Seizures are not only frightening for those who experience them and those who witness them; they can also be extremely dangerous when sufferers lose consciousness or control and fall down. Unfortunately, doctors have yet to find a way to stop them entirely. However, a new study is giving a lot of people hope after finding that taking CBD caused a significant drop in the number of seizures experienced by people who have a severe form of epilepsy.
Researchers from the NYU School of Medicine reached this conclusion after carrying out a randomized, double-blind, large-scale study that involved people with Lennox Gastaut syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy that is notoriously difficult to control.
People who suffer from the syndrome experience serious cognitive impairment and several types of seizures, including frequent drop seizures. Also known as atonic seizures, these are characterized by a sudden lack of tone and strength in the muscles that can cause an individual to fall to the ground. They remain conscious, but their eyelids can droop, their head might drop, and they tend to drop objects that they are holding. It’s not unusual for sufferers to injure themselves while in the midst of such seizures, which is why preventing them is so essential.
There are currently six medications approved for treating these seizures in sufferers, but they don’t stop the seizures from occurring.
In hopes of finding a better treatment, the researchers looked at 225 patients between the ages of 2 and 55 with the condition. They were divided into groups that received either 20 mg/kg/d of CBD, 10 mg/kg/d of CBD, or a placebo for a period of 14 weeks. The researchers kept track of the number of seizures participants experienced starting four weeks ahead of the study to get a baseline number, as well as throughout the study, and for a four-week period afterward.
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They noted a 41.9 percent decrease in the number of drop seizures experienced by those taking the 20 mg/kg/d dose, while those taking the 10 mg/kg/d dose of CBD experienced a 37.2 percent drop in such seizures. The placebo group reported a 17.2 percent reduction in seizures. Although CBD is generally considered safe, it’s worth noting that some patients did experience mild side effects such as decreased appetite, sleepiness and diarrhea.
Proven track record
This isn’t the first time scientists have found CBD to help with seizures. In a study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found a 39 percent reduction in the frequency of seizures among those who had a different type of epilepsy, Dravet Syndrome.
Other studies carried out by the same researchers have demonstrated positive results using CBD for treatment-resistant types of epilepsy. These findings prompted an FDA advisory panel to vote unanimously to approve the application for a cannabidiol oral solution called Epidiolex.
The author of both studies, Dr. Orrin Devinsky, said that this will give epilepsy sufferers some hope, but he believes further research is necessary to explore other dosing regimens and to find out if similar compounds derived from cannabis could make an impact.
Earlier this year, CBD oil made headlines – only in independent media, of course, because the mainstream media never reports on anything that would threaten Big Pharma’s profits – when it saved a 12-year-old from life-threatening seizures caused by a rare epilepsy syndrome known as Febrile Infection-Related Epilepsy Syndrome.
After a crippling seizure from the condition drove doctors to place the girl in an induced coma to protect her brain from being damaged, her family began to lose hope. Anti-epilepsy drugs weren’t having an impact, so her mother turned to CBD oil. Within 48 hours of her first treatment with CBD oil, her constant seizures stopped, and she opened her eyes.
It’s becoming clearer every day that CBD is a viable treatment option for those who suffer from many types of seizures, and one can only hope that it will get the widespread attention and credibility it deserves.
The cannabinoids in cannabis – cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – interact with your body by way of naturally-occurring cannabinoid receptors embedded in cell membranes throughout your body. In fact, scientists now believe the endocannabinoid system may represent the most widespread receptor system in your body.1
There are cannabinoid receptors in your brain, lungs, liver, kidneys, immune system and more, and both the therapeutic and psychoactive properties of marijuana occur when a cannabinoid activates a cannabinoid receptor. Your body actually makes its own cannabinoids, similar to those found in marijuana, albeit in much smaller quantities than you get from the plant.
The fact that your body is replete with cannabinoid receptors, key to so many biological functions, is why there’s such enormous medical potential for cannabis. More often than not, medicinal marijuana is made from plants bred to have high CBD and low THC content. While THC has psychoactive activity that can make you feel “stoned,” CBD has no psychoactive properties.
That doesn’t mean THC is medicinally useless, however. It too has been found to have a number of medicinal benefits, although it does need to be balanced with CBD to lessen its psychoactive effects. For example, recent animal research2 suggests THC has a beneficial influence on the aging brain.3,4 Rather than dulling or impairing cognition, THC appears to reverse the aging process and improve mental processes, raising the possibility it might be useful for the treatment of dementia.5
Drug Company Vies for CBD Monopoly
As reported by Motherboard, the drug industry is now pushing for legislation that would make CBD oil illegal – by turning it into a drug.6 The article discusses a South Dakota Senate bill, SB 95, which would exempt CBD from the definition of cannabis, thereby transferring it from a Schedule I controlled substance to a Schedule IV substance. This would allow CBD products to be sold, legally, in South Dakota, where medicinal marijuana is currently not allowed.
