Sanjay Gupta Goes To Israeli Labs For Breaking Research

  As the rest of the world continues to debate the benefits of cannabis and an increasing number of countries pass legislation to make it legal for medicinal and scientific purposes, it is inevitable that more research will be undertaken to determine the effectiveness of cannabis-based medicines in treating even more conditions, from every day illness to chronic diseases.

  Meanwhile, Israel has been quietly turning itself into a world-leading center with its own medical marijuana research programme. Described by Dr. Sanjay Gupta as ‘the marijuana research capital of the world’, Israel has been conducting research into marijuana since the 1960s and is home to the world’s largest medical marijuana production, research and development facility.

  The man widely regarded as the grandfather of medical marijuana research, is Raphael Mechoulam, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem who was the first to isolate, analyze and synthesize the major psychoactive and non-psychoactive compounds in cannabis, and develop a number of marijuana-related treatments. 

Israeli Cannabis Research Leads The World

Marijuana plants. (photo credit: REUTERS)

Jerusalem Post

Opinion

A HIGHER CALLING: HOW ISRAELI MARIJUANA RESEARCH CHANGED THE WORLD

“The problem is that for many years, marijuana was put on the [same] scale as cocaine and morphine.”

BY AVI JORISCH

JUNE 19, 2018 21:58

As much of the world debates how to address marijuana use, the vast majority of American states have legalized it or allow it for medical purposes. Global pharmaceutical companies and hospitals seeking effective treatments using cannabis should look to Professor Raphael Mechoulam, a scientist at Hebrew University. Mechoulam, a pioneer in the field, was the first to isolate, analyze and synthesize the major psychoactive and non-psychoactive compounds in cannabis and has developed a number of revolutionary marijuana-related treatments.

Today, roughly 147 million people use medical marijuana for effective relief of various ailments, including AIDS, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, cancer treatment side effects and Parkinson’s. Experts believe these numbers will grow exponentially in the coming years, and Mechoulam is now widely recognized as the godfather of medical marijuana, the high priest of his field.

Testimonies of Healing At the Legislature

  Oklahomans Shawn Jenkins & Ray Jennings addressed a packed hall at the Oklahoma State legislature on Wednesday, July 25th. Jenkins told of his son's severe health needs and how cannabis medicines have greatly improved his health, development, and quality of life.

 Ray Jennings told of his fight with stage 4 cancer and how his family convinced him to try cannabis medicines when he was near death.

  The State Health Dept. soon after appointed Jennings to the Food Safety & Packaging board for the Medical Marijuana Authority.
  Jennings goes into further details in this home video.

Lou Gehrig's Disease & Cannabis

Cathy Jordan of Florida – Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS )

I used to be a hairdresser from New Castle, DE, but now I’m a medical marijuana patient & activist, living near Tampa, FL.

I was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”) in 1986 (I was 36), was told by my doctor not to smoke anything, standard advice for a new ALS patient, suffered typical deterioration of my body over the next two years and prepared for my death – ALS is a terminal illness and I probably had only another year or two.

Then, in 1989, standing on a beach in Sarasota, FL, I was passed a “joint” and said “Why not?” After just a few puffs, I had a wonderful feeling – that my disease had stopped! I’ve been smoking ever since – for twenty-one years now, and I think I’m aging quite well, thank you.

Cannabis (the scientific name for marijuana) works for me by drying up my saliva (ALS patients often drown in their own fluids), helping me cough and stimulating my lungs through its bronchodilation action.

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Breast Cancer Recovery With Cannabis

Brenda L. of Ohio: Breast Cancer

“Eight years ago, Brenda was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was in stage I when they found it. She underwent the lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy.

A lumpectomy is where just the tumor is removed as well as the normal breast tissue that closely surrounds the tumor. Sentinel node refers to the first lymph node(s) that drains from the breast tumor area (found by injecting a radioactive dye).

“They shoot radiation into your breast and they follow it up to the nodes to make sure that you don’t have cancer in your lymph nodes. And I did not, so all I had to have was radiation…and hormone therapy. Because my cancer was fed by the estrogen.”

Tamoxifen is used to treat certain types of breast cancer that require estrogen to grow. It’s often used following surgery and radiation. (Drugs.com can provide more information on this line of treatment.)

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The Oil That Restored A Little Girl

Barbara Leigh is a young mother to a little girl who has faced devastating seizures every hour of her life.

It's been ten days since Barbara started her daughter, Nova Leigh, on THC cannabis oil. Ten days without a seizure. When one did come, another dose of the oil and it stopped almost immediately.

