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Cannabis: The “Gateway Drug” Leading AWAY from Prescription Drug Addiction

There are currently over 32 million Americans using FDA-approved anti-anxiety prescription drugs (benzodiazepines), based on 2018 data. That includes almost 400,000 children under the age of 5 years old, and over 100,000 infants under the age of 1. According to a study published on the National Institute of Health (NIH) website in 2016, benzodiazepine prescriptions increased 4.1 percent in 1996 to 5.6 percent in 2013, a 37 percent increase, while deaths from benzodiazepine prescriptions increased from 0.58 per 100,000 adults to about 3 per 100,000 adults, or about 8,000 deaths per year, an increase of more than 500 percent. And these statistics are for just one class of anti-psychotic drugs, anti-anxiety (benzodiazepine) drugs. According to data from 2020, about 77 million Americans are taking some form of an anti-psychotic drug. Over 100 people die every day in the U.S. from prescription drugs (pre-COVID, that number would be much higher today), and over 50% of all drug deaths in the U.S. are from prescription drugs. By way of contrast, about 52 million Americans use cannabis (marijuana), which is still illegal at the federal level and not FDA-approved, and to date there has not been a single death attributed to cannabis use, according to the NIH. The corporate media and Big Pharma have been saying for decades now that cannabis use is a "gateway drug" leading people to become addicted to more dangerous drugs. Well, I think everyone agrees that marijuana is a "gateway drug", but a "gateway" leading in which direction? The evidence points to cannabis use as a "gateway" AWAY from deadly prescription drugs, such as opioids and anti-psychotics, and is also being used to help people stop drinking alcohol. Of course that means decreased revenues for Big Pharma, and not just for anti-anxiety drugs. Learn more about the "other side" of cannabis that threatens Big Pharma.

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America’s Biggest Criminal Drug Dealers Go Free and Continue to Push Their Drugs that Destroy Lives

Two of America's largest criminal drug dealers recently reached a $10 billion settlement for their role in America's opioid crisis that has cost tens of thousands of deaths and countless lives destroyed for the past several years. As part of this settlement, nobody goes to prison, and these drug dealers get to keep pushing their harmful drugs. They even get to spread out their criminal payments over several years so they don't suffer any business loss. The CDC had originally issued stricter guidelines for prescribing opioids in an effort to reduce illegal use and addictions, but a couple of weeks ago they backtracked on those guidelines making it easier for doctors to continue prescribing opioids. Deaths resulting from prescription pharmaceutical drugs far exceed deaths due to illegal street drugs, and it is not even close. The "war on drugs" started during the 1970s has created several generations now of mind-controlled drug users who incorrectly believe that illegal drugs are dangerous, while their prescription drugs are safe. The most commonly used "illegal drug" used by millions of Americans today is cannabis, or marijuana. While cannabis use has increased in the U.S. for both recreational and medical reasons, the pharma-funded corporate media continues to demonize it, and for good reason. Marijuana is best known for its recreational use, but if you can bypass the corporate censorship that obviously sees marijuana as a threat to patented pharmaceutical drugs, you will learn that the therapeutic benefits to marijuana are absolutely amazing. And some doctors are actually using medical marijuana to get people off of deadly opioids. According to data retrieved from the FDA due to a Freedom of Information Act request, nobody has ever died as a result of using marijuana, making it one of the safest natural drugs available, in spite of what you may be hearing and reading from the pharma-controlled corporate media.

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Big Pharma Investing $BILLIONS in Patented Marijuana Drugs while the Natural Plant Remains Illegal to Millions of Americans