This past summer, lobbyists for GW Pharmaceuticals and its U.S. subsidiary, Greenwich BioSciences, fought for an amendment to the bill that would have limited CBD rescheduling to products approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – in other words, they wanted only CBD drugs to be legally obtainable.
“Not surprisingly, GW Pharmaceuticals has just such a drug in the pipeline.Epidiolex, a ‘proprietary oral solution of pure plant-derived cannabidiol,’ has already been given to epileptic children in the U.S. as part of afederal investigative studydocumented recently in theNew England Journal of Medicine.” Motherboard writes. Epidiolex is currently under FDA review for approval.
“Since no other pharmaceutical company has a CBD drug anywhere close to market, and the wide range of CBD products already available in medical marijuana states lack FDA approval, if the bill had passed with that amendment intact, patients in South Dakota would have been subjected to a virtual CBD monopoly …
More ominously, The Great CBD Battle of South Dakota appears to be but the opening salvo in a nationwide war between GW Pharmaceuticals and traditional medical cannabis providers …
[U]nder the amendment, South Dakota would … ban myriad CBD products already available in many other states. Even though they cost far less than Epidiolex, and are potentially more effective for patients, since in addition to CBD those “full spectrum” cannabis extracts also contain small amounts of THC and other medicinal components of the plant.”
Study Confirms CBD Benefits for Drug-Resistant Seizures
The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study7 published in The New England Journal of Medicine in May 2017 again confirmed what has long been known: that CBD offers relief for children with drug-resistant seizures, in this case patients diagnosed with Dravet syndrome, a “catastrophic early-onset encephalopathic epilepsy, with a high mortality rate.”
GW Pharmaceuticals funded the study and was responsible for the trial design. The company also supplied the CBD and placebo. The active treatment was an oral solution containing 100 milligrams (mg) of CBD per milliliter, given in addition to the child’s current antiseizure medication regimen. The placebo was identical to the treatment solution, but without CBD.
The dose was gradually increased over the course of 14 days, with a maximum dose of 20 mg per kilogram of body weight, taken twice a day. At the end of the treatment period, the CBD solution was tapered down over the course of 10 days, reducing the dosage by 10 percent each day. Following is a summary of the main findings:
Children taking CBD experienced a nearly 40 percent reduction in the frequency of convulsive seizures over the 14-week treatment period, from a median of 12.4 seizures per month to 5.9. In the placebo group, the median convulsive-seizure frequency decreased from 14.9 to 14.1
43 percent of patients in the CBD group experienced a 50 percent or greater reduction in convulsive-seizure frequency, compared to 27 percent in the placebo group
During the treatment period, three patients in the CBD group were completely free of seizures. No patients in the placebo group were free of seizures
When looking at all seizure types, the median frequency of seizures per month decreased from 24.0 to 13.7 in the CBD group (a reduction of 28.6 percent), compared to a decrease from 41.5 to 31.1 in the placebo group (a reduction of 9 percent)
37 of 60 caregivers (62 percent) said their child’s overall condition improved in the CBD group, compared to 20 of 58 caregivers (34 percent) in the placebo group
Reported Side Effects
Interestingly, while medical cannabis is typically well-tolerated, with few side effects, a whopping 93 percent of children in the CBD group – as well as 75 percent of those in the placebo group – suffered adverse events in this trial.
Eighty-four percent of adverse events in the treatment group were deemed mild or moderate, and included vomiting, fatigue, fever, upper respiratory tract infection, decreased appetite, convulsions, lethargy, drowsiness and diarrhea. Eight patients in the treatment group withdrew from the study due to side effects.
Of course, these conventional investigators were clueless about the benefit of a ketogenic diet for the treatment of seizures, so that was something that was not evaluated in the study. This is unfortunate, as it would have radically decreased side effects and may even have been more effective than the CBD. According to the authors:
“Elevated levels of liver aminotransferase enzymes (alanine aminotransferase or aspartate aminotransferase level >3 times the upper limit of the normal range) led to withdrawal from the trial of three patients in the cannabidiol group and one in the placebo group.
Overall, elevated aminotransferase levels occurred in 12 patients in the cannabidiol group and one in the placebo group. All these patients were taking a form of valproate [editor’s note: a type of medication used to treat epilepsy] … There were … no instances of suicidal ideation …There were no deaths.”