Barbara's daughter, Nova Leigh, suffers from a rare birth defect called Shizencehaly. She was also born without a thyroid and only 25% of her brain developed.

We're CPN Institute. We're a national, cannabis educational organization, empowering patients to take a leading role in their healthcare.

Everyone told Barbara that cannabis could not possibly help Nova, but it did. Here is Barbara's account of the ten days following cannabis oil therapy.

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Bipolar & ADHD Patient Finds Calming Relief

Heath Poland suffers from ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and Bipolar Disorder. Like so many who suffer from mental illness, he spent much of his life mis-diagnosed and improperly and/or over-medicated. Medicating with cannabis calms the symptoms of his disorders and makes the side effects from the pharmaceuticals more tolerable.

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The Simple Epilepsy Medicine

Beth Wilkinson of Kansas: Epilepsy

Beth is originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. That’s where she grew up. She got her degree from the University of Northern Iowa. She has a degree in Art Education.

Currently Beth lives in Lawrence, Kansas. It’s turned out to be a really nice place for her and her family to live.

In 1986, Beth was riding horses with a friend. Her horse fell on her and she suffered a TBI, (traumatic brain injury), which landed her in a coma for over a week.

When she came out of the coma, she had to learn everything all over again. Her son was two years old then. “ …so, we basically grew up together.”

She didn’t have any further complications from her injury for years. She finished up her degree and she later moved to Minnesota. But it was there that she began experiencing seizures and black outs.

So she had to start seeing a Neurologist. She was put on Dilantin and stayed on it for years.

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The EndoCannabinoid System Primer

Cannabinoid receptors, located throughout the body, are part of the endocannabinoid system, which is involved in a variety of physiological processes including appetite, pain-sensation, mood, and memory.

Cannabinoid receptors are of a class of cell membrane receptors in the G protein-coupled receptor superfamily. As is typical of G protein-coupled receptors, the cannabinoid receptors contain seven transmembrane spanning domains. Cannabinoid receptors are activated by three major groups of ligands: endocannabinoids, produced by the mammillary body; plant cannabinoids (such as cannabidiol, produced by the cannabis plant); and synthetic cannabinoids (such as HU-210). All of the endocannabinoids and phytocannabinoids (plant based cannabinoids) are lipophilic, such as fat soluble compounds.

There are currently two known subtypes of cannabinoid receptors, termed CB1 and CB2. The CB1 receptor is expressed mainly in the brain (central nervous system or "CNS"), but also in the lungs, liver and kidneys. The CB2 receptor is expressed mainly in the immune system and in hematopoietic cells. Mounting evidence suggests that there are novel cannabinoid receptors that is, non-CB1 and non-CB2, which are expressed in endothelial cells and in the CNS. In 2007, the binding of several cannabinoids to the G protein-coupled receptor GPR55 in the brain was described.

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Ehlers Danlos Syndrome

Heather DeMian of Columbia, Missouri: Ehlers-Danlos Syndromea

Heather is thirty-six years old and confined to a wheelchair. Heather was born with a rare genetic condition called Vascular Type Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

It’s a defect in her type three collagen that weakens the walls of her blood vessels, organs, and esophagus. “Everything is very weak.”

It makes her joints dislocate very easily. “When you see a new doctor and they see that you have Ehlers-Danlos, they immediately ask ‘what tricks can you do?’ ” A cynical smile comes over Heather’s face.

But condition is no laughing matter. It causes her a lot of pain and gastrointestinal problems, which are further aggravated by the pain meds that are prescribed to her.

Heather takes Zofran, an anti-nausea medication. “Zofran suppresses the gag reflex maybe half the time.” Her Medicaid pays roughly $1200 per month for her to have this drug.

She also takes Marinol, a pharmaceutical synthetic of the cannabinoid THC that is found in cannabis. Heather’s Marinol costs Medicaid roughly $1500 per month.

Together, these prescriptions total $2700 per month or $32400 per year, just to try to suppress Heather’s urge to vomit. Unfortunately, they rarely do. She has to carry a plastic container everywhere she goes for when the urge to vomit comes upon her. Obviously, she doesn’t get to go out very much.

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Stopping the Progression of MS

Jack Chavez of Colorado: Progressive Multiple Sclerosis

I consider Jack a friend of mine. Jack’s a pretty remarkable guy. Jack has Progressive Multiple Sclerosis. I’ve interviewed a number of people with MS, but none quite as remarkable as Jack.

The first time I met Jack was in 2006 while traveling across the country with Journey for Justice 7. My good friend and Denver Caregiver Diana McKindley agreed to introduce me to some of her patients. Jack was number one on the list.

