Hard News by Russell Brown

Pharmac’s letter declining funding for Warren (used here with permission).

And the response from Warren’s neurologist.

the risk of diversion in the New Zealand setting

Sorry the what? in the where?
Or is this just the made up bullshit these fuckers pull out of their "jobsworths" arses.

Fuck me, methadone for pain? Instead of cannabis? Now that is a dangerous drug. I have chronic pain but helpfully opioids make me sick so that's not on the menu!

Very positive initiative this. Just getting stories out like this and keeping it in the media helps.

Surprisingly methadone is great for chronic pain, no tolerance increaseS, long half life etc mean it's the best one when facing years of pain, however the side effects aren't instant, and creep in over time, my wife is trying to finish her pre injury study and the opioids and Benzos have taken there toll :(

If you do a search, into the makeup of the Government approved medicine Sativex, you will find that this approval is for a whole Cannabis plant extract. This fact alone proves that the safety of whole Cannabis plant extracts has been established and only leaves to question, healthy growing practices and preparation of Cannabis whole plant, essential oil products. I must add that the extraction of essential oils is a very common practice in a very wide range, of everyday over the counter health supplements.

There needs to be more understanding that it’s the Cannabis plant itself, that’s the medicine and if through the course of time and investment, new drugs are made from targeting compounds in Cannabis, well that's good too. But to allow a lie that doesn't recognize this plants place in medical history is like denying the value of Vitamin C, to good health.

There's another point to be addressed and that's the issue of privacy, which is guaranteed to all patients and their families. All medical settings are rquired.to give patients by virtue of right, the upmost level of privacy at all times, be it a consultation, treatment, or simply dealing with pharmacy staff.

This Cannabis issue has now forced many patients into the spotlight in an effort to be deemed worthy enough to receive a medication of their own choosing and this choice has often been in consultation with their own Doctor. As a politician, Peter Dunne hasn't sworn the Hippocratic Oath and has no place in deciding patient care and in doing so, comes between Doctor patient relationships, compromising their rights to privacy to an unacceptable level.

The fact that even legal Cannabis based medications, requires a politician to sign off on it, seems an extremely moralistic and political approach to patient care and can only be seen as a futile attempt to control the third most widely used drug in society, by abandoning patients in need.

If you do a search, into the makeup of the Government approved medicine Sativex, you will find that this approval is for a whole Cannabis plant extract. This fact alone proves that the safety of whole Cannabis plant extracts has been established and only leaves to question, healthy growing practices and preparation of Cannabis whole plant, essential oil products. I must add that the extraction of essential oils is a very common practice in a very wide range, of everyday over the counter health supplements.

Thats a good analogy, Essentially Sativex is 2 strains of Has (essential) Oil in a spray can, I wrote about it here. The trick is the law allows growing for research and trials, I feel that we need to get the products made here, and sort out the trials when we have something to trial, and perhaps the Govt could stump up some trial costs. In the meantime said products could still be used with ministerial approval...

"That's one hell of an analogy. If you don't use vitamin C, you'll get scurvy. I don't smoke dope but I still managed to get an art degree".

There's two ways to get Vitamin C, one from a balanced diet the way nature intended, or secondly by purchasing a supplement that not very long ago, had New Zealand almost forced by Australian pressure, to over regulate, this in turn would have made the sale of supplements like Vitamin C, prescription only products.

For many people the smoking of Cannabis for pleasure, may quite well be their only interest in this subject. But for the many patients who use the essential oils of this plant, it's a lifeline to a host of phytocannabinoids to supplement their bodies own endocannabinoid system.

As every cell in the human body is regulated by this system is it not reasonable to have access to natures own super-food in its natural form, just as citrus fruits and vegetables are our natural source of vitamin C.

On the subject of smoking Cannabis and your Art's Degree, we'll never know now if you could have up sized it, to a Masters or a PHD. LOL good on you mate.

Yes I agree Shane, I think many people underestimate what a dark tunnel many find themselves in, when a twist of fate deals a blow to their health or that of a loved one.

There's often very long waits and depending on the situation little or no funding available for innovative treatments. When it comes to the subject of pain, this transcends multiple conditions of disease and injury. It has been a huge focus of modern medicine to control pain. The poppy gives us Opium, Willow bark was the forerunner to Aspirin, ancient healers used the Cannabis plant and it was a staple for Doctors up until very resent times as well.

The issue in the case of Cannabis is not whether people find it effective, but one of unreasonable regulations that have been designed to benefit multinational pharmaceutical company's. As I said I have no problem with development of innovative drugs from Cannabis compounds.

But I have a serious problem with the over regulation of the plant itself with its goal to wipe it out of existence. This is not the case for the Opium Poppy which you can legally grow in your garden, as long as you don't bleed them. I just don't see any benefit from trying to make nature illegal other than a financial agenda of certain interests.

...Vitamin C.... from a balanced diet the way nature intended...

Considering that we're one of the tiny minority of mammal species that have lost the ability to synthesize our own vitamin C, it seems fair to wonder what nature's intention might have been in letting that happen.

One can only speculate this was an evolutionary process, due to an abundance of mineral and vitamin rich foods in the diet of this subset. As like Humans and other animals like bats, we would have foraged on many fruit bearing trees and plants containing ample levels, possibly making this process redundant.

Nature throws out many anomalies like Hemochromatosis or Iron overload disease, this Gene mutation which causes the body to store iron is a destructive process with our modern iron rich diets, But for the ancient Scott's, who are the main subset effected by this mutation and their Iron deficient diet, nature found a way to store this essential mineral required for life.

Nature throws out many anomalies...

Indeed, there are many factors involved...

