Cannabis (Seeing Through the Smoke): The New Science of Cannabis and Your Health

Oh, where do I even start with "Cannabis (Seeing Through the Smoke)" by David Nutt? Well, folks, this book takes you on a wild ride through the world of cannabis, and it's like nothing you've ever experienced before (unless you've been on a cosmic journey of your own).David Nutt, the author, really knows how to make science fun. He's like the Bill Nye of cannabis but with a British accent. You'll learn about the nitty-gritty details of the plant, from its chemical compounds to its impact on health, all while feeling like you're at a comedy show. Who knew science could be this entertaining?But let's be real, this book isn't just about science. It's a bit like a rollercoaster of anecdotes, research, and, well, some pretty strong opinions. Nutt doesn't shy away from controversy, and he's not afraid to challenge some long-held beliefs. So, buckle up, my friends, because you're in for a ride that's as enlightening as it is amusing.If you've ever been curious about cannabis and its effects on health but didn't want to fall asleep reading a dry academic paper, this book is your ticket to a high-octane (pun intended) adventure. Just remember, after reading this, you might start seeing cannabis in a whole new light. Enjoy the journey, my fellow curious minds! 🌿💨

Professor David Nutt has laid out the facts in this book. Cannabis is still prohibited in the UK for most (the exception being for approx 40,000 private patients who pay for their monthly medicine) - the reason for this: the politicians are counting on votes! They prey on the electorate with false promises (remember the cry for Brexit: £330 to be re-directed to the NHS if voters agreed to leave Europe!)And, with drug and medicine laws the politicians prove that votes are more important than people’s lives.This book is a must read.

interesting

Wish I had access to this years ago! But it was only published in 2021, meaning it’s the latest and most up to date book you can ever buy on the topic of Cannabis. This is a no brainer for anyone interested in the topic but from a factual, evidence based and scientific approach. Not one based on emotion or morals (which seems to overpower the divisive topic of Cannabis policy in the U.K.). Professor Nutt is in the world’s top 0.1% of Researchers and wow does it show. This book should be in every government office, hospital and school to start undoing years of fake news, propaganda and emotional irrationalities on the topic of Cannabis reform and its impact on health, society and its users. I don’t think I’ll ever drink alcohol again after reading this…highly recommended! Let’s hope the U.K. government adhere to their Covid mantra and ‘follow the science’ and apply that logic and rationale to Cannabis policy in the U.K. Sadly I don’t they are capable of that soon. Let’s see where we are in 5 years! Professor Nutt is the ultimate wizard of Cannabis knowledge, he deserves way more respect than he’s had over the years. Buy this book, you won’t regret it.

Really worth buying!

In depth history in the history of cannabis and brilliant insights from an impartial and scientific perspective

Mostly repetitive information from other sources,not particularly well laid out.