At the time of my interview, Jack was still having difficulty talking. So for the interview, Diana agreed to read a short speech to me that Jack had prepared.

We take for granted the choreography of muscles required to sustain speech. Jack has to concentrate and apply great effort to do what comes naturally for us, even when all he is trying to do is say a few words.

In 1994, Jack was diagnosed with Chronic MS. This progressive form of Multiple Sclerosis is similar to what claimed the life of comedian Richard Pryor.
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Neuropathy Medicine

Buddy Talley of North Carolina: Neuropathy of the Feet

Buddy is 86 years old. He started in the tobacco business when he was 17. He didn’t retire until he was 73. A buyer for Kent, Newport and Old Gold, the fast paced, highly competitive world of a tobacco broker was the driving force for most of his life.

Buddy has outlived his wife by eighteen years. Now it’s just him and his son Tom. Tom is Buddy’s caregiver, now. Tom is also chronically ill.

Buddy has been suffering with Neuropathy of the feet for twenty years. He said that it feels like nails piercing the bottom of his feet. ” I jus’ never had anything in my life to hurt like this.”

Neuropathy encompasses more than 100 diseases and conditions affecting the peripheral nerves-the motor, sensory and autonomic nerves that connect the spinal cord to muscles, skin and internal organs. It usually affects the hands and feet, causing weakness, numbness, tingling and pain.

Buddy is a veteran. He served four years during World War II. He was told that it was probably the long walks packing heavy equipment that lead to his feet problems.

Two recent scientific studies (Headline from 2007) have confirmed what Buddy has found (that conventional narcotics don’t work for his condition) and what he has been told (that Cannabis is effective for Neuropathic foot pain).

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Chemo Blows! Cannabis Sooths..

Catherine Adaberry of Missouri: Breast Cancer

Catherine developed breast cancer in 2002. She was in her 40’s. No one in her family had ever dealt with the disease. It was a difficult time for her and her loved ones. She underwent surgery and considerable chemotherapy and radiation treatments. “Physically, it took quite a toll on me…I was very sick.”

“I was sick the whole time, and I used marijuana. It helped.”

She had heard that cannabis could help with those battling cancer. A member of her extended family had dealt with brain cancer. He used cannabis and attributed his prolonged life to his use of cannabis.

With the chemo, Catherine didn’t want to eat. She just didn’t have an appetite. She was a nervous wreck. “I would smoke and I could eat. I would smoke and I could sleep. With the radiation, it was the same thing.”

“There’s just so much stress with having cancer. I mean, your hair falls out. You don’t feel good. I had grand babies during that time and I couldn’t hold them. I was an emotional wreck. It helped. So many pills…you don’t want to take another pill. It was so much better just to smoke – and to eat – and to smoke – and to sleep.”

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Spinal Injury Pain Relief!

Todd Walk of Missouri: Spinal Injury, Neurological Pain

Todd has a spinal cord injury at T3, that’s complete paralysis from about the mid-chest down. Because of the traumatic nature of his injury, he suffers from neurological pain.

It’s tough for Todd to describe the experience. “…strangest type of pain you can describe. You can’t understand what it’s like unless you have it.”

There can be different degrees. Todd’s is moderate to severe. “It’s like being burned or stabbed, or, anything like that…twenty-four hours a day.”

For Todd, it’s worse at night. “It’s not as bad during the day as long as I take my pharmaceutical medication.”

The pain is particularly bad when storms are coming in and when he forgets to take his medicine.

“Nothing really seems to help.” Todd is prescribed a number of anti-seizure medications. “Some, I take for the baseline pain, but they don’t help with the flare-ups.” Opiates are reserved for the flare-ups. “That doesn’t seem to do much either.”

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Cerebral Palsy Won't Stop Her!

Jacqueline Patterson of California: Cerebral Palsy, Stuttering

Jacqueline used to live in Kansas City, Missouri. Jacqueline, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy and a moderate stutter, doses with Cannabis to ease her symptoms. When she is able to use cannabis, the pain associated with her disability lessens and her stutter becomes all but negligible.

While living in Kansas City, she was under the constant threat of losing her children since the state of Missouri and it’s law enforcement refuse to recognize her holistic choice for medicine. To them, Jacqueline, in spite of her condition, is nothing more than an addict and a danger to her children.

She had to flee to California or face having her children removed from her and placed in foster care.

Jacqueline became known nationally when she appeared in Showtime’s documentary “In Pot We Trust”. During the film, she demonstrates for the camera the transformation that occurs when she medicates.

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Arthritis Relief!

