive systems that regulate development and implantation of the embryo in the womb.

In the experiment, nine pregnant mice were injected with THC and then killed to see what happens to the embryos. The results showed that all the embryos were stopped in the oviduct, the tube linking the ovary to the uterus, and could not proceed to the uterus. This resembles human ectopic pregnancy in which an embryo implants elsewhere instead of the uterus. Those mice who didn’t receive the chemical had normal pregnancies.
Besides implanting elsewhere, the embryos of the mice given the THC, had more cell abnormalities, which means that developmental problem could occur and lead to miscarriage.

Men are not protected from the cannabis harm. Previous researchers showed that men who smoked cannabis produced less semen and had less sperm.

[i am all i am]

I wonder where the facts of schizophrenia and psychosis are that weed has been proved to cause??

tut tut

Promoting harmful drugs...not very spiritual at all really is it !

In fact, it's demonic !

You may as well say "come one everybody...get addicted to drugs..it's great fun"

tut tut.

Never mind, what behaviour can you expect from drug users. (sorry...addicts)


Did you bother to read the information posted on this thread before you posted a reply ???



With LOVE.
_____________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[edelweiss pirate]

This is a study I found about THC and its specific interaction with 'bliss receptors' in the brain....

http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/features/anandamide.shtml




What do chocolate cravings, forgetful mice, and blissful pigs have in common? The answer is anandamide, a recently discovered messenger molecule that plays a role in pain, depression, appetite, memory, and fertility. Its name comes from ananda, the Sanskrit word for "bliss". Anandamide's discovery may lead to the development of an entirely new family of therapeutic drugs. Anandamide chemistry provides a rare glimpse of processes that affect human behavior at the molecular level.


The bliss receptor

Nerve cells communicate by releasing special 'key' molecules that are intercepted by other nerve cells downstream. There are many different types of molecular keys, each with its own distinctive shape. The surfaces of the target nerve cells are studded with receptors, which are like locks to fit the keys. When the key fits into the receptor, the surface of the nerve cell changes in some way. For example, when the key molecule at right locks into the receptor on the surface of a nerve cell, it opens a door in the membrane that allows chloride ions to flood into the cell. This equalizes charges inside and outside the cell and prevents the cell from firing.

The keys must be removed again from the lock somehow, or the nerve cell will be permanently prevented from firing. Certain enzymes are produced that remove (by degrading and destroying) the keys after a certain amount of time, so that the nerve cell can go back to work.

Drugs that have a powerful effect on the central nervous system often mimic natural molecular keys. For example, morphine is a potent pain killer that was found to lock into an 'opiate receptor' present on nerve cells.

Scientists reasoned that since morphine is not naturally present in the body, there must be a natural key molecule with a very similar shape that activates this receptor. The natural keys turned out to be molecules called enkephalins. Although morphine is just a forgery of enkephalins, it's much more powerful (and more addictive) than the enkephalins because the key-removing enzymes can't pry it from the receptors. In time, less addictive forgeries (codiene and demerol) were introduced.



Scientists began to look for receptor sites to explain the action of other drugs and toxins in a similar way. In 1988, specific receptors were discovered for THC (tetrahydrocannibol, the active ingredient in marijuana).


THC isn't found naturally in the body. The existence of a specific 'bliss receptor' for THC implied that it was actually just a forgery of a hitherto unknown natural molecular key. The key was isolated by Israeli scientist Raphael Mechoulam in 1992: arachidonyl ethanolamide, later called 'anandamide':



Anandamide's long hydrocarbon tail makes it fat-soluble and allows it to easily slip across the hydrocarbon-rich curtain that isolates the brain from the bloodstream. Notice that its three-dimensional shape strongly resembles that of THC. But unlike THC, anandamide is fragile. It breaks down very quickly in the body. That explains why anandamide doesn't produce a perpetual natural 'high'.

Forgetful mice and blissful pigs
Anandamide is synthesized enzymatically in areas of the brain that are important in memory and higher thought processes, and in areas that control movement. That implies that anandamide's function is not just to produce bliss.

Connections between nerve cells are associated with learning and memory. Nerve cells can make new connections and break old ones. Repeated use of a connection makes it grow stronger; lack of use can cause the connection to be lost. Some biochemical evidence suggests that anandamide plays a role in the making and breaking of short term neural connections [Derkinderen, 1996]. And animal studies suggest that anandamide induces forgetfulness. Substances that keep anandamide from binding to its receptor might be used to treat memory loss.

USDA agricultural researcher Gary Weesner is studying anandamide's effectiveness as an animal sedative [Pork, 1997]. "Pigs [treated with anandamide] walk less and lay down more," Weesner says. "We see reduced body temperature and slower respiration- all indicators consistent with being calm."

Chocolate and anandamide
Three compounds that strongly resemble anandamide were found in dark chocolate by Daniele Piomelli and co-workers at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego [Piomelli, 1996]. They also found compounds (N-acylethanolamines) that block the breakdown of anandamide. Piomelli speculates that part of the pleasure of chocolate comes from anandamide and the anandamide-preserving N-acylethanolamines. "We are talking about something much, much, much, much milder than a high", he says.

The Nature article has been used by some to equate the effects of chocolate and cannabis to bolster arguments about the legalization of marijuana. "It is not that simple," Piomelli says. The response to THC and to the chocolate anandamides are not at all the same, even if the concentrations could be made comparable.

Piomelli was bemused by the spin his research was given in the popular press. "...You may be able to improve mood by blocking the breakdown of anandamide. It's not just something cute that we've done so that now we know more about chocolate. The hope is that it may contribute to helping cure mental disease," he said in a recent interview.[Psychiatric News, 1996]

Mom's first call?
Outside the brain, anandamide acts as a chemical messenger between the embryo and uterus during implantation of the embryo in the uterine wall. As such, it's one of the first communications that occurs between mother and child.

The highest concentrations of anandamide in the body were not in the brain, but in the uterus just before embryo implantation (at least, in the animal studies done so far) [KUMC, 1996] The concentration of anandamide changes as the uterus becomes more receptive to embryo implantation. The researchers were able to locate a definite target for the uterus' anandamide signal: mouse embryos contain more anandamide receptors than any tissue known, including the brain.

If THC can lock into anandamide receptors, there is the disturbing possibility that it may interfere with signaling between the uterus and the embryo. Indeed, 2-cell mouse embryos exposed to THC-like compounds have a significantly lower survival rate and exhibit a number of abnormalities [Yan, 1996]. More work will have to be done to see if these animal experiments mean that THC can interfere interfere with early pregnancy in humans.

A new key to the bliss receptor
Anandamide is not the only THC-like molecule used for signalling in the brain. Piomelli's group has recently reported a new molecular key that closely resembles anandamide [Piomelli, 1997]. Naturally produced sn-2 arachidonylglycerol (2-AG) can also lock into the bliss receptor. 2-AG is present at 170 times the concentration of anandamide in some regions of the brain. Piomelli speculates that 2-AG and anandamide perform complementary functions. Understanding how those functions work may allow some of the positive medicinal effects of anandamide and THC to be exploited therapeutically- without most of the negative effects.

Links and references
Brain cannabinoids in chocolate
E. di Tomaso, M. Beltramo, D. Piomelli, Nature, 382, 677-8 (1996).
Coming: Drug therapy for chocoholics?
Science News, 147, 374 (1996).
Chocolate may mimic marijuana in brain.
Chemical and Engineering News 74, 31 (1996).
Researchers say chocolate triggers feel-good chemicals (CNN, Linda Ciampa)
A CNN article that mentions Piomelli's chocolate anandamides. Feb. 14, 1996.
Psychiatric News, November 1
A recent interview with Daniele Piomelli.
Home Page of William A. Devane (UW- Madison)
Dr. William A. Devane, a molecular pharmacologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy, is investigating natural enzymatic processes that produce anandamide. Devane hopes that detailed knowledge of the structure of anandamide-building enzymes may lead to insights into their role in several psychiatric diseases.
Production: Natural chemical calms stressed-out pigs
Anandamide is being used as an experimental veterinary sedative by U. S. Department of Agriculture researchers.
Dale Deutsch (SUNY-Stony Brook)
Dale Deutsch's research focuses on how anandamide levels in the brain are regulated. A biochemist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Deutsch has found several substances that block the breakdown of anandamide. These substances may eventually have therapeutic value in any area where anandamide plays a role.
P. Derkinderen, M. Toutant, F. Burgaya, et. al., Science, v. 273 # 5282, Sept 20 1996 pp. 1719-1722
Nature, 388, 773 (1997).
Activation of brain-type cannabinoid receptors interferes with preimplantation mouse embryo development
Z. M. Yan, B. C. Paria, S. K. Dey, Biol. Reprod., 55, 756-761 (1996).
Anandamide Levels And Cannabinoid Receptors In The Mouse Embryo (KUMC)
Studies of anandamide signalling in early pregnancy.
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[i am all i am]

New experiments showed that smoking cannabis in early pregnancies could cause many problems like miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and developmental abnormalities.

These problems may occur due to the present of THC, the chemical in cannabis that gives the high. This chemical may change the balance of natural signaling molecules in the reproductive systems that regulate development and implantation of the embryo in the womb.

In the experiment, nine pregnant mice were injected with THC and then killed to see what happens to the embryos. The results showed that all the embryos were stopped in the oviduct, the tube linking the ovary to the uterus, and could not proceed to the uterus. This resembles human ectopic pregnancy in which an embryo implants elsewhere instead of the uterus. Those mice who didn’t receive the chemical had normal pregnancies.
Besides implanting elsewhere, the embryos of the mice given the THC, had more cell abnormalities, which means that developmental problem could occur and lead to miscarriage.

Men are not protected from the cannabis harm. Previous researchers showed that men who smoked cannabis produced less semen and had less sperm.


Did you bother to read the information posted on this thread before you posted a reply ???



With LOVE.
_____________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[midwich cuckoo]

In the experiment, nine pregnant mice were injected with THC

Well I think that says it all there!. :rolleyes:

[edelweiss pirate]

I don't think it helped the development of the embryos that the parent mice were killed either...

Scientists... you gotta larf!

[i am all i am]

This is a study I found about THC and its specific interaction with 'bliss receptors' in the brain....

http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/features/anandamide.shtml

G'day Edelweiss, Have you noticed how many people have already posted against marijuana without having read the information that I originally posted ?

With LOVE.
__________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[edelweiss pirate]

In the same way that chocolate is addictive and fresh mango juice and all the things we like...

It's addictive in the same way that your favourite tv show or even this forum is addictive. You just like it.

Life would be dull indeed if suddenly all the things we liked were illegal because we liked them too much....

[intruder]

I appreciate all the posts here. Until this past weekend, I've been on an extended HIGHatus from the weed. I can attest to schizo-inducing qualities of pot, as well as many positive attributes. For the past two years I've been working with Jonathon Goldman's "Chakra Chants" CD...DEEP breathing and toning specific vowels...1/2 hr. in the morning, 1/2 hr. in the evening.
I believe that these disciplines, performed in a sober state of mind...as well as conversing with my "higher self" has gently nudged me away from pot.

I loathe how marijuana can make a coward. Perhaps coward is the wrong word....apprehensive....too much deliberating over this, that, and the other.
I went for a walk under the influence last summer...all was well until I encountered crowds of people. Those crowds made me downright paranoid...apprehensive....cowardly. I renegotiated my steps so as to avoid them. That would NOT have happened in a sober state of mind.
"AHA!!" I would tell myself..."the weed is actually making me MORE AWARE...I'm conscious of the thought forms of all these folks....god bless weed..." sure.....

OF COURSE "strange dreams" ensue when you give it up. Memory improves. Perhaps the pot IS ripping your etheric...poking holes in the spirit world....activating parts of the subconscious that would "normally" be encountered in the dream state.

Just a theory....

[edelweiss pirate]

It really depends on what's in your subconsious..

Weed just exposes that. Good or bad. It's a useful diagnostic tool if nothing else.

[i am all i am]

I appreciate all the posts here. Until this past weekend, I've been on an extended HIGHatus from the weed. I cann attest to schizo-inducing qualities of pot, as well as many positive attributes. For the past two years I've been working with Jonathon Goldman's "Chara Chants" CD...DEEP breathing and toning specific vowels...1/2 hr. in the morning, 1/2 hr. in the evening.
I believe that these disciplines, performed in a sober state of mind...as well as conversing with my "higher self" has gently nudged me away from pot.

I loathe how marijuana can make a coward. Perhaps coward is the wrong word....apprehensive....too much deliberating over this, that, and the other.
I went for a walk under the influence last summer...all was well until I encountered crowds of people. Those crowds made me downright paranoid...apprehensive....cowardly. I renegotiated my steps so as to avoid them. That would NOT have happened in a sober state of mind.
"AHA!!" I would tell myself..."the weed is actually making me MORE AWARE...I'm conscious of the thought forms of all these folks....god bless weed..." sure.....

OF COURSE "strange dreams" ensue when you give it up. Memory improves. Perhaps the pot IS ripping your etheric...poking holes in the spirit world....activating parts of the subconscious that would "normally" be encountered in the dream state.

Just a theory....


Did you bother to read the information posted on this thread before you posted a reply ???



