No Medical Value? US Govt has been Funding this Israeli Cannabis Researcher for 50 YearsBy Justin Gardner Considering the tide of public opinion in favor of legalization, we can expect that most, if not all, of these states will vote for freedom and access to a wondrous medicinal plant. Even the power of Big Pharma, which is pouring money into campaigns to derail legalization efforts since medical cannabis threatens their profits, might be no match for the mass awakening. For the most part its up to the states to lead the way, since federal government appears to be firmly stuck in prohibition. The DEA, which preys on the populace through the drug war, just reaffirmed its commitment to lunacy by keeping cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug with no currently accepted medical use. This policy, having no basis in reality, guides the federal governments attitude. We could go on about the mountains of scientific evidence that have come out on the medical benefits of cannabis and its extracts, or the fact that the American Epilepsy Society considers CBD oil to have the greatest potential for treating epileptic seizures, or the fact that many veterans with PTSD find cannabis to be the only effective treatment, and so on. While the feds were throwing people in cages for weed possession in its escalation of the war on drugs based on false pretenses, racism and suppression of the antiwar movement another part of the government was funding medical cannabis research the entire time. This revolutionary figure in cannabis research was receiving $100,000 a year from the NIH, while drug agencies and police across the U.S. wrecked countless lives and seized billions from innocent people. It started in 1963, when Mechoulam applied for NIH funding and was told that cannabis research wasnt of interest to the agency because marijuana wasnt an American problem, recalls Mechoulam. They told me to let them know when I have something more relevant to the U.S. A year later, Mechoulam received another call from the same official. A U.S. senator, whose name the official withheld from Mechoulam, had caught his son smoking weed. The senator had asked the NIH what effect the drug might have on his sons brain. To the embarrassment of Americas top public health agency, no one could answer the question; there was no research on file. The NIH official asked Mechoulam if he was still working on cannabis. For the next 45 years, the NIH gave Mechoulams team approximately $100,000 per year to study, for example, how cannabinoids can lower human resistance to antibiotics. Even if the motivations for funding were asinine, the fact is the U.S. government funded the discovery of the active compounds in cannabis and some of their first medical applications. Instead of acknowledging these advancements and using them to guide lawmaking, the U.S. continues insisting to this day that cannabis has no medical value. It boggles the mind how the feds can cling to this position, considering not only the revelations of Mechoulam but also the fact that cannabis had already become a routine part of medicine prior to prohibition. For thousands of years humans knew that cannabis was medicine. Marijuana was an integral part of American medicine for more than 100 years, from the 1830s through the 1940s, and it was used safely and effectively for all of that time, says Dr. Alan Shackelford, a Harvard-trained physician who prescribes medical marijuana in Colorado. Thanks to the discoveries of Mechoulam and those who stood on his shoulders, thousands of children around the world receive THC drops to cope with cancer and epilepsy. Innumerable others who use cannabis to ease the symptoms of a variety of conditions such as Crohns disease, multiple sclerosis, arthritis and chronic pain can thank Mechoulam for his pioneering work. The NIH seems to have learned much since its first foray into medical cannabis with Mechoulam, publishing a study finding that the endocannabinoid system is involved in essentially every human disease. The breakthrough studies of the endocannabinoid system are made possible by Mechoulam. In 1992, Mechoulam and his team at Jerusalems Hebrew University made another groundbreaking discovery. Nearly 30 years after discovering that THC was responsible for the marijuana high, scientists still didnt know exactly how the plant made the human mind and body react that way. Mechoulam and his team found the answer: THC triggered what they called the endocannabinoid system, which they figured out was the largest receptor system in the human body. Mechoulams team also determined that the human brain produces its own cannabinoidstwo compounds that stimulate this receptor system almost exactly as THC does. They named one molecule 2AG and the other anandamide, after the Sanskrit word ananda, which means bliss. Mechoulam and other influential researchers believe that these compounds could alleviate dozens of diseases and ailments, including schizophrenia, diabetes, cancer, eating disorders, brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinsons, Alzheimers and multiple sclerosis We wouldnt have the scientific interest we have now around the world without the discovery, says Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, an American nonprofit. That really opened the door to making the study of cannabis and cannabinoids a legitimate avenue. Since 1992, says Mechoulam, the formerly skeptical attitude of the medical community toward cannabis has changed completely. His research on anandamide, for example, has been cited in respected scientific journals some 4,000 times. While the U.S. government flounders in ignorance, Israel is one of the few countries leading the way in medical cannabis research, and even has a government-sponsored cannabis program. Israel is dubbed the United States unofficial offshore medical marijuana research center, with U.S.-based companies setting up research and clinical trials in Israel because its essentially impossible to do it in the U.S. Justin Gardner writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. no Doubt Monsatino will at some point buy out the patent I wonder if Justin Gardner is related to Fred Gardner, another person who gained fame by writing about cannabis and followed a number of the scientific conferences held outside the US during the 1990s. What I dont understand is how Justin Gardner could overlook so many other sources of scientific inquiry into the medicinal benefits of cannabis? Or, how he overlooked the pharmacological research done on cannabis dating back hundreds of years. Prior to the 1937 prohibition and renaming of cannabis to Mary Jane, in Spanish, cannabis was a patented medical treatment. The $100,000/year paid to Raphael Mechoulam is beyond inadequate. Justin ignores the extensive research done in England by an English company who developed specific strains of cannabis for specific research, all of which work was adopted by the NIH. And, Justin ignores the extensive research work and treatment done by Dr. Tod MIkiruya since 1965, an American medical doctor, psychiatrist and addiction specialist, who left the NIH in the mid 1960s because of their Neanderthal, obstructionist attitudes about cannabis. Theres a reason the Anti-vaccination folks and the pro-medical cannabais folks have something in common..all of these people realized that Big Pharma was profiting handsomely by suppressing information and disseminating false information. Have you any idea how it felt for Dr. MIkuriya, the co-founder of Proposition 215 (California 1996 Medical Cannabis) to receive phone calls from families throughout the US who were jailed for trying to help themselves and their children using cannabis? Dr. Michael Alcalay was the first medical doctor to recommend the use of cannabis to parents of children suffering severe epilepsy attacks, and the California Medical Board tried to take his license away despite the fact that the treatment absolutely worked, so much so that Public Health Nurses and School Superintendents supported it. Yes, Big Pharma wanted to keep these kids on 21-24 different legal drugs, when the simple cannabis treatment was effective on it own. Wake up, Americans. Because the article was about the US funding Mechoulam, not that other stuff. If youre still puzzled, its right in the headline. You are totally missing the point I am making. Gardner makes all kinds of statements which are totally false. I was trying to point out the errors in a nice way. Hopefully, you read more than just the title of the article. If I had read only the title, how could I have replied to your post? Again, the things you mentioned are important, but not within the purview of the article. my direct ancestor Hippocrates of Kos and my spiritual idol Jesus of Nazareth both understood and used cannabis as effective medicine long before the conversion of Askanazia to Talmud Judaism. 