THE PROS OF CANNABOIDS (CBD's)

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) wrote in its Oct. 7, 2003 United States Patent #6,630,507 "Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants" on the website patft.uspto.gov:

"Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties... This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as 

• ischemic
• age-related
• inflammatory
• autoimmune diseases. 

The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in 

• limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, 
• such as stroke and trauma, or in the 
• treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as 
• Alzheimer's disease, 
• Parkinson's disease and 
• HIV dementia. 
• Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses..."

 "CBD... has been shown to produce a plethora of pharmacological effects, many of them associated with both central and peripheral actions... The plethora of positive pharmacological effects observed with Cannabidiol make this compound a highly attractive therapeutic entity in

• inflammation
• diabetes
• cancer and 
• affective 
• neurodegenerative diseases.

"The great therapeutic value of CBD, either given alone or in association with THC, derives from the consideration that it represents a rare, if not unique, compound that is capable of affording neuroprotection by the combination of different types of properties (e.g., anti-glutamatergic effects, anti-inflammatory action, and anti-oxidant effects) that almost cover all spectra of neurotoxic mechanisms that operate in neurodegenerative disorders (excitotoxicity, inflammatory events, oxidative injury, etc.).

The reported data here, taken together with the evidence of the CBD's almost absolute absence of side effects, including psychotropicity, suggest its great efficacy and open new horizons for the treatment of the main neurodegenerative disorders!"


Oct. 6, 2010 page "Cannabidiol" on http://www.beckleyfoundation.org:

"Cannabidiol (CBD), a constituent of herbal cannabis, has attracted much interest recently as a promising medicine. After being discovered in the early 1970s it was quickly established that CBD has anti-convulsant and anxiolytic properties in animal models and in humans...

Work in the 1980s and early 1990s suggested CBD had anti-psychotic properties and could be an effective treatment for schizophrenia...

In the last decade or so many other properties of CBD have been characterised...

• CBD has potent anti-inflammatory properties and is a neuroprotectant... 
• CBD appears to protect, not just neurons, but heart muscle from injury. 

Several groups in the US and UK are pursuing this line which has massive implications for clinical practice. Perhaps even more dramatic is recent work from Mechoulam's lab which suggests that CBD can restore normal pancreatic functioning in models of type 1 diabetes.

The list of putative indications for CBD include… 

Neuropsychiatric

1. anxiety
2. temporal lobe epilepsy
3. schizophrenia (I must admit my own skepticism, and thus, having suffered the hallucinations/delusions that can occur as a reaction to a very toxic drug I was given, commonly called PREDNISONE, I believe that

Anti-inflammatory

1. Rheumatoid arthritis
2. Type 1 diabetes

Neuroprotectant

1. Stroke
2. Head injury

Cardioprotectant

1. Acute myocardial infarction

Malignancy

      1.  Glioma

CBD exhibits an impressive plethora of therapeutic uses, including

• anticonvulsive, 
• sedative, 
• hypnotic, 
• antipsychotic, 
• anti-inflammatory 
• neuroprotective properties. 

CBD is well tolerated in humans, with a profile of very low toxicity, and is devoid of psychoactive and cognitive effects."

Paul Armentano, Deputy Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), wrote in his Oct. 9, 2008 blog post "Is There Anything CBD Can't Do? Then Why Is It Illegal?" on the website http://www.blog.norml.org:

"While the prohibition of cannabis is absurd, the ban on the plant's non-psychoactive components is even more mind-boggling — particularly when it's apparent that these compounds possess amazing therapeutic properties. Case in point: cannabidiol (CBD)...

Studies have suggested a wide range of possible therapeutic effects of cannabidiol on several conditions, including

• Parkinson's disease, 
• Alzheimer's disease, 
• cerebral ischemia, 
• diabetes, 
• rheumatoid arthritis, 
• other inflammatory diseases, 
• nausea 
• cancer...

[T]he past 45 years of scientific study on CBD has revealed the compound to be non-toxic, non-psychoactive, and to possess a multitude of therapeutic properties. Yet, to this day it remains illegal to possess or use (and nearly impossible to study in US clinical trials) simply because it is associated with marijuana.

What possible advancements in medical treatment may have been achieved over the past decades had US government officials chosen to advance — rather than inhibit — clinical research into CBD...? "

"Pharmaceutical Compositions Comprising Cannabidiol Derivatives" available on the website patentgenius.com:

"The present invention relates to cannabidiol... and to pharmaceutical compositions comprising cannabidiol... being anti-inflammatory agents having 

• analgesic
• antianxiety
• anticonvulsive 
• neuroprotective 
• antipsychoticanticancer activity...

CBD... has been shown in in vitro assays, in animal tests, as well as in some human, preliminary trials, to produce numerous pharmacological effects... which are of potential therapeutic value... [R]ecent reports describe the in vitro effects of CBD on immune cells... These in vitro studies lend support to earlier reports on analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects in animals...

CBD has been found to produce several, potentially therapeutic, effects in animal models, as well as in patients with neurological diseases... in anxiety... and in psychosis... CBD is a neuroprotective antioxidant."