With LOVE.
_____________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[midwich cuckoo]

I loathe how marijuana can make a coward. Perhaps coward is the wrong word....apprehensive....too much deliberating over this, that, and the other.
I went for a walk under the influence last summer...all was well until I encountered crowds of people. Those crowds made me downright paranoid...apprehensive....cowardly. I renegotiated my steps so as to avoid them. That would NOT have happened in a sober state of mind.

I've smoked solidly for about 15 years and this has never happened with me, so you can't blame marijuana for your paranoia.

[astral_girl]

Repair shocks to the body: cuts, surgery, blows, electricity, drug or alcohol abuse__ all of which separate the etheric from the dense physical body. When the flesh unites again after injury or surgery, the etheric body incision often does not completely close. In long term therapy, it’s not always reunited when the addiction is released. In the case of drug or alcohol dependencies, the etheric body is literally "blown apart" and scattered. Energetic Healing can repair this.

[i am all i am]

Repair shocks to the body: cuts, surgery, blows, electricity, drug or alcohol abuse__ all of which separate the etheric from the dense physical body. When the flesh unites again after injury or surgery, the etheric body incision often does not completely close. In long term therapy, it’s not always reunited when the addiction is released. In the case of drug or alcohol dependencies, the etheric body is literally "blown apart" and scattered. Energetic Healing can repair this.


Did you bother to read the information posted on this thread before you posted a reply ???



With LOVE.
_____________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[edelweiss pirate]

Repair shocks to the body: cuts, surgery, blows, electricity, drug or alcohol abuse__ all of which separate the etheric from the dense physical body. When the flesh unites again after injury or surgery, the etheric body incision often does not completely close. In long term therapy, it’s not always reunited when the addiction is released. In the case of drug or alcohol dependencies, the etheric body is literally "blown apart" and scattered. Energetic Healing can repair this.


So does a Mars bar blow my etheric body apart?

It's not the weed itself but the user that's the issue?

Is chicken bad because it makes greedy people fat?

Anyway, as for 'healing', when I went schizo (not due to marijuana use but because I was being gang stalked by freemasons who wanted me to be their King of destruction or some such, and I voluntary chose to be 'transformed' which after a few days of feeling my soul 'loosened' from my body I slowly realised I had become schizophrenic... then I decided it was time to get high! And I did and goodbye Mind Control, goodbye illumination and goodbye masons... Weed saved my soul y'all, for which I am forever grateful..

It is known to offer sufferers of schizophrenia relief from their symtoms. Whether it cause schizophrenia is in my mind a dubious one. The fact is schizophrenics use weed because it releives their symptoms, it doesn't mean weed creates schizophrenia... More BS the media want us to believe so that when the 'mass illumination' kicks in as per New World Order, it will be near impossible for people to get hold of a bit of weed to break free of the mass mind control...

[astral_girl]

Anyway, as for 'healing', when I went schizo (not due to marijuana use but because I was being gang stalked by freemasons who wanted me to be their King of destruction or some such, and I voluntary chose to be 'transformed' which after a few days of feeling my soul 'loosened' from my body I slowly realised I had become schizophrenic... then I decided it was time to get high! And I did and goodbye Mind Control, goodbye illumination and goodbye masons... Weed saved my soul y'all, for which I am forever grateful




gang stalked? be the king of what exactly?

[astral_girl]

how exactly did it save your soul....im intrigued

[edelweiss pirate]

No you're not... you're just ready to take the piss like your friend 2012.

[21_12_2012]

It's no use trying to tell cannabis addcicts anything apart from "keep up the good work lads"...because self denial goes hand in hand with cannabis addiction...i was like that for 20 years !

It's very sad, but it's a fact...all my old friends were the same, and some still are...

The "i can give it up anytime i want" brigade

and the 'i'm not addicted...i just like to smoke weed' brigade

There's no telling them !

Let them live the lie i say..they'll wake up one day !

[astral_girl]

i wasnt going to take the piss at all-i just wanted to know what you meant

[i am all i am]

It's no use trying to tell cannabis addcicts anything apart from "keep up the good work lads"...because self denial goes hand in hand with cannabis addiction...i was like that for 20 years !

It's very sad, but it's a fact...all my old friends were the same, and some still are...

The "i can give it up anytime i want" brigade

and the 'i'm not addicted...i just like to smoke weed' brigade

There's no telling them !

Let them live the lie i say..they'll wake up one day !



Did you bother to read the information posted on this thread before you posted a reply ???



With LOVE.
_____________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[midwich cuckoo]

It's no use trying to tell cannabis addcicts anything apart from "keep up the good work lads"...because self denial goes hand in hand with cannabis addiction...i was like that for 20 years !

It's very sad, but it's a fact...all my old friends were the same, and some still are...

The "i can give it up anytime i want" brigade

and the 'i'm not addicted...i just like to smoke weed' brigade

There's no telling them !

Let them live the lie i say..they'll wake up one day !

I see. And you know better right. ;)

I couldn't care less what anyone thinks they know.

I love my weed.

Time to spark up a fat one. :D

[eternal_spirit]

Thanks so much for you're amazingly concise correct and positive posts iam all iam:D

marijuana is truly natures gift to man and woman lol.

Astralgirl you have no idea what you're on about.

[eternal_spirit]

Women risk losing their babies if they smoke cannabis at the time of conception or early in pregnancy, according to a study published yesterday.

Cannabis is the most widely-used illegal drug among women of childbearing age. Scientists studying mice have found that THC, the active ingredient in the drug, can retard embryo development and prevent it from reaching the womb.

The findings suggest that smoking cannabis may lead to miscarriages caused by embryos developing outside the womb, in the fallopian tubes.

seroiusly i know you may think you're information might be correct and help ppl, but honestly i think where ever you got this information from who evers written this has an anti marijuana agenda and want's to discredit the herb that was the most commonly used medication than any other substance on the planet. i beg you to read more of what iam all iam posted and se if ypou can see all the positve info he has posted about the (herb)

[i am all i am]

Thanks so much for you're amazingly concise correct and positive posts iam all iam:D

marijuana is truly natures gift to man and woman lol.

Astralgirl you have no idea what you're on about.


You're welcome Eternal Spirit.

It's amazing how some people will denegrate marijuana without looking at all the facts. My parents have acted in the same manner and judged me without being willing to listen to anything that opposes their views. It's all their loss.

There's a link on the Jack Herer sight that shows a woman in India, aged 120, that has smoked every day and still continues to do so. Ahhhhhhhhhhh, she is definitely blessed being able to smoke every day. More power to her.


With LOVE.
__________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[eternal_spirit]

The oldest man on record a chinese man was 130 said he was a chain smoker but didn't say what he smoked, I can make an educated guess;)

I'll be making this information available to others (the links you have posted iam all iam) I would love to change the sceptics and none believers( and the drinkers and the stinkers) views about marijuana.

[limelady]

Hello all,

I am a clinical nutritionist an have been a health researcher fo the past 20 years. As such, I have thoroughly read all the "pros" and "cons" associated marijuana/cannibus use.

Its is my opinion that much of the research is skewed towards the researchers own particular 'bents', therefore on this subject I have always stood back and taken a look at it all from many different angles.

I don't want to get into a row with anybody here about whose right and whose wrong, but I will tell you what I have seen from a completely unbiased perspective.

Over the years I have seen many of my friends, family members and associates become COMPLETELY addicted to marijuana, and have seen NO POSITIVE or GOOD come of it in their lives. I have witnessed two people eventually break-down into permanent psychosis as a direct result of their marijuana use. I don't care what the studies may or may not have to say on this matter - I have seen this happen before my eyes, and THIS is what I base my present understanding on.

Addicts will argue till the cows come home that they are not addicted, but when they try to give up to prove their point its only a matter of a week or so...sometimes just days before they''re on it again.....even when their marriage depends on them trying to remain free of it because of the negative affects it is having in their relationships with people they say they love.
Yes, heavy mariujana users will quite literally choose their drug over their relationships with people they love, then whine to others about how lonely they are when their loved one cannot take anymore and finally moves on - that's how strong this addiction can be for some people. In my view, this does not make marijuana a healthy addiction or one that people should enter into without due consideration.

I have nothing against anybody who whats to use marijuana, in fact I don't believe it should be illegal since in reality its is a herb from mother nature, however, after the evidence I have seen I feel it is totally unrealistic to state
that this substance is not harmful. Quite obviously it can be very harmful to some people. Ask those who have had to deal with an addict in their lives?

On the other hand, as a clinical nutritionist I see there is merit for using marijuana for pain relief, and in fact it is probably far safer than many OTC and prescription drugs in certain circumstance. I have even suggested it to people in the short-term when they have a painful back or neck injury, or broken bones. But it also pays to bear in mind that as a pain medication marijuana does not work for some people.

I'm all for people being able to do what they want to do, but I don't believe we ought to be willy-nilly endorsing marijuana on this forum for two reason.

1. Whether we agree with the law or not, marijuana is still classed as an illegal drug in most countries.

2. Addiction to any substance is not a healthy state of being, and it is now known that some people (in my own experience MOST people) who use this drug socially for any length of time (to relieve stress or otherwise), can become terribly addicted. People can argue this point endlessly, but when you've seen this addiction working its dark energy in people's lives, it seems very unethical to be promoting it as a way to enlightenment when quite clearly it is not. I have seen the opposite - shattered lives and people with no hope due to this addiction. What is enlightening about that?


Sometimes we all need to escape, and thats why we will drink a glass or two of wine/beer or smoke the odd joint. I have no problem with this as long as people are fully away of the possible consequences if they become reliant on these substances to get them through their day.

[eternal_spirit]

Lime...I agree that some people can get addicted. Some pot smokers will say they're addicted to the nicotine if they mix pot with tobacco. They're in denial.
Ask them to stop using pot and just smoke tobacco. See how long it lasts.:rolleyes:

[kha zarr]

Im interested in what Barbara Brennan, author of 'Hands of Light' meant when she described the astral bodies of those who have taken psychedelic drugs [I believe marijuana was mentioned, but among others] [p 92, paraphrasing], as containing 'etheric mucous'. The way to really know if its a 'bad' thing, benign, or a good change, would be to do a test on the GDV realtime aura scanning equipment, and on equipment that could measure and detect changes in the astral or etheric bodies, however no such technology exists here as yet I am aware of.

The most important thing is, how to interpret results of said auric mucus or to tease out any other subconscious psychic defensive mechanisms; Keep in mind that being psychic wont necessarily guarantee one to an entire picture [well ive not met any strong psychics yet so who knows], so scientific measurements would be required to really corroborate or reject this idea, to be definitive, in a truly open-minded and unbiased format. If anyone wants to go that direction of research.

For now the clearly good news about it, is that physiological dangers seem virtually nill w/pot, and as [i am] has mentioned, many definite health possibilities [I do know that hemp seed is used in the Chinese pharmacopea for treating constipation and is effective].

My thing is this: Ive not smoked since january '06 and when I did from 04-05, on and off, not too often but not rarely..mostly was w/a vaporizer, which if youre gonna do it, Id at least recommend that over combustion if you have the cash, or you're handy. I think like limelady here but Im also interested in the scientific investigation of higher realms and its research into psychedelics, measuring brain activity etc. and good studies on this at least to me seem hard to find, that investigate concepts like what brennan was talking about.

[i am all i am]

G'day Limelady,

Thank you for replying in a calm manner. I hear you and understand that you have experienced seeing marijuana in a negative way through the lives of others. I would firstly like to tell of my own peronal experience and then I will ask you some questions to clarify a few points that, I personally believe, we should be clear about.

After my little episode with my back, I was able to stand erect or lay down flat for the first three months (approximately). Any other position created more pain than I could easily describe. Going to the toilet (a number two) was basically an act of physical torture, it taking me around twenty minutes to straighten myself back out and having tears constantly pouring out of my eyes without being able to stop them, even though I wasn't actually 'crying'. For the first two years, I would have consumed approximately 20 grams of marijuana per week. Sometimes, during some painful periods, I have consumed 28 grams (one ounce) within three days. After four years of this I had healed myself to the point where I was only consuming 7 grams per week, which I did for about the next two years. At that time, I was cut off from the disability pension because I refuse to go and see doctors and therefore, would not do the medical update that they wanted me to do (it has to do with a personal belief about words being creative and the x-rays not being beneficialfor me because of the radiation). Fortunately for myself, I have a friend that is generous enough to feed me and give me a place to stay. For the last two years I have infrequently had a smoke and it has usually only been a gram at a time.

Now, the marijuana that I have smoked has been clean, or what is usually called bush. It is not grown hydroponically, but naturally in the 'bush', without any fertilisers or chemical additives. I do not mix it with bought tobacco (tailor made cigarettes), I use chop-chop (it's straight from the farm) or nothing at all. I am now growing some tobacco, so this will be fully organic. Hydroponically grown marijuana can contain some lethal additives. I have known people to grow it, and they have addded, for example, draino into the water and others that when it is cropped, spray it with fly spray to give it a 'crystalline' look. As with the additives used in store bought tobacco, these additives to the marijuana are lethal within the physical body. I know people that will smoke 'hydro' for what they call the 'chemmie' rush or hit.

So there is a definate difference in the marijuana that some people smoke. I personally refuse to smoke hydro. For me it is clean green or nothing. There have been no negative side effects that I have experienced from what is considered 'heavy usage'. The relief from pain without chemical coctails provided by the so called medical profession, has been both a gift and a blessing for me personally. I have also gained insights of a spritual nature through the use of marijuana and about half of the poetry that I have written has been while I was 'high'. It opens up the crown chakra, which you probably know, is the chakra that connects us to universal energies. Other benefits include heightened sensitivity. Not that I personally need that, being hypersensitive myself.

