Jeff Ditchfield - The Medical Cannabis Guidebook: The Definitive Guide to Using and Growing Medicinal Marijuana

Copyright 2014 Jeff Ditchfield and Mel Thomas

ISBN 978-1-937866-02-0

Images Jeff Ditchfield, Mel Thomas, Grow Magazine, Mandala Seeds, Centennial Seeds, Stoned Rosie

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without express written permission from the authors or publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote passages in any review where appropriate credit is given. Permission is similarly granted for brief quotations in articles with appropriate credit. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form other than those approved by the authors or publisher. This book is written to enlighten and inform for educational purposes only and does not encourage any illegal activities in any form whatsoever. It is illegal to grow and possess cannabis in most countries and may result in arrest and a criminal conviction.

If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it; he is obligated to do so.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Contents

Genus C.sativa has two main species, C. indica and C.ruderalis.

Referred to variously as marijuana, ganja, weed and herb amongst many other slang terms, cannabis is one of the safest medicines available. As well as giving us the dried buds that can be smoked, the plant produces nutritious seeds from which healthy edible oils can be pressed, the plant fibers are durable and versatile with many commercial uses, the crop is environmentally beneficial and many parts of the plant were in use for thousands of years before prohibition. Unlike many pharmaceutical medications, there has never been a single recorded fatality from cannabis use. No one has ever died as a direct result of ingesting cannabis, nor have there been any instances of brain receptor damage through its use; unlike alcohol and other drugs cannabis does not wear out the brain receptors, it merely stimulates them. One estimate of THCs lethal dose for humans indicates that 1500 pounds (680 kilograms) of cannabis would have to be smoked within 15 minutes (approximately) for the smoker to die. If you wanted to kill someone using 1500 pounds of cannabis you would be better advised to drop it on them.

LD50, also called median lethal dose, is the standard measure of the toxicity of a material through ingestion, skin contact or injection. LD50 is measured in micrograms (or milligrams) of the material per kilogram of the test-animals body weight. The lower the amount, the more toxic the material. The estimated LD50 (lethal threshold) for cannabis, established in 1988 by the DEAs appropriate

Studies indicate that the effective dose of THC is at least 1000 times lower than the estimated lethal dose (therapeutic ratio of 1000:1). Heroin has a therapeutic ratio of 6:1, alcohol and Valium both have a ratio of 10:1. Cocaine has a ratio of 15:1. Aspirin has a therapeutic ratio of 20:1; 20 times the recommended dose (40 tablets) can cause death and almost certainly induce extensive internal bleeding. Drugs used to treat patients with cancer, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis (MS) are all known to be highly toxic; the ratio of some drugs used in antineoplastic (cancer inhibiting) therapies have therapeutic ratios below 1.5:1.

A small percentage of people may experience a negative or allergic reaction to cannabis use and a few patients suffer especially high heart rates and/or anxiety when being treated with cannabis oil, although this is a comparatively low number and the effects are merely unpleasant and cease when cannabis use is discontinued. Many bronchial asthma sufferers benefit from both herbal cannabis and cannabis oil extracts but for some it can serve as an additional irritant. However, for the overwhelming majority of people, cannabis has demonstrated literally hundreds of therapeutic uses.

Cannabis prohibition emanates from a commercial conspiracy that was started in the 1920s. The word marijuana itself was first brought into the English language by these early corporate offenders who needed to change the publics perception of the cannabis plant from a useful fiber and medicine to a dangerous, addictive and destructive substance in order to destroy the hemp industry and replace cannabis medicines and hemp fiber products with their own toxic pharmaceutical drugs and petrochemical products. They achieved this by manipulating the media and printing fictitious stories connecting marijuana use and crime. The manipulation continues to this day, as former CBS News president Richard Salant explained when discussing the medias role in manipulating the masses: Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have.

Cannabis prohibition is indisputably the result of a corrupt conspiracy founded on lies, propaganda and misinformation that for decades has denied society access to a benign and highly beneficial medicinal plant.

Female cannabis plant in flower.

Cannabis has been used medically for millennia. An article published in The Economist on April 27, 2006, under the heading, Marijuana is medically useful, whether politicians like it or not, stated:

If Marijuana was unknown, and bio-prospectors were suddenly to find it in some remote mountain crevice, its discovery would no doubt be hailed as a medical breakthrough. Scientists would praise its potential for treating everything from pain to cancer and marvel at its rich pharmacopoeia; many of whose chemicals mimic vital molecules in the human body.