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Marijuana Could Prevent Alzheimer's, New Study
Chickan writes "'A puff a day might keep Alzheimer's away, according to marijuana research by professor Gary Wenk and associate professor Yannic Marchalant of the Ohio State Department of Psychology. Wenk's studies show that a low dosage in the morning of a certain canavanoid, a component in marijuana, reversed memory loss in older rats' brains. In his study, an experimental group of old rats received a dosage, and a control group of rats did not. The old rats that received the drugs performed better on memory tests, and the drug slowed and prevented brain cell death.' My fine university's dollars at work!" Maybe it works even better in combination with brain-preserving sips of coffee.
Because it has not been proven to be more effective than other, signficantly safer drugs.
In addition THC IS legal for some diseases, just in tablet form.
The whole plant will NEVER be legalized because the side effects are so severe that there will never be a suitable time to use it.
Unfortunately there are many more side effects than just that. Tobacco really is a mild, tamed drug. Marijuana, as it's smoked today will release large burning particles into your lungs.
It's basically guaranteed to cause cancer before long, and quite a bit of mechanical and chemical damage even before that.
And yes, many medicines come from drug research. That's because obviously drugs have many active ingredients, and using some of them in isolation can have targeted beneficial effects. There are many, many such medicines.
Another type of substances many medicines originate from are poisons. Snake poison is a good example. Many components of snake poison are used in chemo treatments, because they kill just about anything.
You don't, however see anyone clamoring for the free sale of poisons. Even though they have many beneficial effects. Of course, 1 ml to much and you sleep with the fishes.
Just a few examples (source http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/evidence99/marijuana/Health_1.html) :
1) Smoking marijuana regularly (a joint a day) can damage the cells in the bronchial passages which protect the body against inhaled microorganisms and decrease the ability of the immune cells in the lungs to fight off fungi, bacteria, and tumor cells. For patients with already weakened immune systems, this means an increase in the possibility of dangerous pulmonary infections, including pneumonia, which often proves fatal in AIDS patients.
Studies further suggest that marijuana is a general "immunosuppressant" whose degenerative influence extends beyond the respiratory system. Regular smoking has been shown to materially affect the overall ability of the smokerâ(TM)s body to defend itself against infection by weakening various natural immune mechanisms, including macrophages (a.k.a. "killer cells") and the all-important T-cells. Obviously, this suggests the conclusion, which is well-supported by scientific studies, that the use of marijuana...
2) The main respiratory consequences of smoking marijuana regularly (one joint a day) are pulmonary infections and respiratory cancer, whose connection to marijuana use has been strongly suggested but not conclusively proven. The effects also include chronic bronchitis, impairment in the function of the smaller air passages, inflammation of the lung, the development of potentially pre-cancerous abnormalities in the bronchial lining and lungs, and, as discussed, a reduction in the capabilities of many defensive mechanisms within the lungs ...
3) It has been suggested that marijuana is at the root of many mental disorders, including acute toxic psychosis, panic attacks (one of the very conditions it is being used experimentally to treat), flashbacks, delusions, depersonalization, hallucinations, paranoia, depression, and uncontrollable aggressiveness. Marijuana has long been known to trigger attacks of mental illness, such as bipolar (manic-depressive) psychosis and schizophrenia. This connection with mental illness should make health care providers for terminally ill patients and the patients themselves, who may already be suffering from some form of clinical depression, weigh very carefully the pros and cons of adopting a therapeutic course of marijuana.
So to summarize : ...
1) it partially disables the immune system of users
2) it damages (physically) the lungs, and creates infection points in them, which do not easily disappear
3) it causes, in the long term, lung cancer
4) while it doesn't cause psychological episodes, it triggers them. Giving marijuana to anyone with any type of brain malfunction whatsoever is dangerous in the extreme.
5) even in healthy people marijuana manages to cause so many different problems that the standard manual of psychological diagnostics grew about 20% to describe them all.
6) it is not good for the hearth, and increases (like any drug that exites neurons) the risk of heart attack. During smoking and up to 2 weeks after last use risk of heart attack is about 4x higher than normal.
(look for yourself)
Who's FUDing? "none of those risks are present"? If by "none", you mean "reduced", then you are correct. Otherwise, you are being dishonest.
Btw, reduced does not equal none.
Honestly, folks, I come to /. to get away from the children on Digg who constantly push marijuana articles. I'm not anti- or pro- anything, but headlines like "Marijuana Cures Herpes!" and "Hemp Can Stop Hangnails!" showing up here are quite disappointing because they're a transparent, sophomoric rationalization for chemically-induced reality avoidance.
Fine, go get stoned. But stop bellyaching about how everyone is mean to marijuana. And stop interrupting serious forums where most folks want to talk about serious topics (/., change.gov, etc.) with endless marijuana medical miracles.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.