While the U.S. Federal Government continues to classify the marijuana plant as an illegal drug as part of the "Controlled Substances Act," the FDA has now approved patented drugs derived from the plant for medical use. One marijuana FDA-approved pharmaceutical product is currently being used to treat children for epilepsy, and the FDA is expected to approve another marijuana-based drug soon for treating multiple sclerosis. According to Fierce Pharma, the company with the first FDA-approved marijuana drug is investing $100 million to grow more pot, although if you try to grow some for yourself, depending on which state you live in, you could be arrested, spend time in prison, and have your children removed from your custody. In Idaho, for example, a state where marijuana sales still remain illegal, the new Jazz Pharmaceutical marijuana drug for treating multiple sclerosis that the FDA is expected to approve soon, needed a special bill in Idaho, and law makers who are against families using the natural marijuana plant and are all too willing to medically kidnap their children if they dare to use it, all of a sudden are pro-marijuana because a pharmaceutical company now sells it, and the FDA approves it. So while Idaho Senator Scott Grow supports marijuana if it is approved by the FDA as a drug, if it is not, he wants those who use the natural plant to be treated like criminals "to protect Idaho families." And that pretty much summarizes those who oppose marijuana as a natural plant, which is mainly among "Conservative" lawmakers. Treat loving parents as criminals if they use the natural plant and then take their children away from them, but treat the criminal FDA and Big Pharma as saints for providing marijuana patented drugs that can be prescribed by doctors. Meanwhile, a Bill to end the Federal ban on natural marijuana comes before the House this week. This is usually considered a "liberal Democratic" issue, as most Republican Conservatives support the "war on drugs" which is actually a war on natural herbal medicines which cannot be patented, in most cases, to protect the pharmaceutical industry. With Democrats in control of the House and Senate, as well as the White House, does this bill have a chance? Or will the pharmaceutical lobby make sure it never sees the light of day, as it has done for past many decades?

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Medical Doctor Discusses New Research on Cannabis

Dr. Allan Frankel, a board-certified internist at GreenBridge Medical in Santa Monica, California, has treated patients with medical cannabis for the past 13 years. Frankel is particularly excited by the discovery of a new cannabinoid molecule, tetrahydrocannabivarin or THCV. While very similar to THC, which is the psychoactive part of marijuana, THCV is not psychoactive, but can still induce a sense of “focused euphoria.” “It’s a wonderful feeling, I think, for [those with] depression and anxiety,” Frankel says. It’s also helpful for pain, which is a really important medical need. Opioids are now killing an estimated 47,600 Americans annually,2 and we desperately need safer alternatives. Medical cannabis is one such alternative.

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More Seniors Rejecting Pharmaceutical Drugs for Medical Cannabis

It’s becoming well known that older Americans are the country’s fastest-growing population of new cannabis users for medicinal purposes. More and more seniors are seeking refuge from polypharmacy, which is a culmination of five to maybe 25 costly pharmaceutical drugs being taken daily that actually diminish their quality of life. Fortunately, there are legitimate cannabis studies supporting seniors’ need for replacing toxic pharmaceutical drugs with medical cannabis, making it easier for baby boomers who never inhaled to switch from polypharmacy to cannabis. This article will cite some of those cannabis studies that relate specifically to the age-related discomforts, sleep disorders, lower energy, pains, and diseases that tarnish their "Golden Years."

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Survey: Many Canadians Choosing Medical Cannabis to Replace Dangerous Prescription Drugs

Canada became one of the world’s first complete nations to legalize medical marijuana in 2001. This occurred after Terrance Parker went all the way to Ontario’s Court of Appeals in 2000 to declare the right to treat his epilepsy with the only thing that worked for him – cannabis. This court declared arresting Parker for using the only compound that worked for him was unconstitutional. Thus the Marijuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR) created a national legal medical marijuana program allowing its use for chronic pain and diseases mainstream medicine fails at helping, such as cancer and AIDS. Since then, modifications and updates have created more liberal access to medical cannabis nationally throughout Canada more than any state in the United States. Recreational non-medical access to cannabis was approved in 2018. A recent University of Victoria survey was conducted among current legal medical marijuana users to determine the reasons and outcomes of using cannabis to replace prescribed pharmaceuticals or alcohol or other dangerous drugs. The researchers concluded: "The findings provide a granular view of patient patterns of medical cannabis use ...adding to a growing body of academic research suggesting that increased regulated access to medical and recreational cannabis can result in a reduction in the use of and subsequent harms associated with opioids, alcohol, tobacco, and other substances."

