← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Angler
Thread ID: 16968 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2005-02-25
2005-02-25 20:11 | User Profile
*For the record, I'm not interested in smoking pot or doing other drugs apart from alcohol in moderation (and caffeine to excess). Nevertheless, I feel quite strongly that marijuana is a relatively harmless substance (it's certainly less harmful than alcohol) that clearly should not be targeted by that cash cow of the police/pigs known as the "War on Drugs." Pot can even be indispensible for many people. For example, many cancer patients rely on pot as an antiemetic and appetite stimulant, and people who oppose its use for such medicinal purposes deserve to be shot for their callousness. The following story suggests another possible use for medical pot.
-Angler*
[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1424017,00.html[/url]
Cannabis may help prevent Alzheimer's memory loss
Ben Sills in Madrid and Ian Sample Thursday February 24, 2005
Guardian
Scientists at one of Spain's leading research centres claimed yesterday to have found evidence that cannabis helps prevent the memory loss experienced by people suffering from Alzheimer's.
The potential breakthrough in understanding a disease that affects nearly half a million people in Britain, and around nine million worldwide, was made by a team led by MarÃÂa de Ceballos at the Cajal Institute in Madrid.
Their study seems to show that THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis, inhibits the activity of cells that cause damage to neurons in the brain.
Although the study is preliminary, it was welcomed by patient groups.
"Right now, there are no good drugs for Alzheimer's. There are some that treat symptoms but nothing that halts the disease," said Susanne Sorensen, head of research at the Alzheimer's Society.
While the beneficial effects of cannabis looked promising, Dr Sorensen cautioned that people with Alzheimer's should not start using the drug to help their memories, because of side effects.
Memory loss in Alzheimer's patients is not fully understood, but part of the problem is thought to lie with cells called microglia that surround neurons in the brain. In Alzheimer's, the activity of microglia gets out of control, damaging neurons and killing off parts of the brain. Dr de Ceballos's team conducted two separate experiments using human brain tissue and rats which showed that THC inhibits the activity of microglia, thus reducing memory loss.
Dr de Ceballos said the results showed that THC could help prevent memory loss in Alzheimer's patients, although the reasons why this might happen are still to be explored.
The next stage, she said, would be to test the rats using a synthetic equivalent of THC which inhibits the activity of microglia without intoxicating the rats as well.
"There's a long way to go before we will know if it is actually possible to stop the progression of Alzheimer's," she said.
2005-02-26 01:05 | User Profile
Pot may reduce memory loss???
Talk about having to re-adjust one's thinking.
On a more serious note, if a little pot can help someone suffering with cancer and/or alzheimers, I say let 'em have it.
P.S.: Note to the "monitors". I do not use or condone the use of drugs.
2005-02-26 01:23 | User Profile
There was a particularly disgusting case in New Zealand a few years ago where a paraplegic who was using pot for pain relief (it was the only thing that worked) dared to defy the authorities by declaring publically that he was going to grow his own marijuana and didn't care who knew. He was thrown in jail for his troubles, where his condition deteriorated rapidly without proper pain relief to the extent that he attempted "self-harm" in his cell. He was also repeatedly victimised by other inmates (tipped out of his wheelchair for laughs etc) without intervention or protection from the prison authorities.
Stories of petty harrassment and prosecution of medicinal marijuana users by the police are not uncommon either. Hard to believe that these horror stories don't engender more moral outrage in the community. It's unbelievable how callous people can be sometimes when confronted with the suffering of individuals who are not members of one of society's annointed victim groups, and there is no "compassionate liberal" gravitas associated with championing their cause.
2005-02-26 13:23 | User Profile
Pot is not totally harmless, but it isn't particularly harmful, either. It belongs in the same class of drugs as alcohol and caffeine, not the same class with cocaine and methamphetamine. If it is acceptable for people to use painkillers that may cause heart attacks, I fail to see the problem with people using marijuana (which doesn't have any side-effects anywhere near that serious) for medicinal benefits. Furthermore, I think we as a society do children a disservice by lumping in pot with much harder drugs in the anti-drug literature distributed at schools, such as D.A.R.E and the like. If you tell a child that pot is just like crack, and then they see other kids smoking pot, and see that it obviously is not like crack, then your credibility is shot. Then the kid figures that if you were lying about the deleteriousness of pot, then you must have been lying about the deleteriousness of say, heroin, as well.