It's better for your lungs than tobacco.

According to a study published in Journal of the American Medical Association in January, marijuana does not impair lung function and can even increase lung capacity. Researchers looking for risk factors of heart disease tested the lung function of 5115 young adults over the course of 20 years. Tobacco smokers lost lung function over time, but pot users actually showed an increase in lung capacity. The increased lung capacity may due to taking a deep breaths while inhaling the drug. It controls epileptic seizures! Robert J. DeLorenzo of Virginia Commonwealth University, gave marijuana extract and synthetic marijuana to epileptic rats. The drugs rid the rats of the seizures for about 10 hours. Cannabinoids like the active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (also known as THC), control seizures by binding to the brain cells responsible for controlling excitability and regulating relaxation

All The Reasons Pot Is Good For You

Colorado and Washington both passed legislation that legalizes the recreational use of marijuana on Tuesday. While recreational marijuana is controversial, many people believe that the drug should be legal, especially for medical uses. See the good side of pot > Psychiatrist Tod H. Mikuriya, who helped develop Proposition 215, the state ballot that allowed doctors to recommend marijuana for patients in California, began researching marijuana's therapeutic possibilities in the 1960s. He believed the symptoms of over 200 ailments could be treated with marijuana including stuttering, insomnia, premenstrual syndrome, and writer’s cramp. Even the National Cancer Institute agrees with Mikuriya — specifically the use of marijuana for treatment of side effects of chemotherapy, preventing nausea and vomiting, increasing appetite, relieving pain, and improving sleep. While the benefits and risks of smoking pot may be overstated by advocates and opponents of marijuana legalization, the new legalization will help researchers study the drugs' medicinal uses, and better understand how it impacts the body. Marijuana can be used to prevent blindness from glaucoma. Marijuana use can be used to treat and prevent the eye disease glaucoma, which increases pressure in the eyeball, damaging the optic nerve, causing loss of vision. Marijuana decreases the pressure inside the eye, according to the National Eye Institute: "Studies in the early 1970s showed that marijuana, when smoked, lowered intraocular pressure (IOP) in people with normal pressure and those with glaucoma." These effects of the drug may slow the progression of the disease, preventing blindness.

One Love...Thank you all for your support

ReLeafers, early this week, we were given devastating news that a dear longtime friend and fellow patient, Stacy Pray lost a courageous battle to cancer. She was an amazing woman and single mother who sadly leaves behind two young daughters ages 5 & 7. Along with having to mourn the untimely loss of a mother, daughter & sister, the family is having to deal with the burden of mounting hospital and funeral costs. ReLeaf has set up a raffle where all proceeds will be going to a trust fund set up for the girls. For $5 per ticket, patients will have the chance to win an ounce of our top shelf Platinum Girl Scout cookies valued at $380 while helping out a great cause!! Raffle tickets are now available at the counter. Raffle will be drawn 11/21. Other cool items will be raffled off as well!! Additionally, the family has set up a PayPal for any donations where proceeds will go directly to the girl's trust fund, please send as a gift to Aubsnjoce@gmail.com. ONE LOVE!

'Cannabis Roots: The Hidden History of Marijuana' Conference

When thinking of the history of marijuana, most people’s minds go back to the hippy era of the 60s and the pot smoking flower-children whose peace and love ideals have forever changed our culture. Some think of the 1930's Reefer Madness era, where blacks and whites shared 'marihuana cigarettes' at tea houses while creating a new genre of music and breaking long-held racial barriers. Few people realize that cannabis has played a role in human history for tens of thousands of years, or that it played a pivotal role in the formation of such ancient religions as Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Taoism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Shinto, Ancient Greek Mystery Schools, and other traditions. The Cannabis Roots conference will explore some of this little-discussed area of cannabis history with some of the top experts in the world. Cannabis Roots: The Hidden History of Marijuana will be held from 11AM - 6PM on November 3, 2012 at CCHQ (307 W. Hastings - Second Floor) in Vancouver. Speakers include Professor Carl Ruck, David Hillman Ph.D., Michael Aldrich Ph.D., authors Michael Horowitz, Cynthia Palmer, Ted Smith, Chris Bennett, and filmmaker Mark Klokeid. For tickets and more information contact the Urban Shaman: 307 W Hastings, Vancouver – 604-662-5355 – theurbanshaman@hotmail.com. Cynthia Palmer is a writer and photographer from San Francisco. In 1970 she was part of a small group of neuronauts who founded The Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library in North Beach. Over the next 30 years the library became the world's largest collection of literature, research, art and artifacts of drug history. Archiving the art and literature of drugs and transformation is a dedicated obsession. Drug classics were reprinted in paperback from the collection, and with Michael Horowitz, she co-edited Moksha: Writings on Visionary Experience and Psychedelics by Aldous Huxley and Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady: Women's Writings on the Drug Experience (Updated and renamed Sisters of the Extreme).