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Latest Alzheimer’s Blockbuster Drug Fails to Complete Phase 3 Trials

As has been reported numerous times here at Health Impact News for the past 6 years or so, the pharmaceutical industry has been desperate to find an Alzheimer's drug to market to an aging baby boomer population with ever increasing numbers of Alzheimer's Disease cases. And yet, billions of dollars have been invested in potential drugs only to see these drugs never make it out of the trial phase and come to market, because they do not significantly help Alzheimer's patients. Biogen and their partner Eisai are the latest pharmaceutical companies to throw in the towel regarding their Alzheimer's drug aducanumab, which has failed to make it out of phase 3 trials. Many drug researchers have now abandoned the theory of amyloid plaque accumulation in the brain as the causative factor of Alzheimer’s. Could aducanumab's failure be the last nail in the coffin for this theory, as natural approaches to Alzheimer's such as coconut oil and the ketogenic diet see more positive results?

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New Studies Provide Hope for Using Cannabis to Treat Brain Injuries and Diseases

In 1974, the Ford administration began bogus testing on monkeys as the science “proving” marijuana destroys brain cells. This helped support the “Reefer Madness” mania originated by the 1938 movie of the same name. It was great for the “Drug War” and “just say no” campaign. Since then, international studies have proven otherwise. But they were not publicized or used by politicians as much as the bogus study. The exponentially rising movement of states legalizing medical marijuana has provided us the anecdotal evidence that, contrary to the scare tactics used to discourage marijuana, the opposite is true. These anecdotal stories of cannabis healing, coupled with the expanding allowance of medical marijuana, have opened funding sources for "official" studies on cannabis and the brain. This time, studies will be focused on determining the highest and best use of cannabis strains instead of "proving" brain danger to justify banning the plant. These new studies are confirming cannabis as a healing agent for brain diseases and injuries, improving brain health.

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Medical Cannabis Has Potential to Help Arthritis Sufferers

There have been anecdotal reports and testimonies of arthritis sufferers getting effective relief from cannabis without adverse side effects, sometimes even reversing their arthritic conditions. There have also been several studies confirming the anecdotal successes with cannabis for treating arthritis with cannabis. A rare human study that clinically tested cannabis, and a massive review paper published recently that covered over 100 lab cell culture (in vitro) and animal (in vivo) studies testing cannabis for treating arthritis shows promising results for arthritis sufferers.

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Study: Suicide Rates Lower in States with Legal Marijuana Sales – Medical Cannabis More Effective than Psych Drugs?

A study published a few years ago shows that in states where marijuana has been legalized, suicide rates have declined. The study, Medical Marijuana Laws and Suicides by Gender and Age, was published by the American Journal of Public Health and showed a reduction in suicide rates in states that allowed cannabis for medical use. Since this study was published, more states have adopted medical marijuana laws and some of those that have allowed cannabis for medical purposes have expanded to allowing cannabis for “recreational use” with controls and restrictions similar to alcohol consumption. So, the reduction in suicide rates may be an even greater reduction now than it was when this study was published.

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Natural Remedies for Macular Degeneration and Healthy Vision

Macular degeneration is the most common cause of blindness among people 55 and over who once had normal eyesight. That’s why it is often called age-related macular degeneration, or AMD. It can also occur rarely among younger people within a six to twenty year age span. Conventional medicine is relatively clueless about its cause, blaming it on imply aging or genetics for younger victims. It also falls short of effectively avoiding or treating it, considering it to be incurable and only poorly managed with harsh treatments. This article explores a newly discovered source of macular degeneration and its prevention as well as natural remedies that include eating the right foods and cannabis.

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Study: THC from Cannabis Helps Restore Memory Loss due to Aging and Dementia

A recent 2018 animal study has indicated that cannabis with THC helps restore memory loss due to aging and dementia. This is what many medical cannabis users and experts already know. The human cannabis experience has outpaced mainstream science considerably. But it does help create some medical cannabis scientific credibility with mainstream medicine. The well known and often vilified cannabis compound known as THC (Δ9 aka delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol) is the compound or cannabinoid that creates the euphoric “high.” Biased false claims that THC causes brain damage is the main reason why truly independent research is restricted from national funding in the USA unless it supports government marijuana danger claims. This new study, A chronic low dose of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) restores cognitive function in old mice, was conducted in Germany with national funding through the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). According to Newsweek magazine online and some other magazines and websites that covered this study, the study authors wrote: "Cannabis preparations and THC are used for medicinal purposes. They have an excellent safety record and do not produce adverse side-effects when administered at a low dose to older individuals. Thus, chronic, low-dose treatment with THC or cannabis extracts could be a potential strategy to slow down or even to reverse cognitive decline in the elderly."

