As a teenager, it was not a good idea to return from a weekend party with my clothes reeking from the smoke of marijuana. My mom did not approve of attending any party where the kids smoked that “stuff.” I also did not admire the friends who thought it was a good idea. It was illegal and a dangerous addictive drug. That was the stigma and state of mind during the seventies in a small Caribbean island. It was a program that was promoted aggressively and we had no evidence that cannabis had any health benefits. Maybe you are still living in an environment where someone you know has been imprisoned or victimized for carrying a single joint or an ounce of weed. Well things are changing!
History has shown that in the United States the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, the controlled substances act of 1970 combined with the aggressive efforts of the Drug Enforcement Agency and the racist inclinations that still persist today resulted in the incarceration of millions of people of color. The numbers are staggering. In 2010 the rate of incarceration of black men was 4,347 per 100,000, while the rate among white men was 678. By 2012 “the U.S. held a higher percentage of its black population under lock and key than South Africa did during apartheid” 1. The aggressive nature of this persecution ignored numerous reports that marijuana was not a dangerous substance or a gateway to using more addictive substances like cocaine or heroin1. It also ignored the numerous peer-reviewed publications and anecdotal reports concerning the benefits of ingestion from many dosage forms like smoking, vaping, edibles and tinctures. In fact, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent outlines in his extensive reports the deliberate misleading of the American population about the alleged dangers of cannabis while ignoring its many health benefits2. These benefits are the basis for the popularity of medical cannabis to treat chronic pain, nausea from chemotherapy, epilepsy and disease states like multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and HIV AIDS. Sound physiological bases exist for the success of cannabis as therapy.
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