The Legitimization of Cannabis

Quote:nothing convinced of its medicinal potentials more than the patients she met. She watched people who had serious, chronic illnesses like arthritis, joint pain, even cancer, as they were healed by cannabis.
“I have a particular friend who works at a dispensary down in San Jose who told me last June that her mom had cancer as big as a lemon in her left lung,” Taylor said. “Now she is cancer-free. CBD [cannabidiol] tablets did it.”
CBD is one of the many compounds in cannabis that interact with the human body via the endocannabinoid system. Unlike THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), it doesn’t give consumers the euphoric “high” feeling. Decades of severe government restrictions have effectively blocked clinical research on cannabis in the U.S., but there have been numerous reports of CBD tablets reversing cancer symptoms. AlterNet recently ran an article on a teen who beat terminal brain cancer using CBD medicine. Strains of cannabis high in CBD are also known to help with seizures, and in particular childhood epilepsy.
“The doctors from Kaiser started calling her about the [CBD] tablets,” Taylor said. “‘What were those tablets you gave your mom?’ they asked her. Now they send patients there [to the medical cannabis clinic] on the under. They’ll say ‘I’m sending you there but you didn’t hear it from me.’”
Five years ago Taylor worked with Harborside’s executive director, Steve DeAngelo, to develop the senior outreach program—the first of its kind. Because if anyone can benefit from medical cannabis, she said, it’s seniors.