Only the potheads will survive

Here's a funny little sidebar to the recent news of the Israeli military treating its soldiers with cannabis for stress. It appears that our own government conducted studies proving that cannabis is also the best available protection against nerve gas attack.

In U.S. Army tests, rats injected with Dexanabinol, a chemical substitute for hashish, were more than 70 percent less likely to suffer epileptic seizures or brain damage after exposure to sarin and other nerve gases, according to results published in the Israeli press Thursday.

The drug was developed by an Israeli pharmaceutical firm, Pharmos, to treat head injuries and strokes, but now it looks likely to become part of the standard chemical warfare kit carried by NATO troops after the results of the tests were announced at a conference in Maryland last month.

These U.S. tests conducted in 1998, suggest the active ingredients in the plant are effective as an antidote and as a preventative measure.

Further studies conducted by Roddy Heading at NIDA indicated cannabis is also useful in the treatment and prevention of stroke, heart attacks, and neurodegenerative diseases and subsequent studies of synthetic cannabis in Israel showed no serious side effects when administered to healthy volunteers.

Researchers are investigating how cannabidiol and other antioxidants can reduce the severity of damage from "ischaemic strokes", in which blood vessels in the brain become blocked.

The researchers seek to avoid the psychoactive "mellowing" effects of the plant by producing the synthetics, however both work equally well in these applications. As Dana Larsen notes:

Of course, the obvious corollary to this is that if synthetic Dexanabinol can prevent brain damage, then organic marijuana does so as well. So the next time grandpa has a stroke, try and get him to take a few bong-hits before the ambulance arrives. Better yet, give him a hash brownie each evening before he has that stroke. You might just save his life.

Check out the whole thread. There's a lot of links at the end worth exploring.