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Study: Medical Cannabis Cures Inflammation in Gut – Hope for IBS, Crohns, Celiac Sufferers

A recent animal and human cell line culture study published August, 2018 confirms the anecdotal reports of healing inflammatory bowel and gut conditions with cannabis. Surprisingly, the study did not initially use cannabis. Its original purpose was to investigate the mechanics of inflammation in the gut using mice. They inadvertently discovered that impaired or insufficient internal endogenous cannabinoids known as endocannabinoids in the gut allowed inflammation to occur in the mice. The researchers concluded that adding cannabinoids from cannabis plant sources such as marijuana could be why so many IBS (inflammatory bowel syndrome) and Celiac Disease sufferers experience powerful relief from cannabis. Lead study author McCormick's phrase "This gives clinical researchers a new drug target …" seems to imply that the intent of this study was to develop drugs for the pharmaceutical industry. Natural whole medical cannabis plants, which offer a plethora of disease cures that Big Pharma cannot offer, are not able to be patented. Knowledge of cannabis’s multiple uses is already beginning to impinge on the pharma cartel’s highly profitable medical monopoly, which relies on creating a synthetic version the active pharmacological component of a natural source to patent it. There is hope for sanity to prevail eventually, enabling cannabis to be readily available as a natural medicine for the many ailments and autoimmune diseases once considered incurable by mainstream medicine.

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The Drug Crisis in the U.S. Concerns Prescription Opioids, not Marijuana

There is a new shift being observed with the federal government looking to increase cannabis cultivation for research purposes accompanied by an intention to curb opioid production, according to an article from Marijuana Moment published recently by Forbes magazine. During the latter part of the Obama administration, there was some movement toward expanding sanctioned cannabis cultivation for research, which the DEA under Jeff Sessions Justice Department resisted until recently. Along with this potential increase of cannabis resources for research, the DEA has announced an intention to restrict opioid production and monitor opioid distribution more closely than it has been. Opioids include oxycontin, oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, and morphine. All of these opioids are addictive, dangerous, and potentially lethal. Ironically, marijuana has recently been used to effectively help opioid prescription drug addicts painlessly walk away from them permanently within weeks.

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Cannabis Legal Updates: Legalization of Industrial Hemp Passes Senate

The biggest surprise in 2018 for news on the cannabis plant, is that seemingly out of nowhere, there is now a push for legalizing industrial hemp nationally. It has actually been passed in the Senate, but not as a stand-alone bill. Industrial hemp is known for its dense, strong fiber content that has many applications, such as making paper, cloth, rope, biodegradable plastics, and even strong, non-toxic building materials with their own innate insulation. The ramifications of its use for types of materials mentioned are more ecologically-sound. It’s also an agricultural asset. It’s a hardy cash crop that can be planted and harvested twice in moderate climates. It can be used by organic and conventional farmers as a rotating crop that helps enrich the soil as it requires no synthetic fertilizers. This is great news for farmers and advocates of using hemp for environmentally-sound consumer and building products, as well as CBD. It will create hemp independence from foreign hemp sources, which includes Canada and other nations. Currently, it is legal to import industrial hemp products, but illegal to grow it.

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Will Medical Cannabis Soon Be Legally Available to Everyone?

There are and have been a few major pro-marijuana bills introduced on the Congressional floor of Capitol Hill over the past several months. Some have been stalled, but an important one remains viable with bi-partisan support, and President Trump has mentioned that he'd probably sign it. This bill would eliminate the constant haggling of including the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment, which comes under threat each year from being included in the annual spending federal spending bill. This amendment prohibits the Justice Department from using federal funds for intervening in state-approved medical cannabis activities under cover of federal laws superseding state laws. Earlier in 2017, Department of Justice (DOJ) head U.S. Attorney General (AG) Jeff Sessions pressured Congressional leaders to not include the amendment. This would allow the DOJ to unleash an uninhibited DEA open season for cracking down on all cannabis use regardless of state laws and its medical applications. The Roherbacher-Blunenauer protective amendment finally went through recently this year despite being blocked from being voted for on the House Floor even with bipartisan support in the House and Senate. Unfortunately, bills can be killed in legislative committees without going to a vote. However, this new bill would finally grant total states' rights to cannabis by federal law without having to be haggled over every year when the national budget bill comes up for discussion.