Now, considering my personal experience, I would like to ask you a couple of questions about your observations that you have written about.

Did the individuals that you observe smoke organically grown marijuana or was it hydroponically grown ?

Did they use tobacco when they smoke, and if so, was it tobacco bought from the store ?

What activities did they do whilst being 'high', for example, did they sit in front of a t.v. ?

Why should I personally care about any laws that society has in regards to myself and what I choose to put into my own body ?

Have you personally used marijuana for any length of time or are your views based purely upon observation ?

Did you fully read the information that I have posted before you responded with your post ?


I love you Limelady and hope that you understand that I am asking these questions to clarify your post and to give you some understanding from my personal experience. I will state, emphatically, that I have never been addicted to marijuana. Whilst living in Kingsford Smith park in Katoomba, I easily made the choice to postpone smoking marijuana for a month to save the money for purchasing some crystals from a wholesaler. At no time have I had any withdrawals or other side effects from using marijuana. I do not promote any use of chemical intake into the body, whether it be 'hydro', alcohol, or in any other form. Nature has given us gifts to sustain the physical body that we inhabit and I find it (a personal choice) unnecessary to consume anything processed by man, as Nature (I believe) is a clearer representation of Creation, and here for our benefit.

Thank you for responding Limelady. I look forward to hearing from in regards to the questions that I have asked.


With LOVE,
__________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[limelady]

Hi I am All I Am,

I will try and answer your questions to the best of my ability. But when I have done so, can we please just let this drop, as I don't wish to get involved in a long-winded debate with anyone over this.

Now, considering my personal experience, I would like to ask you a couple of questions about your observations that you have written about.

Did the individuals that you observe smoke organically grown marijuana or was it hydroponically grown ?

Most of the long-term users I have known personally have grown their own marijuana organically or purchased off friends who grow their own. I've never known anybody who has grown their own hydroponically, although I once moved into a house that had previously been used by growers, as the ceiling cavity was all decked out with lights and powercables etc. They must have left in a hurry!! :p

But when supplies of the good stuff are low most people I have known will purchase from wherever they can get it until their preferred supply comes online again. I know one woman who prefers nothing but wild "bush" ordinarily, but she is so addicted she will smoke anything she can get her hands on when its not available, and she has been known to leave her children alone sleeping in their beds at night to bike across town to visit a 'dodgy' dealer who sells "crap" (her description) hardly worth smoking....but such is her addiction.

In more recent times I have known a few who smoke what is very likely hydro....or whatever they can purchase with the least amount of hassle.


Did they use tobacco when they smoke, and if so, was it tobacco bought from the store ?

I can honestly say I have never known anyone who mixes tobacco in with their dope. Most people I know these days smoke joints when they're in a hurry amd 'bongs' when they are able. Going back a few years the vast majority of people I knew rolled their own.

What activities did they do whilst being 'high', for example, did they sit in front of a t.v. ?

This is a hard one to answer because different people have reacted differently. I know of one person who simply gave up his life to sit round at home and smoke dope and watch TV. I've known others who have become paranoid and believe people are watching them or picking on them, and they are jittery a lot of the time, whether doped up or not. They seem to be able to go to work, but they have little or no ambition to do anything other than mundane repetitive work that pays little and doesn't tax them too much. One particular young guy I once knew turned to dope at high-school and he went from being a lovely, outward personality into a little mouse who would jump when you spoke to him. He wouldn't go anywhere unless he was doped to the eyeballs, and even then he'd still sit in the corner all night with glazed eyes and the personality of a house-brick.

Over the years I've known at least a handful of people who can only hold down the types of jobs that allow them to leave every couple of hours to 'toke up' or they cannot get through the day. Sales Repping (on the road) is a good job for doing this.....they can stop anywhere and toke up at any time, then of course they drive their vehicles!

Why should I personally care about any laws that society has in regards to myself and what I choose to put into my own body ?

No reason at all. What you do is your business and your business alone.That was not the point I was trying to make. I suggested it may not be a good idea to promote marijuana use on the David Icke forum because of the fact that it is illegal and also because it is not a key to enlightenment to the many people whose lives have been taken over by their addiction to marijuana. I see no problem with discussing it, but promoting it is a completely different matter, and David could find himself in hot water if it became known the forum on his website was actively promoting an illegal substance.

Have you personally used marijuana for any length of time or are your views based purely upon observation ?

I have tried on a few occasions to use marijuana for pain relief when I had hideous back problems. Unfortunately it has never had any affect on me whatsoever. I don't get high, I don't get mellow, it doesn't put me to sleep and it doesn't relieve my pain. I just sit there waiting, waiting, waiting.....but nothing happens. Simply put, it doesn't work for me as it does others, and trust me, I have sat and smoked the biggest, fattest dubbie you ever saw....it was stuffed full of the best buds a friend was able to get for me.......and still nothing, other than the smell and taste of such a strong joint started to make my stomach turn and I felt a bit sick. :eek: I'm a hopeless case! :D

Did you fully read the information that I have posted before you responded with your post ?

No, I have to say I skim read it through because I have read most of that information before. As I told you in my previous message, after having reviewed many studies and copious amounts of literature on marijuana over the years, I now base my opinion on my own observations. I find them more reliable.

What I should have added in my earlier post is that I have known a fair few people who have not become addicted "stoners" and have only used marijuana socially on occasion or at the weekends when they are out with friends. These people have had no ill effect that I was able to detect from their occasional use, in fact, some people are actually able to relax and let go for a few hours now and then and that's nice. I have nothing against that at all. Its the ones who become reliant or addicted to the marijuana that have problems in their personal lives that I have rather strong feelings about because it saddens me to see people's lives go down the toilet. Unfortunately I have seen far too much of this and experienced the lies and deceptions that seem to involve the people in such situations.

Remember, these are just MY observations and My opinions. Others are welcome to their own of course, and if marijuana has worked for you, then far be it for me to deny you the right to do what you want.

All the best
LL :)

[phoenix1]

I used to do loads of hash, acid. majic mushrooms, even shiffed glue and solvents, done a little coke , been clever enough to avoid heroin....been addicted to alcahol and in a re-hab because of the evil shit.

My oppinion is this all drugs lift you for a while...but they have the onerall effect of dumbing you down ...and hazing you out.

I din't do any drugs that alter my mind , in anny way shape or form now...including alcohol..

I pray that it stays that way.

I don't regret a single trip...they were ace...but enough was enough at a a certain age for me. I packed in all drugs (bar alcohol) at around 30 ish.

Kicked alcohol in to touch September '06 ..and I havn'e touched a drop since...now I have more money, got more travelling in the pipeline, and life is better in all angles.:) And I like the recipe:cool:

[narcolepticwatchman]

My views for anyone who is interested.

Cannabis is not addictive. Cigarettes are seriously addictive. Most people who smoke Hashish, smoke it with cigarettes. When they may claim to be craving a J. They are more likely to be craving the tobacco.

Cannabis does not lead to harder drugs. True, some people who take harder drugs like heroin have also tried cannabis, but they have also tried any other type of drug they can get their hands on:D Cannais is not the root cause of a decline to harder drugs IMO.

The hashish that is readily availible on the streets of Great Britain is evil. It is filled with all sorts of shite such as glue, diesel etc. That is the toxic stuff which makes people go scatty, not the pure form of marijuana grown in the soil.

The brain has things called 'cannaboid receptors'. Why on earth would our brain have things called cannaboid receptors if this drug was never meant to be used?

I have heard that it makes people paranoid (possibly a kncok on effect from it being illegal in most of the world) and lazy. I'm not so sure....

As Bill Hicks said

"Aaah, they lie about marijuana. Tell you pot-smoking makes you unmotivated. Liiie. When you're high, you can do everything you normally do, just as well, you just realise, it's not worth the fucking effort. There is a difference. "(toke, toke, toke) Sure I can get up at dawn (toke, toke), go to a job I hate, that does not inspire me creatively whatsoever, for the rest of my fucking life. [toke, toke]Or I can wake up at noon and learn how to play the sitar!" Nging nging nging now. Pretty simple when it's spelled out in black and white isn't it? You know. Only thing I've ever heard about pot is that pot might lower sperm count. Good! "

Finally, if we are right to make it illegal, did God fuck up.....

"Pot, right. Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally upon our planet. Doesn't the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit... paranoid? You know what I mean? It's nature. How do you make nature against the fucking law? It grows everywhere. Serves a thousand different functions, all of them positive. To make marijuana against the law is like saying God made a mistake. You know what I mean, it's like God on the seventh day looked down on his creation: "There it is, my creation, perfect and holy in all ways. Now, I can rest." [Mimes God looking around - spotting pot] "Oh my me." "I left fucking pot everywhere." "I should never have smoked that joint on the third day ..shit." "That was the day I created possums. Haha. Still gives me a chuckle." "If I leave pot everywhere that's gonna to give humans the impression they're supposed to... 'use' it." "(sigh) Now I have to create Republicans." And God wept. I believe is the next verse. You know what I mean? I believe that God left certain drugs growing naturally upon our planet to help speed up and facilitate our evolution. Okay, not the most popular idea ever expressed. Either that or you're real high and agreeing with me in the only way you can right now. "I forgot the code, is it two blinks yes, one blink no?" Do you think magic mushrooms growing atop cow shit was an accident? Where do you think the phrase, 'that's good shit' came from? Why do you think Hindus think cows are holy? Holy shit! Why do I think MacDonalds is the Anti-Christ? That's God little accelerator pad for our evolution. Let's think about this, man. "

[i am all i am]

Thank you for your reply Limelady.

It clears up things for me regarding your previous post.

I understand your view from seeing the negative aspect that is so obvious with a lot of 'users' of marijuana. I have also seen the negative impact that abuse has led to with a lot of people. This is the reason that I asked for clarification. The 'abusers' appear to me, from my observation, people that have many underlying issues that they look to 'escape' from through the 'abuse' of marijuana. Having also been in the Police Force in N.S.W., I have seen my share of 'abusers' of many different substances. Ranging from alcohol through to heroin, as well as sexual abuse, they all appear to have similar 'problems', that while not always observed by family and friends, are an underlying cause for the actions that they take.

I have also met people that have smoked for up to 60 years of their life that show none of the same problems that 'abusers' exhibit. They have socially interacted through their careers, sometimes in high (no pun intended) positions of trust within the corporate world, without any negative impact.

From my own perspective and experience, I am drawn to the conclusion that an addiction is personality based. The addiction is an attempt to 'escape' from the underlying issues that the individual is unwilling, or feels unable, to face. Each individual finds there own substance to be addicted to, whether it be physically, mentally or emotionally based, it is a dependancy based on an outside source. This, I believe, to be a factor of the system via the indoctrination process that we are compelled to go through. It is something, as a society, we all are responsible for, and something that we need to address, and find a solution for, so that we can create the existence that we all desire to have, that being a peaceful world full of unconditional love.

It is unfortunate for you that you received no relief from the pain, through the marijuana, that you were going through. I have experienced 'back pain', as well as other areas, for over 30 years, since I was 4 years of age. So, I understand how you would have been feeling and wish that it had of been of benefit for you. I understand that for some people this is the case, although never having met someone, until yourself, that this was so for them.

If there is ever any backlash from anything that I have said in regards to marijuana, please send the people my way and show them this post and the decleration that I now make.

THESE WORDS ARE MY CHOICE, AND NO OTHER INDIVIDUAL CAN BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WORDS THAT I USE. THEY ARE MY RESPONSIBILITY, AND I ACCEPT THAT THERE MAY BE PEOPLE WISHING TO USE THEM TO DISCREDIT ANOTHER, BUT WHEN YOU DO THIS, YOU ARE MISTAKEN, AS I HAVE FREELY MADE MY OWN DECLERATION WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF ANYONE AND WILL MAINTAIN MY FREEDOM TO DO SO. I REPEAT, I AM FULLY RESPONSIBLE FOR MY WORDS THAT I USE.

I hope this will clear things up in regards to anything that another may be blamed for from that which I write Limelady. Thank you for expressing yourself and offering your perspective. There is no reason for us to debate, as I believe that we can discuss any topic with respect to each others unique individual perspective, and therefore find ourselves a greater understanding through the process.

May you always be blessed with with a healthy body and mind Limelady. Thank you once again for your input.

P.S. If there are any questions that you have please feel free to ask as, while I enjoy a debate, I prefer to discuss the subject to seek a resolution, than merely state our views.



With LOVE.
__________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[garth]

I have a very definite "live and let live" policy with drugs, but I feel I must share my experience with dope use.

A few things i have come across in the brief time I have been on this rock.

Dope use in the mines in Australia is rife, even though there is thorough drug testing policy's in place. Smokers are known to swallow 1 litre of household Bleach with 10 litres of water to evade detection by drug tests, this is apparently common place.

I have had employees (up to 80 at one time) for a number of years, the issues I have had with drug use in the workplace are numerous and at times severe. The industries involved were construction, timber milling, earthmoving etc. The majority of roles in these industries involved heavy equipment (trucks, loaders, dozers etc) or high speed saws, chainsaws etc. All gear that will take you out (and i mean little bits the size of ice cubes) in seconds if your not paying attention. It used to scare me shitless that I was responsible for all these people, knowing that a vast majority were regular dope users, I used to wonder how some of them could "toke" up at 5am in the morning before work and then stand inches from a 3m high bandsaw doing 3000 rpm whilst being off there face..scary shit.

