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In Reply to: Re: it's a fact posted by Yvonne on June 14, 2005 at 19:07:57:
Look, your first post came across to me as flippant, derisive, and condescending in it's assumption that I don't understand the role a study of that kind has. Of course I know you can't extrapolate from a rat to a human. Give me a little credit.
What you seem to fail to understand is that in each of my distinct posts in this discussion about cannabis I keep in mind all the other posts. For example, there have been unsubstantiated assertions made here that cannabis does not help depression,anxiety or symptoms of PTSD. Lydia has even gone so far as to claim that there is no evidence that cannabinoids can help with depression, and has called me irresponsible for suggesting otherwise. I posted the info on the rat study to conveniently and quickly demonstrate that I'm not just making empty, unsubstantiated claims. News of that particular study entered my emailbox from a German medical association the same day that I posted it, so it was rather convenient to post. However,there are many other studies, some ongoing, but I'm not going to spend time digging them up when they'll just be discounted by those whose who minds are already made up. Like I said in another post, I'm not trying to convince anyone, but only responding to what I consider hyperbole, misconceptions and lies when I see them. As a long time advocate for the medical cannabis community, it is part of my mandate to educate when an opportunity presents itself.
Along with the rat study, I also provided an excerpt from the Scientific American article to show that not only are studies revealing the role cannabinoids may play in PTSD, phobias, anxiety and chronic pain, but that the authors (one a professor of pharmacology and the other a professor of physiology and psychiatry) acknowledge that sometimes ordinary people are more advanced in their knowledge than are scientists, and by that I'm referring to folk medicine. Science is only now catching up to those people who have long been using cannabis to relieve stress and anxiety. Here's part of the excerpt I'm referring to:
"Abnormally low numbers of cannabinoid receptors or the faulty release of endogenous cannabinoids are involved in post-traumatic stress syndrome, phobias and certain forms of chronic pain. This suggestion fits with the fact that some people smoke marijuana to decrease their anxiety."
Furthermore, I doubt the Israeli psychiatrists who started using cannabis to treat soldiers with PTSD last summer are too concerned about waiting for further animal studies to be completed. There are similar human studies going on all over the world.
There is a growing mountain of evidence of cannabis's effectiveness as a treatment for a broad range of illnesses, including psychiatric. You seem to be deliberately ignoring that evidence, simply because you've seen some people abuse or misuse cannabis. Cannabis is not for everyone, after all. That was the basis of my "wilfully ignorant" and "close-minded" comment, that you appeared to flippantly dismiss evidence that contradicted Lydia's assertions without acknowledging that there may be in fact, real benefits that cannabis can provide to sufferers of all kinds of ailments.
