Did you know that Israel has been at the forefront of medical marijuana research since the 1990’s?
More than 10,000 Israelis take it to treat a range of illnesses from cancer, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis to Tourette’s syndrome.
Cannabis is still an illegal drug in Israel, however certain companies have been given licences to grown medical marijuana and study its use for a variety of medical purposes.
Tikum Olam, one such company, has developed a new strain that does not give the ‘high’ you get by normally smoking or ingesting cannabis.
The psychoactive chemical in marijuana is called THC and these new strains have been bred to be free from THC, but contain high concentrations the other therapeutic chemical found in cannabis called CBD.
What is CBD?
CBD or Cannabidiol is a powerful anti-inflammatory and several trials have shown now that it can even kill tumour cells. It is also devoid of the side effects of the high you get from smoking cannabis.
“Cannabidiol does not bind to the brain, to the brain cells, therefore after taking it you don’t have any side effects that you don’t want,” says Ruth Gallily, an immunology professor at Hebrew University who has researched CBD for 15 years.
“(These include) not being high, not being confused. You can drive, you can work, you can do everyday things. It’s very non-toxic.”
ProjectCBD.org has a wealth of information about CBD and its medicinal benefits.
The new “high-free” strains of cannabis produced in Israel could also challenge the ban on medical uses of cannabis currently enforced in many countries.
However many still believe cannabis should not be changed and its natural form with the ratio of THC and cannabis found in nature is the most effective for therapeutic use.
“It shouldn’t be changed. This is nature’s medicine and it’s been used for thousands of years,” says a 52-year-old cancer patient from Tel Aviv who wants to remain anonymous.
Most Therapeutic Strains Of Cannabis
There are two distinct strains of cannabis found in nature – indica and sativa.
Indica
- relaxing and calming
- body buzz or ‘couch lock’
- best suited for night use
Sativa
- uplifting and energetic
- cerebral, spacey or hallucinogenic
- best suited for day use
Indica plants tend to have high THC:CBD ratios and sativa plants have high CBD:THC ratios.
You can find out a list of therapeutic strains of medical marijuana and their uses here:
http://www.unitedpatientsgroup.com/resources/medical-marijuana-strains
and here are lists of high potency CBD strains:
http://synergycbd.com/cdb-rich-strains/
The Power Of Raw Cannabis
Did you know that if you eat raw cannabis or make it into a smoothie you can get all the benefits of both THC and CBD without the high? You only make cannabis psychoactive if it is heated/smoked or made into a resin.
Watch this amazing video on it:
Not only that you get all the benefits of consuming an extremely nutritious plant that is high in essential oils, amino acids, vitamins, minerals and the therapeutic wonders of THC and CBD.
So why try to make drugs out of cannabis, when you can just juice it? PROFIT! You cannot profit in the way Big Pharma does without patents. Cannabis is one of the most versatile and durable crops you can find in nature. It is easy to grow, and can grow almost anywhere.
We can literally all become self sufficient if we learned to grow and cultivate hemp/marijuana/cannabis. The movement has already started in USA.
But why not in other parts of the world?
Perhaps this is because many of the major pharmaceutical companies are from Europe and they have a stronger control over government regulations there.
Why is it also that Israel has been a forerunner in medical marijuana research?
It is not surprising when you dig deep and discover that Israel is one of the most invested into countries for all kinds of scientific research.
http://www.siteselection.com/LifeSciences/2014/feb/merck.cfm
“Israel has a quality education system and above-average intellectual capital,” said Oschmann. “Compared with other countries, Israel has the highest concentration of scientists and engineers in the world. In addition, cooperation partners appreciate that Israeli scientists often work in a less conventional manner and are faster at implementing their results.”
R&D takes place at Merck KGaA’s biopharmaceuticals division in Yavne, Israel, where the company moved into more spacious workspace in 2007.
Israel took third place in the “Innovation” category in the latest Global Competitiveness Ranking published by the World Economic Forum. Globally, the country ranks fourth in scientific activity. Six Israelis have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in the past decade. Its spending on R&D as a percentage of GDP is consistently and substantially higher than that of such advanced research nations as Japan, the US and the UK.
The Renegade Pharmacist’s Verdict
Research on creating the perfect therapeutic strains of cannabis is great – we should definitely do that. But making drugs out of them is going down the same route as all other Big Pharma mistakes of putting profit before patients.
Raw cannabis is probably the best way to consume high CBD without the high – just legalize that in every country, educate people on how to grow and cultivate marijuana, and then we can all chill out together 🙂
I keep asked my for ur recipe for the colostrum smoothy from ur videos, and never get an answer!! Well?!!
What can I say brilliantly done,more of this please.