When many people hear the words “medicinal cannabis” they automatically associate the term with phrases like “backdoor legalization for recreational use” and assume it has no actual medicinal value…
Having been thrust into the world of medicinal cannabis I came across not only anecdotal stories of people being effectively treated with various cannabinoids (compounds found within the cannabis plant), but numerous academic studies on how they can be effective on various conditions, as well as cannabis based products made by large pharmaceutical companies…
I also came across suggestions as to why the US criminalised cannabis in the early 1900’s and used scare stories to vilify its use in order to save the jobs of those working for what is now called the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). I read these stories with a high degree of scepticism, whilst at the same time believing things like ‘there is no doubt that cannabis causes schizophrenia’…
The more I read, though, the more the “conspiracy stories” about the covering up of the value of medicinal cannabis started to make sense. I learned more about cannabis and how different cannabinoids can have different effects on different disorders – how some, for example CBD can actually counteract the psychoactive effects of THC, another cannabinoid.
Given this I read with great interest an article by a professor of neuropsychopharmacology and psychiatrist at Imperial College London, David Nutt, particularly since it was published in such a prestigious medical journal – the British Medical Journal (BMJ), which in just three pages gives validity to many of the conclusions I’d come to.
My reason for writing this blog post is to persuade people to see through the illegalities to the medical possibilities of cannabis in the hope that misinformed biases can be overcome and much needed research into cannabinoids and childhood brain tumours can be carried out.
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