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Study: Cannabis More Effective Than Pharmaceutical Drugs for Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases Like Alzheimer’s

The prevailing safety concerns about marijuana from mainstream medicine, mainstream media, and government officials are focused on the brain. Somehow getting “high on pot” is associated with brain damage. And brain damage is the battle cry of marijuana prohibitionists. An earlier Health Impact News article presented the truth about this myth and how it started. It also provides information that points out the fact that cannabis is a brain health herb. In fact, full spectrum cannabis with THC included has been reported empirically by individuals and scientific studies to do the opposite of damaging the brain: It apparently heals brain damage. A June 2016 in-vitro study titled, Amyloid proteotoxicity initiates an inflammatory response blocked by cannabinoids, published in Nature Partner Journal – Aging and Mechanics of Disease, used a cultured brain tissue to better study the biochemical and cellular mechanics involved. The study was conducted at the Salk Institute of La Jolla, California, and coordinated with the University of California in San Diego. The study was funded by The Burns Foundation, The Bundy Foundation, and, surprisingly, the National Institutes of Health (NIH). From the study: "Nerve cell death from the accumulation of aggregated or amyloid-like proteins is a common theme in most age-dependent neurodegenerative diseases. However, there are no drugs that significantly inhibit cell death associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s or Huntington’s diseases. Although other studies have offered evidence that cannabinoids might be neuroprotective against the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, we believe our study is the first to demonstrate that cannabinoids affect both inflammation and amyloid beta accumulation in nerve cells."

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World Health Organization Moving Towards Recommending Cannabis for Medical Purposes

In late December 2017, the WHO (World Health Organization) issued a statement from its Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD): "Recent evidence from animal and human studies shows that its use could have some therapeutic benefit for seizures due to epilepsy and related conditions. Current evidence also shows that cannabidiol is not likely to be abused or create dependence, such as for other cannabinoids (such as Tetra Hydro Cannabinol (THC), for instance)." Now that the WHO's own Expert Committee on Drug Dependence is heading for a final meeting in June to finalize its decision on CBD and review other whole-plant cannabis products for medical purposes, the FDA has been put into a position where it's forced to conduct a public survey for input on marijuana's medical efficacy and safety.

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Newsweek: “Is Marijuana the World’s Most Effective Treatment for Autism?”

Due largely to increased vaccination demands and other toxic food and environment factors, the horror of life-long autism ruining families is constantly increasing. With mainstream medicine’s failure to even moderately improve those children’s quality of life, desperate parents of autistic children are finding that medical marijuana can sometimes offer amazing results, and mainstream media is starting to take note. On the last week of February 2018, Newsweek ran an article titled, “Is Marijuana the World’s Most Effective Treatment for Autism?” The question alone was controversial.

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Mainstream Medicine Admits Medical Cannabis is Effective in Treating Leukemia – But Only Synthetic Patented Version

There has been a bit of a stir recently over mainstream medical analysis that supports cannabis for treating leukemia. Unfortunately, most of it involves cannabis as an adjunct or supporting treatment for chemotherapy, while the rest supports synthetic THC for leukemia. An example of this is a 2016 study referenced in a June 2017 issue of Herb in the article “Is Cannabis Effective Against Leukemia,” which surprisingly cautiously skirted the issue of curing leukemia with cannabis. The study referenced, "Dronabinol has preferential anti-leukemic activity in acute lymphoblastic and myeloid leukemia with lymphoid differentiation patterns," which basically examined the efficacy of a pharmaceutical drug called dronabinol, the active synthetic THC compound of Marinol . The study was very favorable, concluding: "Our study provides rigorous data to support clinical evaluation of THC as a low-toxic therapy option in a well defined subset of acute leukemia patients." So this synthetic THC drug dronabinol is okay with the FDA, and the DEA has it listed as a Schedule III controlled substance. Yet the whole plant cannabis commonly known as marijuana with its balanced assortment of 80 or so cannabinoids and terpenes and flavonoids that contribute to a safe synergistic entourage effect of healing is still listed as Schedule I, dangerous, addictive, and without medical merit.

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