As mentioned earlier, full spectrum cannabis extracts will not be pure CBD, as they’re derived from the whole plant. And, as noted by CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, ” … [E]vidence is mounting that these compounds work better together than in isolation.”8
It’s possible that “pharmaceutical strength” CBD might be too pure, hence the high rate of side effects. Regardless, there’s a significant difference in cost between a CBD drug and natural CBD oil, which in and of itself is of great concern for many patients and their families who now worry Big Pharma is trying to take over the cannabis industry.
Monopoly in South Dakota Avoided, for Now
As noted by Motherboard, “parents with children suffering from Dravet’s syndrome and many other serious illnesses have been pushing for access to the “miracle drug” since 2013, when Gupta’s “Weed” documentary debuted on CNN.” The program featured a 6-year-old girl beset by some 300 grand mal seizures each week. A CBD-rich cannabis oil reduced her seizures by 99 percent.
Following the airing of “Weed,” hundreds of families moved to Colorado to obtain the herbal medication for their ailing child. Other positive media attention has also helped to loosen the stigma surrounding medical marijuana. In 1969, only 12 percent of Americans favored marijuana legalization. Today, a majority of Americans favor legalization: 53 percent favor legalizing marijuana across the board and 77 percent support legal medical use.9 Even the new surgeon general has cited data on how helpful medical cannabis can be.
Unfortunately, medical cannabis may just be “too good.” Showing promise for a wide range of ailments, the drug industry sees cannabis as major competition, and rightfully so. In South Dakota, a scaled-back amendment to SB 95 was ultimately signed into law. South Dakotans who want legal access to CBD will still have to wait until Epidiolex gains FDA approval, but GW Pharmaceuticals was not successful in limiting the down-scheduling of CBD to FDA approved CBD drugs only.
As a result, GW Pharmaceuticals will not have a monopoly on the market. Still, GW Pharmaceuticals has reportedly contracted lobbyists in several different states10 to fight for its cause, and their combined efforts may well delay implementation of cannabis reform that could improve access to medicinal marijuana. As noted by Melissa Mentele, chairperson of New Approach South Dakota, a cannabis reform group, who herself found relief from chronic pain when she started taking CBD-rich cannabis oil:
“Cannabis patients and caregivers have organized and fought for decades for the government to look at cannabis as a treatment option. Nobody did until hundreds of patients bravely shared their stories. So, we as a community have done the work for them, and now Big Pharma wants to swoop in and use an unfair monopoly and an inferior product to profit off the backs of catastrophically ill and dying people. It is disgusting.”
Indiana Cracks Down on CBD Products
In related news, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb recently announced CDB oil containing THC, regardless of the amount, will no longer be legal in the state, and has instructed local police to “perform normal, periodic regulatory spot checks of CBD oil products.” Retailers were given 60 days to sell out or remove such products from their stores.
According to Indy Star, “Most of the CBD products being sold in Indiana contain less than 0.3 percent THC, meaning they can’t produce a ‘high,'” adding that “Advocates of CBD oil say those products don’t have as many benefits as full spectrum CBD oil products.” At present, Indiana law only allows CBD products to be used by epileptic patients, who must register with the state’s CBD oil registry.
Republican state Sen. Jim Tomes has vowed to introduce legislation that would expand access to CBD oil under state law. According to Indy Star, “He’s received calls from people who’ve used the product to treat arthritis, Parkinson’s disease and mental illnesses.” Tomes told the paper, “I just don’t understand why is there such a resistance to allow people to get this product here? You can’t abuse it. It either works or it doesn’t.” The answer to Tomes’ question appears to be drug industry pressure. As reported by New Hope:11
“Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill Jr. appears to be relying on a discredited opinion from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency on the legality of the hemp-derived cannabinoid, which must come from industrial hemp that contains less than 0.3 percent THC (the high-inducing cannabinoid).
The Nov. 21 advisory opinion was issued from the state capital of Indianapolis, which also happens to be the headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co., which is seeking fast-track approval from the FDA for its non-opioid painkiller drug, tanezumab.12
‘As a matter of legal interpretation, products or substances marketed for human consumption or ingestion, and containing cannabidiol, remain unlawful in Indiana, and under federal law,’ Hill wrote in his opinion. This conclusion does not apply to any product that is approved by the FDA.
There are currently two products that contain cannabidiol undergoing clinical trials; Epidiolex and Sativex. Simply put, cannabidiol is a Schedule I controlled substance because marijuana (Cannabis sativa) is a Schedule I controlled substance.'”
