Posts Tagged ‘science’
Cannabis Is A Wonderful Thing
Two days ago, I found this marvellous image of Hunter S. Thompson which reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to write about for ages.
Cannabis is a wonderful thing. We spend so much time having to engage in intellectual, scientific, medical, moral and human rights arguments that we forget to tell the truth. We forget to say what’s good. We forget to advance the wonderful, beneficial, delightful, life-enhancing qualities of this amazing plant. Cannabis is good. It does you good. It’s done so much good for me in my life and for so many people that I know. It opens hearts and minds and understanding. It reveals truth and beauty and music and conversation and the joy of existence on our beautiful planet.
Now, I can even substantiate this with science. Cannabis has been treated with reverence and as a religious sacrement by some yet demonised and reviled by the forces of darkness and evil. The positive benefits of God’s herb, known to mankind for thousands of years but shrouded in mystery and superstition, are now revealed by science as an integral part of the universe. The Endocannabinoid System (ECS), only discovered in 1988 but now known to be fundamental to life, is the reason that the natural supplement of the plant is a good, good thing. A nutrient that can benefit us all. See here.
The ECS, present in mammals, fish, reptiles and birds, is now known to be vital in pain relief, sensation, appetite, taste, weight control, mood, memory, motor skills and fertility. Contrary to the idea that each pull on that joint kills millions of brain cells, in fact the ECS facilitates neurogenesis, the birth of neurons. In 2003, the US government registered US patent no. 6630507 for cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants for limiting neurological damage following stroke or physical trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and dementia.
Cannabinoids have been shown to have analgesic, anti-spasmodic, anti-convulsant, anti-tremor, anti-psychotic, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-oxidant, anti-emetic and appetite-stimulant or appetite-suppressant properties.
Is it any wonder that cannabis has been used as a medicine for thousands of years? Is it any wonder that millions of us have known instinctively for so long that cannabis is a wonderful, beneficial, health-giving plant?
Cannabis really is the wonder drug that the hippies rediscovered in the 1960s. It really does offer so many benefits to mankind. However much the prohibitionists lie and dissemble and spread fear, uncertainty and doubt, the truth is out. Science now knows what we knew all along. Cannabis is a wonderful thing!
“The Only Thing Drug Gangs Fear Is Legalisation”. The Independent 26th August 2010
Superb piece in The Independent today
Superbly argued! Thank you to Johann Hari. Thank you to The Independent for giving the space for this to be heard.
Violence Breeds Violence. The Only Thing Drug Gangs Fear Is Legalisation.
28,000 deaths in Mexico in four years because of drug laws!
It could be the same in the UK. Our new drug strategy is in preparation but the only people applauding the disgraceful sham that is our drug strategy consultation are drug dealers and criminals. James Brokenshire of the Home Office, the man intent on breaking British society, is so backward in his thinking that he makes Alan Johnson look progressive. He is blind to the evidence and the facts, to what is happening in Mexico and elsewhere
There is blood on the hands of cowardly politicians in the UK too. They have shirked this issue, avoided grasping this nettle for too long. Brokenshire can only have been offered as a lamb for sacrifice here – surely? His arguments are too ridiculous, his distortion of science too crass. He is bound to fail if he persists but he will cause death, misery and degradation for thousands. He personally will be responsible for a massive increase in street crime – inevitable if he tightens prohibition. He will not have committed the crimes himself but he will have negligently and recklessly ignored proven current best practice. His attitudes fly in the face of all logic, research and science.
The government is riding roughshod over the massive outcry for drug law reform on the Your Freedom website. Surely, even if public opinion, morality, logic, science, history or common sense won’t convince them, Baroness Meacher’s claim of £19 billion per annum of waste will stir them to action!
Surely, if nothing else, the cash will make the government see sense!
Broken Society. Broken Britain. Brokenshire.
A Gift To The Opposition
Given his increasingly authoritarian, “big government” stance, his misrepresentation of science and the deeply flawed, dishonest Home Office Drugs Strategy consultation, James Brokenshire is proving himself to be a very dangerous young man.
If any coalition minister is pursuing policies that will lead to a broken society and a broken Britain, it is Brokenshire. He is so far out of step with the progressive, liberal and intelligent direction of the government that one wonders has he been put out for sacrifice? His attitude and ideas are those of a previous generation which had not yet made all the mistakes or suffered all the consequences that we already have. He needs to study some history.
From Propostion 19 to the changing views of Latin America’s leaders, Brokenshire is way, way behind. He is also in direct contradiction to the progressive policies which both Cameron and Clegg have supported in the past.
It is vital for the future of millions of British citizens, their health, liberty, freedom from crime and oppression that Brokenshire is stopped. As a Tory I am also dismayed at the huge damage he is doing to the party. He is making the coalition government look short sighted, regressive and stupid. He has got to go.
See here for the story on Nominative Determinism. What does a man’s name mean?
The Age Of The End Of Religion
For Easter…
…all things considered, religion is responsible for more evil in the world than it is good.
Islam demonstrates its evil effect every day. It revels in its own use of “shock and awe” to terrorise us every day.
The Catholic Church disgraces itself, more every day. It seeks to excuse its own deep sin as “petty gossip” on its own most holy day.
In Palestine, the Jewish nation has become a Nazi state in the most horrific episode of hypocrisy every day. Day after day.
Science and freedom of thought is the only belief that makes sense. Faith in outdated dogma and superstition is selfish and destructive.
Religion is dead. Mankind lives.
Peter Reynolds 