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July 12, 2012
A Draft from the Past- and a new clinical correlation
I don't post every entry I compose. Some are saved as drafts for possible later use or because something else caught my eye before I got around to posting it. The following was composed in July, 2012, but never posted. Just this past month, I somewhat belatedly realized that an unusually high percentage of the patients I've been taking histories from for over ten years were self-medicating for autoimmune disorders. The July 12, 2012 entry noted, "An exciting recent insight requiring further investigation is that it (cannabis) may also relieve a wide variety of symptoms of autoimmune disorders." Today, I Googled that same issue and was rewarded by an exciting hit. This is a rare case of old clinical correlations being confirmed by new research.Text from July 2102: I just became aware of NIH grants that have been supporting research at the University of South Carolina Medical School for over five years. The Doctors Nagarkati, both PhDs, appear to be husband and wife. although limited to animals and tissue culture, their work clearly indicates that both cannabinoids and endocannabinoids possess enormous potential benefits for human patients- even as the DEA and local police continue to raid California dispensaries asserting that marijuana is still "illegal under federal law," (one based on the unfounded assumptions in Schedule One of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970).
Aren’t the FDA, the DEA, NIDA, and the NIH part of a federal bureaucracy nominally controlled by President Obama? Is it possible to embarrass either them, or Obama for their continuing observance of the scientifically baseless and intellectually bankrupt Controlled Substances Act passed over 40 years ago at the behest of two lawyers forced out of office for dishonesty? Given the circumstances, isn’t it time to rethink our destructive “War” on drugs?
My own interest has been sustained by an ongoing study of the benefits to (now over seven thousand) Californians seeking protection from arrest under the aegis of Proposition 215.
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at July 12, 2012 10:46 PM