| A new research report demonstrates that the active ingredient in marijuana may actual prevent the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Certainly, this would likely be received as good news to aging hippies. The Scripps Research Institute in California found that the active ingredient in marijuana -- delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, which is also known as THC -- actually may be beneficial in staving off the effects of Alzheimer's in some patients. People afflicted with Alzheimer's end up suffering from memory loss, diminished language skills and a whole host of other related problems. Prior to this date, marijuana has been used to assist in the treatment of glaucoma and is said to be beneficial in reducing the side effects associated with both AIDS and cancer treatment regimens.
Medical use of cannabis:
The application of marijuana in medicine dates back deep into the history of Ancient India and The Middle East, where hemp found wide applications as a pain reliever, anti-epileptic, anti-convulsant drugs and anti-emetic medicinal drugs. The first references of marijuana use in European medicine goes back to the colonization period of India by England, in the middle of the 19th century, when army surgeons started using preparations of marijuana as a pain reliever, for treating muscular spasms, epilepsy and rheumatism attacks. Thanks to the practice of the military doctors of the British colonial corps, marijuana drugs have received wide circulation in Britain and the USA in the nineteenth century.
Substances, related to endogenous cannabinoids (endo-cannabinoids) and most particularly anandamide are contained in Indian hemp and sowing hemp and as well as in drugs, made out of them. It was stated in the journal Nature Medicine in 2003 that endo-cannabinoid brain system participates in various processes of pain, memory, neuro-degeneration and inflammations and that cannabinoids possess substantial clinical potential.
Marijuana and drugs from it are successfully used for improving the conditions of patients, suffering with cancer and AIDS. THK is successfully used in fighting nausea, caused by the use of anticancer drugs; THK for the above-mentioned purpose is endorsed by the US Food and Drug Administration. In some countries (for example Holland and Canada), marijuana is used as drug for patients, suffering with cancer and as an antiemetic agent during chemotherapy. At the same time, pharmacological studies do not indicate the advantages of hemp in comparison to other more traditional antiemetic and analgetic agents. As a result, the prescription of hemp drugs bears an exceptional nature during the individual intolerance of traditional drugs.
According to the newspaper “The Guardian”, scientists of one of the leading research centers of Madrid have found out the proof that cannabis can prevent loss of memory in patients suffering with Alzheimer's disease.
The preliminary research has indicated that THK, the main psychoactive component of marijuana inhibits the activity of cells which damage the neurons of brain.
The mechanism of memory loss in such patients is not fully studied, but, presumably, this problem is partially related with glial macrophages (microglial), forming a cover around the nervous cells of the brain. In Alzheimer's disease, the activity of the microglial cells exceeds beyond control and harms neurons and thus destroying entire sections of brain.
Meanwhile, US legislation interferes in carrying out full-fledged research work of the clinical efficiency of marijuana. At the same time, the government in Great Britain has permitted one of the pharmaceutical companies to cultivate various grades of hemp for clinical tests of marijuana obtained from hemp.
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Researchers in California
have discovered that marijuana helps in preventing and fighting
Alzheimer's disease more effectively than commercially marketed drugs. The researchers said the discovery could
lead to the creation of new drugs to fight Alzheimer's. ] 
