The following is a summery of the documentary I seen a few years ago on The Nature of Things with David Suzuki, where he studied the social and medical benifits towards the use of Marijuana and any possible medically know side effects or downfalls.
CBC Television | the nature of things Quote:
There is a growing number of people who regard marijuana (cannabis) as a benign medicine, offering relief to people suffering from a variety of illnesses, including epilepsy, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma as well as lessening the side effects of medications and treatments given to cancer and HIV patients. CBC Television's THE NATURE OF THINGS with David Suzuki examines the medicinal uses of marijuana.
This summer, the federal government of Canada found itself in a minefield of contradictory positions. Canadian courts have ruled it unconstitutional to deny medical marijuana to patients they have legally authorized to use it. In July, Justice Minister Anne McClellan promised to distribute 1,650 packets of marijuana to 582 patients legally entitled to it. At the same time the federal government is appealing the court decision allowing the medical use of marijuana. While the provincial, state and federal governments of Canada and the United States struggle with the legality of marijuana use, victims of Parkinson's, Arthritis, Epilepsy, Glaucoma, Cancer and other diseases demand a supply of this restricted substance to ease their suffering.
Officially, marijuana is an illegal drug that is still considered toxic and addictive with no medical value. People who use marijuana to alleviate their suffering and seek to obtain it from an illegal source, live with the added anxiety of possible arrest, jail and forfeiture of property. They all say it's worth the risk. This program tells the stories of those who have shown courage in providing marijuana to the sick and suffering as well as the stories of people whose lives have been transformed by its medicinal properties.
Reefer Madness 2 also travels to India where marijuana is openly cultivated and used in medicine, rituals and recreationally, as it has been for thousands of years with little indication of its supposed damaging effects. It came to the West in the mid-1800s, and was commonly used as a folk medicine. In the United States of the 1930s, it became identified with the corrupting influence of the jazz culture and with Mexican and Chinese immigrants. From then on, it was labeled as a Schedule 1, or dangerous drug. The Black Candle, written by an eminent Canadian judge stirred the controversy in Canada in the 1920s.
Reefer Madness 2 introduces audiences to the personal stories of two women who provide marijuana to the sick. Valerie Corrall of California established the Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) and supplies over 200 people in the Santa Cruz area. Vancouver's Hilary Black runs The Compassionate Club. She talks about her dealings with sufferers, the police and the growers she relies on for supplies.
Dr. Lester Grinspoon of Harvard Medical School and the author of Forbidden Medicine, recounts how a personal experience affecting his own family reinforced his determination to try and set the record straight about the marijuana use and cancer patients.
Reefer Madness 2 is written by John Bassett and produced by Vishnu Mathur. Executive producer of THE NATURE OF THINGS is Michael Allder.
|
Now if you would like to view a clip of the episode, please click the link obove to the direct page of this info and see link there.... it is a RM file (RealMedia I believe) so unless you got that or some converter, you probably won't see it.
But anyways, to the point here:
Now I can't find any link to the entire documentary, since it was a few years back now (1999 or 98 perhaps?) So perhaps someone might have torrented the episode online to view.
Anyways, it does open a lot of very good points about how Marijuana came to the Americas, and exactly how it became illegal.
Also, I mentioned in previous debates about this documentary I seen, and in it, shows Suzuki with his Arthritis in his hand and he smoked some and shortly after he was able to move his hand better and it was less swollen. This is also the same documentary that had the patient who had sever siezures almost immediatly stop when they put a joint to hit mouth and he puffed back during the siezure and then mellowed right out as if nothing happened.