I had an employee who removed a guard and "accidentally" put her hand into a docking saw and push the start button, she removed 2 fingers whilst being stoned at work. Luckily the fingers were retrived from the saw dust pile and sewn back on.

I have sacked no less than 10 employees in the last 5 years for being stoned at work.

I have seen guys, (there was at least 4) who I have known for a number of years (10 or so), take recreational weekend dope use to a daily habit, during this time there personality changed to the point where they were unrecognisable as the guys I used to know. Mellow, cool guy one minute, raving Psycho the next, there eyes gave it away, the look was one of total mania, anger, aggression, totally unhinged. They scared me, they became loose cannons, uncontrollable.

I witnessed one "loose it" whilst trying to unload an excavator off a truck, he became obssessed with driving the machine off the truck, in the process he nearly killed himself, narrowly escaping rolling the machine on top of himself. He would not respond to repeated instructions yelled at him to get off the machine and leave it alone (I could not get near enough to him to physically get him out of there). This guy I had entrusted with my life on more than one occasion previously, he had changed, and not for the good.

My point is I have not yet met a long term smoker who has not turned into a psycho, and as for enlightened, the smokers I have been involved with, IMHO have become less enlightened.

Just my experiences...not very positive:(

[intruder]

i am all i am? are you BEING all that you can BE?

Your question has become FAR more than just redundant; it leads me to believe that you are suffering from short-term memory loss.

"have you fully read....?

i am all i am? I ask YOU....how old are you? and for how long have you experimented with grass?

YES..I have read the info. But I trust my own internal pharmacy more than anything.

[i am all i am]

i am all i am? are you BEING all that you can BE?

Your question has become FAR more than just redundant; it leads me to believe that you are suffering from short-term memory loss.

"have you fully read....?

i am all i am? I ask YOU....how old are you? and for how long have you experimented with grass?

YES..I have read the info. But I trust my own internal pharmacy more than anything.


G'day Intruder.

I'll answer your questions one at a time for you.

Yes.

37.

19 years.

You are entitled to believe whatever it is that choose and I thank you for sharing your beliefs.

It is always beneficial for you to honour your body and the messages that it gives you.

Thank you for your post.


With LOVE.
_____________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[intruder]

thank you I am all I am!

For myself? 43 yrs. of age.

I have experimented with grass (at times, CHRONIC, daily use for extended periods) for 27 years.

I have been a "pot-activist".

I'm friends with Marc Emery, I've met Jack Herer...and smoked with both.
I got high with Marc Emery on our local court-house steps after the semi-famous Chris Clay trial here in Canada.

[i am all i am]

My views for anyone who is interested.

Cannabis is not addictive. Cigarettes are seriously addictive. Most people who smoke Hashish, smoke it with cigarettes. When they may claim to be craving a J. They are more likely to be craving the tobacco.

Cannabis does not lead to harder drugs. True, some people who take harder drugs like heroin have also tried cannabis, but they have also tried any other type of drug they can get their hands on:D Cannais is not the root cause of a decline to harder drugs IMO.

The hashish that is readily availible on the streets of Great Britain is evil. It is filled with all sorts of shite such as glue, diesel etc. That is the toxic stuff which makes people go scatty, not the pure form of marijuana grown in the soil.

The brain has things called 'cannaboid receptors'. Why on earth would our brain have things called cannaboid receptors if this drug was never meant to be used?

I have heard that it makes people paranoid (possibly a kncok on effect from it being illegal in most of the world) and lazy. I'm not so sure....

As Bill Hicks said

"Aaah, they lie about marijuana. Tell you pot-smoking makes you unmotivated. Liiie. When you're high, you can do everything you normally do, just as well, you just realise, it's not worth the fucking effort. There is a difference. "(toke, toke, toke) Sure I can get up at dawn (toke, toke), go to a job I hate, that does not inspire me creatively whatsoever, for the rest of my fucking life. [toke, toke]Or I can wake up at noon and learn how to play the sitar!" Nging nging nging now. Pretty simple when it's spelled out in black and white isn't it? You know. Only thing I've ever heard about pot is that pot might lower sperm count. Good! "

Finally, if we are right to make it illegal, did God fuck up.....

"Pot, right. Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally upon our planet. Doesn't the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit... paranoid? You know what I mean? It's nature. How do you make nature against the fucking law? It grows everywhere. Serves a thousand different functions, all of them positive. To make marijuana against the law is like saying God made a mistake. You know what I mean, it's like God on the seventh day looked down on his creation: "There it is, my creation, perfect and holy in all ways. Now, I can rest." [Mimes God looking around - spotting pot] "Oh my me." "I left fucking pot everywhere." "I should never have smoked that joint on the third day ..shit." "That was the day I created possums. Haha. Still gives me a chuckle." "If I leave pot everywhere that's gonna to give humans the impression they're supposed to... 'use' it." "(sigh) Now I have to create Republicans." And God wept. I believe is the next verse. You know what I mean? I believe that God left certain drugs growing naturally upon our planet to help speed up and facilitate our evolution. Okay, not the most popular idea ever expressed. Either that or you're real high and agreeing with me in the only way you can right now. "I forgot the code, is it two blinks yes, one blink no?" Do you think magic mushrooms growing atop cow shit was an accident? Where do you think the phrase, 'that's good shit' came from? Why do you think Hindus think cows are holy? Holy shit! Why do I think MacDonalds is the Anti-Christ? That's God little accelerator pad for our evolution. Let's think about this, man. "


G'day Narcolepticwatchman,

Thanks for posting.

The fact that we have receptors in the brain for cannabinoids is something that seems to be overlooked by many people.

I agree with Bill Hicks. I always thought that it was a tad perverse to make war upon a plant. What did the plant ever do to anyone that could justify such a response ???

The denial of enlightment from the use of marijuana could be based on the lack of respect for the plant and the lack of understanding on how to utilise it for this purpose. Most people merely use marijuana for escapism and fail to benefit from its ability to open the mind.

Once again, thank you for posting and bringing a positive response to the information that I posted.


With LOVE.
____________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[i am all i am]

thank you I am all I am!

For myself? 43 yrs. of age.

I have experimented with grass (at times, CHRONIC, daily use for extended periods) for 27 years.

I have been a "pot-activist".

I'm friends with Marc Emery, I've met Jack Herer...and smoked with both.
I got high with Marc Emery on our local court-house steps after the semi-famous Chris Clay trial here in Canada.


You are welcome Intruder.

I'd previously posted the question, " have you read..." because I had some people follow over from another thread where name calling, accusations and general abuse replaced any form of discussion.

That must of been a positive experience to smoke with both of those men. They appear, from my perspective, to be users and not abusers. The conversations would be very interesting and more than likely, highly enlightening, to say the least.

Thank you for sharing your experience with me.


With LOVE.
_________________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[intruder]

Thanks I am!!

While I'm no genius....I always resented the accusations that ones intellectual capabilities will be sorely diminished through the use of pot. You know the propaganda..."this is your brain..THIS is your brain on "drugs". I have tried, with NO success to get my 77 year old father to try some weed to aid back pain and sleeplessness....he's far to "old-school" to even consider it as it's "illegal". I said "dad!!!....you're anti-abortion and it IS legal...screw the laws!!!"
My talks with Marc have been far more in depth, as I had but one opportunity to smoke with Jack.

[astral_girl]

Thanks so much for you're amazingly concise correct and positive posts iam all iam:D

marijuana is truly natures gift to man and woman lol.

Astralgirl you have no idea what you're on about.

how do you know i have no idea what im on about
theres a sweeping judgment isnt it
ive been a drug user since 17 and i actually had a miscarriage because of my pot habit
so who are you to judge other folks veiws

[narcolepticwatchman]

I have a very definite "live and let live" policy with drugs, but I feel I must share my experience with dope use.

A few things i have come across in the brief time I have been on this rock.

Dope use in the mines in Australia is rife, even though there is thorough drug testing policy's in place. Smokers are known to swallow 1 litre of household Bleach with 10 litres of water to evade detection by drug tests, this is apparently common place.

I have had employees (up to 80 at one time) for a number of years, the issues I have had with drug use in the workplace are numerous and at times severe. The industries involved were construction, timber milling, earthmoving etc. The majority of roles in these industries involved heavy equipment (trucks, loaders, dozers etc) or high speed saws, chainsaws etc. All gear that will take you out (and i mean little bits the size of ice cubes) in seconds if your not paying attention. It used to scare me shitless that I was responsible for all these people, knowing that a vast majority were regular dope users, I used to wonder how some of them could "toke" up at 5am in the morning before work and then stand inches from a 3m high bandsaw doing 3000 rpm whilst being off there face..scary shit.

I had an employee who removed a guard and "accidentally" put her hand into a docking saw and push the start button, she removed 2 fingers whilst being stoned at work. Luckily the fingers were retrived from the saw dust pile and sewn back on.

I have sacked no less than 10 employees in the last 5 years for being stoned at work.

I have seen guys, (there was at least 4) who I have known for a number of years (10 or so), take recreational weekend dope use to a daily habit, during this time there personality changed to the point where they were unrecognisable as the guys I used to know. Mellow, cool guy one minute, raving Psycho the next, there eyes gave it away, the look was one of total mania, anger, aggression, totally unhinged. They scared me, they became loose cannons, uncontrollable.

I witnessed one "loose it" whilst trying to unload an excavator off a truck, he became obssessed with driving the machine off the truck, in the process he nearly killed himself, narrowly escaping rolling the machine on top of himself. He would not respond to repeated instructions yelled at him to get off the machine and leave it alone (I could not get near enough to him to physically get him out of there). This guy I had entrusted with my life on more than one occasion previously, he had changed, and not for the good.

My point is I have not yet met a long term smoker who has not turned into a psycho, and as for enlightened, the smokers I have been involved with, IMHO have become less enlightened.

Just my experiences...not very positive:(


Garth, do not take this the wrong way, but to me, reading your post, it would seem that you have pre-existing predjudices regarding marijuana.

You have stated facts about people smoking the drug at work. I agree that this should not occur and the vast majority of smokers who work do not practice this. Every person I know who smokes the stuff does it only in their free time. you cited an example of an accident involving someone who was reportedly stoned. i could site a thousand of accidents that happened involving stone cold sober people. How did you know she was stoned? Did she take a test or is this a presumption? Accidents happen and this is a fact of life. You may be able to give feedback if its your own company. How many accidents have there been in your work in the past 5 years? How many have been directly attributed to marijuana use?

Also, what kind of testing are you using on your employees to prove that they were stoned at work? THC can stay in the system for a month and this will show up on urine tests.

The last statement about not knowing anyone who hasn't become a raving psycho through it seems really odd and a bit wild to me. I don't know how many people you are basing this opion on, and I don't know what kind of behaviour they have displayed to make you come to this conclusion, but all raving psychos? Seems a bit over the top. I'd like some elaboration on this if you may....

[limelady]

I am concerned about this thread and its possible influence on youngsters who may enter this forum. Despite what some may wish to believe, there ARE dangers involved in drug taking - ask any medical professional or social worker who has had to deal with the addicted. David Icke's name and reputation is involved here, and I don't believe this thread is really in keeping with the theme of his work, therefore I am taking this thread out of the general area and putting it into the medical/health.

Limelady

[narcolepticwatchman]

I am concerned about this thread and its possible influence on youngsters who may enter this forum. Despite what some may wish to believe, there ARE dangers involved in drug taking - ask any medical professional or social worker who has had to deal with the addicted. David Icke's name and reputation is involved here, and I don't believe this thread is really in keeping with the theme of his work, therefore I am taking this thread out of the general area and putting it into the medical/health.

Limelady

in other words you are, in a way, censoring it.....

[i am all i am]

I am concerned about this thread and its possible influence on youngsters who may enter this forum. Despite what some may wish to believe, there ARE dangers involved in drug taking - ask any medical professional or social worker who has had to deal with the addicted. David Icke's name and reputation is involved here, and I don't believe this thread is really in keeping with the theme of his work, therefore I am taking this thread out of the general area and putting it into the medical/health.

Limelady


G'day Limelady.

As has already been noted by Narcolepticwatchman, this is CENSORSHIP !!!


(QUOTE)
THESE WORDS ARE MY CHOICE, AND NO OTHER INDIVIDUAL CAN BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WORDS THAT I USE. THEY ARE MY RESPONSIBILITY, AND I ACCEPT THAT THERE MAY BE PEOPLE WISHING TO USE THEM TO DISCREDIT ANOTHER, BUT WHEN YOU DO THIS, YOU ARE MISTAKEN, AS I HAVE FREELY MADE MY OWN DECLERATION WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF ANYONE AND WILL MAINTAIN MY FREEDOM TO DO SO. I REPEAT, I AM FULLY RESPONSIBLE FOR MY WORDS THAT I USE.
(QUOTE)


I already posted this quote in my reply to you. David Icke's name and reputation are only on the line when his own individual thoughts, words and actions are referred to. He himself has promoted taking ayahuasca. From my understanding David Icke doesn't care what anyone else thinks of him. Maybe there is something that he has told you that I don't know about, if there is, could you please enlighten me as to what this is ???