Legal Products Confiscated Amid Confusion
There’s plenty of confusion, however, as the attorney general’s opinion and Holcomb’s seizure instructions contradict a 2014 industrial hemp law that allows CBD products in Indiana as long as they contain less than 0.3 percent THC. The primary confusion appears to center around the fact that state law permits CBD as long as it is sourced from hemp and not marijuana.
In an effort to resolve the problem, the hemp industry, led by CV Sciences, has held educational meetings to explain the differences between marijuana and hemp-derived CBD products. The campaign resulted in Indiana state police issuing a statement saying that CBD products are in fact legal in Indiana as long as they’re sourced from hemp. All of this just goes to show that when it comes to cannabis and its derivatives, there’s plenty of confusion to go around, and it’s not always easy to determine the legal status of a given product in a given state.
FDA Issues Warning Letters to CBD Manufacturers
The FDA is also increasing its scrutiny of companies making CBD products. As reported by The Cannabist,13 four Colorado businesses have received FDA warning letters for making “illegally unsubstantiated health claims” on their CBD products. In a November 1 press release, the FDA said:14
“[T]he agency today issued warning letters to four companies illegally selling products online that claim to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure cancer without evidence to support these outcomes … The deceptive marketing of unproven treatments may keep some patients from accessing appropriate, recognized therapies to treat serious and even fatal diseases.
The FDA has grown increasingly concerned at the proliferation of products claiming to treat or cure serious diseases like cancer. In this case, the illegally sold products allegedly contain cannabidiol (CBD), a component of the marijuana plant that is not FDA approved in any drug product for any indication.”
The warning letters15 also rejected claims that CBD oil can be classified as dietary supplements, as Investigational New Drug (IND) applications have been submitted for the CBD-containing drugs Sativex and Epidiolex (both by GW Pharmaceuticals). This suggests the agency is not just aiming to clean up the cannabis industry’s propensity to make illegal claims; it also raises concerns that the legality of all CBD products is in question now that CBD-containing drugs await FDA approval.
Medical Marijuana Lowers Prescription Drug Use and Abuse
While CBD has now been reclassified to a Schedule IV substance in North Dakota by excluding it from the state’s definition of marijuana,16,17 it still remains a Schedule I (illegal) controlled substance in most other states. This is tragic, considering the evidence showing medical marijuana lowers prescription drug use. One wonders if perhaps that’s one of the reasons why it hasn’t been rescheduled across the nation.
There are no other truly compelling reasons why addictive narcotics like OxyContin are legal, while marijuana – which is extremely unlikely to kill you even if you take very high amounts – is not. The video above features W. David Bradford, Ph.D., whose study was published in the journal Health Affairs in July 2016.18 As reported by The Washington Post:19
“[R]esearchers at the University of Georgia scoured the database of all prescription drugs paid for under Medicare Part D from 2010 to 2013. They found that, in the 17 states with a medical-marijuana law in place by 2013, prescriptions for painkillers and other classes of drugs fell sharply compared with states that did not have a medical-marijuana law.
The drops were quite significant: In medical-marijuana states, the average doctor prescribed 265 fewer doses of antidepressants each year, 486 fewer doses of seizure medication, 541 fewer anti-nausea doses and 562 fewer doses of anti-anxiety medication. But most strikingly, the typical physician in a medical-marijuana state prescribed 1,826 fewer doses of painkillers in a given year.”
Legalizing Marijuana Could Save Medicare Hundreds of Millions Each Year
According to Bradford, the Medicare program could save $468 million per year if marijuana were legalized in all U.S. states.20,21 Already, $165 million was saved in 2013 in the 18 states where medical marijuana was legal that year. Similarly, a 2015 working paper by The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) states that:22
“If marijuana is used as a substitute for powerful and addictive pain relievers in medical marijuana states, a potential overlooked positive impact of medical marijuana laws may be a reduction in harms associated with opioid pain relievers, a far more addictive and potentially deadly substance.”
Not only did the NBER find that access to state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries resulted in a significant decrease in prescription painkiller overdose deaths, it also led to a 15 to 35 percent drop in substance abuse admissions. So, it would seem medical marijuana – far from being the deadly drug it’s been made out to be – could actually save thousands of lives that would otherwise be destroyed by painkiller addiction and its lethal consequences.
It’s a real travesty that the U.S. Senate is more than willing to shell out taxpayer money to Big Pharma for addictive painkillers and the drugs to treat addiction when a safe and effective answer to the pain and opioid epidemics lies right before our noses.
