Bermudian seeks JA ganja oil for cancer patients
(CNS): With the increasing acceptance that cannabis does have a positive impact on the treatment of cancer, an activist in Bermuda is openly seeking an export license to buy medicinal ganja oil from Jamaica to treat as many as 300 cancer patients in that country. With a significant shift around the world regarding the massive potential of the drug as a much better and safer treatment for many illnesses than pharmaceuticals, with their numerous side effects and long term toxic build up, activist Alan Gordon wants to export some five gallons of medical ganja oil from Jamaica for patients on his home island all above board.
Gordon has written an open letter to the Jamaican well-being minister which was copied to The Gleaner, in which he points out that the Bermudan government has previously approved import permits on a per-patient basis, but it was experiencing trouble with availability, price and quality from other exporters, that Gordon believes Jamaica could alleviate.
Pointing to the growing numbers of ‘medical tourists’ that head quietly to Jamaica for illicit cancer treatments with cannabis oil, because of its efficacy he is asking for the export to be legally sanctioned in Jamaica which is currently toying with changing legislation to facilitate a medical trade.
“I know people are already coming to Jamaica to treat cancer and other serious ailments with cannabis oil, under the table, and more will be coming soon,” he wrote adding that some people are too sick to travel but would be willing to pay for Rastafarian grown and processed organic cannabis oil. “I believe this could be the best product of its kind in the world,” Gordon stated.
Here in Cayman, local architect Burns Connolly continues the campaign to have the public and the authorities begin engaging in the debate about ganja. While Caymanians are talking about the issue and many now in favour of legalizing the drug for medical and recreational use, the government has stuck its head in the proverbial sand and refused to even engage Connolly in discussion.
See full letter below
Category: Health
God made ganja for us all to enjoy.
As usual, Cayman will keep it's head buried deep in the sand on this issue also – at least for a long time yet!
I man goin Jam to get my dose of de herb (oils that is)
Far safer than alcohol and cigarettes!!
Just as bad as cigarettes, dummy.
Ever hear of vaporizing idiot.
Everyone allready smokes Gunja. They just want it legal Is that so bad?
Meanwhile, in the Journal of Neuroscience: Casual marijuana use (fewer than 4 times a week) has been linked to significant volume, shape, and density changes in two crucial brain areas – the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala – involved with emotion and motivation and some types of mental illness. "These are parts of the brain you do not want to mess around with". "There have been a growing number of studies that suggest that marijuana use in emerging adults is associated with differences in brain structure and decline in IQ and cognitive abilities". The more marijuana the students smoked, the more their brians differed from the non-users. "It's not quite the benign sustance people once thought it was".
This was a study which involved one off brain scans, included merely 40 people and was primarily funded by the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Hardly an impartial or thorough study- which you might want to investigate into futher. If you are unble to, the NHS has done a fair assessment:
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/04April/Pages/Cannabis-linked-to-brain-differences-in-the-young.aspx
That being said, the group studied was between the 18-25 age range. It is ill advised that young, still developing minds should not be habitually using ANY drug. I'd suggest looking at the long term effects of common pharmaceuticals and see what concerns you more. Cannabis has been studied and used for centuries, but our understanding of it has been warped over the past few decades. Instead, we've opted for other forms of narcotics which are relativley new, yet abound with severe identifiable effects on users of ALL ages and backgrounds. Also, if you seriously think cannabis is a problem, just look at Caymanian schools. A large number of kids use intoxicants regularly, many of them legal forms. It's much easier to raid your parents' liquor supply or your own medicine cabinet than it is to buy cannabis and find a safe place to smoke. The more we limit, the more desperate people get to find alternatives.
There is a case to be made against cannabis use, but perpetuating exaggerations and outright misinformation is not the way to do it. It deflects from identifying any actual problems there may be either with the drug or individual users. We should stop needlessly penalising individuals for personal use of a substance rather than properly addressing the problem of large-scale distributors peddling far more deadly wares like guns. Invest money into teaching people to carefully study the effects of the substances they put into their body- illegal or not. We can implement the same rules we do on alcohol intoxication on cannabis, but probably go further as to limit use to private spaces. Provide rehablitation, there are a number of other options available to us. As it is now, the way we are going at this is simply ridiculous and needs to stop.
Given the choice between the Journal of Neuroscience and the Anonymous pot smokers of CNS, I'll go with the Journal of Neuroscience every time.
Those who are determined to stay on the “Keep weed illegal” bandwagon have done little or no research into the matter and their ignorance is blatantly obvious. As someone with a debilitating neurological illness who has been repeatedly prescribed cannabis based products and is unable to use them because of where I live, please I urge you to think beyond your tiny, ancient little box. The drugs that I and people like me are encouraged toconsume by the majority of medical practitioners have horrible side effects that are sometimes way worse than our illness’ themselves; extreme nausea, shaking, seizures, dizziness, crippling migraines, blurred vision, weight gain, swelling, organ damage/failure and difficulty breathing are just the start.
There is no one to stop you from drinking yourselves into oblivion in the privacy of your home is there? Nurse on your bottle of Night Train as much as you wish, legally that is your right to do so regardless of the damage it will cause you mentally and physically. This only becomes an issue when you carry this onto the public streets and risk the lives of others, which so many of our population do every single day. I know many people who, for various reasons, consume cannabis in the solitude of their own property, yes some of them use it for purely recreational purposes but others smoke to ease pain, aid in sleep, ease chronic headaches etc.
