Cannabis Study House - NORML Weekly News in Audio 2006.12.21

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Weekly News in Audio

December 21, 2006

Cannabinoid Treatments May Offer Novel Therapy For Parkinson's Disease

Marijuana Ranks As Top US Cash Crop

Shafer Report Chair Dies

Frankfurt, Germany:
Cannabinoid Treatments May Offer Novel Therapy For Parkinson's Disease

Cannabis-based medicines could offer therapeutic relief for symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) and may also moderate the course of the illness, according to a scientific review published this month in the journal Current Medicinal Chemistry.

"Cannabinoids are antioxidant, inhibit glutamate toxicity, and they also possess anti-inflammatory properties," authors state. "All together, we can conclude that cannabinoid-based medicines could be neuroprotective in the course of the disease, whereas [individual] compounds ... might modulate the behavioral effects of ... PD motor symptoms themselves."

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting the basal ganglia that results in a loss of motor coordination, organ failure, and death. The disease is characterized by a loss of dopaminergic neurons, typically resulting from brain inflammation, glutamate overproduction, and/or oxidative stress. The illness is estimated to affect approximately 2 percent of the population over age 65.

Survey data indicates that cannabis can provide subjective relief for symptoms of PD, including bradykinsia (extreme slowness of movement and reflexes), muscle rigidity, and tremor. However, a recent clinical trial assessing the short-term use of oral THC on symptoms of PD found the drug to have little immediate effect on patients' movement.

Washington, DC:
Marijuana Ranks As Top US Cash Crop

Cannabis is the largest cash crop in the United States, outpacing the production of corn and wheat combined, according to an economic analysis released this week.

According to the study, "Marijuana Production in the United States, 2006," domestic marijuana production has increased ten-fold in the past 25 years from 1,000 metric tons (2.2 million pounds) to 10,000 metric tons (22 million pounds) and now has an estimated annual value of $36 billion.

"Despite their best efforts, the [government] has been unable to curtail the growth of domestic marijuana cultivation in the United States, let alone make any progress toward suppressing, abolishing, or eliminating this market phenomenon," the report states. "The focus for public policy should be how to effectively control this market through regulation and taxation in order to achieve immediate and realistic goals, such as reducing teenage access, rather than to continue to sacrifice achievable goals in exchange for unachievable long-term goals that have failed to materialize over the last 25 years."

According to the report, marijuana cultivation in California is responsible for more than a third of all US pot production.

Cannabis ranks as the top cash crop in twelve states and is worth more than $1 billion annually in five states: California, Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii, and Washington.

A 1998 NORML report estimated the value of domestic marijuana production at that time at approximately $25 billion.

Meadville, PA:
Shafer Report Chair Dies

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Raymond P. Shafer passed away last week after suffering complications from congestive heart failure. He was 89 years old.

Shafer served as Governor from 1967 to 1971. In 1971, Shafer -- a Republican -- was appointed by President Richard Nixon to chair the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse. The Presidential Commission, later known as the Shafer Commission, concluded in 1972 that "neither the marijuana user nor the drug itself can be said to constitute a danger to public safety," and recommended to Congress that "citizens should not be criminalized or jailed merely for private possession or use."

Though rejected by Nixon -- who refused to even read the report -- and largely ignored by Congress, the Shafer Commission's report was instrumental in convincing several state legislatures to decriminalize penalties for the possession of minor amounts of marijuana. The report was later cited in 1977 by then-President Jimmy Carter, who argued before Congress: "Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to the individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana in private for personal use."

NORML founder Keith Stroup said: "Governor Shafer was an honest public servant who -- when confronted with the evidence that it made no sense to treat responsible marijuana smokers as criminals -- had the courage to stand by his principles, despite enormous pressure from the Nixon administration to modify his views and the commission's recommendations for political ends. To this day, The Marijuana Commission still stands as the most comprehensive governmental study of this subject ever undertaken."

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