Both CBD and THC Are Far Safer Than Commonly Used Pain Killers
Polls show older Americans are becoming increasingly converted to marijuana use.23 Between 2006 and 2013, use among 50- to 64-year-olds rose by 60 percent. Among seniors over 65, use jumped by 250 percent.24 Pain and sleep are among the most commonly cited complaints for which medicinal marijuana is taken. Considering the high risk of lethal consequences of opioid painkillers and sleeping pills, medical marijuana is a godsend.
As noted by Dr. Margaret Gedde, an award-winning Stanford-trained pathologist and founder of Gedde Whole Health, there’s enough scientific data to compare the side effects of cannabis against the known toxicities of many drugs currently in use. This includes liver and kidney toxicity, gastrointestinal damage, nerve damage and, of course, death.
Cannabidiol has no toxicity and it’s virtually impossible to die from marijuana. It’s also self-limiting, as excessive doses of THC will provoke anxiety, paranoia and nausea. Such side effects will disappear as the drug dissipates from your system without resulting in permanent harm, but it’ll make you think twice about taking such a high dose again. Make the same mistake with an opioid, and chances are you’ll end up in the morgue.
Gedde also notes that cannabis products often work when other medications fail, so not only are they safer, they also tend to provide greater efficacy. In 2010, the Center for Medical Cannabis Research (CMCR25) released a report26 on 14 clinical studies about the use of marijuana for pain, most of which were FDA-approved, double-blind and placebo-controlled. The report revealed that marijuana not only controls pain, but in many cases, it does so better than pharmaceutical alternatives.
Where to Find Reputable Information About Medical Cannabis, Its Uses and Benefits
While reputable information about cannabis can be hard to come by, it’s not impossible to find. One good source is cancer.gov.27,28 This is the U.S. government’s site on cancer. Simply enter “cannabis” into the search bar. You can also peruse the medical literature through PubMed,29 which is a public resource (again, simply enter “cannabis” or related terms into the search bar).
CMCR also provides a hyperlinked list30 of scientific publications relating to a wide variety of medicinal uses of cannabis, and the Journal of Pain,31 a publication by the American Pain Society, has a long list of studies on the pain-relieving effects of cannabis.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse,32 which also has information relating to the medicinal aspects of marijuana, preclinical and clinical trials are underway to test marijuana and various extracts for the treatment of a number of diseases, including autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease, inflammation, pain and mental disorders.
To learn more, I also recommend listening to my previous interviews with Gedde and Dr. Allan Frankel, in which they discuss the clinical benefits of cannabis. Frankel is a board-certified internist in California who has treated patients with medical cannabis for the past decade. Awareness is starting to shift, and many are now starting to recognize the medical value of cannabis.
Unfortunately, that also means the drug industry is doing everything it can to secure its place in the market, and in so doing, eliminating the legal use of natural and far less expensive cannabis products. It’s up to us to make sure we stay involved in the political process whenever marijuana-related legislation is brought up. If we don’t, you can be sure the drug industry will become the only game in town.
It’s quite remarkable how many ‘success’ stories are out there when it comes to using cannabis for medicinal purposes.
If we consider cancer, for example, many people have used or incorporated medical marijuana into their healing routine. One great example is Mykala Comstock. Mykala had T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a very rare and aggressive form of childhood leukaemia.
In July of 2012, doctors discovered a basketball-sized mass of lymphoblasts in her chest. Her mass was so large that she was not able to be sedated for risk of death from the pressure on her esophagus and heart.
Chemotherapy wasn’t working, so it got to the point where doctors strongly recommended a bone marrow transplant along with full body radiation. Her parents said no, and started using a strict cannabis routine from that point on.
Ever since she started, the cancer went into remission. It’s now four years later and Mykala is still completely cancer free. This is just one of many examples.
Earlier this year we covered a story regarding a little girl who is using cannabis to treat her epilepsy. You can watch that video here.
When it comes to cannabis and science, it’s firmly established in scientific literature that this plant has a wide range of health benefits, and many people are choosing to opt out of traditional treatment, which doesn’t always work (neither does cannabis), to try cannabis.
Here is a great video of a molecular biologist explaining how THC completely destroys cancer cells. It’s not just THC, however, it’s also other ingredients found within the plant.
Here is a list we published almost three years ago of 20 medical studies proving that cannabis shows very strong potential for cancer treatment.
These types of discoveries are important, especially given the fact that prescription medications have raised a lot of controversy. Fraudulent science has kills more than 100,000 people a year in the United States alone.
