The parents of a Missoula 3-year-old say that if they had listened to the doctors their son would’ve died.

Cash Hyde is now cancer-free for a second time and his parents say marijuana is his best medicine.

“Cashy went through 30 rounds of radiation without one nausea or pain medication besides medical cannabis,”

Cash’s dad, Mike Hyde said.

When Mike and Kalli Hyde learned Cash’s brain cancer returned in October, doctors told them he had a 30% chance of surviving five years. They said recurring brain tumors have a rare chance of shrinking, and at best, they could only stop it from metastasizing further.

The Hyde’s switched Cash to an all-vegan diet, alkaline-adjusted water and cannabis oil and the tumor’s growth slowed by 55% buying them time to wait for proton radiation.

The radiation shrunk the tumor. Now it’s gone, and Cash is returning to a normal life laughing with his older brother, Colten, and playing with Play-Doh. But it wasn’t easy for the Hyde’s to get back to this normalcy. Mike Hyde said:

“I’ve had to break state and federal laws just to keep Cashy alive,”

The Hyde’s don’t look at cannabis oil the same way as some of Montana’s lawmakers.

“I know that I’m not a criminal,”

Mike said.

“I know that I saved my son’s life, and if I have to go sit in jail for that, that’s way better than a pediatric oncology floor.”

Cash takes hydrocortisone and cannabis oil twice a day in his gastronomy tube. It’s a formula the Hyde’s say works even though they’re going against doctors recommendations of different pharmaceutical drugs- drugs that the Hyde’s believe have much worse side effects.

“Most cancer patients, especially second-time remission cancer patients, most of them are on liver and kidney transplant lists, waiting for new kidney or livers,”

Mike Hyde said.

“Cashy’s not; Cashy’s playing with Plah-Doh.”

The Hyde’s are now looking forward to more family time as Cash will become a big brother in a couple months. Mike Hyde said:

“You know we just live our life three months at a time,” Kalli Hyde said. “His scans are every three months and we just continue with our protocol that we had him on and just hope and pray that the cancer doesn’t come back again.”

“Why is Cashy alive? Because he’s blessed. Because he’s pioneering a better way to fight cancer, I would say.”

The Hyde’s are inviting the community to celebrate Cash being cancer free for the second time at the Elbow Room at 1855 Stephens Avenue in Missoula on Friday, March 30 at 7 p.m. A raffle will benefit The Cash Hyde Foundation, which supports families fighting pediatric cancer.

Pharmaceutical painkillers are now responsible for more deaths in the United States than heroin and cocaine combined. The pharmaceuticals are responsible for more than 15,000 deaths conservatively in 2008 alone.

With no sign of slowing down, the painkiller industry is becoming wildly popular among Americans — as a result, so is the high rate of painkiller abuse. Classified as dangerous by the U.S. government, cannabis (even in THC-free form, or free of psychoactive effects) has been identified as a powerful pain reliever in more than 80 peer-reviewed studies.

You may be aware of the fact that marijuana is usually quite high in THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the compound responsible for the psychoactive effect of cannabis. In contrast, it is also low in CBD (cannabidiol) content. Both THC and CBD are known as cannabinoids, however, which interacts with your body in a very unique way. In fact, cannabinoids are key when it comes to pain relief. While this information alone is enough to shatter the traditional beliefs on government marijuana regulation, the relationship between CBD and THC is even more revealing.

What you may not be familiar with is how CBD has been shown to block the effect of THC in the nervous system. This allows for marijuana to be used with little or no psychoactive effects. Hemp, on the other hand, is high in CBD and low in THC. This is due to the fact that it is bred to maximize its fiber, seeds, and oil. Of course these key properties are what it is most commonly used for.

Trials Indicate Cannabis as an Effective Treatment for Chronic Pain

In a 2011 study published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, researchers examined the effects of cannabinoids on chronic pain and proper sleep. What they found in their trials challenges federal government claims that cannabis has ‘no accepted medical use’. The researchers conducted 18 trials using cannabinoids in the treatment of chronic pain, and found that cannabinoids demonstrated a significant painkilling effect as well as noticeable improvements in sleep in 15 of trials. Compared, to placebo, the cannabinoids were extremely effective.

Most importantly, there were no adverse effects.

Another study, performed in 2002, reached similar conclusions. Finding cannabis to aid in pain relief as well as quality of sleep, researchers from the McGill University Health Centre stated in summary that cannabis can be used as an effective way of improving pain, mood, and sleep in some patients with chronic pain.

