The Marijuana Myth

The Marijuana Myth: What If Everything You Think You Know About This Plant Is Wrong?


What if everything you were ever told and believed about a subject
wasn't true? What if the well-meaning, trusted and respected people who
told you those lies were just parroting the propaganda that they heard?


That's the exact dilemma I found myself in about three years ago. For
most of my life, I bought into the grim and terrifying stories I heard
about -- dare I say it? -- marijuana.


Whether they called it doobie, reefer, pot, Mary Jane or plain ol'
weed, I believed all those ominous voices when they warned me that
marijuana could cause everything from brain damage to a craving for
stronger drugs (i.e., the "gateway" theory.) And so as I got older, I
just kept repeating the same marijuana mantras to others, convinced that
I was right. "Marijuana is dangerous," I told others. "Only brain dead
stoners use it."


Someone once said to me, "the further you get away from the facts,
the easier they can turn into a myth." Boy, is that the truth. It all
started three years ago when I decided to finally research marijuana. If
anything, I was determined to prove to myself and others that my
concerns were valid. Living in Colorado where medical marijuana was
legal to possess and grow once you qualified for a "red card", I was
surrounded by "pot shops." Thanks to Amendment 20
in our State Constitution, these dispensaries grew and flourished
faster than it takes a medical marijuana bud to mature. In Denver County
alone, there are around 400 medical marijuana dispensaries,
outnumbering the 375 Starbucks statewide. I freely admit that I mocked
these businesses and rolled my eyes at the people who frequented them.
So, on that summer day nearly three years ago, I decided to dig into
this controversial plant and arm myself with even more information that
would support my anti-marijuana stance.


But a strange thing kept happening. The more I dug into what some
opponents refer to as "the green menace," the more I continued to find
research studies I wasn't aware existed. Some of these studies had been
buried -- perhaps purposely -- and made scientific claims about Cannabis
Indica and Cannabis Sativa that I found almost too good to be true. For
example, I read a 1974 study
(published in 1975) that was conducted at the University of Virginia
that proved that the cannabinoids in the cannabis plant shrunk cancerous
tumors and killed cancer cells, leaving healthy cells alone. Even
though it was there in black and white, I still didn't buy it. So I kept
investigating. I found that when I used the Internet search terms
"cannabis+indica+healing+benefits," I got a whooping 220,000 websites.
When I added the word "medical" to that group of words, the field
increased to 452,000.


For the next six months, I spent every spare moment researching "the
Devil Weed." Putting it bluntly, I was shocked. There was absolutely
nothing "devilish" about it. All this remarkable information had been
out there, waiting to be discovered and all I had to do was agree to
view it with an open mind. I learned that Cannabis Indica had been
compounded into liquid extracts
in the late 1800's and up until the early 1900's. These extracts were
recommended by medical doctors to alleviate everything from teething pain in infants to reducing the pain of arthritis and menstrual cramps.


I found out that contrary to what I'd been told, nobody has ever died
from using marijuana in the thousands of years this plant has been
available. In fact, I had no idea that its medical use dated back to
around 2700 B.C. and was called a "superior" herb by the Emperor
Shen-Nung (2737-2697 B.C.). I discovered that while I had been
demonizing marijuana, thousands of people worldwide had been quietly and
effectively curing or relieving a multitude of health problems,
including Crohn's disease, migraine headaches, chronic depression, post
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), insomnia, dementia, epileptic
seizures, Parkinson's disease and even AIDS. The more I researched and
talked to pro-cannabis physicians, patients, researchers and historians
who studied the plant, the more I heard incredible testimonials of
recovery from illnesses and mental imbalances in addition to, as one
patient told me, "just a better outlook on life."


And that's when I uncovered information that really challenged the
stories I'd been told. People were using this "weed" to get off of
opiates, alcohol, tobacco, heroin, cocaine and other powerful drugs.
Thus, it was gaining traction as "an exit drug,"
instead of the "gateway drug." Seniors were also secretly using it to
improve their cognition. Wait...what? How is that possible? Didn't
marijuana make you a "brain-dead loser"? No, not according to the
scientific data I discovered. The opposite was true as researchers found
that the plant allowed neurogenesis in the brain -- the growth of new neural pathways, even when the brain had been damaged by age or trauma.


I understood that smoking the herb was the least effective way to
gain the vast array of medical benefits from its use. I learned that
doctors, lawyers, CEOs of major companies, accountants and other highly
trained professionals used marijuana daily and felt it vastly improved
their wellbeing and ability to handle stress. I found out that a
respected medical doctor, Dr. William Courtney, encouraged patients with chronic illnesses to juice 10 to 20 fresh marijuana leaves daily. This concentrated green drink was not psychoactive and flooded the body with cannabinoid nutrients that helped reverse degenerative diseases.


Putting it mildly, the information was mind-boggling. And that's when
I realized that there was a story to be told. Nobody had ever written a
fictional novel about medical marijuana that didn't include "stoner"
stereotypes or pander to fear. It took me another five months and
hundreds of hours of one-on-one interviews with medical marijuana
patients, caregivers, growers, dispensary owners and experts within the
cannabis industry to develop what would become Betty's (Little Basement) Garden.


The book focuses on 58-year-old Betty Craven, a strikingly beautiful
former Texas beauty queen who is a staunch Republican and widow to her
equally conservative career military husband, Frank. Betty's only child,
a son, died in his mid-20s from a drug overdose. When we meet Betty,
her life is in suspended animation. The walls are closing in around her.
All she has left that she loves is her award-winning flower garden and
the remnants of equipment left over from her failed gourmet chocolate
store. When she comes to the shocking conclusion that her entire life
has been wasted, a rebellious spirit that Betty has kept hidden,
explodes to the surface. Her conservative world spins 180 degrees around
as she comes face-to-face with her biggest fears. And one of those
fears is marijuana. The path she chooses is paved with secrecy,
eccentric characters, toe-curling love, life-changing events, and a
connection to her unconventional, basement garden that she never could
have imagined.


My intention when I wrote Betty's (Little Basement) Garden
was to show the truth about the medical marijuana industry in Colorado.
It's not all sunshine and lollipops. I don't sugarcoat the realities of
working in the cannabis world, nor do I romanticize what it means to be a
grower for a seriously ill patient who depends upon your green thumb to
make his or her medicine. The book illustrates a massive shift in the
"anti-pot" propaganda that I grew up hearing and believing. My hope is
that it's not just an entertaining story; my hope is that it's also
enlightening for those who read it and believe the way I used to about
this ancient herb. As Betty Craven says, "There's nothing more
liberating than releasing a limiting belief."


To read or download an extensive, 840 page compilation of published
medical studies that show the proactive use of cannabis in various
forms, please click on this link.
Source:-
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laurel-dewey/marijuana-is-not-addictive_b_1739339.html