By Doctor Tom, MD
Among the many things I’ve learned by studying cannabis through the medical histories of people who have been (illegally) self-medicating with it is that the Medical Profession has remained blind to a lot of helpful information that would have directed research in more useful directions.
Today, as an experiment, I took a CME course offered through the British Journal Lancet on the latest diagnostic criteria and treatment recommendations for multiple sclerosis, a disease of uncertain etiology (cause) which seems to be increasing- especially in young women. It’s also one of several such conditions that have been classified as autoimmune, in other words, associated with an immune system that has trouble differentiating self from non-self and thus attacking normal tissue with an inappropriate inflammatory response. Rheumatoid Arthritis (which also responds favorably to cannabis) is another.
These conditions seem to have been increasing in both the number being recognized as autoimmune, and the number of their victims. MS has long been recognized “anecdotally” as a condition that responds to cannabis. Of course Nixon’s doctrine- as officially interpreted by the experts at the DEA – says that no “drug of abuse” on Schedule One can possibly be medicine.
To cut to the chase, my worst suspicions were confirmed when a panel of four alleged expert neurologists, three from the US, and one from Canada, spoke for over an hour without mentioning either autoimmunity or cannabis. I wasn’t particularly surprised at the omission of cannabis, but their failure to at least mention the autoimmune connection has me worrying about just how deeply Big Brother is snooping and how desperately he is censoring medical information that might challenge official dogma.
