17. India, let’s save our patients
Millions of patients and their families are suffering from diseases which can be easily cured. Is this worth caring about?
It’s no secret.
The medical industry is bloated, inefficient, and toxic. It is incredibly corrupt and in most cases, the health care system thinks more about profits than it does about the wellbeing of the patients.
Most of the treatments are synthetic, easy to manufacture, standardised based on a patented formula, mass-multiplied for a global demand, which makes it cheap to produce, but sold back in the society with a large profit margin!
The results of these synthetic treatments done for someone else's profits usually heal less and do more harm than good.
And most often the only ones who truly suffer are the patients and their loved ones.
But if something so important, like a medicine, is harmful to a person, and harmful to a suffering person that too; then, why would we even have it in the society? Why would the government allow it in the first place?
Is there an organisation within the government which is responsible for monitoring these health care systems, methodologies used by these health industries, or the effects caused by the treatments given by the hospitals or the pharmaceutical companies; especially when these industries are having a direct effect on the entire population of the country and the people of the world?
If there is such a governmental organisation to monitor and report back to the higher authorities like Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of INDIA, then, are they working efficiently?
If yes, would all these medications that the society is limited to, still be allowed to be given to the patients? Especially when over a 100 years have gone by since the birth of these modern health industries, and even today, there is still no promising answer to the perfect cures for many of human sufferings.
And even if there is, it eventually turns out to be harmful for the patient on both short term usage and a prolonged use.
The side effects of most of these allowed medications are extremely bad. People who are diagnosed from any illness often end up being addicted to prescribed medications. In which case, the only thing that the health care system is being successful at doing is to make these patients take their medications for a lifetime.
Many of these existing medicines based on man made formulas, and produced synthetically in a laboratory, hamper our metabolic activities in the body and most often lead to severe biological addiction, weakening the natural system, stressing the vital parts of the body, leading to other illnesses & complications, and many a times, inducing pain and suffering, and sometimes, causing Death!
An indian patient who got in touch with the GLM organisation after suffering from severe side-effects of chemotherapy and radiation, one of the two conventional treatments that the current health care chooses to treat CANCER patients.
Prohibition of a safe medicine like Cannabis would expose any patient to such harsh treatments. It can also be you or our loved ones in the near future.
It is evident that the world we have made for ourselves is not safe. We have poisoned ourselves because of our needs of consumption and a global industrial solution to implement the easiest shortcut available for meeting these needs.
Because of bad laws by which there are hundreds of toxic industries that are setup all around the world, we have ended up poisoning everything. Our air, water and soil has been severely contaminated.
Bad medications, poor research based vaccinations, using toxic chemicals to grow foods, packaged and processed foods with bad preservatives, unnatural dairy and poultry setup, high needs of energy (power and electricity), materials that we use for our daily needs, chemical based cosmetics etc. have further caused a negative impact on human health.
Our chosen lifestyle has become extremely toxic to our own health.
Many of these toxic substances in our modern environment are fatal to our body and also for our safe and healthy evolution.
Cancer, which was once a rare disease, has now become like a plague. Everyone is carrying carcinogens within our system which might grow bad the moment our stress increases and our immune system is compromised.
Diabeties, Blood Pressure, Metabolic Malfunctions, HIV, Tuberculosis, Neurological diseases, Autism, Epilepsy, Skin Allergies, Mental Disorders and both Physical and Mental Stress are all on the rise in this country and also in all parts of the world.
If the current medicines from the research based Pharma industry are not helping the patients, and many a times end up poisoning them even more, shouldn't it be banned?
If there is a medicine which has shown substantial evidence in healing and curing everyone, shouldn't its use be encouraged all across the nation?
Cannabis is an ancient medicinal plant. Despite the fact that it was used in India for thousands of years, our Indian Government prohibited this miraculous plant in 1985.
Also our vedas considered it as a sacred plant, and it was used in our Ayurvedic Medicines which helped our Vydyas (ayurvedic practitioners) to cure incurable diseases with ease even before the advancement of science in modern medicine.
30 years since prohibition, the taboo is widespread on all parts of the nation that cannabis / bhaang / gaanja is a bad narcotic drug; and the biggest barrier is that a large extent of the population are not even aware that it’s a medicine.
But most of these people still know about the usage of cannabis among the Sadhus, Sanyasis, Yogis etc. and
consider it to be a healthy and a divine practice.
There are few doctors who want to overlook the entire scientific knowledge that is available today on the medicinal cannabis
and who choose to be on the sides of the pharmaceutical companies and that if cannabis is ever legalised, they want the medicines to be synthesised and sold back to the people in the existing fashion.