There are many forms of the cannabis plant, many without mind-altering properties, many of which can be utilized without adverse reactions as detailed in the peer-reviewed research. It is also quite clear that the painkiller industry simply cannot continue to wreak havoc on the lives of many, and a natural alternative must soon emerge to prevent another 15,000 plus deaths this year. Why is the federal government refusing to admit the medicinal properties of cannabis and the unique ability of this substance to curb pain, insomnia, and impaired mood? This is only one example of how the government decides what is and what is not good for your health.

Source: WestEnder.com

A group of B.C. public health officers has joined a growing coalition of policy leaders urging the legalization and taxation of marijuana.

The Health Officers Council of B.C. voted to endorse Stop the Violence B.C. and called for regulation of illegal substances like marijuana to reduce the harm from substance use and the unintended consequences of government policies.

“The Health Officer’s Council and other experts are not saying that marijuana should be legalized and taxed because it is safe,” said Dr. Paul Hasselback, a Vancouver Island medical health officer who chairs the council.

“We are saying that proven public health approaches should be used to constrain its use. There is now more danger to the public’s health in perpetuating a market driven by criminal activity.”

The coalition argues prohibition has failed and enforcement has little impact on drug use, merely fueling the $7-billion illegal pot industry that experts say is directly linked to the spike in gang-related killings since 1997.

A report released by Stop the Violence says teens find it easy to buy marijuana and pot use among them is up considerably since the 1990s, despite heavy spending on drug enforcement.

“By every metric, this policy is failing to meet its objectives,” said Dr. Evan Wood, a Vancouver doctor and founder of the coalition.

By regulating the market, he said, the distribution and use of marijuana would be more controlled and would also eliminate organized crime from the equation.

It would also provide a source of tax revenue in the hundreds of millions, he added.

B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall said he generally agrees with the public health officers’ statement on marijuana reform although he was not formally part of their endorsement.

“I support their call for a review of the effectiveness of current prohibition and criminalization and discussion of a more effective public health-based approach,” Kendall said.

Cannabis arrests in Canada climbed from 39,000 in 1990 to more than 65,000 in 2009, according to the coalition.

An estimated 27 per cent of young B.C. residents aged 15-24 used pot at least once in 2008, according to one poll. Four former Vancouver mayors have also backed the coalition. — Jeff Nagel

Dec. 3, 2008 — Nearly two pounds of still-green plant material found in a 2,700-year-old grave in the Gobi Desert has just been identified as the world’s oldest marijuana stash, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany.

A barrage of tests proves the marijuana possessed potent psychoactive properties and casts doubt on the theory that the ancients only grew the plant for hemp in order to make clothing, rope and other objects.

They apparently were getting high too.

Lead author Ethan Russo told Discovery News that the marijuana “is quite similar” to what’s grown today.

“We know from both the chemical analysis and genetics that it could produce THC (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid synthase, the main psychoactive chemical in the plant),” he explained, adding that no one could feel its effects today, due to decomposition over the millennia.

Russo served as a visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Botany while conducting the study. He and his international team analyzed the cannabis, which was excavated at the Yanghai Tombs near Turpan, China. It was found lightly pounded in a wooden bowl in a leather basket near the head of a blue-eyed Caucasian man who died when he was about 45.

“This individual was buried with an unusual number of high value, rare items,” Russo said, mentioning that the objects included a make-up bag, bridles, pots, archery equipment and a kongou harp. The researchers believe the individual was a shaman from the Gushi people, who spoke a now-extinct language called Tocharian that was similar to Celtic.

Scientists originally thought the plant material in the grave was coriander, but microscopic botanical analysis of the bowl contents, along with genetic testing, revealed that it was cannabis.

The size of seeds mixed in with the leaves, along with their color and other characteristics, indicate the marijuana came from a cultivated strain. Before the burial, someone had carefully picked out all of the male plant parts, which are less psychoactive, so Russo and his team believe there is little doubt as to why the cannabis was grown.

What is in question, however, is how the marijuana was administered, since no pipes or other objects associated with smoking were found in the grave.

“Perhaps it was ingested orally,” Russo said. “It might also have been fumigated, as the Scythian tribes to the north did subsequently.”

Although other cultures in the area used hemp to make various goods as early as 7,000 years ago, additional tomb finds indicate the Gushi fabricated their clothing from wool and made their rope out of reed fibers. The scientists are unsure if the marijuana was grown for more spiritual or medical purposes, but it’s evident that the blue-eyed man was buried with a lot of it.

