FEV1: Forced Expiratory Volume in the first second. The volume of air that can be forced out in one second after taking a deep breath, an important measure of pulmonary function.

STUDIES ON LUNG DISCEASES:

QUOTE: "In neither men nor women was marijuana smoking associated with greater declines in FEV1 than was nonsmoking, nor was an additive effect of marijuana"

CONCLUSION: "Heavy habitual marijuana smoking does NOT cause an accelerated decline in FEV1 with age"

SOURCES:

DP Tashkin, MS Simmons, DL Sherrill and AH Coulson
Department of Medicine, UCLA Schools of Medicine and Public Health, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1690, USA.

J. M. Tetrault, K. Crothers, B. A. Moore, R. Mehra, J. Concato, and D. A. Fiellin
Effects of Marijuana Smoking on Pulmonary Function and Respiratory Complications: A Systematic Review
Archives of Internal Medicine, February 12, 2007; 167(3): 221 - 228.

D. P. Tashkin
Effects of Marijuana on the Lung and its Defenses against Infection and Cancer
School Psychology International, February 1, 1999; 20(1): 23 - 37.

BIGGEST STUDY ON CANCER AND WEED:

"Tashkin's study, funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Drug Abuse, involved 1,200 people in Los Angeles who had lung, neck or head cancer and an additional 1,040 people without cancer matched by age, sex and neighborhood.

They were all asked about their lifetime use of marijuana, tobacco and alcohol. The heaviest marijuana smokers had lighted up more than 22,000 times, while moderately heavy usage was defined as smoking 11,000 to 22,000 marijuana cigarettes. Tashkin found that even the very heavy marijuana smokers showed NO increased incidence of the three cancers studied."

Source:

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 26, 2006; A03

STUDY ON CHILDBEARING and WEED:

Prenatal Marijuana Exposure and Neonatal Outcomes in Jamaica: An Ethnographic Study

OBJECTIVE: To identify neurobehavioral effects of prenatal marijuana exposure on neonates in rural Jamaica.

DESIGN: Ethnographic field studies and standardized neurobehavior assessments during the neonatal period.

SETTING: Rural Jamaica in heavy-marijuana-using population.

PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-four Jamaican neonates exposed to marijuana prenatally and 20 nonexposed neonates.

Measurements and main results: Exposed and nonexposed neonates were compared at 3 days and 1 month old, using the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale, including supplementary items to capture possible subtle effects. There were no significant differences between exposed and nonexposed neonates on day 3. At 1 month, the exposed neonates showed better physiological stability and required less examiner facilitation to reach organized states. The neonates of heavy-marijuana-using mothers had better scores on autonomic stability, quality of alertness, irritability, and self-regulation and were judged to be more rewarding for caregivers.

CONCLUSIONS: The absence of any differences between the exposed on nonexposed groups in the early neonatal period suggest that the better scores of exposed neonates at 1 month are traceable to the cultural positioning and social and economic characteristics of mothers using marijuana that select for the use of marijuana but also promote neonatal development.

SOURCE:
Melanie C. Dreher (PhD1), Kevin Nugent (PhD1), and Rebekah Hudgins (MA1)
Schools of Nursing, Education, and Public Health, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst

STUDIES ON CANNABIS AND THE BRAIN:

Cannabis and psychopathological states:
Finally, no amnesia syndrome comparable to the Wernicke and Korsakov syndrome observed in chronic alcoholics, was observed in heavy cannabis users.

Cannabis and cerebral functions - Neurotoxicity:
"Former results suggesting anatomic changes in the brain of chronic cannabis users, measured by tomography, were not confirmed by the accurate modern neuro-imaging techniques. Moreover, morphological impairment of the hippocampus of rat after administration of very high doses of THC (Langfield et al., 198 was not shown (Slikker et al., 1992). Thus, the post-mortem anatomical analysis of baboon brains, treated with high doses of cannabis for 8 months, do not show signs of neuronal injury or morphological activation of nervous tissue (Ames et al., 1979)"

"Cannabis is known to act on the hippocampus (an area of the brain associated with memory and learning), and impair short term memory and attention for the duration of its effects and in some cases for the next day. In the long term, some studies point to enhancement of particular types of memory.

"The dangerousness of a drug is evaluated from its ability to generate a psychic dependence (addiction). It is well established that the very large majority of cannabis users only occasionally use this product, and they can definitively discontinue use without difficulty."

"The "drift" towards hard drugs, the "gateway theory" (Nahas, 1993; Cohen and Sas, 1997) after chronic use of THC does not seem supported by the results of recent experiments in animals."

SOURCES:

"Excerpts from the Roques report, ordered by
B. Kouchner, released in June 1998"

"Iversen, L. 2003. Cannabis and the brain. Brain 126(6): 1252-1270."

Marihuana illegalization:
I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America's becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power.

* The first Bibles, maps, charts, Betsy Ross's flag, the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were made from hemp; U.S. Government Archives.

