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[100lbStriper]

The age of the ‘silver stoners’ is nigh
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/the-age-of-the-silver-stoners-is-nigh/ar-BB1eLtGY?ocid=msedgntp

If you were thinking about spending your final years high as a kite—because, let’s face it, why not?—here’s a promising bit of news.

You might be well advised to do so—on doctor’s orders.

New research published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s disease has added to the claims that cannabis, or especially the ingredient CBD, might help slow, stop or even reverse dementia.

Just a two-week course of CBD improved the symptoms and slowed the cognitive decline in laboratory mice with dementia, reported researchers at the medical and dental colleges of Augusta University in Augusta, Ga. The CBD improved the amount of two key proteins in their brains by about 600% and 900%, the university says.

Read more about the marijuana industry

This isn’t the first scientific study suggesting cannabis might help fight dementia. Through 2019, a review of multiple other studies found data pointing the same way.

To be sure, when it comes to treating Alzheimer’s, there’s mostly uncertainty. The experts warn that nothing has been “proven” and everything is speculative.

The Alzheimer’s Association warns that cannabis and cannabis-derived products “are not approved…for the treatment or management of Alzheimer’s or other dementia” by the U.S. government. The Food & Drug Administration has already gone after CBD companies for marketing their products as a treatment for Alzheimer’s. ad lib... fuck the fda !

But telling people with a terminal illness not to try a treatment because it might not work is like telling a man who’s just fallen out of an airplane not to pull on the ripcord because, after all, you can’t be certain the parachute will open.

It shows an ignorance of basic game theory, or indeed logic.

It would be different if the powers that be had an alternative treatment to offer. They don’t.

As the Alzheimer’s Association itself points out, “Currently, there are no therapies that can cure Alzheimer’s,” and the best you can get is that “some drugs are available to temporarily improve symptoms.”

And the U.S. government admits it doesn’t even know what causes this cruel and vicious disease, which killed 135,000 more Americans last year and will affect one third of all Americans before they die.

Alzheimer’s is currently destroying 6 million lives in the U.S.

Federal funding for Alzheimer’s research is just $3.1 billion.

Currently several drug companies, including Eli Lilly Biogen and Cassava Sciences have potential treatments in clinical trials. But as with everything else, nothing yet is proven.

On the other hand, the CBD news could be another reason why senior citizens, not millennials or Generation Z, could be the key stoners of the future. A recent survey found that about 15% of the over 65s have taken cannabis within the last three years and about half of those use it every day. Most used it to treat various ailments, ranging from pain to depression and anxiety.] Given the way people typically treat the elderly, neither the depression nor the anxiety are particularly surprising.

There is research suggesting heavy or early use of cannabis can have long term, damaging effects on your health, but that’s a problem for the young. When you’re in your 70s or 80s, who cares?