Posts that are still on the General area talking about marijuana:

1. That damn marijuana - Truthsupplier, started 13/2/07 at 10:16am, last post 8/3/07 1:50am by Pollock.

2. Jesus, cannabis and the truth - Midwichcuckoo, started 12/2/07 at 7:03pm, last post 13/2/07 6:28pm by Midwichcuckoo.

3. I just realised I need to purify - H1s Lordsh1p, started 16/3/07 8:57am, last post 1:19am by Garth.


These three post continue to remain where they are without being removed.

With all due respect Limelady, this appears to be personal. The reasons that you have given are your concern based on your beliefs. The thread offers ample evidence as well as personal experience both for and against. Because you have your belief based from the negative view, you have chosen to remove the thread and censored discussion that opposes your views.

Would you please move this thread back to the General area.



With LOVE.
________________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[kha zarr]

Has anyone watched David speak about his Ayahuasca experience? He talked about it I believe its on the internet somewhere. When I mentioned 'etheric mucous' - Im curious about the notion that psychedelics bring up issues inside you, for you to address. Terence Mckenna talked about this; and Ive talked w/friends whove used them for this; but I keep wondering to myself, is it a valid claim for that person? Or do these drugs actually inhibit ones ability to actually change those mental habits, and perhaps strengthen the hold of the ego-mind, rather than dissolve its negative habits? I seriously wanna know.

A rather extreme and possibly offensive example, not out of disrespect, is how native amazonian shamans use Ayahuasca to protect their land, to preserve the nature around them - through ritual use of it. Yet aren't they losing ground? Of course the police and army there out-weapon them, technologically, but surely this psychic spying method has worked before? They say this drug helps you to see into the future but does it really, or does it show you merely what you 'want' to see? Im just trying to push for an answer and cut through 'symbolic language' of words, just because Ive had so many conversations about it in the real world that never got a response, and Ive tried to word my feelings in different ways. Terence is right on this though: language is very important. It seems the notion of 'skeptic' and 'believer' are programmed to endlessly argue and fight with their respective language use, so it becomes difficult to really articulate what I'm trying to say, Im being as clear as I think I can be on it. Perhaps the Shamans are succeding, but havent got any successful media coverage. If so Id be interested to read about it.

A related question: Does pot, or does it not impede/restrict analytical memory or long term emotional/behavior patterns? Any studies on these I have a hard time finding, that really get into details. Perhaps b/c it doesnt impede, but is it possibly going on? Ive done mushrooms only once, [2 out of 5 intensity scale], and did pot on and off, infrequently, from 95-97 and 03-05. Nearly 30 now. I was always a relatively infrequent user b/c if I ever took one hit too many, or breathed it in too far or fast, Id get nauseous and would end up getting these anxiety attacks, even if I was so calm - which are known in some to happen from using pot. Anyway, the main response I get is its a totally subjective experience. Is it?

[edelweiss pirate]

Originally Posted by limelady
I am concerned about this thread and its possible influence on youngsters who may enter this forum. Despite what some may wish to believe, there ARE dangers involved in drug taking - ask any medical professional or social worker who has had to deal with the addicted. David Icke's name and reputation is involved here, and I don't believe this thread is really in keeping with the theme of his work, therefore I am taking this thread out of the general area and putting it into the medical/health.

Limelady

Your post is funny one Lime. Most people have come here because they have found their own way through life and we didn't come here to see our governement's attitides of 'complete control' reflected.

I don't actually think you'll find many 'youngsters' here Lime, so in order to protect a non existent audience you as moderator are expressing concern about this thread.

You are dictating your experiences on other people which I'm afraid is why this poor old world is in such a pickle. It just does not work like that.

We live in one world populated by 6 billion universes. Once size does not fit all. I think perhaps in this issues there is no absolute answer..

Some love weed some hate it.

I think that's as much a resolution to this issue as we're going to get.

I'm going for a smoke now (it's night, I've had a busy day in the hassle capital of the world: Cairo, I think I've earned it..)

Love all.
Pirate

[eternal_spirit]

Good on you pirate sounds like you've earned it enjoy.

So it's okay to drink you're drug? because it's legal in the UK and the USA.

Some countries it's not okay to drink you're drug becuase it's ilegal. Guess what marijuana is legal in these countries which is the socially acceptable normal thing to do.

Maybe they know how bad alcohol is and realise marijuana is a much better option physicaly and mentaly!

They also know that the plant has many other uses besides smoking, and does not damage the natural environment like other synthetic products, it is an asset to thier economy. Nothing is wasted even the stems and branches are put to use.

[i am all i am]

Good on you pirate sounds like you've earned it enjoy.

So it's okay to drink you're drug? because it's legal in the UK and the USA.

Some countries it's not okay to drink you're drug becuase it's ilegal. Guess what marijuana is legal in these countries which is the socially acceptable normal thing to do.

Maybe they know how bad alcohol is and realise marijuana is a much better option physicaly and mentaly!

They also know that the plant has many other uses besides smoking, and does not damage the natural environment like other synthetic products, it is an asset to thier economy. Nothing is wasted even the stems and branches are put to use.


G'day Eternal Spirit,

We get vilified for making our choice known.

But making your choice known about alcohol, is not only o.k., it's encouraged.

This is obviously the view that has moved this thread from the General area. We've been made out to be villians because we are apparently an "influence on youngsters".

When if we look at it objectively we can see through the accusations. Here are the statistics:

Nunmber of American deaths per year that result directly or primarily from...

Alcohol - 150,000+ (not including 50% of all highway deaths and 65% of all murders).

Marijuana - 0.


Of course this list doesn't include domestic violence, assault, drink driving, motor vehicle accidents, pub brawls, or any of the other problems that police have to deal with because of alcohol abuse. Nor does it cite the costs to everybody from the medical industry that deals with all of the above, as well as the known physical damage that alcohol abuse causes.

But it is the user of marijuana that gets vilified. We are told to not speak out about our marijuana usage because we will be an "influence on youngsters", and yet the influence of the majority of people that consume alcohol is not a consideration. And of course there is always the 'get out of jail card', that marijuana is illegal, alcohol isn't.

It is this attitude that has allowed the illuminati to control the population for so long. David Icke describes it as the baa-baa mentality and we have sheep dogs attempting to round up all of the marijuana users. To any and all that think I will follow . . . I AM ME, I AM FREE.


WE ARE THE POWER IN EVERYONE;
WE ARE THE DANCE OF THE MOON AND THE SUN;
WE ARE THE HOPE THAT WILL NEVER HIDE;
WE ARE THE TURNING OF THE TIDE.

- . . . and the truth shall set you free, by David Icke, from the Dedication.


To all those that use marijuana, WE ARE THE TURNING OF THE TIDE.


With LOVE.
____________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[limelady]

Cebsorship is when you don't allow people to say what they want to say, or you ban them from saying anything.

EVERY last word any of you have written on this thread is still here. I have merely asked you to PLEASE BE RESTRAINED in what you write due to the fact that marijuana is ILLEGAL and because it is not as harmless as some of you are convinced it is. Because young people DO visit this forum and red this information, I made a call that it would be more appropriate in the health/medical category. I have left a re-diret for others following this thread to find it.

Although David has used ayahuasca and has written about his controlled sharmanic experiences in Sth America (where ayahuasca is legal), in his books he also advisesl kids to stay well away from street drugs due to their affects on young brains and minds. Surely this is sensible advice? This is the David Icke forum and I'm merely respecting hiw views on this matter. You have not been sensored.....many threads have to be ,oved into more appropriate categories.

Thankyou

[jimijams]

I agree with Lime Lady here, pot is not harmless at all and I have had many people close to me effected in a very negative way by their addiction to it. I am a casual toker myself and I know the benefits pot can have, but lets also be realistic and acknowledge the potential destructive effects it can have on some peoples lives.

Moving the thread to a more appropriate forum was a good call IMO.

[i am all i am]

Cebsorship is when you don't allow people to say what they want to say, or you ban them from saying anything.

EVERY last word any of you have written on this thread is still here. I have merely asked you to PLEASE BE RESTRAINED in what you write due to the fact that marijuana is ILLEGAL and because it is not as harmless as some of you are convinced it is. Because young people DO visit this forum and red this information, I made a call that it would be more appropriate in the health/medical category. I have left a re-diret for others following this thread to find it.

Although David has used ayahuasca and has written about his controlled sharmanic experiences in Sth America (where ayahuasca is legal), in his books he also advisesl kids to stay well away from street drugs due to their affects on young brains and minds. Surely this is sensible advice? This is the David Icke forum and I'm merely respecting hiw views on this matter. You have not been sensored.....many threads have to be ,oved into more appropriate categories.

Thankyou


G'day Limelady.

This is not true.

You have removed the information from the General area, whilst leaving three other threads there that discuss the same topic. By removing this thread, you have censored the General area. You have banned this thread from where it was originally posted. We have been banned from discussing this thread on the General area. That is censorship.

Marijuana is not illegal everywhere. This is a worldwide forum where people on it are legally allowed to use marijuana where they live. Even in Australia this is the case, in Canberra and Adelaide it is not illegal. Amsterdam is a prime example.

Using David Icke as an excuse is going against what David has written. This is not his policy, it is yours. He wrote a book called 'I AM ME, I AM FREE'.Where is the freedom to openly discuss this topic in the General area where this thread was originally posted ?

THE GENERAL AREA HAS BEEN CENSORED OF THE INFORMATION WITHIN THIS THREAD.

Would you please return this thread to where it came from ? Thank you.


With LOVE.
_________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[eternal_spirit]

I think the law differs from state to state in the USA, same in Australia, some places you're allowed to grow at home a small amount for personal use. anyone clear this up?

Portugal they have cafes or bars with chairs outside, a girl I know who hardly ever smokes it, was on holiday and had a waterpipe. Parts of Spain is the same with clean good morrocan hashish cannabis resin imported from near by Morroco.

there was even talk of planning on opening up Amsterdam style cafes in London England, don't know if it will happen in the near future.

[kha zarr]

I understand your decision limelady, absolutely, David has said that Ive heard it. I think your decision is certainly reasonable - everything is still here, and its more about health than not. Health =whole=heal. Whats healing, and whats not.

Theres a group called Amorah Quan Yin like a pleadian lightwork sort of thing, found it last night - they do something called etheric cleansing, prior to initiation [Im more interested at this point in their or other methods of higher body cleansing] and I emailed them about drugs and etheric mucous connection [based on different psychic aura scans where said blockage was witnessed/percieved to be present] - still waiting to hear back, hopefully I will find something out from this. I suspect I may have some lingering blockage from this usage, but cant be sure as Im not psychic except about unimportant things lol.

Im interested to hear what type of reply I will get from them, b/c if the implication is right, than any and all perception altering substances, including pot, even beer, can over time, create some etheric blockages that we need to clear out - and how to reliably do it, becomes the real question. Im assuming its like Reiki but haven't found out yet. Ive heard a similar idea that says prolonged and repeated exposure to loud noises [noise pollution] can also cause another sort of etheric disruption. Most likely some sort of diet and lifestyle changes are involved, Im already making some dietary changes just in the sense of general physical health; I think I saw a debate on a site about 'are psychedelics good or bad for the mind' and they usually end up w/flaming but some were interesting to read. Hope I can find one or two its been a while since I saw them [didnt post on them then, just kinda read them].

[i am all i am]

I think the law differs from state to state in the USA, same in Australia, some places you're allowed to grow at home a small amount for personal use. anyone clear this up?

Portugal they have cafes or bars with chairs outside, a girl I know who hardly ever smokes it, was on holiday and had a waterpipe. Parts of Spain is the same with clean good morrocan hashish cannabis resin imported from near by Morroco.

there was even talk of planning on opening up Amsterdam style cafes in London England, don't know if it will happen in the near future.


G'day Eternal Spirit,

Adelaide.
Canberra.
Amsterdam.
Portugal.
Morroco.
Spain.
California.
Canada.

In none of these states or contries is marijuana illegal.

There are probably many others.

We are on the world wide web. Which countries or states law should we follow whilst we communicate in cyberspace ?

The excuses used for the removal of this thread from the General area are just that, excuses.

Thank you for your post and being willing to discuss the topic.


With LOVE.
___________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[eternal_spirit]

Thanks for the info iam all iam.

My parents where on holiday in Tunisia, and said the people where smoking something through water pipes and it didn't smell like tobacco lol. It has a sweet smell.

I think the main points in iam all iam's first posts contain alot of good info on the medicinal use, also the studies of the Rastafarians of Jamaica who use marijuana all the time and function well in their society.

If you look at the places where it's legal, you will notice these countrys are generally more peacefull in their nature.

Whens the last time Morroco or the Rastafarians started a war? never have as far as I know of.

[kha zarr]

Technically in canada pot is schedule II. Illegal.

Is there a site w/laws for diff. countries on pot? Cant find one.

[eternal_spirit]

Technically in canada pot is schedule II. Illegal.

Is there a site w/laws for diff. countries on pot? Cant find one.

I'll try find a better link

[eternal_spirit]

http://www.ccguide.org.uk/abroad.php

[edelweiss pirate]

Kha zarr wrote:

I understand your decision limelady, absolutely, David has said that Ive heard it. I think your decision is certainly reasonable - everything is still here, and its more about health than not. Health =whole=heal. Whats healing, and whats not.

