Israel ahead in medical marijuana; Colorado and Washington states have now voted to make marijuana legal

Image via Cannabis Information Network, on FB

From USA Today:

“SAFED, Israel (AP) — Moshe Rute survived the Holocaust by hiding in a barn full of chickens. He nearly lost the use of his hands after a stroke two years ago. He became debilitated by recurring nightmares of his childhood following his wife’s death last year. “But after I found this, everything has been better,” said the 80-year-old, as he gingerly packed a pipe with marijuana. Rute, who lives at the Hadarim nursing home outside of Tel Aviv, is one of more than 10,000 patients who have official government permission to consume marijuana in Israel, a number that has swelled dramatically, up from serving just a few hundred patients in 2005.

“When it comes to raw milk, the best expert is you” — Karen Selick

From Karen Selick, on the Digital National Post:

Michael Schmidt with lawyer Karen Selick at a Queen's Park news conference in Feb. 2010

“Raw-milk crusader Michael Schmidt finally got to meet with Ontario Premier Dalton Mcguinty last month after a 37-day hunger strike. But the Premier told him the government had no plans to change the law to legalize raw milk sales, and that it would rely on the best advice of medical experts.

But what is the best advice of medical experts? Perhaps the better question is what is it today — as anyone who closely follows medical news knows, what’s considered healthy one week is often feared, or dismissed, the next. Forty years ago, for example, women were told to perform a self-exam every month to check for breast cancer. Last month, experts retracted that advice: Breast self-exams “have no benefit and should not be used.”

AIDS in Africa more from medical re-use of needles than sexual transmission

From Nigel Hawkes and Michael Dynes at The Times Online:

“THE African Aids pandemic was caused more by careless use of needles in healthcare than by unsafe sex, a report published today by an international group of scientists says.

They estimate that more than half the cases of Aids in Africa before 1988 were caused by unsterilised needles. The claim, directly challenging the belief that 90 per cent of cases were sexually transmitted, implies that the African Aids pandemic is largely the result of unsafe medical practices and mismanaged vaccination campaigns.

The team says that the evidence was discounted because of “preconceptions about African sexuality and a desire to maintain public trust in healthcare”.

Pot law quashed by Ontario Superior Court ruling — because doctors refuse to prescribe medical marijuana

From a followup story by Jennifer Yang in the Toronto Star:

This file photo from 2010 shows a Toronto protest against a raid on a medical marijuana club. COLIN MCCONNELL/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

“Lawmakers and enforcers are looking for guidance on how to react to an Ontario Superior Court decision quashing Canada’s marijuana laws.

On Monday, a St. Catharines judge ruled the federal medical marijuana program unconstitutional because patients are largely prevented from legally accessing the drugs they need. Justice Donald Taliano also struck down the country’s laws against possessing and producing cannabis, giving Ottawa three months to fix the program before marijuana is effectively legalized.

Canadian marijuana laws are ruled unconstitutional — government has 90 days to fix them or pot becomes legal

From Jennifer Yang in today’s Toronto Star:

It's been a long and winding road..." Photo via Rebel Rebel Tumblr

“An Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled that the federal medical marijuana program is unconstitutional, giving the government three months to fix the problem before pot is effectively legalized.

In an April 11 ruling, Justice Donald Taliano found that doctors across the country have “massively boycotted” the medical marijuana program and largely refuse to sign off on forms giving sick people access to necessary medication.

As a result, legitimately sick people cannot access medical marijuana through appropriate means and must resort to illegal actions.

What you don’t know about Fluoride can damage your children’s health

Here’s an excerpt from a story that affects just about everyone in the western world. This is from a recent post on Augie’s Journal of Natural Food and Healing titled “FLUORIDE ALERT: Slowly poisoning the children” and is by by Sylvia P. Onusic, PhD:

Author Sylvia P. Onusic, Ph.D. Read her bio at the bottom of this post.

“Our kids are getting too much fluoride. It’s here, it’s there, it’s everywhere!  You might think, if a little is good, more is better. Not in the case of fluoride, which has no nutritional value in the human diet and is considered an extremely hazardous material which requires, by law, special transportation and disposal.

Fluorine is the element, and all compounds of fluorine are called fluorides. Calcium fluoride occurs in nature but it is not calcium fluoride that is put into toothpaste, mouth rinse, drinking water, and other products.

The fluoride added to US drinking water is considered a hazardous waste by EPA. Now it is purchased from China.  Remember the melamine in baby formula, the tainted dog food, the childrens’ toys and jewelry?

Medical Fascism in “Land of the Free”?

Here’s an excerpt from a recent story on the Campaign for real health blog — described as a cross between Drudge and Mercola — titled “Medical Fascism in the “Land of the Free”: The Flexner Report”. This seems to be a big part of the reason why the raw milk option is so “under attack” today, because it represents a threat to the market for medical services and drugs. If people can get rid of their chronic diseases through nutrition, that’s sure going to cut into the market for pharmaceuticals. Which is why we need to govern as if people mattered (to paraphrase “Small is Beautiful” author E.F. Schumacher) rather than as if corporate profit trumps all.

Land of the free? Or ward of the medically challenged?

“The popularity of alternative/natural healing modalities is at an all-time high. The freedom to pursue those approaches is under constant  and unrelenting assault. Why is this? How did we get to where we are today?

If your child has cancer, do you have the freedom to seek the treatment of YOUR choice?  Answer: NO. The recent headlines attest to this as an international manhunt pursued a mother trying to get natural cancer therapies for her teenage son. Call it Manhunt Medicine. Did you ever ask yourself why the “authorities” deemed the situation so dire that an international manhunt — usually reserved for the most dangerous criminals — was undertaken? Or how about this: have you asked yourself why raw milk is illegal in most states when it has been repeatedly proven to be  far safer and more nutritious than the dead pasteurized version from cows fed an unnatural diet and penned up unnaturally their whole lives, given drugs, hormones and antibiotics all in the name of   increased milk production?