Marena Collins of Missouri: Arthritits

Marena is from Clinton, Missouri. She suffers from arthritis. She’s no longer able to take anti-inflammatories. The only pharmaceutical that she is currently taking, she may have to stop, since her stomach and liver are already compromised by the prescriptions she has taken in the past. The only medicine that she can be certain that her body will not eventually reject is cannabis.

“I didn’t know how bad my arthritis was until a few months ago. …I ran out of cannabis. I thought my arthritis was just some aches and pains here and there. But when I ran out of cannabis, slowly, over time, my body began to stiffen up.”

She discovered that the stiffness in her joints rendered her almost completely incapacitated.

“I called my doctor. He asked me what I was taking for anti-inflammatory and pain. I told him cannabis. He said to go get more. That was the best thing there was. He couldn’t give me anything better. He talked a little bit about the side effects and the side effects of contemporary (pharmaceutical) medications. I would much rather do the cannabis.”

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"Multiple Sclerosis Under Control"

Joe Cullin of North Carolina: Charcot-Marie-Tooth, Multiple Sclerosis

Joe lives in Whitier, a very rural part of North Carolina. He began using cannabis in 1999, following the accelerated progression of his congenital disease, Charcot-Marie-Tooth.

Charcot-Marie-Tooth, or CMT, is the most commonly inherited neurological disorder. It affects an estimated 2.6 million people.

Joe’s condition is slowly robbing him of the use of his limbs. He is already confined to a power wheelchair.

“It gives me muscle spasms and loss of nerve to muscle control…I cannot control balance; how to walk, anything like that…”

He has chronic pain that accompanies the spasms. Joe has found that cannabis relaxes his muscles when he has these episodes, much better than with the Flexoril that his physician has prescribed him; better than the Vicodin or Hydrocodone. The opioid narcotics made his skin crawl and itch.

Joe has seen a slow but steady decline in his physical strength and balance. At times, he is depressed. But he’s not tempted to seek refuge in alcohol or other drugs. To him, those would just be escapism.

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"My Chronic Pain Subsided"

by Linda Yelvington of Missouri: 

Scoliosis, Chronic Pain

Linda lives outside of Joplin, Missouri.

  Linda has been active in the movement for legalization for many years; since the 70’s. “It just doesn’t make since for it to be illegal – for something that is essentially harmless.”

Linda has Scoliosis. She was treated for it with a Milwaukee Brace when she was a teenager. That experience alone brought on depression.

She had her hip replaced when she was sixteen following a car accident. She also has degenerative problems in both wrists that make it difficult to work with a cane when her “bad hip” is aggravating her. She also has degenerative disc disease.

Hydrocodone, Darvon, Darvocet, Vicodin, she has run the gamete of pain killers. Such has also been the case with anti-depressants. She began taking Zoloft following the passing of her father. She has also been on Xanax.

There came a point in her life when she realized that the doctors were just “shoving more and more opiates at me – whatever they could prescribe, and it wasn’t helping – and cannabis did”.

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How Marijuana Affects You: Part 3

From WebMD..

How Does Marijuana Affect You? 
In our previous two posts, we discussed what makes Cannabis a medicine and how to effectively administer it. In this post we discuss any possible detrimental health effects of cannabis.

Cancer.
No link has been found between smoking marijuana and cancers in the lung, head, or the neck. Limited evidence suggests that heavy marijuana use may lead to one type of testicular cancer. Researchers don’t have enough information whether cannabis affects other cancers, including prostate, cervical, and bladder cancers and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Lungs.
Regular marijuana use can give you constant coughs and phlegm. They may go away when you stop smoking. It’s unclear if marijuana can lead to asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. Cannabis actually helps open the airways at first. But evidence shows that regular marijuana use will make your lungs not work as well.

Mental health.

 People with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders may be more likely to use marijuana heavily, about twice a month. Researchers have also found links between cannabis use and bipolar disorder, major depression, and childhood anxiety. What’s hard to untangle is if marijuana use leads to mental illness, or if it’s the other way around.

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How Marijuana Affects You: Part 2

From WebMD.. 

How Does Marijuana Affect You?  

In our last posting, we started a discussion of the active treatment ingredients in Cannabis medicine. Then we started to discuss ways to administer the drug treatment, starting with smoking. We now resume....

Ways you can smoke cannabis include:

• Rolled into a cigarette
• In a pipe or water pipe, called a bong
• In a cigar that has been hollowed out and refilled with marijuana, called a blunt
• In the form of sticky resins that have been drawn from the cannabis plant. Resins often have much higher amounts of THC than regular marijuana.

Eating or drinking. 

