Success stories of medical marijuana use in children range from the treatment of disorders that affect classroom performance such as autism and ADHD to life-threatening conditions such as epilepsy and cancer. But while a growing number of doctors are beginning to consider medical marijuana as a legitimate form of clinical therapy, the vast majority remain wary of its impact in younger patients.

The underlying factor in the medical community’s resistance to cannabis seems to be the overall lack of clinical research that has been conducted so far, especially in children and adolescents. On the other hand, the absence of research happens to be only a recent phenomena, as a review of the medical literature reveals numerous reports and studies on the safety of marijuana commissioned over the past many decades.

What these studies demonstrate appears to echo what marijuana advocates have been saying for decades: Cannabis is an overwhelmingly harmless substance.

Safety Profile of Marijuana

Perhaps the earliest study to investigate the safety profile of marijuana comes from the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission — a research team ordered by the British government in 1893 to study the effects of ever-prevalent cannabis use in India. The Commission completed their report in 1894 — a lengthy 3,281 page document which demonstrated a clear lack of observable drawbacks associated with marijuana use.

“In regard to the physical effects, the Commission have come to the conclusion that the moderate use of hemp drugs is practically attended by no evil results at all… It has been the most striking feature in this inquiry to find how little the effects of hemp drugs have obtruded themselves on observation.”

Likewise, a report published by the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse in 1972 could find no fault with the use of cannabis, despite governmental pressure to prove otherwise.

“Marijuana has been used by man around the world for many centuries. Scientifically, more is known about marijuana’s effects than many other botanical substances used by man… Almost all chronic, heavy hashish smokers are indistinguishable from their peers in social behaviour, work performance, mental status and overall life style.”

Risks For Children/Teens

Despite significant evidence of marijuana’s lack of side effects, children and adolescents are treated with particular caution when it comes to any form of medical therapy, because of the developmental vulnerability that individuals face during their formative years.

In fact, one of the largest concerns of doctors and parents alike are the effects of drugs on a child’s developing brain. And while evidence of marijuana’s impact on neural development remains conflicted, some studies have managed to link early marijuana use with deficits in brain volume and intelligence (1).

Still, it’s important to note the lack of census among the medical community on these findings, as large-scale clinical trials have never been conducted. Furthermore, cannabis-based pharmaceuticals, such as Marinol, have already been approved by the FDA for childhood use (2). Marinol is a pure THC pill that shares a nearly identical side effect profile as medical marijuana (3).

However, the fact remains that the safety of marijuana use in children and adolescents remains a largely unknown variable, which also happens to be the most common reason given by doctors when explaining their lack of support for medical marijuana (4).

But while this is true for cannabis, it is also true for many other cancer medications and anti-psychotics that are regularly prescribed to children. As such, a minority of health practitioners have already begun to voice their support for the use of medical marijuana, even in child and adolescent patients.

Support For Medical Marijuana

Although still a subject of much debate, medical marijuana has become an increasingly popular form of treatment among the North American population — both for adults and children. In fact, a number of paediatricians, including Dr. Claudia Jensen, have started to recommend medical marijuana as an alternative treatment for conditions that have traditionally been dominated by the pharmaceutical industry such as ADHD (5).

In an interview with MSNBC, Dr. Jensen explained how medical marijuana could be used effectively as a treatment for ADHD without the mind-numbing side effects that are typically associated with cannabis use.

“They don’t have to get stoned — it’s dose-related. But they do get the benefit of being able to focus, pay attention, not be impulsive, not be angry, be peaceful and relaxed and pay attention in school, which helps them get better grades.”

Likewise, Harvard-trained psychiatrist Dr. Lester Grinspoon voiced his support for using medical marijuana to control childhood ADHD in a recent interview with Sphere (6).

“I’d have no hesitation giving a youngster with ADHD a trial of oral marijuana. For some kids, it appears to be more effective than traditional treatments. And marijuana certainly has fewer potential dangers than Ritalin.”

Indeed, while concerns continue to be expressed over the use of medical marijuana in society’s most vulnerable of patients, evidence of its relative safety seems more than obvious to those with an open mind towards non-traditional therapies.

As Dr. Grinspoon states, medical marijuana could very well be a safer treatment option for children with ADHD and, more than likely, many other conditions that afflict the younger generation of patients.

About the Author

Kent Mao is a contributor to Waking Times and the editor of TruthOnPot.com, an online resource for medical marijuana facts, information and research. TruthOnPot.com actively engages in the online discussion of marijuana research and policy. You can learn more by visiting www.truthonpot.com. Kent is also a contributor to Waking Times.