This argument is not about “pot heads” or our unemployed, lazy and useless population of degenerates, but rather about people who are quietly suffering when there is an option out there for much needed relief. For some of us, like myself, there is an will never be a cure but I would at least like the option to live more comfortably with less pain and with some dignity.
If your medical situation is actually that bad, you can get permission to grow already.
Legalize it! They are lots of other drugs out there that are doing worse to our health! After all most of our medicine come from the forest anyhow! (None smoker)
We need this here also ASAP. As a skin cancer survivor, while I was in the US for surgery of Cancer and. Reconstruction and hash oil was a big part of my healing with of course eye medicationcompletely (according to God’s Grace ) went from maligment melanoma( 1st diagnosiss) as my wife winessed to last check up #2. No longer maligment. We live in 2014 where Lobbyist for med manufactured instead of a Natural product Cannabis Sativa Oil. Good for other illnesses also. I am not talking about smoking it in any way. To God be the Glory And time to start looking into this who foir those who suffer from radiation side effects in contrast. God Bless
With the advent of "medical Tourism" coming to Cayman, meaning very ill people, it would be an ideal time for local pliticians to pull their heads out of the sand.
This whole issue has already been decided, it is only a matter of when now.
Medical tourism is not defined as for "very ill people". Quite the opposite, it is for people well-enough to fly and travel for a cheaper/better surgery that can be scheduled in the future. These are not typically neither emergency cases, nor people on death's door.
Long term plans include organ transplants – these are usually restricted to very sick people.
But even in the initial stages, we will see people with severe chronic pain, and on numerous medications with significant side-effects, some of whom may benefit from the use of cannabis.
Marinol is already an FDA approved natural derivative. The credibility problem arises when the fiercest medical marijuana advocates are recreational users wanting to legitimize their smoking habit. That's the prevailing market here. Smoking may temporarily ease symptoms PTSD and cancer meds but does not improve overall cardiovascular health. Anybody who has plans to stick around should worry about the later – number one killer of humans – ten times more than all the known cancers put together.
"Increasing acceptance that it has a positive impact on treatment…" ????? according to which medical research exactly CNS? It may alleviate symptoms associated with the treatment of cancer, such as nausea, but there's not proof ganja "treats" cancer …. Meanwhile heavy cannabis use is proven to disrupt normal brain development in teenagers – surely that's our issue here in Cayman, not this pile of nonsense berating the Govt for not legalising something that is equally as harmful as potentially helpful
Obviously you have not done the research into this matter as the discussion is not about smoking ganja. It is about utilizing the oil. As far as it being harmful, well…..how many people commit murder when the are high on just canabis? or get in a fight weildng weapons? (machette, conch shells, guns) Now answer the same questions using alcohol as the intoxicant? And which one do you say is harmful?
Ignorace abounds.
Right, so you just rub the oil on and the cancer is gone? It may be oil but you still have to smoke it. Kill your brain and the cancer in one go, yay.
Pot transshipment is big violent and dangerous criminal enterprise. Plenty of gunfights at sea, capsized vessels, deaths, murdering gangs, extortion, guns, misspent child support payments, the ugly list of social impacts is long and wide. Pot smokers, whether they choose to acknowledge or not, are stoking the fire of corruption, gangs, guns, and violence. These denial arguments that pot is somehow benign and non-violent are factually vacuous as all the evidence suggests otherwise.
All those tradgedies would go away if you allowed people to grow a plant or two in thier back-yards.
Lol, I know one MLA who's comfortable with his/her daughter consuming ganja. Shame he/she doesn't have the courage to stand up and ignite the discussion. We need to start saving lives!
All government employees, especially MLAs, should be required to submit to random drug testing. The public spends millions every year going through the exercise of protecting and insulating our shores from drugs, guns, and the gangs violence that follows. It is obvious from lack of local interdiction results or known kingpin arrests – not to mention a recent overseas arrest – that some of Cayman's priviledged elite are deeply invested in the social ills of our country. The local potheads enable this bloody aparatus, though they may think they do not.
All those "social ills" would go away if you allowed people to grow a plant or two in thier back-yards, but you would rather play a cat and mouse game.
No problem with Medical Ganja Oil for Bermuda or any other country when done by doctors in a medical setting, Cocaine and Morphine are highly addictive and are very bad drugs but when administered in a clinical setting they are wonder drugs, the same can be said for ganja but please I don't want to see this country take the stance and turn a blind eye and allow our citizens to smoke ganja in any public place without medical advice or supervision. Smoking ganja in Cayman is illegal and should be kept that way, far too many of our citizens life were destroyed 20 and 30 years ago just because of a ganja joint now people can stand around and openly smoke ganja whilw police drive by and wave them by. I say no way, if this continues to happen no wonder this country is going to hell in a hand basket.
Wake Up Cayman….here is a plant that can help hundreds of Caymanians and save their lives. MLAs where are you??? The world has changed its opinion on this plant and we need to come up to speed on it. I support Conolly 110% with his efforts to get the discussion going here. The facebook page is "Cannabis Cayman" in case you have missed it….wake up!!!