This slows marijuana’s effects because the THC has to go through your digestive system. It may take 30 minutes to 2 hours for you to get high. But it will last longer -- up to 8 hours -- than if you smoked or vaped pot. You can mix cannabis into brownies, cookies, candy, and other foods, or brew it into a tea.

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How Marijuana Affects You: Part 1

From WebMD.. 

How Does Marijuana Affect You?  

IN THIS ARTICLE

Key Chemicals

Ways to Use It

Benefits

Harms

Medical marijuana is now legal in a majority of states. A small but growing number of states and cities have legalized recreational pot as well. Marijuana still is the most commonly used illegal drug in the U.S. 

Marijuana has some well-proven benefits, including relief for long-term pain. But smoking marijuana can have some bad effects on your health, including making breathing problems worse.

The federal ban on marijuana makes it hard to study its effects on humans. For example, very little research exists on edible marijuana.

Key Chemicals

Marijuana comes from the dried flowers of cannabis plants.It has more than 500 chemicals. Cannabis can have a psychoactive -- or mind-altering -- effect on you.

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Marijuana: Good or Bad?

According to the National Institutes of Health, people have used marijuana, or cannabis, to treat their ailments for at least 3,000 years. However, the Food and Drug Administration have not deemed marijuana safe or effective in the treatment of any medical condition, although cannabidiol, a substance that is present in marijuana, received approval in June 2018 as a treatment for some types of epilepsy.

Marijuana is being increasingly legalized in the U.S., but is it safe?

This tension, between a widespread belief that marijuana is an effective treatment for a wide assortment of ailments and a lack of scientific knowledge on its effects, has been somewhat exacerbated in recent times by a drive toward legalization.

Thirty Three states plus the District of Columbia have now made marijuana available for medical — and, in some states, recreational — purposes.

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WebMD: Medical Marijuana FAQs

What is medical marijuana?

Medical marijuana uses the marijuana plant or chemicals in it to treat diseases or conditions. It's basically the same product as recreational marijuana, but it's taken for medical purposes. 

The marijuana plant contains more than 100 different chemicals called cannabinoids. Each one has a different effect on the body. Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are the main chemicals used in medicine. THC also produces the "high" people feel when they smoke marijuana or eat foods containing it. 

What is medical marijuana used for? 

Medical Marijuana: What Does It Treat?

Medical marijuana is used to treat a number of different conditions, including: 

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Video Transcript: The Anti-Cancer Properties of Cannabis

Video Transcript: The Anti-Cancer Properties of Cannabis

Ty Bollinger: One thing. And thank you for sharing all that about hemp, cannabis, because that’s kind of a little bit of our hidden history. People don’t realize that. They think—they hear the word marijuana, which is actually a slang for the hemp or the cannabis plant, and they think, “Oh, you must be a pothead.”

Dr. Patrick Quillin: Yeah.

Ty Bollinger: Right? They don’t realize the thousands of medicinal and therapeutic uses for this plant. And so I think that’s really important for people that are watching to know that this is a medicinal plant. And so, thank you for sharing in those details.

Dr. Patrick Quillin: It’s an industrial plant. I mean, instead of—one of the beauties of hemp is you don’t have to, there’s no insect that will eat the plant, and so you don’t have to spray it. And so, instead of cutting down trees to make paper, we could grow hemp and use that to make paper. You can use it to make materials, canvas, clothing; it’s an industrial material. It’s a nutritive material, and it’s a medicinal substance.
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How Cannabis Helped Me Beat My Alcoholism

  Ask anyone in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) to read that headline and I’d bet you a bag of nickels that their reaction would be one of extreme fear coupled with a sense of creeping self-doubt.

  I’m proud of who I am. I’m a halfie — half Puerto Rican and half Brooklyn Italian. I get my soul / connection to my Taino ancestors from my Rican side, and I get my addictions and legacy of dysfunction from that side as well.

  From the beginning I knew life was going to be hard. I accepted it and was fortunate to glean a lifetime of knowledge on what it was like to struggle — -and struggle I did — hardcore.

Essay: This is How Cannabis Helped Me Beat My Alcoholism

  Ask anyone in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) to read that headline and I’d bet you a bag of nickels that their reaction would be one of extreme fear coupled with a sense of creeping self-doubt.

  I’m proud of who I am. I’m a halfie — half Puerto Rican and half Brooklyn Italian. I get my soul / connection to my Taino ancestors from my Rican side, and I get my addictions and legacy of dysfunction from that side as well.

  From the beginning I knew life was going to be hard. I accepted it and was fortunate to glean a lifetime of knowledge on what it was like to struggle — -and struggle I did — hardcore. Read more at My Cannabis Health