There are 90 arrests every hour in the U.S. for cannabis alone. That means three arrests every two seconds for "crimes" involving only cannabis. Often, these arrests are made in states where cannabis has already been legalized for medical purposes. Not only are these arrests disproportionately individuals of African-American and other minority ethnic groups, but serious crimes such as rape and murder go unsolved while law-enforcement personnel focus on victim-less cannabis possession charges.
Large numbers of minority families are torn apart due to cannabis arrests and imprisonment. The prison industrial system has been built on the backs of cannabis users, who comprise 44% of all prisoners in the U.S. This system is uncivilized and a social vacuum sucking our young people out of productive education and employment due to having a history of so-called "drug" arrests. They are no longer eligible for student aid and much employment when such a history is attached to them. Often youthful experimentation ends in tragedy when teens are caught with cannabis, which is much less harmful than either alcohol or tobacco, which are both legal. Cannabis prohibition must end.
Cannabis has been known to relieve pain, improve mood and increase appetite for patients who are prescribed it medicinally. It is estimated that there are 17.4 million users in the U.S. alone, and 4.6 million of them use pot daily or almost daily.
Many recent studies have shown that cannabis kills cancer cells, protects brain cells and nerve cells, controls pain and depression, controls seizure activity and crohn's disease, significantly helps Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and when cannabis is legalized, traffic fatalities and suicides are significantly reduced in those communities.
I will add to this page and start publishing more links to articles about cannabis prohibition and legalization. I will also add links to studies as I find them.
Links to some studies are below.
Mark Pletcher, et al. “Association Between Marijuana Exposure and Pulmonary Function Over 20 Years.”Journal of the American Medical Association, 307 (2): 173–81.
One new study, which was published on May 15 in The American Journal of Medicine, showed that regular marijuana use was linked to significantly lower levels of fasting insulin. Smokers were also less likely to be insulin resistant, a condition where the body's cells no longer respond to a hormone that controls carbohydrates and fat metabolism called insulin. High levels of fasting insulin and insulin resistance could lead to diabetes.
"Cannabis use only was associated with a 45 percent reduction in bladder cancer incidence, and tobacco use only was associated with a 52 percent increase in bladder cancer," said study author Dr. Anil A. Thomas, a fellow in urology at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Los Angeles.
A study published earlier this month on the government's website National Institutes of Health found that marijuana has "significant benefits" for treating Crohn's Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
"A short course (8 week) of THC-rich cannabis produced significant clinical, steroid-free benefits to 11 patients with active CD, compared to placebo, without side effects," the study concluded. Link to the study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23648372
Does Smoking Pot Offer Relief to the Lonely? A new paper by the original Tylenol and social pain researchers claims that it does (Deckman et al., 2013). Let's take a closer look.
Comfortably Numb: Marijuana Use Reduces Social Pain, Research Finds
Marijuana use buffers people from experiencing social pain, according to research published online on May 14, 2013 in Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Cannabidiol enhances anandamide signaling and alleviates psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia
From the national institutes of health.
Abstract
Cannabidiol is a component of marijuana that does not activate cannabinoid receptors, but moderately inhibits the degradation of the endocannabinoid anandamide. We previously reported that an elevation of anandamide levels in cerebrospinal fluid inversely correlated to psychotic symptoms. Furthermore, enhanced anandamide signaling let to a lower transition rate from initial prodromal states into frank psychosis as well as postponed transition. In our translational approach, we performed a double-blind, randomized clinical trial of cannabidiol vs amisulpride, a potent antipsychotic, in acute schizophrenia to evaluate the clinical relevance of our initial findings. Either treatment was safe and led to significant clinical improvement, but cannabidiol displayed a markedly superior side-effect profile. Moreover, cannabidiol treatment was accompanied by a significant increase in serum anandamide levels, which was significantly associated with clinical improvement. The results suggest that inhibition of anandamide deactivation may contribute to the antipsychotic effects of cannabidiol potentially representing a completely new mechanism in the treatment of schizophrenia.
