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Showing posts with label cannabis culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cannabis culture. Show all posts

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Using VAPORIZERS to extract THC offer hope for MS Suffers

I had an interesting find while checking out Google hot trends today. It seems the world is looking for VAPORIZERS. So what is a VAPORIZER you might ask. No, it is not the typical gizmo that heats up vicks vapo rub and makes your chest feel all better. Although it does make you feel better and a VAPORIZER operates in a similar manner.





Designed for CANNABIS CULTURE, the VAPORIZER will super heat the MARIJUANA in essence VAPORIZING the THC and leaving behind the harmful junk.

THC has several proven medicinal benefits including PAIN RELIEF for chronic pain suffers, NAUSEA RELIEF for those going through Kemo Therapy, and more recently THC has been proven to help sufferers of MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS (MS)

Here is the article on Multiple Sclerosis and THC

There are few diseases as baffling and scary as multiple sclerosis (MS). You know this if you have it, or know someone who does -- and, since this is Canada, you probably do.





Our place on the globe is an MS hot zone. Around the world there is a noticeable "latitudinal gradient" in the incidence of MS; it is most common in Scandinavia, Iceland, Scotland and here. And even within countries like Italy, Australia and the United States, it becomes more common as you move north. (A recent study confirmed the existence of an equally weird "calendar gradient" among Brits, Canadians, Danes and Swedes; if you were born in November, your MS risk is almost 20% lower than if you were born in May.)

But despite such powerful clues, theories about the disease's cause remain tenuous. Is it environmental? Dietary? Genetic? Viral? There is no conclusive answer. Acting with a keen consciousness of medicine's helplessness, Health Canada announced on April 13 that it is extending conditional approval to a new drug for the treatment of chronic pain in MS patients. But the new drug has a familiar face. The active ingredients in GW Pharmaceuticals' Sativex are THC and cannibidiol -- which also happen to be the main active ingredients in marijuana.

One can only admire the lightning speed with which this U.K.-based firm has moved to capitalize on our national doublethink about cannabis. Canada is the first jurisdiction to approve the product, an oral spray said to taste a little like Guinness. (The price has not yet been set, but Sativex is expected to go on sale in June.) We were targeted first, it seems, because of our high MS incidence and our relative openness to using VAPORIZERS to "smoke" marijuana.

Then again, if marijuana were actually legal here, there might not be such a sizable market for a new form of the stuff. Thousands of Canadian MS sufferers are already smoking pot on the sly, and will attest to the pain-relieving powers of THC.

Health Canada's approval of Sativex is based on one paltry four-week study, and is contingent on further research by GW. The drug was approved only because there are no other MS-specific pain drugs on the market. And it was passed despite a high incidence -- nearly 90% -- of "adverse events" in the GW study. The punchline is that most of these adverse events fell into two categories: mild pain or irritation in the mouth, which is attributable to the delivery method, and "intoxication," which is attributable to, uh, the fact that it's weed.

Sativex is billed by its maker as pot for squares: GW spokesman Mark Rogerson told the Edmonton Journal that "With Sativex you don't need to get high to manage your symptoms." It's being left to MS patients to set their own dosage, on the premise that they will gradually find an amount that relieves pain without getting them high. On the other hand, if they want to get high, there certainly won't be anything stopping them. (Moreover, what kind of sadist would begrudge them the relaxation?)





The genius of Sativex is that it takes moral pressure off the physician. Ever since the Liberals began to contemplate medical licensing of smokeable marijuana, the Canadian Medical Association and individual MDs have occasionally complained about being asked to prescribe a "poorly understood" substance in a non-titrated form. The complaint is partly valid, since black-market marijuana varies widely in strength. And partly, it has an unstated basis: Doctors don't want to become society's sole legitimate conduit for a recreational drug that is widely tolerated and used, but officially illegal.

Still, there are thousands of studies of marijuana in the medical literature, and it has millions of habitual users. Drugs are prescribed every day which are understood 1% as well as THC and other cannabinoids. The truth is that most doctors understand marijuana to be fairly harmless (which is why the CMA's journal of record officially supports decriminalization).

Sativex is literally just marijuana without the smoke, and while it may liberate doctors from the burden of cannabis hypocrisy, it will intensify it for the rest of us. The availability of licensed, patented pseudopot alternatives shouldn't open the door for renewed crackdowns on "compassion clubs" -- which would mean taking traditional marijuana away from patients, and replacing a naturally occurring substance with expensive simulacra that might be therapeutically inferior. Above all, it's not pot smoke that we need to eliminate, but cloudy thinking.


One of the healthiest ways to extract the Elixir THC from the Marijuana is with a VAPORIZER. In my experience, the Best bang for your VAPORIZER Buck is through a Canadian company called RXDirect2U. These guys have done some serious research into the most effective and safe way to extract the beneficial THC leaving behind the unhealthy and potentially dangerous garbage.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Seattle Hempfest this weekend



This weekend on the Puget Sound waterfront, Myrtle Edwards Park plays host to America's largest marijuana law reform event in the 17th annual Seattle Hempfest. The festival, the purpose of which is to educate the public on the many uses and benefits of the cannabis plant, runs from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and promises nonstop entertainment.

Hempfest will include five stages featuring hundreds of speakers and music performers. Key speakers include PBS travel show host Rick Steves, author of The Emperor Wears No Clothes Jack Herer, and NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) founder Keith Stroup.





The Hemposium Stage will offer attendees a chance to participate in panel discussions with many of the Hempfest speakers, which John Davis, the event's board chairman, said is an opportunity not to be missed.

"The panels will provide a chance to hear people that really know what they're talking about discuss the issues," Davis said, adding, "It's really a neat experience to get to talk directly to the speakers."

Among the issues on tap for this weekend, industrial uses of cannabis will be at the forefront, as this year's theme is "Industrial Hemp, and what it can do for America."





"There are a lot of issues that surround the big issue, which is the legal status of the plant, but we do like to bring up industrial usage," Davis said.

Although the issue of marijuana legalization is at the center of Hempfest, the festival's always-impressive band lineup is a major reason why it is expected to draw more than 150,000 people to the waterfront this weekend. Among the many bands performing on the event's five stages will be L.D.T. Mo-Thugs (featuring members from Grammy-winning Bone Thugs-n-Harmony), Vains of Jenna, and Herbivores. Because the event is free and run by a nonprofit organization, most of the acts are volunteering their time to support the cause.

Any event involving the legality of marijuana is sure to raise the question of police presence. However, Seattle Hempfest has a fairly clean bill on this issue and works closely with Seattle Police to ensure a safe festival environment. Davis said he has been especially impressed with the efforts put forth by police during past Hempfests.





"The police have really shown our group the meaning of protect and serve," Davis said.

Hempfest is free and largely put on by volunteers, with funding coming from a combination of vendor revenue, sponsorships, and donations. However, Davis estimates that the average donation at last year's event was somewhere around 15 cents. 15 cents! So with two days chock full of complimentary entertainment, enjoy some speeches and concerts and then open up that billfold and contribute a little more than a nickel and dime for a great cause.

CLICK HERE To See the Hempfest schedule and line up