Sources:

(6) http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/doctors-recommend-medical-marjiuana-minors-adhd-california-article-1.419585

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of WakingTimes or its staff.

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A new study published last month in Nature Journalsuggests that humans are naturally good. This study adds to the mounting evidence against the popular misconception that corruption is a trait of human nature.

In ten experiments using economic games, scientists observed that faster decisions result in more cooperation and generosity, while slower, calculated decisions show a decrease in cooperation and generosity. The conclusion is that the automatic reaction is to be friendly, generous and cooperative, and only upon further consideration do humans become greedy or violent.From the study:

“To explain these results, we propose that cooperation is intuitive because cooperative heuristics are developed in daily life where cooperation is typically advantageous. We then validate predictions generated by this proposed mechanism. Our results provide convergent evidence that intuition supports cooperation in social dilemmas, and that reflection can undermine these cooperative impulses.”

Any scientific studies these days should be taken with a grain of salt, because we are without a doubt living in an era of soviet style science, where state and corporate entities are using the scientific establishment to project a particular worldview into the mainstream consciousness. This is why it is important to always look for funding sources and seek many different avenues of research. However, in this case, this particular study is just one of many proposals put forward by the scientific community in the past several decades stating confidently that corruption has nothing to do with human nature, as the popular misconception states.

The first time this issue was brought up in the mainstream scientific community was in 1986 when scientists from around the world got together to discuss the psychological and biological evidence proving that human nature is no excuse for violent behavior. The findings that were released came to be known as “The Seville Statement”.

This statement made 5 propositions, which are:

1. “It is scientifically incorrect to say that we have inherited a tendency to make war from our animal ancestors.”
2. “It is scientifically incorrect to say that war or any other violent behavior is genetically programmed into our human nature.”
3. “It is scientifically incorrect to say that in the course of human evolution there has been a selection for aggressive behavior more than for other kinds of behavior.”
4. “It is scientifically incorrect to say that humans have a ‘violent brain’.”
5. “It is scientifically incorrect to say that war is caused by ‘instinct’ or any single motivation.”

Since the Seville statement there have been many more studies reconfirming the propositions put forward. Just this past February a new study by a biologist named Frans de Waal showed that animals are naturally prone to cooperation when in the right circumstances.

As I discussed in the article Human Nature a Self Fulfilling Prophecy, the actions that people carry out today, and the actions that have been carried out throughout history are the result of environmental factors, as well as psychological trauma and manipulation, they can not be chalked up to “human nature”.To chalk the violence that we see around us up to human nature, is to avoid admitting there is a problem, thus preventing any progress from being made towards peace. If we think that human beings are dangerous and violent creatures, then some of us will be able to rationalize and justify malevolent behavior by writing it off as human nature, instead of condemning it as we should.

If we actually condemn this behavior instead of making empty excuses for it, we will without a doubt drastically lower the level of violence on this planet. Individually, and as a species, we can only go as far as our imagination will take us. We are only capable of what we can imagine, and if all we can imagine is violence, submission, and domination, then that’s all were ever going to get.

About the Author

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Today Tesla Motors unveiled its highly anticipated Supercharger network, which is said to make long distance travel in cars totally free thanks to the use of solar energy and electricity. So far the network is made up of six Supercharger stations stretching across California, as well as parts of Nevada and Arizona. These stations will allow the Tesla Model S to recharge for free, and each charge is said to last for an extremely long distance. This is so groundbreaking because until now one of the major drawbacks to electric cars was their inability to travel long distances on a single charge.

The charging centers that have opened so far are just the first of many, the company plans to install Superchargers in high traffic corridors across the United States, enabling fast, purely electric travel from Vancouver to San Diego, Miami to Montreal and Los Angeles to New York, all by next year. By 2015, Tesla Motors plans to create more than 100 charging stations across the United States, while also branching out into Europe and Asia.

The Supercharging stations will be twice as fast as any now in use and will be installed at highway rest stops. The rooftop canopy at many of the charging stations will carry a solar array that will place more electricity onto the local power grid, over time, than the cars use. For an undisclosed price there will also be home charging stations that will make local driving more convenient.

Elon Musk, Tesla Motors co-founder and CEO said in a press release “Tesla’s Supercharger network is a game changer for electric vehicles, providing long distance travel that has a level of convenience equivalent to gasoline cars for all practical purposes. However, by making electric long distance travel at no cost, an impossibility for gasoline cars, Tesla is demonstrating just how fundamentally better electric transport can be. We are giving Model S the ability to drive almost anywhere for free on pure sunlight.”