Theres a group called Amorah Quan Yin like a pleadian lightwork sort of thing, found it last night - they do something called etheric cleansing, prior to initiation [Im more interested at this point in their or other methods of higher body cleansing] and I emailed them about drugs and etheric mucous connection [based on different psychic aura scans where said blockage was witnessed/percieved to be present] - still waiting to hear back, hopefully I will find something out from this. I suspect I may have some lingering blockage from this usage, but cant be sure as Im not psychic except about unimportant things lol.

Don't take this personally but I am actually more concerned by 'initiations' and 'pleadian lightwork'.. than a bit of nice chilling weed.

Will this person (no offence) be censored for discussing REALLY dangerous things like initiation and (to my mind) dangerous fantasies about Pleadians?

Since when have secret society initiations and imagining that you're talking to aliens been healthy? Mums, please tell your children not to look.

You see it's so subjective... For me the two above things are much more dangerous for the soul than dope... We're in mason/scientology territory there. Yet that passes without comment. 'Cept by me.

[i am all i am]

Sticky: Marijuana Facts
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It is probably good bud if it's "Sticky" !!!


With LOVE.
___________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[kha zarr]

dude of course im suspicious of that. i had a feeling it mightve been a bad idea. and i wasnt promoting this method necessarily, just that - see when you get into psychic territory and drugs, meanings can get confused.

Im not saying this is the way to go at all.

look, people have lots of ideas about weed etc so im gonna just stop its obviously pointless for me to mention it.

I never intended to promote this - kay? Its just that etheric blockage possibility noones talking about, so I thought to look for who does cleansing methods for it. that site happened to be one of only several on the subject. Its a new thing it looks like.

Censor me? please.

[edelweiss pirate]

Kha zarr,

I'd be careful with the new agers if I were you...

There's nothing that can't be unblocked with a run around the block a few times and a steaming hot bath of radox...

Hope you're not egged off mate, I was just making a point that we all have our own ideas about what we consider safe and dangerous..

Still all the same, be careful with those new agers... they're fluffy bunnies with teeth imv.....

[i am all i am]

Lets get this discussion going everyone.

I would love to hear feedback on this question.

Personally, I've written poetry and music.
I have used the energy building techniques from 'The Celestine Prophecy', by James Redfield, with marijuana (which opens the crown chakra) and a friend to connect to universal energies (the oneness) and gain insights.
I've used marijuana to sensitise the body for easier and greater access to physical signals for healing purposes.
I've used marijuana in conjunction with Nature (the Blue Mountains in N.S.W., plenty of trees around) to connect to the oneness, similar to a shamanic trip, but not quite as intense.

Well, there's a few things that I have used marijuana for.

Feel free to post your own uses and any experiences that accompanied your use of marijuana.


With LOVE.
__________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[edelweiss pirate]

Came home dead tired and thought all I was capable of would be going straight to bed... Instead decided to singe a fattie and immediately perked right up... put on some Suede, started singing, got my guitar from the corner, strumming along... Trying to play 'The Living Dead'..

Went into the room and started reading

Shamanic Wisdom in the pyramid texts by Jeremy Naydler and researched the Heb Sed festival and it got me thinking about the pyramids I've recently visited...

I also read the book with 'new eyes' and some things clicked into place like a life puzzle being put together....

BTW something amazing about the English language... It is a planned and devised code featuring in itself all of the wisdom of ancient Egypt!

True. Look: Sun = Son...

And 12 hours = 12 companions of horus

Sunset = death of Osiris at the hands of Set.

But get this: 'Remember'.... Re-member.

How about if we put that word in the context of the Osirian dismemberment. Osirus is reborn from death. Death being the hourney to the underworld of ego breakdown and identification with oneness (schizophrenia) His bodily members which were scattered by Set are symbolically reuntied (his compartmentalised, fractured post initiation schizophrenic brain is reunited into a whole), integrated ego fit again to function in the real world)

He becomes the man he was again.

He re-members!.

Then I had some beans and cheese and nice flat crispy Iraqi bread.

Then wrote some music and improvised for an hour on the guitar..

Now I'm here and I feel quite mellow!

BTW the pyramids are initiatory centres..definitely NOT tombs.. But we all knew that anyways right?

[kha zarr]

read 'ya loud and clear mate.

I havent heard back from that new-agey site, and don't expect to. When you ask direct questions w/new agers, you never get direct answers, thats something Ive found [not always, but much of the time].

I suppose Id better just find out these answers on my own then, seems safer. I can say I was going to, but who knows edleweisspirate you mightve just saved me some trouble!

LOL bunnies w/teeth, love it :D

reminds me of Monty python and that dangerous bunny. :eek:

Ive also read more recently that the SUN can unblock such things so - heh - a good jog, a good suntan can do the trick...I can probably attribute some of my poems to 'herb. It helped me to unlock the 'stream of consciousness' type of conversation, and, I remember telepathy seemed easier while in that state. Perhaps I need to read more McKenna. His talks are very interesting I cant deny this.

Opening the crown chakra? Interesting. I did notice once when I put my tongue to the roof of my mouth, while 'altered', I felt an electric tingle only while it touched. These are the two meridians down the middle of the body, front and back, making a circuit. Reminds me of that movie, altered states anyone saw it? Now, renegade, that was a crazy scene [near the end].

[i am all i am]

Came home dead tired and thought all I was capable of would be going straight to bed... Instead decided to singe a fattie and immediately perked right up... put on some Suede, started singing, got my guitar from the corner, strumming along... Trying to play 'The Living Dead'..

Went into the room and started reading

Shamanic Wisdom in the pyramid texts by Jeremy Naydler and researched the Heb Sed festival and it got me thinking about the pyramids I've recently visited...

I also read the book with 'new eyes' and some things clicked into place like a life puzzle being put together....

BTW something amazing about the English language... It is a planned and devised code featuring in itself all of the wisdom of ancient Egypt!

True. Look: Sun = Son...

And 12 hours = 12 companions of horus

Sunset = death of Osiris at the hands of Set.

But get this: 'Remember'.... Re-member.

How about if we put that word in the context of the Osirian dismemberment. Osirus is reborn from death. Death being the hourney to the underworld of ego breakdown and identification with oneness (schizophrenia) His bodily members which were scattered by Set are symbolically reuntied (his compartmentalised, fractured post initiation schizophrenic brain is reunited into a whole), integrated ego fit again to function in the real world)

He becomes the man he was again.

He re-members!.

Then I had some beans and cheese and nice flat crispy Iraqi bread.

Then wrote some music and improvised for an hour on the guitar..

Now I'm here and I feel quite mellow!

BTW the pyramids are initiatory centres..definitely NOT tombs.. But we all knew that anyways right?


G'day Edelweiss Pirate,

Thanks for the reply.

Re-member . . . is used in the 'Conversations with God' series, by Neale Donald Walsch. I started a thread in The Matrix/Nature of Reality area to discuss the concepts in the series.

That's a great insight you've gotten with the Horus analogy.

Horus - hours. The hours of the sun. The time it takes for enlightenment ???

Sunrise - the risen sun. The raising of enlightenment ???

Rebirth - Re the sun being born. God manifested physically ???

We could have a lot of fun with this.

I always 'get it' when I've had a smoke and read, the message seems easier to perceive. The 'new eyes' saying was really cool.

Have you ever had a smoke in a pyramid ? or smoked and then gone to one ?

I personally would love to smoke or 'room, or both, in a pyramid and either do tonals or play some music. I think the Kings chamber in the Great Pyramid would be ideal for it. Take some crystals, musical instruments, mushies, weed and have a session.

I had a thought 7 or 8 years ago, that the sracophagus of Tutankhamen (Tut-ankh-amen), was used as a deprivation chamber where you would meditate to conect with universal energies to gain insight/knowledge. The lapis lazuli to open up the third eye, the gold to open the crown chakra and connect with universal energies and the turquoise to strengthen and protect the meridian system.

Keep smoking brother.



With LOVE.
________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[i am all i am]

Opening the crown chakra? Interesting. I did notice once when I put my tongue to the roof of my mouth, while 'altered', I felt an electric tingle only while it touched. These are the two meridians down the middle of the body, front and back, making a circuit.


G'day Kha Zarr,

In wing Chun Kung Fu I was taught chi breathing with the tongue curled back up to the roof of the mouth to create an energy circuit. It is also the technique in Chi Gung (Qigung) for breathing exercises.

The 'tingle' is the flow of chi energy that runs through the body.

The circuit is represented as the crook and staff in Egyptian, Hebrew and Christian mythology (or thy rod and thy staff).



With LOVE.

_________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[edelweiss pirate]

Totally ace man... That's just what I was thinking today... Like the main chamber of a pyramid is a ganz room where the candidate is totally sealed off from the outside world, no sounds no distraction, complete isolation.

If the guy was dosed with something as part of the initiation you can just imagine what might be possible in such an environment..

I visited the temple of Kom Ombo recently it's really well preserved but the sanctuary is largely ruined with the floor plan visible.

There's a dual sanctuary where the pharoah would go and between the two sanctuaries there's a secret passage and a whole lot of underground tunnels.

It's been suggested that the priest would hide here and 'give voice' to the Gods.

I was also thinking what if people dressed up a Anubis and Osiris and the other Gods and kind of 'magically' appeared to the pharaoh...

He would think he'd seen the Gods themselves and the priests would applaud themselves over a clever little magic show..

[i am all i am]

'The Secret in the Bible' by Tony Bushby shows plans of an underground tunnel system between the three pyramids and the Sphinx on the Giza plateau. He links it up to the 'Book of the Dead', the 22 glyphs of the Hebrew alphabet, the 22 Major Arcana cards of the Tarot deck in which is hidden the 22 glyphs and is actually the 'Book of Thoth'.

The 22 chambers recorded in the 'book of the Dead' are . . .

1. Chamber of Ordeal.

2. The Royal Arch of the Solstice.

3. Hall of Initiates.

4. Temple of the Grand Orbit.

5. The Well of Life.

6. The Hall of Truth in Light.

7. The Temple of Isis.

8. The Hall (or Door) of Descent.

9. The Hall of Truth in Darkness.

10. The passage of the Veil.

11. The Chamber of the Second Birth.

12. The Hall of Judgement.

13. The Stone of God.

14. Chamber of the Triple Veil.

15. The Gate of Death.

16. Chamber of the Open Tomb.

17. The Instrument of Resurrection.

18. The Gate of Coming Forth by Day.

19. The Chamber of Upside-Down-ness.

20. The Throne of Radiance.

21. The Passage of Descent.

22. The False Door (or Hidden Door).


The glyphs are a representation of the shadows cast by light upon the physical representation of the double-helix, or DNA, strand. It looks like a snake standing upright on its tail. This is why it's said that the Bible is written in the 'Word of God'. The 22 glyphs are aspects of the DNA, or the language of Creation.



With LOVE.
_______________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[eternal_spirit]

Great posts :D ^^^ Of course the Sun is God, if the planets in our Solar System where formed by the sun, we also are made of the Sun, God being the creator etc. Some of the texts in the major religions are symbolic of the Sun. Example..... God up in the heavens, he is the light etc

The older religions the Egyptians and others ( the builders of Stonehenge and other places which are obviously places of Sun worship) solstice, equinox death and rebirth of the sun.

[kha zarr]

Know whats interesting about the great pyramid? Its the only pyramid in egypt that has 'air shafts'. Perhaps these are intergalactic telepathic 'phone lines' into the universe, and not merely construction features. Just an idea I heard somewhere.

Napoleon went to the Great Pyramid and asked to be left alone. What did he experience, perhaps hear?

http://gizapyramid.com/history.htm

http://gizapyramid.com/DrV-article.htm

Anyone try meditating in a pyramid [you can like buy these things]?

Its also interesting some reggae music talks about meditation and ganja, and the religious significance of it in Rastafarianism - anyone know how its used within that structure? Im curious.

[kha zarr]

oh yeah, you have solar system. SOL = SOUL. Or something.

I really need to get Tony Bushby's book.

[i am all i am]

oh yeah, you have solar system. SOL = SOUL. Or something.

I really need to get Tony Bushby's book.


G'day Kha Zarr,

Actually Sol comes from Sol Invictus, the Roman sun God.

Deus Sol Invictus = the Undefeated sun God.


Tony Bushby

'The Bible Fraud'.
'The Secret in the Bible'
'Crucifixion of Truth'
'The Twin Deception' (this one I haven't read)

I can definitely recommend the first three books. Amazing stuff.

Here's a link to a page at rense.com that talks about the Bible Fraud.
http://www.rense.com/general66/hide.htm

Happy reading.



With LOVE.
__________________________________

WHEN PAIRED OPPOSITES DEFINE YOUR BELIEFS, YOUR BELIEFS WILL IMPRISON YOU.

[chattanova]

'' if everyone had smoked weed once in a while, the world would been a better place '' -Kirsten Dunst

[loveforall]

reading the agenda paper (newspaper) on sunday i came across kirsten dunst saying that she enjoyed smoking pot and the world would be a better place. i think if we chose to make the world a better place with infinite love and light it would be a much better place for ALL.

however does she know something we all do indeed...weed would bring to the fore the deep emotions we hide within ourselves. she does say that her best friend´s dad was a huge consumer of the green bud. that´s all well and jolly but who is her best friends dad? Astronomer Carl Sagan. i have wrote this before but i will do it again. Ickey says Sagan knew a lot more than he was saying and quotes Sagan a few times, also al gore says in that global crock that his "good friend Carl Sagan". al gore is tommy lee jones´cousin. jones stars in men in black...dunst stars in spider man, spider man has that infamous hand signal. she also acts in devils arithmetic, a story about a girl who goes back in time to the holocaust. so connect the dots...

peace and love

[lottie]

ahhh haaaa!! the plot thickens.....!! :D

[purpledream]

So who can get me some then?

