Sanjay Gupta: CDB-only legal cannabis is not enough

[RainDog]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/11/health/gupta-marijuana-entourage/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Why? Because of the "entourage effect." This is why marijuana in its natural form, not a synthetic, is the best form of the chemicals for medical use - because THC interacts with other cannabinoids to moderate one another (THC/CBD) - and provides two different pathways to activate different endocannabinoid receptors in different parts of the body.

Here is the important point. Mechoulam (the scientist who first identified THC), along with many others, said he believes all these components of the cannabis plant likely exert some therapeutic effect, more than any single compound alone.

Think of it like this: There are more than 480 natural components found within the cannabis plant, of which 66 have been classified as "cannabinoids." Those are chemicals unique to the plant, including delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiols. There are, however, many more, including:

-- Cannabigerols (CBG);
-- Cannabichromenes (CBC);
-- other Cannabidiols (CBD);
-- other Tetrahydrocannabinols (THC);
-- Cannabinol (CBN) and cannabinodiol (CBDL);
-- other cannabinoids (such as cannabicyclol (CBL), cannabielsoin (CBE), cannabitriol (CBT) and other miscellaneous types).

Other constituents of the cannabis plant are: nitrogenous compounds (27 known), amino acids (18), proteins (3), glycoproteins (6), enzymes (2), sugars and related compounds (34), hydrocarbons (50), simple alcohols (7), aldehydes (13), ketones (13), simple acids (21), fatty acids (22), simple esters (12), lactones (1), steroids (11), terpenes (120), non-cannabinoid phenols (25), flavonoids (21), vitamins (1), pigments (2), and other elements (9).

But state legislators want to limit medical marijuana to CDB-only strains.

This link asks if this is good policy - Gupta says no, patients say no, but legislators have alcohol and prison lobbyists to placate, so what's in the best interest of the nation has never constrained the US legislature from enacting stupid, worthless, pandering, hateful laws to limit Americans' freedom - these days - such laws are practically the definition of conservatism that is beholden to god botherers and liquor lobbies (no irony there, eh?)

http://www.drugpolicy.org/blog/cbd-only-legislation-good-thing-medical-marijuana

Here's where we get down to it, legislators - what matters to you more? A child whose life could be saved by your legislation to end the loser-initiated and fed "war on drugs," or a private prison corporation relying on you to insure they have greater than 90% occupancy rate - which is achieved by stop/frisk and arrest of healthy African American and Latino men - the ones the prisons want because they're so cheap to house (unlike older career criminals with health problems.)

When you align yourself with neo-slavery - you find you're willing to kill children to make prison CEOs happy.

Any Republican who claims they are "pro-life" can kiss my ass.

Get rid of this bunch of wankers.

The world has changed around them and they're too indebted to crony capitalism and their nanny state prison/industrial complex to recognize they're as useless as a vestigial organ.

[Politicalboi]

1. Let's get imported shit

Pot today isn't stronger than 30 years ago. My tolerance is high, but my tolerance has nothing to do with the FACT that weed back then actually stuck to the baggie it came in. You actually had resin at the end of a joint that didn't taste like perfume like they do now YUCK!. Your eyes were red and glazed. All those FACTS have nothing to do with my tolerance. That kind of weed IMO would be best for cancer patients. I just had a friend of mine that I had known for 36 years die from cancer Easter Sunday.

[RainDog]

2. condolences for the loss of your friend

I really don't give too many flips about the debate over past v present strains.

My limited experience (past and present) inclines me to prefer what I've seen out there now - but I'm not a big toker, just a big talker about toking. My past present (near past) experience had to do with mj for migraines.

If it were legal, I would vastly prefer mj to imitrex. Imitrex makes me feel drugged and hung over from its drugginess. The experience with mj made it possible for me to get work done (while high) b/c I immediately didn't have a headache, and I didn't have a typical migraine or imitrex "hang over." (Migraine hangovers are like alcohol ones - one reason I don't care too much for alcohol - migraine hangovers make it so that you lose two days of your life - mj - no day lost.

All that said - I met and interviewed someone who created one of the strains that's used for some hybrids these days - current strains, and from lore that I picked up, we owe much to the US presence in Afghanistan starting with Ronnie Raygun for current cannabis strains.

The flavors/smells are natural features of terpenes in every cannabis strain - part of botany's ever changing evolving mutations of plants.

Humans have selected for plants with fruity smells - for the smell itself, and for the masking of skunky funk that might be a negative in states w/o legal mj.

I think it's wonderful and magnificent that humans and cannabis have a positive effect on one another - like NdT's example of dogs, in Cosmos - cannabis has been domesticated by humans and now has as many varieties as dogs, most likely.