“As with other grave goods, it was traditional to place items needed for the afterlife in the tomb with the departed,” Russo said.

The ancient marijuana stash is now housed at Turpan Museum in China. In the future, Russo hopes to conduct further research at the Yanghai site, which has 2,000 other tombs.

Source: TIME Healthland
by: Maia Szalavitz

States that legalize medical marijuana see fewer fatal car accidents, according to a new study, in part because people may be substituting marijuana smoking for drinking alcohol.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia, have legalized medical marijuana since the mid-1990s. For the new study, economists looked at 1990-2009 government data on marijuana use and traffic deaths in the 13 states that had passed legalization laws during that time period. The data were from the National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Comparing traffic deaths over time in states with and without medical marijuana law changes, the researchers found that fatal car wrecks dropped by 9% in states that legalized medical use — which was largely attributable to a decline in drunk driving. The researchers controlled for other factors like changes in driving laws and the number of miles driven that could affect the results.

Medical marijuana laws were not significantly linked with changes in daytime crash rates or those that didn’t involve alcohol. But the rate of fatal crashes in which a driver had consumed any alcohol dropped 12% after medical marijuana was legalized, and crashes involving high levels of alcohol consumption fell 14%.

MORE: Study: Legal Medical Marijuana Doesn’t Encourage Kids to Smoke More Pot

The authors found that medical marijuana laws reduced crashes in more men than women—by 13% compared to 9%— in line with data showing that men are more likely to register as medical marijuana users than women.

The overall reduction in traffic deaths was comparable to that seen after the national minimum drinking age was raised to 21, the authors note.

“We were astounded by how little is known about the effects of legalizing medical marijuana,” lead author Daniel Rees, professor of economics at the University of Colorado-Denver, said in a statement. “We looked into traffic fatalities because there is good data, and the data allow us to test whether alcohol was a factor. … Traffic fatalities are an important outcome from a policy perspective because they represent the leading cause of death among Americans ages 5 to 34.”

The authors also found that in states that legalized medical use, there was no increase in marijuana smoking by teenagers — a finding seen in other studies as well. But, in many cases, the laws were linked with an increase in marijuana smoking among adults in their 20s; this rise was accompanied by a reduction in alcohol use by college age youth, suggesting that they were smoking weed instead.

Studies have consistently found that while mixing either marijuana or alcohol with driving is unadvisable, driving high is much safer than driving drunk. Research on stoned driving is inconsistent, with some studies finding impairment and others not; the alcohol data, however, is clear in establishing a link between drinking and significant deterioration in driving skills. The data also consistently shows that using both drugs together is worst of all.

MORE: Study: Whites More Likely to Abuse Drugs Than Blacks

Driving under the influence of marijuana seems to be less risky because people who are high tend to be aware that they are impaired and compensate, while alcohol tends to increase recklessness and create false confidence. Also, people are more likely to smoke weed at home or in private, rather than out at bars or other public events that require driving to get to.

The research was published by IZA, a nonprofit labor research organization associated with the University of Bonn in Germany. It is a working paper, which means it has not yet been subjected to peer review.

Maia Szalavitz is a health writer at TIME.com. Find her on Twitter at @maiasz. You can also continue the discussion on TIME Healthland’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIMEHealthland.

A new study from the University of Haifa proves another socially redeeming value in that evil old weed.

Post-trauma stress disorder (PTSD) occurs in people exposed to life-threatening events or atrocities, like the arrest and torture of female activist and journalist Faranak Farid in Iran. The list of consequences after trauma is long and horrible. Victims are plagued by memory flashbacks, high anxiety, nightmares, insomnia, uncontrollable anger and emotional numbing. Today, healing methods available to victims of trauma vary between psychiatric therapy, antidepressants, and stress management. But Dr. Irit Akirav of the University of Haifa’s Department of Psychology holds out hope for a physical remedy that can be applied quickly and may prevent the development of PTSD in the first place. Marijuana.

While marijuana’s value in chronic pain management is known and becoming accepted, the University of Haifa’s study, published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, proposes another use for cannabis. The study involves rats, whose reactions to trauma are similar to ours, and an injection of cannabinoids (synthetic marijuana) injected into the brain. According to Dr. Akirav and research student Eti Ganon-Elazar, rats receiving the up to 24 hours after stressful events do not develop the characteristic symptoms of PTSD.

