New Study Shows Cannabis Protects Brain from Injury

(photo by cannamagazine)

 

Cannabis users are less likely to die from brain trauma than those who don’t use, suggests a new study. The evidence supports the main active ingredient, THC, has a neuroprotective effect on the brain.

13 Facts You Might Not Know About Marijuana

1. Munchies are caused because THC inhibits a cannabinoid receptor called CB1. This receptor is also involved in signaling the appetite-suppressing hormone Leptin. When CB1 is blocked, leptin doesn’t get activated.

2. It would take more than 800 joints to kill a person and the culprit would be carbon monoxide poisoning – not THC.

3. Paraguay is the largest producer of marijuana.

4. Marijuana was first used as a medicine in China in 1737 for reliving rheumatism pain and gout.

5. The first American law regarding marijuana required farmers to grow it for hemp. It was used for clothing, sails and rope.

6. Two of the Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson & George Washington owned hemp farms. In fact, the Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp.

7. In America, Marijuana is the #4 value crop and it generates a $36 billion market.

8. The Shaking History of Marijuana

• 1600’s – 1800’s Production of hemp is encouraged.
• 1907 The Pure Food & Drug Act required products with cannabis to be labeled.
• 1930’s Due to the Great Depression, the rising unemployment rates, the association of marijuana with Mexican immigrants, the government starts viewing the plant as a problem. In fact, 29 states outlawed it in 1939.
• 1940’s Studies and reports show marijuana is significantly less dangerous than people previously thought it with zero links to violence, sex crimes, insanity and addiction.
• 1970’s In ’72, the Shafer Commission recommends personal use of marijuana be decriminalized. Nixon rejects it and in response, 11 states decriminalize marijuana and nearly all states reduced penalties associated with the plant.
• 1990’s California legalizes the use of Medical Marijuana for patients suffering numerous illnesses including AIDS.

9. cigarettes vs Marijuana vs Coffee

cigarettes ~50 carcinogenic chemicals

Marijuana ~50 carcinogenic chemicals *+

Coffee 16 carcinogenic chemicals

* studies show smoking marijuana does not increase risk for lung cancer.

+ cigarettes have a 90% addiction rate, marijuana is less addictive than coffee.

10. You can only get high from the dried leaves of the female plant.

11. It was used as a truth serum by the US government during WWII. it was spiked in cigarettes and given to detainees to have them release intelligence information.

12. Vaporizing marijuana heats it p to near boiling, releasing THC but not burning the plant.

13. Marijuana is of unknown Mexican Spanish etymology. It replaced cannabis and hemp in the 1930’s.

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Do these facts change your perception of marijuana?

Fibromyalgia & the Top Ten Strains to Treat It

A new study, conducted by Dr. Mary-Ann Fitzcharles from the Montreal General Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Canada, examined the relationship between medical marijuana and the alleviation of fibromyalgia symptoms.

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“According to the study, approximately 10% of patients suffering from fibromyalgia use medical marijuana to ease their symptoms. Other studies show that Medical Marijuana may be more effective at treating the disease than traditional prescription drugs.

 

Along with her colleagues, Fitzcharles surveyed 302 patients with fibromyalgia and 155 patients who suffered from other forms of chronic pain.  Of those who participated, 13% were given cannabinoids to treat their symptoms and 80% were given marijuana.

72% of the patients who used marijuana reported using one gram or less per day to alleviate their symptoms.  

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Source: http://tinyurl.com/nptj54h