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Marijuana Helps Prevent PTSD, and Dispensaries Make Neighborhoods Safer - What's the Pot Problem Again?


Today, two recent reports shed light on the benefits of marijuana, the science behind which the federal government continues to ignore. The first is not so surprising: Marijuana may help prevent PTSD symptoms.  The second is more exciting: Medical marijuana dispensaries make neighborhoods safer. That's right.  Obama is shutting down businesses that not only sell a valuable medicine, but also prevent crime. 

According to the AFP:

The study, which was conducted by researchers at the [Haifa] university's psychology department and published in the Neuropsychopharmacology journal, found that rats which were treated with marijuana within 24 hours of a traumatic experience, successfully avoided any symptoms of PTSD. 

The rats, however, still displayed high levels of anxiety. "This shows that the marijuana administered in the proper 'window of time' does not erase the experience, but can help prevent the development of PTSD symptoms in rats,"  Dr. Irit Akirav, one of the researchers, told the AFP.  Interestingly, the study also found that the effects of cannabis are mediated by the amygdala, the part of the brain that handles stress, fear, and trauma. 

The discovery adds just one affliction to the many conditions medical marijuana helps cure.  The plant has been proven to help fight nausea, shrink tumors, and kill pain, among many other uses.  But the federal government continues to allege that marijuana has "no accepted medical value," and Obama continues to be Bush reincarnate in the drug war, shutting down dispensaries behind the falsehood that marijuana is not medicine.

Adding benefits beyond medical to legal marijuana, the RAND institute foundthat  marijuana dispensaries actually make neighborhoods safer.  Oh, the hypocrisy. 

According to the report:

"Comparing changes in daily crime reports within areas around dispensaries that closed relative to those that remained open, we found that crime increased in the vicinity of closed dispensaries compared with those allowed to remain open."

The report said the crimes, such as breaking and entering, were sensitive to security that open dispensaries may have provided.  The data is in stark contrast to the claims of the federal government. 

As NORML said,










NORML's list of elected officials' statements on dispensaries and safety goes on and on, with every claim that the marijuana pharmacies are dangerous repudiated by data.  The government, it seems, will continue to deny the benefits of marijuana and it distributors until the plant has been compressed into a pill, one that patients cannot cheaply grow themselves.  After all, Sativex, a THC pill, is in the third stage of FDA-testing. Apparently, marijuana is only dangerous if you can grow and smoke it yourself.  

AlterNet / By Kristen Gwynne

Posted at September 21, 2011, 10:50am