I once lived almost on the doorstep of the Christian Science Church and the Monitor whence the article above is taken. The politics of the newspaper, now dramatically shrunk, are obvious.

Nor is the situation in the Netherlands as negative as some would like it to see. Marihuana is native medicine, so is tobacco. THC and nicotine have their welcome effects, but became disastrous with the introduction of cigarettes in place of pipes and the mass production of cigarettes. Coca leaves are chewed to good effect by natives in the Andean mountain range. They have no desire for the powders being made for those living in NYC or Boston for that matter.

Just as the Johns have been replaced by slovenly neo-Christian priests, so Johns Grass has been turned into a grass from which only rope is made. Me thinks, it is a bit ridiculous to buy such a line.

St John’s wort (Echinacea Pallida) can be bought llegally at any health food store with no fear of prosecution!

A must reason for legalizing healing YHWH grass

Cannabis might treat diabetes, says top researcher
By Ben Deighton
LONDON (Reuters) - Cannabis plant extracts could potentially form the basic ingredients for a market-leading diabetes drug, the scientist who developed a former world-beating treatment for the condition believes.
Professor Mike Cawthorne led the team that developed GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia, which became the company’s second-biggest selling drug until sales plunged in 2007 after a study linked it to a higher risk of heart attacks.
“I sincerely believe it is possible to improve on it (Avandia), and plant-based medicines could be one way to do that,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Cawthorne is collaborating with GW Pharma, a specialist developer of cannabis-based medicines, at a new laboratory dedicated to looking for plant-based treatments for diabetes.
The GW Metabolic Research Laboratory will look the different cannabinoid molecules that have been found within the cannabis plant, as well as range of other plants extracts.
There are 60-70 cannabinoid extracts, though only one of those—THC—has the psychoactive properties traditionally associated with the plant.
The reseachers will conduct preclinical studies to evaluate them all as possible treatments for diabetes, with a view to getting licensing deals if they strike it lucky.
Cawthorne said that the cannabinoid CBD, used along with THC in GW Pharma’s Sativex drug, has been seen to raise levels of ‘good’ cholesterol in animals.
While ‘bad’ cholesterol can build up in the blood vessels and cause strokes or heart attacks, ‘good’ cholesterol is thought to protect against heart attacks.
CHEQUERED HISTORY
Cannabis-related diabetes treatments have a chequered history, with Sanofi-Aventis discontinuing development of its Acomplia obesity drug after European authorities requested that it was withdrawn from sale over fears of psychiatric side effects.
It had been seen as Sanofi’s biggest new drug hope, and the withdrawal dealt a blow to CB1 receptor antagonists—the class of medicines to which Acomplia belonged—in general.
Cawthorne says he is working with actual cannabis extract rather than its synthetic equivalent, giving the basic ingredients of his potential treatments very different pharmaceutical properties.
The centre would look to treat specific symptoms of diabetes, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver or increased energy expenditure, rather than focusing on specific molecules, which is the route the pharmaceutical industry has taken to date.
“One needs to… not worry too much about the individual targets, but look and see what individual plant-based materials can do to (treat) the whole disease,” he said.
“There really have been relatively few developments in finding new diabetes drug treatments… This new approach might be more productive in answering the unmet clinical need.”

CNN tonight at 10pmET

Tonight: TEXT AC360°
Some say there are therapeutic benefits to smoking marijuana for medical purposes, others argue that it is ineffective, unsafe and detrimental to overall health. What is the current medical opinion of smoking pot? Do you have any questions? Dr. Sanjay Gupta will be on tonight with answers.

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/

Liberals think that nicotine is bad and should be banned, while marijuana should be legalized.  Conservatives want to keep the ban on marijuana, but keep nicotine legal.  A quick search of medical information with “Google” favors nicotine.

So, spectator, you’re saying that websites with the most Google hits are the most objective and scientifically sound sources?

Sveiki!

“Liberals think that nicotine is bad and should be banned, while marijuana should be legalized.  Conservatives want to keep the ban on marijuana, but keep nicotine legal.  A quick search of medical information with “Google” favors nicotine. “

Do you mean that nicotine should be banned or kept legal?