It is only fitting for an achievement like this to come from an organization that took on the name of Tesla. Nikola Tesla was one of the greatest inventors in history and had actually discovered methods of harnessing free energy during his lifetime. Since many of Tesla’s inventions were not politically feasible they were never invested in and were never able to truly be realized. Today’s political climate is just as treacherous and controlled as it was in Tesla’s day, and there are many people out there who are fighting to suppress this sort of energy, so the development of these charging sites will be a very interesting thing to watch.

Already there has been talk of financial problems for the company, and it was in the news this month that Morgan Stanley basically controls their stock rating. That in itself is another ironic twist, because Morgan Stanley can trace its roots to J.P Morgan, the investor who pulled his funding on Tesla when he realized the financial and political implications of a world with free energy. Morgan Stanley has been kind to Tesla Motors so far but we all know that history has a tendency to repeat itself so that is another thing to look out for.

If you have any questions or disagreements feel free to email me at jgvibes@aotmr.com 

About the Author

J.G. Vibes – is an author, and artist — with an established record label. In addition to featuring a wide variety of activist information, his company – Good Vibes Promotions promotes for electronic dance music events. You can keep up with him and his forthcoming book Alchemy Of The Modern Renaissance, at his Facebook page. AOTMR will be released this spring, thanks to Leilah Publications.  This project features nearly 100 different essays, just like this one, that cover a wide variety of topics.  These essays give historical and philosophical insight into the many important issues that our generation faces.  From banking cartels and alternative currency to eugenics and the drug war, AOTMR offers a complete and comprehensive breakdown of the counter culture’s struggle. 

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Since the market crashes and bailouts that took place in 2008 it has been no secret that the world economy is on shaky ground. For years, those of us who were concerned about the future have been wondering and speculating as to what mediums of exchange would replace the sinking debt based currencies that now stretch across the globe.

The central bankers that got us into this mess will no doubt be using the media to propagandize the world into accepting a worldwide monopolized currency. This is already being hinted at by politicians and finance tycoons in mainstream interviews on an almost daily basis now. Their excuse for this move is that it would stabilize the economy, but this is provably false.

The real reason for this maneuver is obviously to centralize control of the financial markets. This was the same mentality that created the Eurozone, which is now crumbling and ruining the lives of millions. If what we are experiencing now has taught us anything, it should be that having an economy in the control of so few hands, and totally untouchable by market forces, will breed corruption, monopoly and poverty.

For the economy to really be in the hands of the people it is necessary to decentralize the currency, and to have an open-source network of competing currencies that are community based and easily exchangeable. While it is impossible to predict how we will trade a century or even five years from now, we can still observe how people are getting by in the areas that are falling first, and take those lessons into account for when the US dollar finally diminishes in value to the point where it is unusable.

In areas that have been most affected so far in the worldwide economic crisis, there has been an increasing use of online open-source currencies. These currencies help communities barter with one another easily and effectively without using the Euro, which is becoming increasingly useless by the day. Last month there was a lot of news about bitcoin being more stable than the Euro, with more and more investors transferring their funds into these types of currencies.

While bitcoin is still popular in Greece, and still growing in popularity by the day, another currency by the name of “TEM” is being used locally by the city of Volos.

According to a recent article at radicalsocialentreps.org :

After creating an account, members do business with each other using TEM credits. New members are allowed to deficit-spend up to 300 TEMs, which is effectively an interest-free loan from the community. Only by offering demanded goods and services in return can the new members replenish their balances to keep making purchases.

Credits are created according to these guidelines as new members join — no central banking or monetary authority required.The ideas behind alternative systems like TEM aren’t new. ‘Barter clubs’ or ‘LET’ systems have been around for a while. They’re most often successful in conditions of extreme monetary dysfunction; Argentina saw the nationwide spread of barter clubs during their various Peso crises in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

While this idea is nothing new, as technological progress moves forward it will become easier and easier for people start their own community-based, debt-free currency. This really could be a great way of weathering the impending collapse of the forcefully imposed central bank currencies. In the wake of these collapses people will still have services to offer, and goods to trade; the only thing that will be missing from the equation is a reliable medium of exchange to keep things running smoothly.

This is a very important element to society, but as we can see in projects like TEM and Bitcoin, it is not difficult to innovate and be creative when it comes to currency. It only seems that it would be an impossible task because for centuries this element of our civilizations has been monopolized by central bankers and governments who had no intent of making things work for the benefit of humanity.

This article originally appeared at Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance

J.G. Vibes is an author, and artist with an established record label. In addition to featuring a wide variety of activist information, his company Good Vibes Promotions hosts politically chargedelectronic dance music events. You can keep up with him and his new 87 chapter book Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance, as well as his Voluntary Hippie Podcast at www.aotmr.com and hisfacebook page. Feel free to email him at jgvibes@aotmr.com with any tips, suggestions or disagreements.