Many modern health problems, ranging from depression to nicotine addiction, could have their origins in the limited interbreeding between early Homo sapiens and Neanderthals more than 40,000 years ago, scientists said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/mental-health-problems-could-have-origins-in-neanderthal-interbreeding-a6868286.html
and I recently read there were three neanderthal groups that interbred with humans, creating regional and diasporic propensities for certain conditions
it was in this article I think
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23030692-500-missing-y-chromosome-kept-us-apart-from-neanderthals/
but most of it is behind New Scientst's pay wall, dammit
and
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2077269-our-neanderthal-genes-linked-to-risk-of-depression-and-addiction/
and

According to a study published in the journal Science, Denisovans – relatives to both Neanderthals and humans – somehow managed to cross Wallace’s Line after 600,000 years ago, and later interbred with anatomically modern Homo sapiens moving through the area on the way to Australia and New Guinea.

http://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/anthropology/science-denisovans-homo-species-interbred-modern-humans-01476.html

more here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiregional_origin_of_modern_humans

Yes Ian, interbreeding has spread gene mutations like Hemochromatosis around the globe with little consequence for offspring, when a carrier of the Gene mates outside of its ancestral gene pool. This however is not the case, when two carriers get together.So the progression of humans around the globe has caused many anomalies and diet being just one.

Cannabis is an ancient food and I think that when we use the term eat your greens, it shouldn't just mean cabbages. I have a close friend who has been battling terminal leukemia and things weren't go that well for her. this woman was to scared to use Cannabis, because of its legal status.This however changed, as the disease progressed and her caution, succumbed to fear.

Through a friend network she was started on CBD oil form Sativa strains and after a couple of months no real progress was being made. After more research of other patient accounts, she switched to a high THC oil and that's when the first signs of a recovery started to take place. Then at about one month after that she started drinking two smoothies a day of fresh Cannabis material and that's when huge changes to her markers kicked in. This process took just over a year in all, but she's at almost normal levels now.She is still taking two smoothies a day and doing fine.

I think my point really is that, this plant in its raw form, through to processed essential oils holds great benefits and to allow it to be classified as an illegal pharmaceutical, instead of a supplement, hinders thousands of patients from taking a self defense approach to their own health.

Cannabis is an ancient food and I think that when we use the term eat your greens, it shouldn't just mean cabbages.

"...humans, along with other higher primates, guinea pigs and fruit bats, get by with what some have called an "inborn metabolic error": an inability to produce vitamin C from glucose."

The Human body produces its own cannabinoids, endocannabinoids. When a baby is born the first breast milk contains endocannabinoids as a kick starter.

In fact the only reason Cannabis works for us is that our bodies are regulated by cannabinoids. Its just a quirk of nature that a plant produces these compounds so necessary to us and in doing so, some would say we have entered into a symbiotic relationship with this plant, one of Mutualism. This relationship gives us pleasure and health benefits, in return we have guarded its existence for thousands of years.

Hey-Joe, cool video they love their GREENS.

Something else you may be interested in with all the talk of Cannabis and its tenuous links to schizophrenia and this involves diet as well. It's very interesting to find that there's believed to be a link, between gluten and schizophrenia.

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/60-years-research-links-gluten-grains-schizophrenia

Hey-Joe, cool video they love their GREENS.

Somewhere I recall someone of a botanical persuasion describing cannabis as a "camp follower", in terms of how it extends its range as a kind of opportunistic domesticate. In a curious coincidence, years later I found the same term used in describing the ancient domestication of the guinea pig.

This guy looks like an interesting read as well...

From fresh food to magic mushrooms
At Radcliffe, Michael Pollan probes the medicinal uses of psychedelic drugs.
Pollan’s books about food, diet, and industrial agriculture — he is perhaps best known for 2006’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals” — have made him an influential voice in America’s food fight over obesity, nutrition, and diabetes, and have made him revered by those who believe that something is fundamentally wrong with how we mass produce and prepare our meals.
Yet Pollan’s books have always been about learning, he says, constituting a journey of exploration for him as well as for his readers. He attributes his success and influence in part to his ability to take others along with him, exploring the answers to questions that intrigue him and that the rest of us may not have even known to ask. Now, a new subject has caught his eye.
Pollan is exploring a budding rebirth of psychedelic drugs, all but banned since the 1960s. His latest work examines new research into the drugs’ potential therapeutic use, and the impact those trials have had on subjects, including those facing death from cancer.
Despite the success he’s already experienced, Pollan said in an interview that this work is forcing him to stretch as both a reporter and a writer. It’s taking him places he’s never before been — including on deep dives into others’ pain.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/05/from-fresh-food-to-magic-mushrooms/

Earliest civilisation ended by climate change...

It may be time to rewrite history textbooks. Scientists from IIT-Kharagpur and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have uncovered evidence that the Indus Valley Civilization is at least 8,000 years old, and not 5,500 years old, taking root well before the Egyptian (7000BC to 3000BC) and Mesopotamian (6500BC to 3100BC) civilizations. What's more, the researchers have found evidence of a pre-Harappan civilization that existed for at least 1,000 years before this.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Indus-era-8000-years-old-not-5500-ended-because-of-weaker-monsoon/articleshow/52485332.cms

and just for fun, here's a well out of date 1957 documentary on the Harappa and mohenjo daro, with a wonderfully archetypal Brit archaeologist - walkshorts, moustache and pipe in hand - those were the days, what!

I believe this ones right on topic and a bit of a, 'WHO DUNNE IT'..

Helen Kelly: 'My back is broken and I only have months to live but I'm pain free'

Interesting comments about Big Pharma's influence on this issue.

Go well Helen.