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About This Episode
As the harbinger of human rights, democracy and economic opportunity via its own brand of capitalism, the United States has set precedents by which nations around the world have been measured. So deep was its influence that, when marijuana became a Schedule One Controlled Substance, nearly every country in the world followed suit. So powerful was the American voice that cannabis could be demonized and condemned by politically advantageous falsehoods, despite the universal acceptance of cannabis as a therapeutic medicine and valuable industrial commodity for thousands of years prior to prohibition.
Simply put, lies told often enough became the alternate reality. Perpetrators sacrificed the health and wellness of the planet and humanity at large for what we have awakened to learn was for nothing other than political and financial gain. It would take more than a generation to uncover the sinister truth.
The recent revelations about the importance of cannabis to human health have diminished the power of the U.S. Government to influence global drug policy. In the last couple of decades, countries like Israel have conducted scores of scientific research that is helping global policy makers realize the great deception that catalyzed the global war on marijuana. One by one, nations once aligned with U.S. policy are abandoning drug treaties and establishing new laws grounded in common sense. Once the truth about cannabis prohibition was revealed, laws changed accordingly and there was no going back.
Despite the overwhelming benefits of state regulation and scientific proof that cannabis is a safe and effective medicine that never belonged in Schedule One, our own federal government has been clinging to failed policy, which defies logic considering that, by now, most people in the U.S. realize that our Federal drug policy is a farce. Even though state regulation is forging ahead with lucrative opportunity and progressive medical research, the American cannabis industry remains at a serious disadvantage on a global stage.
As more and more foreign countries embrace policy reform at a national level, they are positioned to outpace us in terms of research, education, innovation and production. More importantly, our Federal policy is barring opportunity for U.S. producers to stake claim to any export territory as more and more countries advance ahead of us.
No where is this more evident than in Australia. Having legalized medical use of cannabis at the federal level only a year ago, their domestic market is still in its infancy. But the country is light years ahead of the U.S. in terms of opening doors to academic research and development of new treatment protocols for hard-to-treat medical conditions like Alzheimer’s Disease. That’s the topic of today’s show and something our guests, Paul and Sharlene Mavor call in from Australia to discuss.
About Our Guests
Sharlene Mavor – Medical Cannabis Research Australia (NFO)
Sharlene is a Medical Scientist (BAppSc -Medical Laboratory Science) and director of the charity, Medical Cannabis Research Australia. She has been researching how Medical Cannabis may treat an ever-increasing array of disorders including Alzheimer’s Disease. Her university background in diagnostic pathology gives her the knowledge to understand disease processes in the human body. She’s travelled to the US, Canada, Israel, Columbia and Chile to learn firsthand from the leading researchers in this new field of cannabinoid science. Under the banner of her charity Medical Cannabis Research Australia, she is committed to advocating for use and access to medical cannabis and promoting more research to give clinicians the evidence they require to pursue this treatment for their patients, both in Australia and in the rest of the world.
Paul Mavor – Health House International
Paul is a pharmacist who has been researching the potential of medicinal cannabis as a treatment for several years. His company, Health House, was granted the first medicinal cannabis import license in Australia and he is currently distributing medicinal cannabis products to eligible patients. Paul brings a wealth of knowledge from his hands-on research in the U.S., Canada and Israel. Concerned with the slow approval process of licensing doctors to prescribe medical cannabis, he is educating medical professionals and policy makers in hopes that it will lead to more providers being authorized to become prescribers and patients report the benefits of the drug.
Acknowledgements
If not for the generosity of our supporters, we wouldn’t be here! We’d first like to express gratitude for our radio sponsors Alpine Miracle, Healthtera and Compassionate Certification Centers. We’d also like to shout out to the composer of our theme “Evergreen,” Dr. Bryan Doner for the Medical Marijuana Minute and XRQK Radio Network, Society Bytes Radio and Be Real Management for helping us spread the word. We are grateful!