Renegade scientist, the kind that
didn’t buy the party line, were starting to take a deeper look at the demon
weed and what they found was profoundly different than what the government
wanted the public to believe. A revolution had begun. Early studies showed that
Cannabis sativa was not a dangerous drug, and in fact could benefit human health. This is disturbing to say the least to a
government committed to perpetrating a lie backed by draconian penalties for
possession of even small amounts of Cannabis.
More
and more studies showed that Cannabis had a wide range of medical benefits, and
in some cases worked better than pharmaceutical drugs with virtually no side effects,
as in the case of pain relief. Penalties for possession were increased, more
people were locked up. It didn’t seem to matter. It was the 60s! Cannabis was
skyrocketing. Now the government needed “real science” to bolster their case
for the evils of Cannabis.
The
government acted. The National Institute of Drug Abuse was ordered to subsidize
studies that were purposely designed to prove the dangerous effects of
Cannabis. It backfired. The studies actually showed even more health benefits
of Cannabis and inadvertently led to a series of major discoveries about how
the human brain worked!
And
then the breakthrough! In 1990 the endocannabinoid receptor system was
discovered. The endocannabinoid receptor system, named after the plant that
leads to its discovery is a collection of receptors located in our brains, and
immune cells that fit the active chemicals (cannabinoids) in Cannabis like a
key in a lock. Our body was hard wired for cannabinoids! Many scientists
considered the endocannabinoid receptor system to be your body’s most important
physiologic system involved in establishing and maintain health!
Your
endocannabinoid receptor system performs different task, but the goal is always
the same: homeostasis, the maintenance of a stable internal environment despite
fluctuations in the external environment… Balance! Disease, as the Asians have known for 5,000
years is a condition of your body being out of balance. Western science had
caught up. The cannabinoids found in Cannabis could help bring your body back
into balance. Cannabinoids were not simply treating symptoms per se, like pharmaceutical
drugs; cannabinoids were working holistically to heal your body by bringing it
back into balance.
A more complete
picture was emerging. Science knew what chemical compounds contained in
Cannabis were active. They knew how to isolate them and, more importantly, how
they worked in your brain and the rest of your body to produce
extraordinary health benefits. Researched increased, the government pushed back,
it continued to deny research grant to universities, It threatened doctors with
jail time and loss of their medical licenses if they dared recommending
Cannabis to their patients. They
raided
clinics conducting studies, and of course, threw as many people in jail as they
could.
It
didn’t work, the publics was now demanding access to Cannabis. Political action
groups were popping up everywhere to legalize Cannabis for medical purposes.
And they were somewhat successful. California became the first state to
legalize the use Cannabis for medicine in 1996. Others would follow, but it was
still illegal in most states even thought it was clear that Cannabis had
effective medical applications.
Hundreds of studies confirmed its
remarkable health benefits. People suffering from the terrible effects of Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder finally found relief with Cannabis after all other medications
had failed. AIDS patients wasting away actually gained weight while using
Cannabis. Cancer patients found relief from the terrible side effects of chemotherapy.