Professor David Nutt, a scientist who looks at the evidence-based practice rather than some emotional story (and who was famously sacked by the Labour Government for speaking truth as the evidence shows on drugs) gives the facts about cannabis. Nutt was sacked in 2009, when as a government adviser on drugs he stated that ecstasy was no more dangerous than horse riding. This statement was corrected – in fact if you had some peanuts in one hand and an ecstasy tablet in the other, the peanuts carry far greater risk of harm and death than an ecstasy tablet.- Now, every year more governments reverse the ban on cannabis or attempt to. In the US over 200 million citizens in 36 states have access to medical marijuana and over 100 million in 17 states can legally buy recreational cannabis. We are learning a lot about this drug, a lot of what you might read in newspapers or out of the mouth of politicians, doesn't follow any kind of science, just a narrative and an emotional story which is often clouded in misdirection, lies and mistruth. 17 countries including Holland, Belgium and Germany have made cannabis a medicine and yet in the UK it's even mainly illegal as a form of treatment. As a result, it's been estimated that over a million people in the UK are using illegal cannabis for medical purposes every day. This situation has left people lacking good information on and confused about cannabis. This book attempts to address this issue.- We are currently in a war on drugs, and this has only resulted with more people taking cannabis, a black market, and stronger cannabis, as well as criminalising and blotting people's lives with a criminal record. Cannabis isn't going away, and it is a much safer drug than cigarettes or alcohol. The UK government has persisted with prohibition policies which have not reduced the consumption of cannabis. In fact from 1995 to 2019, people between the ages of 16 and 59 have gone from 23% of the population to just under 32% of the population who have tried it.- This book looks at four aspects of cannabis. It tells the history of cannabis, where it came from and how it became illegal. Then it talks about how cannabis works and what it does to the brain and body. Then it looks at how cannabis, which for thousands of years with the medicine, suddenly became illegal. The last section talks about how to minimise the harms of cannabis.- TREATMENT: People with a range of pain difficulties and epilepsy, cancer and other horrific conditions have been successfully treated with cannabis when other medical treatments have failed or had much worse side effects. Charlotte Figi began taking an oil made from it, and it was no longer a disappointment. Charlotte had a rare form of untreatable epilepsy, suffering from hundreds of seizures a day. After she took the oil, they stopped and this strain was renamed Charlotte’s Web. The book is full of stories of medical breakthroughs that have occurred with cannabis.- HISTORY: Cannabis has been used as a medicine for thousands of years – back to the Egyptians and Chinese. A 5,000-year-old Chinese document has described the plant as useful in treating more than 100 conditions. In 16th-century Britain, not only was growing cannabis not banned, it was mandated — Henry VIII decreed that farmers grew it for the manufacture of hemp for the navy. And Queen Victoria appears to have taken it. The Lancet (medical paper) in 1890 declared it as one of the most valuable medicines we possess.- Nutt attempts to answer the question that cannabis became illegal not through science, but through politics, the media and society.- The drug became illegal due to propaganda from the US where the world turned against the drug after a clever propaganda campaign in the US, where the end of alcohol prohibition in 1933 threatened many police jobs. The director of the agency responsible for fighting alcohol needed a new drug scare and this became cannabis. The film, Reefer Madness, which made out in a racist manner that the drug made people crazy, violent and mad. And thus, along with Harry Jacob Anslinger who was a United States government official who served as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics - though even he ended up riddled with cancer and treated with the very drugs he spent a lifetime fighting (his story is told in Johann Hari’s excellent book ‘Chasing the Scream’ which also ends up describing the war on drugs as an utter failure.- OTHER NARCOTICS AND CANNABIS: The truth is that under the influence of alcohol, 1000’s of people die every year, become violent, aggressive, have fights, ruin their liver, wreck other people's lives through acts of violence or car crashes. People who get stoned don’t cause anything like these kinds of problems. And how many people die from cannabis, about 12 people (who only took cannabis and nothing else) every year. Cannabis also appears less damaging to the heart and lungs than tobacco.- Of course, another worry that we hear about is that cannabis makes people become schizophrenic and leads to anxiety. Well, Nutt takes us through all the evidence and though there are a few reports that say that people who are prone to schizophrenia do take cannabis – they also take alcohol and smoke cigarettes. And does being schizophrenic make you more likely to take cannabis than the other way round. Certainly, some people have a genetic blueprint that does have some possible link. However, since being illegal, this has meant cannabis has become skunk (much stronger form of cannabis) and also led to spice. Prohibition always leads to stronger forms of a substance – in prohibition US they didn’t make more beer, they made gin. Drug prohibition and the war on drugs has just made cannabis stronger. Isn’t it strange that the fear mongering about cannabis and mental illness led to stronger forms of cannabis - but not a surprise..- What we need to acknowledge, and something that we have known since millennia is that cannabis can be a highly effective medicine. Many countries do now approve cannabis drugs for some forms of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, cancer, Parkinson's. We need to make this legal, not illegal. Sadly, we are surrounded by politicians in the Daily Mail and similar newspapers speaking utter nonsense and causing significant harm with their emotional stories and blinded to clear evidence that shows we need to be using this as a treatment. And it is of less harm than many other medicines that are out there in the market. It's a plant chemical that has been used by human beings for thousands of years, it's not something new, it's a natural substance.- It does carry risks, such as dependency, particularly if started young and he does state that one in ten can become dependent, but this is much less than tobacco, alcohol and opiates.- By making this relatively harmless drug illegal, we are criminalising millions as well as giving money to organised crime. It's as much governments that have led to country lines as much as criminal gangs and it leads to unsafe products with no quality control. Our drug policy is madness.- COCA LEAVES: I will finish with something I heard by the writer Wade Davis. Coca leaves are amazing, tiny amounts of these leaves contain incredible amounts of vitamins, large amounts of calcium (which is rare in plants) and they're nutritionally rich. It gives a mild high like coffee, gives you energy, helps you concentrate for longer and helps you focus – and in its natural form it's no less addictive than coffee. It's amazing and yet the USA has been trying to burn coca leaves for 50 years when it's part of some countries in South America's livelihoods - not to make cocaine (that's the USA) but to live on and grow as we might coffee beans or wheat. However, it's a multi billion pound industry for both traffickers and the governmental USA drugs enforcement bodies, who both want the war on drugs to continue as the USA spends $60 billion (a total of a trillion dollars) since the beginning of the war on drugs. And yet people are taking more drugs than at any other time in history and traffickers and drug pushers want this war to continue because they are making trillions of dollars. So much money has been made that if you put every dollar on top of each other it would reach 1/4 of the way to the moon. Americans have spent more on this than anything else to stop Pablo Escobar and yet he's managed to flood the USA with 80 tons of cocaine every month. And yet none of this would have happened if it wasn't for illegal cocaine being brought internationally. And thousands of people are dying through the market and suffering caused to innocent people. And the people who are really suffering are the countries that make cocoa leaves. The war on drugs is a failure and we need to be looking for alternatives in allowing people to take these drugs, rather than putting them in prison, giving them criminal records, and helping criminalise gangs to make lots of money. We need to research, and we need to remember that a derivative of opiates such as morphine has been the most powerful painkiller we have.- An excellent book, which helps to give a more balanced account on cannabis than you would hear from a politician or stupid newspapers that can only focus on emotional hot air, misinformation and not hard facts.

Si deseas opinar con evidencia acerca del cannabis, basándote en datos y no en prejuicios, este libro probablemente te interesa.

Wie erwartet hat Herr Professor Nutt einmal mehr ein Meisterwerk veröffentlicht.