Below is another remarkable story of a young woman who was bedridden for years, with multiple ailments, as explained in the video. She was on a variety of prescription medications, and doctors were not sure if she would even make it to see the age of 30.
She decided to consult a doctor about his experience with patients and how they use cannabis. She went on a cannabis juicing treatment and the results were so significant that it changed her life.
It’s ridiculous how many people still believe that cannabis is not medicine. This is a gift from nature, and the science is quite clear.
That being said, there are still many unknowns. For example, cannabis use for medicinal purposes on a young developing brain could have some negative consequences, but there is still a lot of research to do.
It’s sad to see that no clinical trials have been set up given how much promise this plant has shown. On the contrary, the instant a pharmaceutical grade drug shows some promise, it’s made available for clinical trials right away. There is something not quite right about that.
You Do Not Smoke It Or Heat It In Anyway To Access Its Medicinal Benefits
It’s important to note that when it comes to using cannabis for medicinal purposes, it’s not just something you can go and do.
You are going to have to talk to doctors who have treated people, find out the correct methods and dosage depending on your disease, and more.
For those who have done any sort of research into this subject, you would know that the medicinal benefits from cannabis do not come from smoking it, although it may help some people relieve pain, deal with stress, and cope with anxiety.
As one doctors points out in the video above:
“The thing that I warn my patients of is if you’re going to be juicing this flower and this leaf you are going to be doing this high dose non-psychoactive cannabinoid dietary approach, please do not heat it.”
When you heat cannabis, not only do you make it psychoactive, you completely change the chemical structure of the plant, and that includes its medicinal properties, also brought up in the video above.
“To use the plant effectively we have to use it the way it evolved for 34 millions years, which is raw, because when it’s raw, the THC is bound up as THC acid.”
Let’s get rid of all the scumbag corporate minions. The battle is not over. Choose between humanity or corporations, the refuge of mind controlled sold-out creeps.
“The FDA just criminalized one of the most miraculous healing medicines in the world by handing it over to Big Pharma”
In a well coordinated move, just a week after GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH) just received FDA approval of their synthetic drug Sativex, (as strain of Sativia w/ chemicals) to treat seizures, when the weed alone was curing it naturally and cheaply, the FDA lays down the hammer on Med. Marijuana growers.
A Weed, A WEED, cures cancer, and disallows remote mind control, so Big PHarma, in bed with the FDA simply are chemically synthesizing the weed that cures all, rebranding, patenting, and then claiming patent rights to the WEED!
Of course the new synthetic pill will never, ever CURE, because that would end a multi-billion dollar business, so change the cure with some added chemicals, file a patent, get your buds at FDA to ban natural curing marijuana, and viola…you just tapped into another huge market to make billions and billions and never,ever find the cure.
(NaturalNews) Hemp oil extracts containing CBDs (cannibidiols) are such a threat to the pharmaceutical industry that the FDA is now invoking totally insane justifications for outlawing them.
CBDs are non-psychoactive compounds found naturally in hemp plants. They work so well as powerful natural medicine that people everywhere are realizing CBDs work better than pharmaceuticals for treating epilepsy, seizures, neurological disorders and other serious health conditions (including HIV infections).
So the FDA has just launched a massive regulatory assault against CBDs by invoking the most insane logic you’ve ever heard. Here’s how it goes:
1) CBDs work so well that drug companies are now investigating them to be approved by the FDA as medicines.
2) Because CBDs are being investigated by drug companies, the FDA has granted CBDs status as being “investigated as a new drug.” In the FDA’s own language from their website, “FDA considers a substance to be ‘authorized for investigation as a new drug’ if it is the subject of an Investigational New Drug application (IND) that has gone into effect.”
3) Because CBDs work so well and have been authorized for drug investigations, the FDA now OUTLAWS them being sold as dietary supplements. Per the FDA’s own website: “FDA has concluded that cannabidiol products are excluded from the dietary supplement definition under section 201(ff)(3)(B)(ii) of the FD&C Act. Under that provision, if a substance (such as cannabidiol) has been authorized for investigation as a new drug for which substantial clinical investigations have been instituted and for which the existence of such investigations has been made public, then products containing that substance are outside the definition of a dietary supplement.”
4) Now the FDA has begun sending warning letters to CBD makers, claiming they are in violation of FDA regulations because they are selling “adulterated products.” Adulterated with what, exactly? CBDs, of course! “The debate over hemp CBD’s legal status continues after FDA sent eight warning letters to manufacturers of CBD dietary supplement and food products earlier this month,” reports Nutritional Outlook. “The warning letters cite impermissible health claims used to market the products, as well as CBD’s invalid status as a dietary ingredient due to its presence in two drug applications currently under consideration.”