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For many centuries the dismal state of civilization has been largely ignored by those who have had to live through it.  The pain, depression and confusion that can come from admitting the twisted nature of our day to day existence has been far too much for most people to cope with, so throughout history people have created extremely complex justifications and rationalizations for the violence and insanity that was taking place around them.  This is how our species has gotten to where it is today, with numerous brutal empires stretching across the entire globe, to the point where there is no longer anywhere to escape to.  With the general population in a constant state of denial for many generations, the people and organizations that controlled the worlds land and resources have been able to consolidate their power with minimal resistance.  This is a process that has been taking place since the dawn of civilization, from the times of human sacrifice and divine rule.

People oftentimes make the mistake of thinking that the revolution started right at the moment when they found out about it.  In reality the battle between freedom and enslavement has been raging for centuries, and has played out like a relay race where each generation passes the mission along to the next.  The only problem is that those on the side of freedom have not had the ability to participate in this process.  For the better part of history the general population was illiterate and poorly educated, making it that much more difficult to immortalize their side of the story and their ideas for future generations.

Meanwhile, those who sought to enslave humanity were very familiar with planning beyond their own time, as it often took many generations to complete large projects, such as palaces, bridges and monuments.  Military conquests were known to take several generations as well.  The ruling class has always been accustomed to long term plans and goals that outlasted their own lifetimes.  Sadly, with most of humanity living a survival based existence for the better part of history, it has been hard for people to see past their next meal, so looking into future lifetimes was probably not very common.

Although, at least in the past there was some sort of concern for the world that was being left behind for the unborn, even though there was still widespread confusion and indoctrination.  Nowadays with the extremely sophisticated mental conditioning made possible through the media and government schools, people have been trained to live as if they were the last generation on earth.  On top of that people continue to pass along the mentality of their oppressors onto their children as their ancestors had onto them.  Luckily, thanks to the widespread decentralization of information that has been made possible by the internet, there are more people than ever who are starting to question the society that they were born into.

This is definitely a great victory in the struggle for freedom, but unfortunately many people become depressed and discouraged when coming to the reality of their existence.  A world of peace and rationality seems like such a total stretch of the imagination because it is drastically different from what we experience today, but that doesn’t mean that this world is impossible.

Every generation there are many drastic paradigm shifts that radically alter the way that people interact with each other, and for the most part all throughout human history these shifts have contributed to a slow upward progression towards a more peaceful world.  Unfortunately tragedies like mass murder, slavery and subjugation do still take place, but they are getting harder and harder to justify because our species is in the process of evolving beyond the type of mentalities that trigger this kind of behavior.

When approached from this perspective it becomes obvious that freedom and peace is inevitable for our species.  That does not mean that you should just sit back and wait for it to happen, because the more people who get involved and put their intellect and energy towards outgrowing the violent social systems that we were all born into, the faster it will actually happen.

By noting that the struggle we are facing is a multigenerational one, I am in no way saying that our generation can’t make great progress in our lifetime and lay a solid foundation for a free society while we are here on earth.  I am simply making the point that although it may seem like this moment in time is the climax of the human story, every person who is alive right now was born into an age old revolution that will eventually be passed onto future generations to carry on. That’s how things really are when you think about the big picture.  This doesn’t just apply to parents and their children, anyone who has the potential to develop and share an idea has the potential to help lay the foundation for the first free society that ever existed.

Feel free to email me at jgvibes@aotmr.com with any tips, suggestions or disagreements.

This article originally appeared at Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance.

J.G. Vibes is an author, and artist — with an established record label. In addition to featuring a wide variety of activist information, his company Good Vibes Promotions hosts politically charge electronic dance music events. You can keep up with him and his new book Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance, at his website www.aotmr.com and facebook page. If you would like to see me expand my media to free documentaries and video reports think about supporting the cause if you have the means to do so.

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Throughout the course of history people have fought against tyranny and authority of various forms only to be thrown back into subjugation when someone else came along to claim what we call “power”. There have been countless battles to overthrow these established powers, but none of them resulting in freedom for humanity in the long term, because all of these struggles were playing out on the wrong battlefield.

All this time the oppressed thought that they were fighting against people, when they really should have been fighting against ideas.  Sure it is true that our ancestors and even everyone alive now are enslaved by some really nasty people, but even if all of those people were to disappear, the ideas that allowed them to commit their crimes without consequence would still remain, leaving the door open for future authoritarians to repeat the process.

