Medical Cannabis And The California Crisis

Marijuana has many medicinal properties, and while medical cannabis laws help millions across the country, they also bring their own confusion and legal problems.

Making a substance legal for only certain adults is bound to create confusion and legal entanglements. California is a prime example of this phenomenon. The same ounce of weed can be legal or illegal depending on who possesses it. Logically this makes little sense.

The federal government preys on this confusion and uses it as a pretext to launch offensives against a vital state industry. Only full legalization will eliminate some of this confusion, but even then it won’t be perfect. Legalization will come with stipulations that will be exploited to create confusion, since confusion is the friend of those with power.

But as the documentary shows, not only would legalization greatly help the legal situation in CA – for recreational and medical users alike – but prohibition creates the black market that causes so much damage on its own.

Medical users in CA used to think that Prop 215 would protect them, but more of them everyday can see that is not the case. Access is being restricted, and soon will be gone altogether unless something is done about it.

Medical cannabis refers to the parts of the herb cannabis used as a physician-recommended form of medicine or herbal therapy, or to synthetic forms of specific cannabinoids such as THC as a physician-recommended form of medicine. The Cannabis plant has a long history of use as medicine, with historical evidence dating back to 2,737 BCE. Cannabis is one of the 50 “fundamental” herbs of traditional Chinese medicine, and is prescribed to treat diverse indications.

Cannabis, also known as marijuana and by other names, refers to preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug and as medicine. Chemically, the major psychoactive compound in cannabis is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC); it is one of 400 compounds in the plant, including other cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol, cannabinol, and tetrahydrocannabivarin, which can produce sensory effects unlike the psychoactive effects of THC.

Cannabis sativa L. subsp. sativa var. sativa is the variety grown for industrial use, while C. sativa subsp. indica generally has poor fiber quality and is primarily used for production of recreational and medicinal drugs. The major difference between the two types of plants is the appearance and the amount of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) secreted in a resinous mixture by epidermal hairs called glandular trichomes, although they can also be distinguished genetically. Oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis approved for industrial hemp production produce only minute amounts of this psychoactive drug, not enough for any physical or psychological effects. Typically, hemp contains below 0.3% THC, while cultivars of Cannabis grown for recreational use can contain anywhere from 2% to over 20%.

Hemp is mostly used as a name for low tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) strains of the plant Cannabis sativa, of fiber and/or oilseed varieties. In modern times, hemp has been used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food, and fuel. Hemp is legally grown in many countries across the world including Canada, Spain, China, Japan, Korea, England, France, Africa, North Africa, Egypt, and Ireland. Hemp is commonly associated with marijuana (hemp’s THC rich cousin). Since 2007, commercial success of hemp food products has grown considerably.

Hemp is one of the faster growing biomasses known, producing up to 25 tonnes of dry matter per hectare per year. A normal average yield in large scale modern agriculture is about 2.5–3.5 t/ac. Approximately, one tonne of bast fiber and 2–3 tonnes of core material can be decorticated from 3–4 tonnes of good quality, dry retted straw.

For a crop, hemp is very environmentally friendly as it requires few pesticides and no herbicides. Hemp is one of the earliest domesticated plants known.

The world leading producer of hemp is China with smaller production in Europe, Chile and North Korea. While more hemp is exported to the United States than to any other country, the United States Government does not consistently distinguish between marijuana and the non-psychoactive Cannabis used for industrial and commercial purposes.