“This indicates that the marijuana did not erase the experience of the trauma, but that it specifically prevented the development of post-trauma symptoms in the rat model,” said Dr. Akirav. “There is a ‘window of opportunity’ during which administering synthetic marijuana helps deal with symptoms simulating PTSD in rats.” Dr. Akirav explained further that this window of opportunity would be longer in humans, giving more time for administration of the injection before symptoms set in.

It would be interesting to know how long the beneficial effects of cannabinoids last. Would a one-time injection be enough to prevent PTSD developing? Or would there have to be a course of injections – or lifetime series? It’s early days, and the answers are still to come.

It’s intended to help animals manage chronic pain, but you may be tempted to slip it on Fido when he gets a little too rambunctious.

Jim Alekson, a spokesman for Medical Marijuana Delivery Systems, said in an e-mail that the company is in the process of perfecting the patch. He said,

“It is our intention, once the patch delivery system is perfected, to approach states for approval to use the patch for veterinary use.”

MMDS, which will market its product under the name Tetracan, announced in February that it had acquired the patent for the patch, which was developed in 2000 by Walter Cristobal, a member of the Santa Ana Pueblo Tribe of New Mexico.

“In the 1990s, while seeking to alleviate his mother’s arthritis pain, Cristobal started developing a topical solution that could deliver the therapeutic benefits of marijuana through the skin,”

writes Culture Magazine, which describes itself as the “#1 medical marijuana lifestyle magazine. Cristobal received a patent in 2000.

We left a message for him yesterday, but haven’t yet received a response. In February, he said he was excited to work with MMDS “to finally be able to bring the patch and other new delivery systems like creams, gels and oils to people and animals in need of chronic pain management.”

When asked if there are currently any loopholes that would allow veterinarians to prescribe medical pot for animals, Alison Holcomb, the drug policy director for the Washington branch of the ACLU, said no. Vets are not included as health care professionals under state law.

“Also, a qualifying patient is defined as a person, and that obviously excludes animals,”

Holcomb said in a phone interview with Seattle Weekly.

The idea of treating animals with pot has historical precedent. Apparently, the ancient Greeks used weed in veterinary medicine, in part to treat wounds and sores on horses.

Source: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/07/coming_soon_a_medical_pot_patc.php

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Francois Arcand says he doesn’t want gravely ill people to think of medical marijuana as their last hope because of all the red tape that surrounds it.

The 42-year-old had to first find a doctor who would help him get a Health Canada licence to use marijuana to ease his epilepsy. Then he waited a year for approval.

Meanwhile, the Ottawa man found quicker and more personalized relief at a cannabis dispensary.

“Cannabis should have been my front-line therapy and not a desperate last resort,”

Arcand said, adding that Health Canada needs to issue more licences.

Arcand said he supported calls in Ottawa on Tuesday by medical marijuana advocates for the federal government to legalize pot dispensaries, as activists launched a national organization to help regulate the businesses.

“Dispensaries should be legally regulated and recognized as a legitimate health care service,”

said Rade Kovacevic, co-founder of the new Canadian Association of Medical Dispensaries.

“We are asking the government to recognize our experience and to work with us to develop a regulatory framework for medical cannabis.”

The non-profit association aims to oversee the country’s estimated 30 dispensaries, which sell a range of cannabis products and strains to buyers who show a doctor’s note and meet other requirements.

Staff plan to accredit the dispensaries -many of which are currently set up as illegal storefronts -in areas such as patient eligibility, dispensing practices, quality of cannabis and community safety, with a goal of ensuring high standards of care.

Marijuana remains illegal in Canada, but residents suffering from illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS and epilepsy can apply to use pot as supplied by Health Canada’s growers or a licensed individual grower.

read the entire article: Activists establish regulator for dispensaries

The Dutch Cabinet said it will go ahead with plans to force anyone wishing to buy marijuana at the country’s “coffee shops” to first get an official pass — a move designed to stop tourists from buying cannabis.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he plans to begin rolling out the system in southern Netherlands later this year, reports the Associated Press. The southern part of the country is popular with French and German cannabis tourists. The system would then be instituted in Amsterdam’s famed weed cafes, which are major tourist attractions for the city, later in Rutte’s term of office.

The plan will prevent cafes from issuing more than 1,500 permits in all, forcing shop owners to choose between tourists and their regular customers.

That is seen by some observers as a clever way to get around the European Union requirement of treating all EU residents equally — by not telling shops they have to ban foreigners, just tell them they can only sell cannabis to 1,500 total customers. Of course, most or all shops will pick the local regulars, rather than tourists who will only be in town a couple days.