Sadly this concept is still not understood by many, who have the understandable but misguided tendency to think that violence is going to solve any of their problems.   The whole reason why people have always rejected authority is because of the widespread use of violence that it leads to, and the violence that is inflicted upon those within its grasp.  With that being the case it should be safe to assume that violence should not be used to solve the problem of violence.

For far too long our species has used violence as a tool.  Violence has been at the very basis of social organization and problem solving for the better part of history.  This is most likely why people are so quick to resort to violence in any conflict, and this is also one of the reasons why so many fail to see the violence that is forced into their everyday life by the various state institutions and mercantilist corporations that they come in contact with.

One of Albert Einstein’s most famous quotes is: “Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”  This quote definitely applies to the situation we are discussing today and sheds some light onto why the violent revolutions of the past were never able to achieve their goal of setting the human race free from authority.

Throughout our lives we have been fed lie after lie by the establishment and unfortunately even when someone discovers the violent nature of that establishment they are still met with the task of sifting through everything they have ever been told to see what was a lie and what was not.  When that backtracking doesn’t take place it is common for people to get caught up in the vengeful mentality that comes along with learning about one’s own enslavement.  When lies about “human nature” or the capabilities of our species are still not recognized and addressed then it is very hard for people to wrap their minds around nonviolent solutions to today’s problems that lie completely outside the realm of politics.

The state and all of its predatory appendages like the corporate and military industrial complexes, are not groups of people with weapons who need to be overthrown, they are just bad ideas that can very easily be rendered obsolete with the right combination of good ideas.  The only battlefield that the revolution can be won on is in the mind.  To destroy the problems that were created with violence the most effective weapons are good ideas and nonviolent solutions, not violence and politics.

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With the state of our civilization in total disarray many people are starting to prepare for the possibility of a period with fewer modern conveniences than we have today.  Some would call these people careful, others would call them prudent or wise, some might even call them paranoid, but these days the mainstream media has branded these people as “Doomsday Preppers”.  This title not only works to discredit people who seek to be independent and get off the grid, but also perpetuates the myth that doomsday is even coming.

I would argue that we are already in doomsday, and have been for most of recorded history.  It is true that SOMETHING is coming¸ the signs are all around us, in the deteriorating economy and culture that we have been raised to worship.  So if it’s not doomsday, then what is everyone preparing for, and what is all this madness leading up to?  Well, it is quite possible that the downfall of this civilization could be the greatest thing to ever happen to humanity.  This could be the final fall of Babylon.  We could be prepping for freedom day, if we so choose.

Think about it… millions feel helpless because they see the madness that is created by our social institutions and they cannot conceive of a way that this system could be overthrown.  Meanwhile, this system is overthrowing itself in plain sight, right in front of us.  Many of us wish that the government could be overthrown, yet we fear it’s inevitable collapse when we should be embracing it.  There is no escaping it anyway; it is already coming, and in many ways it is already even here.  If it wasn’t for the fed propping up the economy with more debt and fake money our moment of truth would have long since passed and it probably would have made things a lot easier for us to deal with in the long run.  With that being the case, their deception is going to run up eventually, they can only play this game for so long before hyperinflation takes effect and topples their already shaky house of cards.

This could be an incredible opportunity for the human race, if we are adequately prepared in terms of getting our physical needs met, as well as developing the mental and philosophical maturity that is required for the establishment of a free society.  While the world seems to be descending into insanity all around us, it is important for us as individuals to assess the kinds of goods and services that may be needed after an economic collapse and devise peaceful, sustainable methods by which we can provide these values to our families and communities.

There is no doubt that this whole collapse has been staged by international interests who seek to implement their own sadistic plans for the human race when this time comes.  However, they will only be able to create their authoritarian slave farm if the slaves themselves ask for this and assist in creating it.  The slaves (which is pretty much all of us) will only ask for this deeper enslavement if they are unaware of its consequences and see no possible alternatives.  This is why it is so important for us to develop solutions to meet our needs, and the needs of our neighbors without depending on the initiation of the use of force, as that is a method of doing business which destroyed civilizations time and time again.  Likewise it is equally important for us to advance a proper understanding of philosophy and of our current situation so the population is socially mature enough to be their own masters and to accept the new and unusual nonviolent solutions that will be presented to them by the freedom day preppers.

This article originally appeared at Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance

J.G. Vibes is an author, and artist — with an established record label. In addition to featuring a wide variety of activist information, his company Good Vibes Promotions hosts politically charged electronic dance music events. You can keep up with him and his new book Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance, at his website www.aotmr.com.

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