E.

PS And what about marijuana?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB2tYYYlwMc

http://www.sanfranciscocannabisclubs.com/medical-marijuana/activism/san-francisco/events/2009/hastings-school-of-law-elford-russoniello-panel.htm

In order to survive economically, Latvia desperately needs to export. One way to export, paradoxically, is to export import, which is achieved by a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. Unfortunately, Latvia is not exporting import, that is to say, it scares away tourists by remaining spiritually a country alienated from itself, one reason the spiritual atmosphere tends to be rather repressive and depressing in Latvia.

One reason for this depressing state is that since nineteen years ago the government of Latvia was taken over by parties that used their politics to further their business interests. These economic-political parties were not interested in modernizing Latvia, because then the people were likely to become politically more active. The repression of modernization—a purposeful holding back of the development of mind—is partly responsible for today’s economic and financial catastrophe in Latvia. Not surprisingly, the government has once more singled out education as the institution to bring to the point of near elimination.

Talisman Browns reactivating this site (see above) is a topic that should be on the agenda as a priority discussion in Latvia. We have some excellent pharmaceutical companies here, but their hands are tied by attitude of government against what I call Johns Grass. Almost every government official will tell you that Johns Grass has nothing to do with marihuana, and most people have lived under government repression for so long that they believe it. So, top notch research that could be done here does not get done.

Perhaps the current desperate situation, a time when the Latvian government’s policy of “soft” genocide of Latvians is reaching public consciousness (search Edward Hugh, The Clock Is Ticking Away Under Latvia), may introduce among the people the disgust necessary to finally make a break with policies that repress thought.

Speak up for Johns Grass!

The difference between nicotine and marijuana researchers is the quality of research and the reputation of the journals where the results are published.  The most significant finding about nicotine is that it improves brain function for many people.  For example, borderline schizophrenics can function normally in society if permitted to smoke heavily.

Spectator -

That is an interesting finding (smoking in schizophrenia). Could you provide a citation? The way you frame it leads to a question- is it smoking (as such) or nicotine that explains the affect? I have worked with street people with schizophrenia who smoked very heavily and wonder if it was the nicotine or simply having a habit to distract that helped.

And again, we need to seperate the drug (nicotine) from the delivery vehicle (tobacco). Question is - is either drug - nicotine or THC- beneficial? If it is, can it be seperated from its delivery vehicle and made in a form that doesn’t dump layers of tar on virgin lungs?

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/tpco-ssc021209.php

One could argue that the unhealthy effects of nicotine in non-smokers is the result of overpopulation, i.e., crowded conditions of an urban environment. This is not to deny the likelihood that the link provided by ambersun (above post) is correct.

To return to the subject matter of Johns Grass and other narcotics, see http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10080 The article and the further links it provides discuss the results of decriminalization of all narcotics in Portugal.

As to the hysteria in the West regarding narcotics, according to anthropologist Michael Taussig, it was preceded by similar hysteria against color, yes, anything colorful. As for Latvia, we should remember that it was not of the West, but has been violently converted to the ways of the West—with hysteria manifesting itself here as ultra-orthodoxy and apathy-passivity.

To quote Taussig: “Equally revealing was the resistance to color following the arrival of Indian fabrik in England. Journalists such as Daniel Defoe demonized such cloth as a threat to the core of the nation…. Certain it is that in seventeenth century Britain, it is women who are singled out for punishment for their passion for color as with the Calico Act of 1700 (beefed up in 1720), which prohibited ‘the wearing of any printed or dyed calicos whatsoever, whether printed at home or abroad’.... France prohibited colored calicos and calico printing as did other European countries….” See Michael Taussig’s “What Color Is the Sacred?”, Chapter 20, Opiation of the Visual Field, pp 170, 171. Incidentally, the book is worth reading.

Please, to be clear, the press release that ambersun linked to is talking about SMOKING not nicotine. Tobacco smoke has a host of substances that are quite dangerous and many of them are not nicotine.

Forgot -

One could argue that the unhealthy effects of nicotine in non-smokers is the result of overpopulation, i.e., crowded conditions of an urban environment.

Please, how precisely could one argue this in a logical way?