Over the past half century, scientists and medical researchers have made hundreds of thousands of important discoveries about cannabis and its potential as medicine.
The early (experimental) research was done on shoestring budgets in university labs around the world.
Minus the fanfare, some of these peer-reviewed study results were published in prominent scientific and medical journals.
Thanks these pioneering researchers and the track they laid down, multiple clinical trials are now underway around the globe.
Not so long ago, they were ridiculed by colleagues doing “real science,” who said they were wasting their time (and university resources).
Undaunted, and unfettered by the strings attached to drug-company funding, these men and women of science have collectively produced a rich body of work over the past 50 years or more.
When researchers discovered that THC might be a powerful agent with healing properties, they set out to discover how it actually worked.
We now know that:
THC produces its effects by activating specific receptors in the body.
This triggers a biological process that affects neurotransmitters in the brain.
Cannabinoid receptors are located in the brain, central nervous system, immune system and most every organ in the body.
Some cancer cells have been found to contain cannabinoid receptors.
Many scientists tend to shun the spotlight, but that shouldn’t stop us from paying homage to their immeasurable contributions, if we can find them, that is.
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Sir Issac Newton