The Drug Warriors got one thing right.
I was checking out the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s website recently while researching various studies and reports, when I ran across an interesting tidbit. Under the header of “How Does Marijuana Affect Your Brain and Body?,” this report spelled out the effects of THC on the brain’s receptors. The effects—which come as no surprise to our medical marijuana community—include “euphoria,” “relaxation” and “heightened sensory perception.” This wholly clinical, no-nonsense laundry list also included one other effect: laughter.
Yes, even the federal government—NIDA is an agency under the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services—officially recognizes that marijuana can make us laugh. Remember, NIDA is the same propaganda machine that two years ago put out its “Marijuana: Facts For Teens” and declared, “Under U.S. law since 1970, marijuana has been a Schedule 1 controlled substance. This means that the drug, at least in its smoked form, has no commonly accepted medical use.”
Which is, obviously, total bullcrap.
We know that cannabis can be an effective way to deal with various ailments. It’s not a cure-all—what is?—but its beneficial effects on physical ailments (relief from the symptoms of chemotherapy and terminal illnesses) have been well documented.
Marijuana can soothe and help heal the body. That’s the whole reason why our MMJ advocates, activists, doctors, attorneys, artists and many others lobbied—successfully—to get California to legally recognize that cannabis has a legitimate place in our society and our lives.
But there’s no literature or report or study that can really hit the nail on the head about marijuana’s other special quality. It’s that intangible power that cannabis has to lift our spirits.
When a cancer patient uses cannabis to battle the appetite-sucking effects of chemotherapy, their mood improves. Marijuana titillates the soul. Marijuana helps us find the funny in things. It’s the silver lining. The brighter side of life. Books and movies and music over the years have sought to bring this to our attention.
If we talk about Elysia Skye (featured in this issue) and her battle surviving breast cancer, we have to mention her irreverent one-woman comedy show.
Ask medical doctors or neurosurgeons to discuss cannabis’ effect on the body and nervous system and they’ll go on and on about tetrahydrocannabinol receptor sites so on and so forth.
Ask a philosopher or political theorist about marijuana and they’ll pontificate about cognitive freedom and keeping government out of our private lives.
Ask a comedian and he’ll tell you another undeniable, just as authoritative truth: Marijuana makes us laugh, tickles our sense of humor. Noted comic Doug Benson (the focus of this issue’s cover story and one of the damn funniest guys I’ve seen) will corroborate all of this.
So, thank you, all you cutting-edge comedians, satirists and spoof artists. Thank you kindly for your insight into what is truly the best medicine.