[chattanova]

So who can get me some then?

I think I'm too far away from you to do that:)

[purpledream]

I think I'm too far away from you to do that:)

Hey I will be in Norway in June, sadly for only one day. But I doubt they would let me take it back on the ship with me anyway. :D

[i am all i am]

http://3gold.com/pictures/avatar/47.gif

Be free.

With LOVE.

[chattanova]

Hey I will be in Norway in June, sadly for only one day. But I doubt they would let me take it back on the ship with me anyway. :D

:) Thats true .
But you're lucky living in UK, I think they are more liberal on marijuana there than mostly other places..
Isn't it ''de-criminalized'' there? ( I dont know what the word is in english:( )

http://http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/9595/ganjaleaftmfcs4.gif (http://imageshack.us)

[chattanova]

anyway, here's a link to a great smokers-page http://www.jointen.dk/

http://http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9457/x1paiu4hyfykfw9i90i9m8mep6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[2013]

Know whats interesting about the great pyramid? Its the only pyramid in egypt that has 'air shafts'. Perhaps these are intergalactic telepathic 'phone lines' into the universe, and not merely construction features. Just an idea I heard somewhere.

Napoleon went to the Great Pyramid and asked to be left alone. What did he experience, perhaps hear?

http://gizapyramid.com/history.htm

http://gizapyramid.com/DrV-article.htm

Anyone try meditating in a pyramid [you can like buy these things]?

Its also interesting some reggae music talks about meditation and ganja, and the religious significance of it in Rastafarianism - anyone know how its used within that structure? Im curious.

I know a bloke who went to egypt and whilst in the chamber of the pyramid statred intoningthe ohm sound .The guards there went menatla he said and started shouting at him to stop something about him disapperaing lol .He know has a pyramid in his garden for meditating in must go and see him , he lives in the house that my partner first lived in when she was married so good synchronicity .As for the rastafarians religious use of herb lots on google check it out , what do u think moses was talking to when he spoke to god in the burning bush .The ancient hebrews burnt kanabosm in tents called tabernacles to get closer to god .:D

[i am all i am]

I know a bloke who went to egypt and whilst in the chamber of the pyramid statred intoningthe ohm sound .The guards there went menatla he said and started shouting at him to stop something about him disapperaing lol .He know has a pyramid in his garden for meditating in must go and see him , he lives in the house that my partner first lived in when she was married so good synchronicity .As for the rastafarians religious use of herb lots on google check it out , what do u think moses was talking to when he spoke to god in the burning bush .The ancient hebrews burnt kanabosm in tents called tabernacles to get closer to god .:D

Great info dude, way cool.

Could the tent have been "the house of God" where they communicated with the creator ???

Here's a link to a thread that I started in the 'Conspiracies' area relating to marijuana......

http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?p=33360#post33360


With LOVE.

[2013]

wiked post spot on info both from that book and the original story of the emporers new clothes always liked that one .

leave the oil alone this world is our home
the earth is bleeding , so go and start weeding :D !
plant the seed its all we need
and you will find we've all been free'd

BUDDHISTS (Tibet, India, and China)From the 5th Century B.C.E. on ritually used cannabis; initiation rites and mystical experiences were (are) common in many Chinese Buddhist Sects. Some Tibetan Buddhists and lamas (priests) consider cannabis their most holy plant. Many Buddhist traditions, writings, and beliefs indicate that "Siddhartha" (the Buddha) himself, used and ate nothing but hemp and its seeds for six years prior to announcing (discovering) his truths and becoming the Buddha (Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path).

Siddhartha seeking enlightenment sat for years beneath a tree meditating , finaly giving up he travelled on , until one day he met an old stoner , hey man what u up 2 said he , trying to find enlightenment says our sidd , get your lips round this baby says the stoner .Sidd inhales deeply contemplates silently then smiles ,he looks at the stoner and says slowly as realisation dawns BUD AHHH:D :cool: :p

big P.S thanks 4 the healing man you and oneofmany ? lumunkanda?and one other person were doing deep cell scanning of my system few nights back astrally cant recal totally who other 2 or 3 were just know that u were all in there with me working thanks again wether you recal on this level or not .peace n love brothers

[2013]

http://cannabis.net/articles/jesus-cannabis.html

hey iam check this link out and google many more its all there for those with eyes to see:D incidently it does cure glaucoma as well .

The word Christ does mean "the anointed one" and Bennett contends that Christ was anointed with chrism, a cannabis-based oil.

holy anointing oil was used by the shamanic Levite priesthood to receive the "revelations of the Lord". The chosen ones were drenched in this potent cannabis oil.
:D
this was also linked from the site a news report look carefully at the date .
Men who smoke marijuana frequently have significantly less seminal fluid, a lower total sperm count and their sperm behave abnormally, all of which may affect fertility adversely, a new study in reproductive physiology at the University at Buffalo has show
Results of the study were presented today (Oct. 13, 2003) at the annual meeting of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine in San Antonio.

october the 13th was the day the french monarchy and the vatican moved against the templars and wiped them out by torture and mass witch trials , hence the date friday the 13th of october forever became known as unlucky friday the 13th .:(

[i am all i am]

http://cannabis.net/articles/jesus-cannabis.html

hey iam check this link out and google many more its all there for those with eyes to see:D incidently it does cure glaucoma as well .

The word Christ does mean "the anointed one" and Bennett contends that Christ was anointed with chrism, a cannabis-based oil.

holy anointing oil was used by the shamanic Levite priesthood to receive the "revelations of the Lord". The chosen ones were drenched in this potent cannabis oil.
:D
this was also linked from the site a news report look carefully at the date .
Men who smoke marijuana frequently have significantly less seminal fluid, a lower total sperm count and their sperm behave abnormally, all of which may affect fertility adversely, a new study in reproductive physiology at the University at Buffalo has show
Results of the study were presented today (Oct. 13, 2003) at the annual meeting of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine in San Antonio.

october the 13th was the day the french monarchy and the vatican moved against the templars and wiped them out by torture and mass witch trials , hence the date friday the 13th of october forever became known as unlucky friday the 13th .:(

G'day 2013.

Thanks for the link brother.

I've just searched the house attempting to find an article that I have about Jesus, marijuana and the annointing oil. I've also read about this. Interesting stuff. If and when I find it, I'll post it here for you.


With LOVE.

[i am all i am]

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=85505&pid=1491444&mode=threaded&start=

This is sourced from the link below, but it has other links at the bottom of the page as well....

http://www.cannabisculture.com/backissues/cc11/christ.html

With LOVE.

[chattanova]

Great links guys http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4296/ganja3wu7.jpg

[loveemotion]

I believe, if you smoke pot with people who have negative energy or vibration.. it will transfer into you... it's like an old saying in Russia.. You Are, who you hang around with.

But if you smoke with people with good vibration... all you do is laugh.. no stress, love is in the air.

[i am all i am]

I believe, if you smoke pot with people who have negative energy or vibration.. it will transfer into you...

Exactly Loveemotion.

Well said !!!

It's hard to soar like an eagle when you hang with turkeys !!!


With LOVE. http://www.lifeshore.com/smiley/data/media/3/3D_emoticon_S36.gif

[ho1ogram]

G'day i, if you go here.. http://store.hempest.com/catalog/aboutus.php You can link to the videos listed below. My bandwidth is throttled again (four days into the month, sheeeet, 1 gig doesn't go far) so I haven't seen them.

Video Posts

Please share some of the educational materials below with as many people as you can..

- Check out some photos of our Bio-diesel HEMP VAN...

- Check out Hemp Foods on the Today Show....

- Hemp...the new(old) superfood......

- Wanna see a hemp crop harvested for food??.. (too bad it's illegal in the land of the free)

- Isochanvre - Hemp used as a building material...(stronger than cement & 1/6th the weight)

- Great video about hemp paper ..... (how can we still clear cut forests in this day and age??)

LOTS MORE COMING SOON!!!

They've got hemp clothes too.
Cheers, h.

[umbrex]

Nice posts, i haven't read all.

I am what u can call a "heavy-user". I have smoked weed for 10 years on and off, but in particular over the last 2 years.

Why do i smoke ?
I smoke for several reasons, allow me to elaborate =)

Escape
Addiction
Boredom
Fun
Entalgement in the web of my mind
Performance
Experimentation
Social
etc.

Having had a long time (ab)use i have experienced alot of different stages of being high, altogether determined by:

Activity or lack thereof.
Being around other people
-good people
-bad people
Being alone
Exploring yourself

The thing which wonders me is the fact that some people seem to be able to handle a long time (ab)use of weed and others don't.
I have experienced that if i'm active, exploring or being amoungst friends weed takes the effect of a catalyst in a positive direction. If you make an effort to make somthing happen you arent as tied up in your stoner as if you would just watch a movie or similar.

But i wonder a bit about this, what is your oppinion/experience ?

Keeping yourself active is sort of a safetybelt when your smoking weed, but i also wonder if some people have the disposition for a long time use while others don't, or can it simply be activity factors alone which causes it ?

Also regarding weed (since we're on topic:))
From what ive read, noone can really explain why you get the monkies, but i have a theory =)

When im sick i allways make sure i have got some weed, it simply makes the process so much easier. But the last few times i have been sick it has been related to my stomack. Like as if my bouls were twisting and streching - hurting like h...
This just comes to a full stop when im smoking weed and the effect is almost immideate.

So i specualte that weed relaxes your entire body, including intestines - easing the flow of digested food, accellerating the digestion and creating a acut hunger.

Rather pointless post, but anyways :P

[eternal_spirit]

I used to get bad withdrawal symtoms without it. there is a section on this in any good medical book. So you're stomach problems could be related to this.

I smoked for 21 years almost everday. It's been hell packing in, not by choice but mainly financial reasons.

The head aches are the worst, I get them almost every day, but I'm hoping in time they will go away. If I hadn't smoke for a few days the headaches would start getting bad. I know If i smoke a couple of spliffs the headaches would go away within half an hour.

[eternal_spirit]

Umbrex if you refer to monkies as paranoia? I'm more paranoid with out weed and have less energy, this is after more than two months with just the occasional toke once a week at the moment.( to deal with my headaches)

Depends what type you're smoking too. I awlays found a good Morrocan hashish is a good all round elixer ;) some people get off on different types.

[umbrex]

Umbrex if you refer to monkies as paranoia? I'm more paranoid with out weed and have less energy, this is after more than two months with just the occasional toke once a week at the moment.( to deal with my headaches)

Depends what type you're smoking too. I awlays found a good Morrocan hashish is a good all round elixer ;) some people get off on different types.

Nono, the monkies is when u just bingeeat :)

And regarding your energy:
A couple of friends of mine, my sis and i have actually discussed this. The thing is that while you are smoking weed, your energylevels are much lower then whilst not smoking.
So if you smoke non stop for a period of 21 years (...) your body is going to get used to it, and fatigue will show within the first day or 2 of not smoking. Hence giving you a feeling that u need weed to maintain your energylevel, but in reality, ur just slowing yourself down!

Not that i am ever so much more clever or experienced then you, but depsite my young age (22) i "have been around" in this particular field of drugs and marijuana. I have helped to create (not join) self help groups for young people and made speaches for junior high kids.
So i would defenatly stay on the path which you are currently on. After all, 21 years of smoking weed is going to leave its toll, and i know the feeling of despair all to well.

But how are you living ?

If you are not living a healthy life, i would reccomend you to start changing your ways and habbits. Eat vitamins and ginseng for the extra energy. Excesise regularly (i cannot stress this enough). Pick up some other activities or get a hobby.

Make sure you have the best possibility of recovering yourself, you are the only one who can do it :)

Hope it helps - Umbrex

[eternal_spirit]

Umbrex, marijuana has it's best effects when talken on it's own, it's when you mix it with other drugs, you'll have problems, I'm speaking from experience personally and people I've known through out my life.

A good example is this, people who take ectasy or drink alcohol mix it with marijuana then blame the marijuana for messing them up, it's the other stuff that's messed them up.

I've taken most drugs known to man, but smoked pot and drank coffee for about ten years, without taking anything else. I've created my best music from doing this, had the best sex, followed a good exercise routine and a vegetarian diet.

Think you have a point about my body becoming realiable on pot, I have a theory that it changed the chemicals in my body and brain and maybe changed my DNA. I feel shit without it. I long to live somewhere that it grows naturally out n the woods....... :D

[umbrex]

ecstacy + MJ = instant memoryloss
The best times in my life has been erased, but i know they were the best :)

What kind of music did u do, and under what name ??

[eternal_spirit]

ecstacy + MJ = instant memoryloss
The best times in my life has been erased, but i know they were the best :)

What kind of music did u do, and under what name ??


lol, Guitar stuff. I'm trying to figure out how to make my music files smaller from an acid music program files and convert them into mp3(waiting for my freind to show me he plays a great slap bass) so hopefully I'll post a link in the forum soon.