Dr. Vishal Rao, a Bengaluru Oncologist who is pro-cannabis legalisation, but choosing to not make the plant readily available to people, displays a sense of fear and concern over the re-classification of Cannabis (Gaanja). a harmless ancient medicinal plant.
And there are those doctors who believe that the current health care system is best as is, and they wouldn't want to see a day where such a medicinal plant is legalised and decriminalised for growing and/or regular usage within the society.
This is an act of hypocrisy. As a doctor they say that the patient wants to be cured. But they believe that one of the safest and the most healing plants known to man should not be re-introduced into the society.
Does it outrage you to know that millions, or maybe even billions of people are suffering from pain and diseases that can easily be alleviated with the use of cannabis oil, but have no access to it because of bad politics and human greed? Maybe you are suffering from such a disease yourself or watching your loved one go through unbearable pain because of a malpractice of the the health industry.
There are innumerable people who are suffering and dying without having this safe, healing plant to help ease their condition. Where is our Right to Life?
A safe and a healthy living is a birthright to all of life. Our governmental laws should be based on protecting the people and making their lives better, richer and more meaningful. If it is done otherwise, those politicians are not eligible to govern and dictate their bad way of living for the masses of the world.
Will you allow this to continue unchecked, or will you fight to make this ancient cure available to all?
One single plant holds the cures for hundreds of ailments. To understand what makes cannabis such an effective medicine, we must examine the human anatomy.
The Endocannabinoid System (ECS)
The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a network of cell receptors in the brain and nervous system which are triggered by molecules known as endocannabinoids.
The body produces endocannabinoids naturally in the brain, when the person is not stressed and in a state of happiness. Endocannabinoids are also produced from our food, particularly Omega-3 fatty acids, and these act as chemical messengers which instruct the body when to start up and stop certain vital functions to maintain homeostasis and to regulate the following:
Sleep
Appetite,
Digestion,
Mood,
Motor control,
Immune function,
Reproduction and fertility,
Pleasure and reward
Pain,
Memory,
Temperature regulation, etc.
When the ECS is disrupted, the body falls out of balance, resulting in a variety of illnesses. Illness also arises from the body producing insufficient cannabinoids, a condition referred to as clinical endocannabinoid deficiency.
The role of cannabis in the ECS
The THC molecule found in cannabis mimics an important cannabinoid produced by the body, anandamide. It fits into the body’s cannabinoid receptors and can regulate processes vital processes just like anandamide does. In fact, scientists were aware of THC well before they knew about anandamide, and it is this knowledge which led to the eventual discovery of the EndoCannabinoid System. It also explains the name ‘endocannabinoid’: ‘endo’ means ‘within’, and ‘cannabinoid’ is a molecule which fits into the body’s cannabinoid receptors.
The CBD molecule in cannabis also plays an important role. The ECS produces an enzyme called FAAH which breaks down anandamide molecules into smaller parts and takes them out of circulation. The CBD molecule inhibits the FAAH enzyme so that the body has more anandamide available.
Cannabinoid receptors are found all throughout the body, giving them a wide variety of functions. However, certain receptors are more concentrated in specific regions.
CB1 receptors are abundant in the central nervous system.
CB2 receptors are more often found on immune cells, in the gastrointestinal tract, and in the peripheral nervous system.
The scientific community is slowly coming to the understanding that if we have these receptors (ECS) in our body which keeps us in a healthy state when activated, then Anandamide and its alias in the plant kingdom, the Cannabinoids is the key to unlock answers to many of the dreaded diseases known to man.
As of now, there are many countries across the world who have legalised the plant to use it for medicinal purposes. And in some of the countries people have the liberty of using the plant recreationally as well.
Police seizes over 400kgs of Cannabis in Tamil Nadu and they will usually end up burning the crop away.
In India, however, this indigenous plant and its culture which is ancient, holy, medicinal, spiritual and a driving force among large sections of the society is still mocked at and prohibited by our governments.
Just how soon are they going to wake up?
And how is this going to be regulated?
GLM's Legalisation Model (coming soon) is aiming to bring the maximum benefits to the patients and allowing a rich research based medical production and healing centres across the country.
We can only hope that our views and statements are heard.
Above all, we hope that the healing of the patient and the development of this new emerging science is kept above the human greed and the profit driven business models.
There are cures for almost hundreds of diseases from just one single plant. But it's prohibited due to corruption. Let's legalise it, India.
Let's design a better future.
Special thanks to Danny, Amy, Eshna, Aditya, Anshul, Priya.