Cancer is BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG Business and is predicted by W.H.O. to increase 70% in just the next 14 years
A new study in the journal Neuropharmacology is showing yet again the incredibly diverse ways that medical cannabis can heal the body. We already know of several physical conditions it can treat—such as epileptic seizures, Crohn’s disease and neuropathic pain—but medical cannabis is also showing promise for the treatment of depression.
Researchers at the Universidad de Cantabria focused on cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive component of cannabis, finding that that CBD has fast-acting antidepressant effects that can be sustained with continued doses.
“Our results demonstrate that CBD exerts fast and maintained antidepressant-like effects as evidenced by the reversal of the OBX-induced hyperactivity and anhedonia…
In conclusion, our findings indicate that CBD could represent a novel fast antidepressant drug, via enhancing both serotonergic and glutamate cortical signaling through a 5-HT1A receptor-dependent mechanism.”
The scientists used an established method of research on mice that has proven to be an accurate model for human depression, allowing study of the biological causes and potential treatments. They discovered that CBD acted to reverse depression symptoms by causing an increased release of serotonin and glutamate.
“Mice with the OBX surgery showed significantly reduced symptoms of hyperactivity 30 minutes after CBD was administered, in comparison to mice that were given a placebo. Continued daily administration of CBD was found to completely reverse the effects of OBX surgery on the mice’s loss of interest in sugar after one week. Examination of chemical activity within the mice’s brains indicated that CBD caused increased release of serotonin and glutamate.
Glutamate release was affected dramatically in all mice who received CBD, both immediately after the first dose and after weeks of repeated administration. The impact on serotonin was more subtle after the first dose, and it persisted over time only in mice who had OBX surgery, suggesting that this change may have occurred only in response to the depression-like conditions in the mice’s brains. — PsyPost.org”
In January we reported that people who have discovered the therapeutic uses of cannabis are giving up prescription drugs. Big Pharma is very concerned that their manufactured products could be replaced by a miraculous plant.
As we reported last month, chemical antidepressants may be causing an increase in suicides, and government-backed pill pushers are trying to hide these destructive effects. This new study brings more bad news for Big Pharma, as CBD could prove to be more effective than their notorious products.
Last December we reported on a landmark study that made history at the annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society. The study found that a cannabis extract called cannabidiol (CBD) has dramatically positive effects for children with seizures.
Clinical trials are continuing to confirm that CBD is likely a far better treatment for epileptic seizures than any pharmaceutical product. This non-psychoactive ingredient of cannabis is proving to have many diverse medical benefits.
The evidence is so compelling that even Deep South states are beginning to acknowledge the facts. There are hints that Louisiana may become the first in the region to legalize cannabis.
Alabama took a brave step forward when it passed Carly’s Law in 2014, which allowed doctors to use CBD oil for treating epileptic seizures.
Lo and behold, the first clinical trial in the state, conducted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), has brought incredible benefits for patients. 90 percent of patients have experienced “some improvement.”
Dr. Jerzy Szaflarski, head of the Division of Epilepsy at UAB and a principal investigator in the study, told AL.com:
“We have noticed that at least 50 percent of the patients have more than 50 percent reduction in seizures, which is very nice. Some of these patients have multiple seizures per day. They report on CBD that they have days without seizures, which is great.”
The UAB study – the largest of its kind to date – could have a profound influence on the medical research into epilepsy treatments. It will be presented to the American Academy of Neurology in April, where more than 10,000 neurologists from around the world will be present.
“It will be presented to a large number of physicians, who will then go to their communities and have additional knowledge about CBD. There is a lot of interest in CBD for treatment for various types of epilepsy and we are collecting a lot of data that will allow us to decide if some patients will respond to this type of treatment or not,” said Dr. Szaflarski.
Funding for the research has been extended for a year, with the ultimate goal of producing an ideal form of CBD oil in prescription form to patients with severe seizures.
The improvement in quality of life for some patients is nothing short of astounding, and the negative cognitive effects of pharmaceutical treatments are avoided.
“Many patients or families report to us that the patient or their child is more attentive and more interested in their environment, which is something that is very important in addition to seizure control or improved seizure control that these patients have positive, rather than negative, cognitive effects of the treatment,” said Dr. Szaflarski.
“The majority of the seizure medications that are on the market have some negative effects of cognition. Here, we observe something to be different.”
One Alabama lawmaker is already attempting to bring Alabama into a more enlightened state. When Rep.
