The Good and Bad of Alcohol and Cannabis
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| Cannabis |
As life goes through ups and downs, a human may suffer
severe trauma or stress at some point in his or her life. There was a
traditional way, that one took a drink of alcohol or some sleepy stuff and got
over it in time. Some as a result became alcoholic but when they were weaned
away from it, they did not suffer seizures. Some of the chemical
medicines that humans have invented appear to be far more dangerous than
natural herbal ones that the Lord made. Alcohol simply emerges as a result of
natural fermentation from natural sugars and cannabis grows in the fields.
While misuse of any intoxicants such as cannabis and alcohol is dangerous, the experience of mankind over the last century has shown that making it illegal is even more so. Then it becomes a profitable crime industry and criminals promote its use even by criminal methods. There is a need to review the associated laws with urgency and treat any problems that arise at a social and educational level as mankind did for centuries.
Chemical medicines are produced by man instead of nature
through industrial or laboratory processes. Some times the starting point is a
natural product such as opium. The derivatives of opium are far more dangerous than the natural stuff itself and perhaps if King Solomon knew of it
he might have said, “Give opium to one in severe pain bent under the burdens of a difficult life but give its derivatives to a person you wish to destroy.”
Modern medicine uses the justification that by extracting an active ingredient they can control the dosage. However, there are other ways of assessing the active content of a natural substance and thereby specifying its dosage without having to extract, somewhat in a manner similar to certifying the alcohol content of different wines without the need to distill. But come to think of it the humble opium and cannabis plants can not fund the luncheon, junkets and conference holidays of docs as the industry that markets the derivatives can! The same is true of Cannabis derivatives and countries considering legalizing this herb again must distinguish between cannabis and its active derivatives, produced perhaps out of greed of the manufacturer, and include that in the legislation, but then we have democratic governments that get funded by and look after industrial interests.
Comparison of Alcohol and Cannabis
While both natural alcoholic drinks and cannabis have been used by mankind since ancient times to relieve stress, depression etc. cannabis drinks prepared properly are a much safer alternative because,
1. Alcohol causes addiction but cannabis does not seem to
2. Excess alcohol causes more health damage than excess cannabis
3. Alcohol causes road deaths but cannabis does not seem to. Although alcohol in moderation energizes a human as compared to cannabis, that physical energy is not of much use since one loses full and accurate control of the body, and can cause accidents more often than useful physical action.
4. It seems excess use of cannabis may cause some memory impairment where excess use of alcohol may cause a very dangerous psychosis
5. Alcohol prompts crime in those with some criminal tendency (that includes most humans)whereas cannabis does not seem to
6. Alcohol prompts violence whereas cannabis seems to prompt peace
7. Combined with spiritual meditation, cannabis is an aid to concentration, reflection and spiritual evolution but alcohol usually leads to lack of concentration, loss of focus and moral degeneration
Modern medicine uses the justification that by extracting an active ingredient they can control the dosage. However, there are other ways of assessing the active content of a natural substance and thereby specifying its dosage without having to extract, somewhat in a manner similar to certifying the alcohol content of different wines without the need to distill. But come to think of it the humble opium and cannabis plants can not fund the luncheon, junkets and conference holidays of docs as the industry that markets the derivatives can! The same is true of Cannabis derivatives and countries considering legalizing this herb again must distinguish between cannabis and its active derivatives, produced perhaps out of greed of the manufacturer, and include that in the legislation, but then we have democratic governments that get funded by and look after industrial interests.
Comparison of Alcohol and Cannabis
While both natural alcoholic drinks and cannabis have been used by mankind since ancient times to relieve stress, depression etc. cannabis drinks prepared properly are a much safer alternative because,
1. Alcohol causes addiction but cannabis does not seem to
2. Excess alcohol causes more health damage than excess cannabis
3. Alcohol causes road deaths but cannabis does not seem to. Although alcohol in moderation energizes a human as compared to cannabis, that physical energy is not of much use since one loses full and accurate control of the body, and can cause accidents more often than useful physical action.
4. It seems excess use of cannabis may cause some memory impairment where excess use of alcohol may cause a very dangerous psychosis
5. Alcohol prompts crime in those with some criminal tendency (that includes most humans)whereas cannabis does not seem to
6. Alcohol prompts violence whereas cannabis seems to prompt peace
7. Combined with spiritual meditation, cannabis is an aid to concentration, reflection and spiritual evolution but alcohol usually leads to lack of concentration, loss of focus and moral degeneration
Considering the points above, societies that wish to control the use of intoxicating substances should place much severer controls on use of alcohol as compared to cannabis provided one agrees with what is stated here. In case you do not agree, please comment to this post so that this blogger may study the matter further and revise his conclusions if necessary, but if you agree with them but still recommend and uphold stricter controls on cannabis then all that can be said would be too rude to say here.
