The Controversy of Hemp

Sunday evening was winding down and after a hectic weekend, all I wanted to do was lie on the couch and not move. I had been scrolling through Project Free TV looking for a documentary to watch and for some reason or another, felt compelled to click on the link, “Run from the Cure: The Rick Simpson Story.” I had no idea what it was about, and didn’t really care. What manifested over the next 45 minutes was a fascinating and outrageous story about the miraculous healing power of hemp in its various forms.

Hemp has been cultivated and used for over 5,000 years, and it’s only been in the last 70 years that the plant has been deemed illegal and effectively eradicated in the US. The hemp plant has long been considered one of the most environmentally-friendly, medicinally powerful plant’s known to man, but because one of its three varieties is used as a recreational drug, the species has received contraband status in many countries.

A few interesting, lesser-known tid-bits about hemp:

• The flowers and leaves of the cannabis plant are a common topical folk remedy for the relief of swollen joints, inflammation, fever, infection, superficial injuries, burns, and rheumatism.
• Cannabis has traditionally been used to control morning sickness, speed labor (by increasing uterine contractions), and wean children from breast-milk, in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
• Hempseed is also a good source of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), a particularly rare oil that is so beneficial to human growth and development that it is a component in mother’s milk.
• Pure hemp oil, made from the leaves and bud of the pant, has been attributed with curing skin cancer, diabetes, and chronic pain.
• Humans actually have THC (the active ingredient in the hemp bud) receptors in their brains, clustered in the cerebral cortex, the home of higher thinking, perception, emotions, and cognition, as well as the hippocampus, home of memory, cerebellum and striatum, associated with movement, and basal ganglia, associated with control and coordination.

“Run from The Cure,” chronicles the charismatic and determined Rick Simpson who claims to have cured his own skin cancer by with topical application of pure hemp oil to the cancerous areas on his face and torso. The documentary features Rick’s friends and neighbors who too have achieved seemingly miraculous recoveries from terminal cancer, open heart surgeries, and diabetes. The film had a definite infomercial tone to it, but looking beyond the budget graphics and exaggerated narration, there seems to validity to his claims.

While Simpson’s claims have not been validated by science, the strict anti-drug laws in the US and Canada prohibit any testing of the plant’s active ingredient, THC. The strong arm of pharmaceutical lobbyists have fought long and hard against the testing of hemp for medicinal purposes.  As a plant, hemp cannot be patented, and without a patent, there’s no profit. Keeping people sick has become a multi-billion dollar a year industry and God forbid we actually find something that effectively cures people.

Up until the late 1930’s, hemp was regularly used in the US and around the world for curing all sorts of ailments. To me this is starting to feel a bit like a conspiracy. Watch the film, what do you think?