Mike Ball saw that a 4-year-old girl who suffered from seizures had to move to Oregon to gain access to the CBD treatment that worked so well, he was prompted to introduce a bill decriminalizing medical cannabis oil.
With results such as the UAB study and others taking place around the country, it is downright criminal for government to prevent struggling patients from accessing the healing powers of cannabis.
As the effects of cannabidiol, or CBD, have been studied, society’s stigma surrounding the use and cultivation of marijuana has begun to fade. Now, every third person is considering supplementing their regime with cannabis oil to overcome an array of afflictions, and for good reason. Plenty of anecdotes exist proving the benefits of using the […]
Certainly, the times are changing, which is why a few progressive companies are beginning to sell dog treats which include CBD.
Household pets are now developing afflictions of the modern age, just like humans. It makes sense, then, that if they an endocannabinoid system, their human caretakers use cannabis oil to alleviate pain and help them heal.
Julianna Carella, the owner and founder of Treatibles, explains that dogs benefit just as much from ingesting CBD as humans.
She told Reason:
“Most of the pet owners that are using the product are using it for separation anxiety, things like hip dysplasia and arthritis, mobility pain, aging — a lot of aging dogs are using the product — and then we have some dogs that have epilepsy that use the product with great success, some dogs with cancer … so it’s a pretty wide range of conditions that can be addressed with CBD really successfully.”
Credit: The Free Thought Project
According to the company’s website, Treatibles sells superfood wellness treats that have been infused with a proprietary blend of CBD and other non-psychoactive cannabinoids derived from hemp grown for medicinal purposes.
In other words, the snacks won’t get your dog high, but they will help your pup cope with separation anxiety and live a more comfortable life.
Says Julianna:
“We seek to help strengthen and support animals with our CBD-rich products to provide preventative care throughout their lives and restorative care when they or sick or in pain.”
While Treatibles are primarily marketed as treats for dogs, they are “safe for any animal with an endocannabinoid system, which is all animals except for insects.”
That means rabbits and cats, for example, can benefit from the CBD-infused treats, as well.
Alex Repetski is your average dad, but to his three year old daughter, Gwenevere, he could be a hero. He’s spent the last 18 months and more than 800 hours reading through studies and medical journals, researching CBD and its healing properties, to help her with the tonic, myoclonic, and clinical seizures she was having — sometimes up to 50 a day. She was diagnosed with epilepsy and, as her EEGs revealed, was experiencing constant subclinical seizure activity throughout the day. It may not have looked like she was having a seizure from the outside, but at the brain level there were neurons firing constantly, and such activity can produce significant brain damage.
Gwenevere had a team of doctors that were trying an array of medicines to reduce the number of seizures she was having each day. At one point she was on 9 different medications. They kept hoping each subsequent medication would work, but nothing did. That’s when Alex decided to look into cannabis oil. “At that point, we really didn’t have anything to lose,” he said, as he recalled the struggle of trying to help his daughter achieve a better quality of life.
At first it was difficult to get her doctors on board with cannabis oil as a treatment since, admittedly, they simply didn’t know enough about it to prescribe it. Alex mentioned they considered trying the ketogenic diet after the ninth medication failed, but opted to try cannabis oil instead. Determined to understand what was happening with Gwenevere and help her as best he could, Alex read every journal publication, paper, article, study, and trial he could get his hands on regarding cannabis oil. Armed with research and studies in hand, only one of Gwenevere’s doctors agreed to prescribe cannabis to him, based on the trust and faith he had in Alex’s time spent researching.
At the time that Gwenevere was going through this process, Canadian law still stated that it was illegal to change cannabis from its dried form, meaning that if it is to be used for medical purposes it must be smoked or vaporized. It’s been reported that taking cannabis in its oil state has the most therapeutic value, however, and asking a child to smoke is ridiculous, for obvious reasons. The law changed last year after the notorious case involving Owen Smith, who challenged the Supreme Court that cannabis should not have to be smoked. He won the case, and the word ‘dried’ has been removed from the legal definition of acceptable cannabis usage, allowing for both oils and edibles to be prescribed as well.
After acquiring the cannabis and reducing it down to its oil form, Alex proceeded with many rounds of trial and error, trying to find just the right dosage for Gwenevere. After five days, they noticed no seizure. Then another week went by, and then a month, and then two months of no seizures. Last January she went in for her 17th EEG after being on cannabis oil for 5 weeks.
“Our citizens should know the urgent facts…but they don’t because our media serves imperial, not popular interests. They lie, deceive, connive and suppress what everyone needs to know, substituting managed news misinformation and rubbish for hard truths…”—Oliver Stone
Tales from the Conspiratum 