A real life story to read on the matter here: http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2014/03/some-dangers-of-modern-medicine.html
Medicinal use of Cannabis/Marijuana
In the considered and educated life long experience and
study of this author, an experience that some other impartial medical authorities
agree with, modern medicine has a number
of excellent medicines both for internal use and external applications for a
variety of ailments of the human body ranging from medicines for eyes, air,
skin to antibiotics and some common pain killers such as aspirin, but when it
comes to ailments to do with the human mind or emotions, the available
medicines seem not just to be less than desirable but more than horrible with
some being extremely dangerous and gruesome such as those that cause seizures
when stopped. This is what Dr. Breggin a Harvard-trained psychiatrist says in
his book on psychiatry,
“Often people taking psychiatric
drugs claim to feel better than ever when in reality their mental life and
behavior is impaired. In the extreme, medication spellbinding leads otherwise
well-functioning and ethical individuals to commit criminal acts, violence or
suicide.”
To quote the conclusion of two
books of a health science writer named Robert Whitaker:
“Tens
of millions of unsuspecting (persons) have become mired deeply, to the point of
permanent disability, in the (modern) mental “health” system.---- Many of these
innocents have actually been made “crazy” and often disabled by the use of – or
the withdrawal from – these commonly prescribed, brain-altering and, for many,
brain-damaging psychiatric drugs that have been, for many decades, cavalierly
handed out like candy---Trusting and unaware patients have been treated with
potentially dangerous drugs by equally unaware but well-intentioned physicians
who have been likewise trusting of the slick and obscenely profitable psycho
pharmaceutical drug companies.”
Recently, a discussion involved a friendly disagreement with a medical practitioner regarding the treatment of a patient who has been on certain psychiatric drugs for several years now and as one would expect is not leading a full life as a result of it. The drug prescription had started when the patient in question suffered a traumatic experience in her life at a young age around twenty. There is a much more detailed post on that in this blog. This one is focused on cannabis and such other natural products that have helped relieve human distress for thousands of year, that is until the modern drug industry fueled by greed arrived on the scene.
The
difficulty with the drug regime recommended for this
patient is that if her prescribed drug is given up (at least suddenly)
it may lead to serious and severe
consequences such as seizures and if continued, it builds up into side
effects
like Parkinson’s and worse after prolonged use, and while in use, dulls a
person so that they cannot function in a normal and alert manner.
Check out some of the following links for medicinal use of Marijuana
also
An excellent new article on the subject, on how marijuana can help people overdosing on painkillers is here, http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/08/26/3475949/medical-marijuana-painkillers/
How is that Marijuana appears to work for such a large range of psychiatric and emotional disorders? The answer is perhaps the same as it is has been used as an aid to meditation by some ancient mystics in the east, by stabilizing thought processes, curbing chaos in the mind and returning a focus back to it origin. It seems that some of the active compounds found in Marijuana are the same as those found in mother's milk that keep young babies healthy.
This study is not in the interest of the drug industry and some may create hurdles in this exploration . If they did it would be unfortunate in view of its potential to alleviate human suffering and treat conditions that presently remain untreated or are treated by man-made substances that cause more harm than good.
Although mankind would obviously gain by more detailed studies of cannabis, there are at least four sets of humans that will lose. These are first of all a drug industry that may lose a market for very profitable drugs, second are the associations and researchers that are funded by the drug industry, third is the illegal drug mafia that will lose its business if the substance becomes legal and last are the officials and politicians of some countries who may be drawing a share of the profits, directly or indirectly. It goes without saying that those who have derived such benefit in the past or were misled and opposed this substance will be ashamed to now admit they were wrong but then there are always leading lights of the profession like Dr. Sanjay Gupta who are ready to admit that fault and apologize for it.
It may be noted that while the modern medical profession has begun discovering immense advantages of Marijuana in treating several conditions of the mind, brain and psychology, some previously untreatable, others suppressed or controlled by very dangerous substances, there still seems to be an attempt to treat different conditions of the brain with different components of this plant. While even that is a better alternative than synthetic substances, this author believes that the attempt should be to employ the plant as a whole rather than its individual components. It may be totally unnecessary to separate Cannabidiol (CBD) from THC but the approach should be to retain both as well as hundreds of other organic components of the plant in the same proportions as nature chose and designed whenever its medical use is sought, except perhaps for some partial extraction that is carried out by simple processes such as cooking with other common food items preferably full cream milk that aid such extraction. It has been so since ancient times in India. Further an attempt should also not be made to increase the THC component of the plant through breeding techniques but its original balance of CBD and THC needs to be honored.UPDATE JULY 2015
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| Reference: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/its-official-marijuana-is-medicine/Content?oid=4381482 |
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