Done most styles, but created a few new ones I think, somes experimental and futurisic guitar music I call it lol. Everything from acoustic to electric with effects. Incidentally I knew two drummers I used to play with both dead now, one from a heroin overdose.

chhers for the advice anway. ;)

[umbrex]

lol, Guitar stuff. I'm trying to figure out how to make my music files smaller from an acid music program files and convert them into mp3(waiting for my freind to show me he plays a great slap bass) so hopefully I'll post a link in the forum soon.

Done most styles, but created a few new ones I think, somes experimental and futurisic guitar music I call it lol. Everything from acoustic to electric with effects. Incidentally I knew two drummers I used to play with both dead now, one from a heroin overdose.

chhers for the advice anway. ;)


Np, good vibes from denmark :D

[i am all i am]

Here's some videos to watch...

Medical marijuana for ADD and its good for kids! 4:24min

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yj72e5q61Fs


Medical Marijuana in California High School 4:04min

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uHWaU3FYPg4


Irvin Rosenfeld HB 5470 Michigan Medical Marijuana Testimony 10:23 min

http://youtube.com/watch?v=B1NggzEkltM


Rhiannon is a classic, very cool...

The Marijuana Report with Rhiannon Rose Part 2 6:41 min

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_FhXqcK1_Vo


Jack Herer author of "The Emporer Wears No Clothes"...


Hemp for Victory! 13:43 min

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WkroOQT-84Q

Hemp (Marijuana) was outlawed in 1937. By WWII America needed lots of Cannabis Hemp. Note the warning and the "Special Tax Stamp: Producer of Marihuana" (beginning at 2:44).

This 1942 USDA film was long denied by the U.S. government until Jack Herer, author of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" http://www.jackherer.com/chapters.html & friends proved the U.S, government did, indeed, make this short film. The film contains loads of history.

Support cannabis hemp being free again. Thank you Jack Herer.

JACK HERER ON HEMP 5:24 min

http://youtube.com/watch?v=v5x6XghHPEw


Jack Herer explains why hemp is the #1 Natural resource 7:15 min

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lhr1n3da_50


Jack Herer Nov. 1996 Amsterdam 8:48 min

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zfVCnAgZQK0


Jack Herer's first time on grass 7:10 min

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DM9LL8vF8V8


GRASS - The War on Drugs - narrated by Woody Harrelson 1:19 min

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5472332679367311144

http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/1391/x1paiu4hyfykfw9i90i9m8mqu1.gif http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/1391/x1paiu4hyfykfw9i90i9m8mqu1.gif http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/1391/x1paiu4hyfykfw9i90i9m8mqu1.gif http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/1391/x1paiu4hyfykfw9i90i9m8mqu1.gif http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/1391/x1paiu4hyfykfw9i90i9m8mqu1.gif http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/1391/x1paiu4hyfykfw9i90i9m8mqu1.gif http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/1391/x1paiu4hyfykfw9i90i9m8mqu1.gif

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/1741/shroompotgw4.gif




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[pacoquerak]

Hey, I have had an experience with marijuana that I would like to share with everyone. I have been reading scattered information that marijuana can slow down or even beat out malignant and benign tumors. I had a HPV (tumor) in my vocal cords from when I was 7 until now (20) and have had 9 surgeries where I was put to sleep and operated on with lasers. This caused a great deal of memory loss and trauma, but I got through it with some reefer which I picked up at 17. Throughout that time I have been a non-smoker, light smoker, casual smoker and heavy smoker. Only for a short time did I every try tobacco and I got sick of it quite quick. However, soon affter I started using canibus my voice began to get less gravely and became much louder and more full. The last time I had my HPV examined (no surgery) it was under 1/50th it's original size! I can not say for sure if marijuana cured me, but there is a fair ammount of evidance that says it has the ability of that aplication, it may very well be true. If you know someone who is dieing of cancer, I suggest either way they might as well smoke a ton of pot and eat it too, since it will deffinatly help them with their pain and might even save them! If you have something scimilar to what I had, then i suggest you ingest it oraly of mabee try vaporizing it!

I know that it is true marijuana is a cleaner of your capilaries and such, though if you are sick you probobly want to eat it or vaporize it. I have had such bad phlegm that I was unable to speak, but affter a good vaporizer session I was completly cleared! Of course, this depends on your illness as it does not allways help. oh well, nothing is perfect and pot comes about the closes to perfect that exists!

[ho1ogram]

G'day pacoquerak, marijuana works in a holistic way. It improves the functioning of our unconscious activities like breathing, heart beat, digestive processes, etc, (the autonomic nervous system ANS). To me this means it also helps to balance things at a cellular level. It is at the unconcsious/subconscious level where most dis-ease comes from I reckon...

The simultaneous opposing action of marijuana is akin to balancing our entire system. Such balance in the ANS can be understood as a charged equilibrium, which is defined as “well-being” experienced as physiological expansion and psychological contentment and responsible for health. (p. 29)

Although specific effects of marijuana in the body are well known, each has been taken in isolation without noting that both sides of the Autonomic Nervous System are conjoined. Instead of a perspective that sees the whole person and the simple holistic effect of marijuana, a myopic and reductionistic method of measurement has been employed, and marijuana’s profound meaning for health has been lost. (p. 31)

Marijuana ingestion has been shown to change the worried state by producing alpha waves, experienced as well being. (p. 36)

When we ingest marijuana, the heart swells through capillary enhancement and is fueled more by more fully oxygenated blood, while, at the same time, its contractions and expansions are greater, allowing for stronger pumping action to the rest of the body (p. 37)

As rigidity in the body is released or reduced by the action of marijuana, there is a corresponding reduction of mental tension that translates into a feeling of expansion and well being and explains the reverential attitude commonly expressed by marijuana lovers. (p. 39)

The marijuana experience itself does not miraculously cure. Instead, it allows the body a respite from the tensions of imbalance, while exposing the mental confusion of the mind. The marijuana experience of balance becomes a learned and, over time, somewhat permanent response as the essential human tendency to homeostasis is reawakened and the natural healing process restored. (p. 49)

For a serious psychosomatic disease such as cancer, the benefits to be derived from marijuana cannot be overstated:
1. The causal element of unconscious (repressed) pain can be ferreted out.
2. The breath can be restored to fullness, thereby eliminating directly the built up toxicity and, at the same time, enjoining balance throughout the whole organism. A depressed system is a weakened system, and since it works holistically, marijuana gives strength where weakness exists, and expansion and relaxation where there is contraction and nervousness.
3. The more richly oxygenated blood that is in effect with marijuana can help to cleanse the poisons at the cellular level.
4. And a broader perspective through activation of the entire brain leads to positive feelings and thus eliminates the usual and debilitating attitudes so common in cancerhelplessness, depression, fear, resignation, and dread. (p. 60)

Application of Marijuana:

In a Costa Rican study, it was found that chronic marijuana smokers who also smoked cigarettes were less likely to develop cancer than cigarette smokers who didn’t use marijuana. Since marijuana (smoking, as well as ingestion by other methods) dilates the alveoli, toxins are more easily eliminated with cannabis use regardless of its method of application. Nicotine, on the other hand, constricts the alveoli, so it is likely that the use of cannabis neutralizes, or even overwhelms the constriction, by its own tendency to dilation ...As an aid for all psychosomatic disease, marijuana can benefit the participant, generally because of its health-restoring effects... The fear of marijuana... stems from its limitless potential for treating illness, in that both the pharmaceutical industry and the medical monopoly would lose billions of dollars if marijuana became the non-drug of choice. (p. 61)
http://www.benefitsofmarijuana.com/benefits.html

[auron]

Great story there mate! I hope your vocal cords fully heal in time. :)

I know that it is true marijuana is a cleaner of your capilaries and such, though if you are sick you probobly want to eat it or vaporize it. I have had such bad phlegm that I was unable to speak, but affter a good vaporizer session I was completly cleared! Of course, this depends on your illness as it does not allways help. oh well, nothing is perfect and pot comes about the closes to perfect that exists!
I'd also suggest getting plenty of fresh air, you know go for walks in nature around woodlands. It really helps clear your lungs out.

Take care man!

Auron http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5008/jointun9.gif

[ashyr]

hehe im a hardout bud smoker also =D.

its the one thing i have refused to quit for over 13 years. =/
its just so damn fine.

nothing like inhaling a fresh pungent smelly skunk into your lungs and getting that nice mellowing hit.

BTW thers a nice plant called "MULLEN" which has these weird fibres when u smoke it . acts like throwing sawdust on paint/oil and builds it into matter that your lungs will remove. its a well known medical herb for quitting smoking clearing the lungs etc.

[i am all i am]

Hey, I have had an experience with marijuana that I would like to share with everyone. I have been reading scattered information that marijuana can slow down or even beat out malignant and benign tumors. I had a HPV (tumor) in my vocal cords from when I was 7 until now (20) and have had 9 surgeries where I was put to sleep and operated on with lasers. This caused a great deal of memory loss and trauma, but I got through it with some reefer which I picked up at 17. Throughout that time I have been a non-smoker, light smoker, casual smoker and heavy smoker. Only for a short time did I every try tobacco and I got sick of it quite quick. However, soon affter I started using canibus my voice began to get less gravely and became much louder and more full. The last time I had my HPV examined (no surgery) it was under 1/50th it's original size! I can not say for sure if marijuana cured me, but there is a fair ammount of evidance that says it has the ability of that aplication, it may very well be true. If you know someone who is dieing of cancer, I suggest either way they might as well smoke a ton of pot and eat it too, since it will deffinatly help them with their pain and might even save them! If you have something scimilar to what I had, then i suggest you ingest it oraly of mabee try vaporizing it!

I know that it is true marijuana is a cleaner of your capilaries and such, though if you are sick you probobly want to eat it or vaporize it. I have had such bad phlegm that I was unable to speak, but affter a good vaporizer session I was completly cleared! Of course, this depends on your illness as it does not allways help. oh well, nothing is perfect and pot comes about the closes to perfect that exists!

G'day Pacoquerak.

Thanks for your post and sharing your story.

I met a South African guy in London when over there that said that his mother cured herself from cancer and accredited marijuana as the factor for this.


http://www.lifeshore.com/smiley/data/media/3/3D_emoticon_S34.gif With LOVE. http://www.lifeshore.com/smiley/data/media/3/3D_emoticon_S36.gif

[i am all i am]

hehe im a hardout bud smoker also =D.

its the one thing i have refused to quit for over 13 years. =/
its just so damn fine.

nothing like inhaling a fresh pungent smelly skunk into your lungs and getting that nice mellowing hit.

BTW thers a nice plant called "MULLEN" which has these weird fibres when u smoke it . acts like throwing sawdust on paint/oil and builds it into matter that your lungs will remove. its a well known medical herb for quitting smoking clearing the lungs etc.

G'day Ashyr.

When I quit smoking cigarettes I started smoking marijuana straight. I was coughing up this brown shit from my lungs and thought that it might be the bong, so I started smoking buckets. It kept happening until it all cleared. So I hear you on the clearing of the lungs.


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[eberhard]

Thanks for sharing sehr gute Informationen, die so interessant sein wird.

Es wird zwar jetzt für Marihuana viele Menschen so viele Gesichter Problem, es völlig Gefahr für Menschen.

Die moralische Argumente für und gegen Marihuana sind zahlreich. Es ist ein leistungsfähiges und psychotropen illegale Droge auf den meisten Konten. Es hat eine exponentiell höheren THC-Gehalt als es üblich ist Vorgänger aus dem vergangenen Hippie-Ära. Es könnte eine echte Gefahr werden, wenn es am Ende in die falschen Hände, vor allem junge Hände. Und schließlich ist es Rauch eingeatmet, dass in der Regel ist es, hoch, was natürlich schädlich für die Lunge und Kehle seines Raucher ist. Marihuana-Effekt auf das Gehirn ist nicht vollständig geklärt, und es kann sicherlich nicht gesagt, dass Topf ist sicher. Wir haben einfach nicht, dass aus wissenschaftlicher oder medizinischer Sicht noch nicht.cannabis samen (http://www.ministryofcannabis.com/de/)

[charas]

New experiments showed that smoking cannabis in early pregnancies could cause many problems like miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and developmental abnormalities.

These problems may occur due to the present of THC, the chemical in cannabis that gives the high. This chemical may change the balance of natural signaling molecules in the reproductive systems that regulate development and implantation of the embryo in the womb.

In the experiment, nine pregnant mice were injected with THC and then killed to see what happens to the embryos. The results showed that all the embryos were stopped in the oviduct, the tube linking the ovary to the uterus, and could not proceed to the uterus. This resembles human ectopic pregnancy in which an embryo implants elsewhere instead of the uterus. Those mice who didn’t receive the chemical had normal pregnancies.
Besides implanting elsewhere, the embryos of the mice given the THC, had more cell abnormalities, which means that developmental problem could occur and lead to miscarriage.

Men are not protected from the cannabis harm. Previous researchers showed that men who smoked cannabis produced less semen and had less sperm.

So they did not test with cannabis, they just injected them with thc?
Pretty much an irelivent test.

[zen20]

Fair enough it's good for you but what people don't realize is that when you're smoking (good weed) it's most likely had a bunch of other chemicals added in which aint good for you. The PH levels have been messed with a lot.

[exclamatio]

Fair enough it's good for you but what people don't realize is that when you're smoking (good weed) it's most likely had a bunch of other chemicals added in which aint good for you. The PH levels have been messed with a lot.

an excellent reason to legalise!

[tenzingnorgay]

Nice thread