* In 1916, the U.S. Government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees need to be cut down. Government studies report that 1 acre of hemp equals 4.1 acres of trees. Plans were in the works to implement such programs; Department of Agriculture

* Henry Ford's first Model-T was built to run on hemp gasoline and the CAR ITSELF WAS CONTRUCTED FROM HEMP! On his large estate, Ford was photographed among his hemp fields. The car, 'grown from the soil,' had hemp plastic panels whose impact strength was 10 times stronger than steel; Popular Mechanics, 1941.
In September of 1937, hemp became illegal. The most useful crop known became a drug and our planet has been suffering ever since.
Congress banned hemp because it was said to be the most violence-causing drug known. Anslinger, head of the Drug Commission for 31 years, promoted the idea that marihuana made users act extremely violent. In the 1950s, under the Communist threat of McCarthyism, Anslinger now said the exact opposite. Marijuana will pacify you so much that soldiers would not want to fight.

Today, our planet is in desperate trouble. Earth is suffocating as large tracts of rain forests disappear. Pollution, poisons and chemicals are killing people. These great problems could be reversed if we industrialized hemp.
Natural biomass could provide all of the planet's energy needs that are currently supplied by fossil fuels. We have consumed 80% of our oil and gas reserves. We need a renewable resource. Hemp could be the solution to soaring gas prices.

Hempen plastics are biodegradable! Over time, they would break down and not harm the environment. Oil-based plastics, the ones we are very familiar with, help ruin nature; they do not break down and will do great harm in the future.

A large variety of food products can be generated from hemp. The seeds contain one of the highest sources of protein in nature. ALSO: They have two essential fatty acids that clean your body of cholesterol. These essential fatty acids are not found anywhere else in nature! Consuming pot seeds is the best thing you could do for your body. Eat uncooked hemp seeds.

The pot plant is an ALIEN plant. There is physical evidence that cannabis is not like any other plant on this planet. One could conclude that it was brought here for the benefit of humanity. Hemp is the ONLY plant where the males appear one way and the females appear very different, physically!
The hemp plant has an intense sexuallity. Growers know to kill the males before they fertilize the females. Yes, folks...the most potent pot comes from 'horny females.'

The reason this amazing, very sophisticated, ET plant from the future is illegal has nothing to do with how it physically affects us.....

...POT IS ILLEGAL BECAUSE BILLIONAIRES WANT TO REMAIN BILLIONAIRES!

PS: I think the word 'DRUGS' should not be used as an umbrella-word that covers all chemical agents. Drugs have come to be known as something BAD. Are you aware there are LEGAL drugstores?! Yep, in every city. Unbelievable. Each so-called drug should be considered individually. Cannabis is a medicine and not a drug.



The most important plant in history
Why is hemp the most important plant in history? Because it contains the strongest and most durable soft-fiber of any plant on Earth. these strands can withstand heat, mildew, weathering, insects, light and time. Hemp also grows like a weed: fast and in bulk. And it will grow in almost any climate and environment. Furthermore, it has been used as a medicine worldwide for the last 3,000 years and has penetrated the social castes of nearly every culture and religion.

As a fabric, hemp is softer, warmer, more water absorbent, more breathable and more durable than most natural and man-made fibers. Its tensile strength is three times that of cotton. Approximately 50% of all chemicals used in American agriculture today are used on cotton. Hemp, on the other hand, needs neither herbicide (it grows so close together that little sunlight penetrates the ground to nurture weeds) nor pesticide (it is impervious to insects). Cotton is a soil leeching plant, that is, it takes nutrients out of the soil with every planting, which can leave valuable farmland severely lacking. Hemp, because of the way the stalk is harvested (roots, leaves and flowers are left on the ground to decompose), returns more nutrients into the ground than it takes with each planting.

As paper, hemp is stronger, more durable and archival compared to paper made from tree pulp. One acre of hemp produces as much fiber pulp as four acres of trees. It takes anywhere from 50 to 500 years for a tree to mature, whereas it takes a crop of hemp approximately 3 MONTHS to grow to harvest. You do the math. In addition, tree pulp must be bleached to make it white, where hemp is naturally white. As lumber board and building materials, it is superior in strength and flexibility, fire-resistant (!) and noted for its thermal and sound-insulating properties.

These are just a few examples of the 50,000 plus documented uses of the cannabis hemp plant. Amongst he most famous uses for hemp is weather and rot-resistant rope. However, the seed is rich in oil that can be used to make nontoxic paints and varnishes, lightning oil, soaps and shampoos, clean burning ethanol and methanol fuels, and BIODEGRADABLE PLASTICS (hello everyone??). And to top it all off, it is one of the world's healthiest foods, as the seed itself comes loaded with more Alpha-omega-3's than even the world's #1 food source today, the soybean.



We should DARE to speak the TRUTH no matter what the law is.