Well Mathgeek you seem to have abandoned science, and instead are drawing solely on statement likes "in my experience" "i have seen" etc.
Certainly with the occasional link to a study by some deeply polarized group.
Since this is the path that you have chosen, I am going to take a little minute here to tell you about my experience. Let me give you my version of your "I have seen"
As i posted previously on this Forum, I recently had to put my mother in the hospital for an extended period. Happily she is home again now.
She suffer's from Alzheimer's disease. If your like i was 5 years ago you probably think of that in terms of "oh that's where you forget who people are and if they are related to you"
That's not an untrue statement. What a lot of people don't know, is that it get's much, much worse. You forget the meaning of signals that your body sends to your mind, signals like being hungry, need to use the restroom, what food should feel like as you swallow it, what drink should feel like.
From discussions with her doctor my "rough" understanding is that because all these things are "forgotten" they feel very odd each time the person does them, and as a result many patients choose not to do them.
That's why my mother was in the hospital, She stopped eating & drinking "everyone just assumed she was snacking when we were not looking) When we realized there was a major problem after about 2 weeks and took her to the hospital she was basically on deaths door. Dehydrated, lost almost 30lbs... etc.
We have known about her alzheimers for some time now, and she has been taking both namenda & aricept to "combat" the disease. Frankly they have done less than nothing. After many discussions with her doctor, and research on these two drugs the basic conclusion that you can come up with is that the medical community believes that both of these drugs do offer some benefit... but that they have been completely unable to measure that benefit at all. Bad news is that they do have some side effects as well.........
So just in the last two days (since mom's been home from hospital) (and since we have started this nice little community discussion) I have been doing a heck of a lot of internet searches on both alzheimer's and cannabis research.
Guess what the ONLY drugs worldwide are that have been SHOWN (MEDICALLY STUDIED) to not only combat further degeneration of the brain in alzheimers patients, but to actually reverse some of the brain degeneration in alzheimers patients. Yup they are Cannabinoids, which are the portions of the cannabis plant that are not THC... you know the other stuff that doesn't get you high.
From what i am seeing there has been extensive research done by the British
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2190031/
And Israel
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Ne...4#.Ug-0apLVWOs
Even gupta's recent documentary on weed discusses some of the above.
I provided a short link on each location to give you a short overview on what they are working on.
I called her doctor and inquired with him on this yesterday afternoon. I wanted to find out whether he knew of these studies and to get his opinion on them, and if it was a positive one would we be able to find a way to participate in them. I also asked him about a study on something called Sativex, which is a drug that another member here told me about being in trials in the US. He advised me that he was aware of the all the studies, and that Sativex was showing great promise for Alzheimer's, and other diseases of the brain. Sadly he informed me that there was no chance for my mother to be included in these studies as the State considers it a felony to make use of any portion of the cannabis plant. Whether the portions used are the pshyco-reactive ones or not. Whether its used for medical purposes or not. No use is allowed and punishments exceed what violent person on person crime receives.
So i'm curious, Is this medicine which is completely totally and utterly not psycho-reactive. Which can potentially give my mom a chance to meet and actually remember her grandchildren, as well as have some possible better level quality of life than she does currently. Is it possible that anyone could want........no even demand... that my mother should have no chance to benefit from this?
A drug which if it works as stated by scientific study, could keep my mother from an unknowing self inflicted death by starvation. I guess the alternative to that is we just stick a feeding tube in her and let her veg out on some opiates which are perfectly legal?
Would anyone here actually think .... That's a good way to handle it.
I'm done with this discussion, MG although none of the facts presented in it may have changed your mind one bit, I have never the less still enjoyed the discussion.
I kindly ask that you not offer a rebuttal to what i have written above. If you believe that all forms of Cannabis should remain completely illegal, Then i ask that you hold on to that belief and not respond to me about the above with something along the lines of "sorry to hear.....but...."
If you wish to continue this discussion with others then by all means... (I just asking that you not reference my situation, please)
I hope that people who read through this, make solid decisions based on everything discussed.
I also share in the hope that Louisiana voters are smart, and pray that they are also compassionate.