----- Original Message ----- From: Doug Henwood To: lbo-talk Sent: Friday, February 25, 2005 10:39 AM Subject: [lbo-talk] pot blocks alzheimer's?
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4286435.stm>
Marijuana may block Alzheimer's
The compound may protect the brain
The active ingredient in marijuana may stall decline from Alzheimer's disease, research suggests.
Scientists showed a synthetic version of the compound may reduce inflammation associated with Alzheimer's and thus help to prevent mental decline. <...> ~~~
[Edited from an offlist email]
I've been smoking weed regularly since 15 years old, I'm 51 now.
I was a runaway hippie kid living on the streets of New York in 1968 when I started smoking, and I'm still smoking the evil weed regularly.
Last year I took a couple of classes at the local community college.
My Psych class did a memory experiment with random strings of numbers to demonstrate short term memory and the "recency" effect. Most people can remember five to nine random numbers for a few seconds with the average being seven numbers.
I did eight, and I was pretty stoned when I walked into the room.
It's not true what they say about weed causing short term memory loss... For all we know, it helps memory. But I can name lots of things that *do* cause memory loss... alcohol, speed... a plethora of prescription drugs that can eliminate or modify memory almost entirely;
as their legitimate pharmacological function.
Another illegal, MDMA was approved for a study of it's efficacy as an adjunct to therapy for people suffering PTSD, also approved is a study of Psylocibes as an adjunct to therapy for OCD. I guess that'd make someone sit quite still for a while and contemplate their navel. (always did for me =;> )
NPR All Things Considered interviewed the professor at Harvard responsible for the MDMA research a few days of ago.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4510521 (Audio link on page)
or: http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg18524881.400 (The New Scientist article is a pretty good overview.)
My concern is the Pharma companies are going to take that "adjunct to therapy" and try to sell it as a panacea, and it's not... it's speed, and the long term effects will be the same.
But weed... It fits a class of medicine that's fallen out of favor and is generally unrecognized by the western medical world, it's called a tonic.
It *may well be* a memory tonic for Alzheimer's or senility, and it might take a generation or two before we really know for sure.
...Assuming the feds don't toss the studies into the circular file like they did with the LSD/Alcoholism studies in the '60s. The world got Antabuse instead... revulsion thinking, not enlightened thinking... ...puritanical, and hopefully not a harbinger of the end results of any studies that might be done in regard to Alzheimer's and weed.
However, like most wholistic medicines, it's effect seems to be very much synergistic with the person being... unh.. treated, except the CBCs in weed which are a first class analgesic.
It might be difficult to get "scientifically" valid statistical data.
Leigh