Thousands of studies exist regarding medical cannabis, but this post focuses upon some fundamental logic to deliver a hypothesis that hopefully (if reasonable) gains traction.
Science shows the placebo effect has an actual effect on physicality, which ultimately simply means one critical conclusion — your mindset plays a key (if not critical) role in your health. That meaning is amplified by the ‘will to live’ and other mental exercises defying conventional medical wisdom (e.g. a wonderful friend of mine working hard to walk again, despite being told by a medical professional that such mobility is impossible).
Science also shows that cannabis is basically a ubiquitous anti-inflammatory, and apparently all health issues are some form of inflammation caused by unhealthy stress.
Cannabis changes mindset. When used right, that change is positive, but this is the “tip of the ice burg”. The virtually infinite number of ways that cannabis can be implemented as a mental tuning tool to form a “stress harbor” to protect your brain is beyond the scope of this introductory post, but as Cannabis Prohibition continues to thankfully lose ground, more people will be able to publicly contribute details to this serious subject (and maybe, if not certainly, save lives in the process).
The same reason the placebo effect works is the same reason why cannabis can work purely from a perception alteration front. When the altered perception (i.e. mindset) is positive, the health boost naturally reflects that positivity. Certain cannabis strains are naturally positively uplifting, so they nicely compel the user to experience a healthier mindset. When the effect wears off, a good cannabis user can apply a fitting mental effort to tune their mind towards that same healthy place without needing cannabis. This is the real power of cannabis (and other psychedelics). When used right, they can protect, but they can also effectively educate (not to mention entertain).
This is logically why an amazing cannabis icon (i.e. Tommy Chong) can survive “Dancing with the Stars” for five weeks (and counting) at the age of 76. His mindset (which appears awesome for many reasons, including those beyond cannabis’ influence, at least from my perspective) is healthy and the rest of his body positively responds to maximize flexibility.
While prohibition has utterly failed to even create a drug-free prison system (while costing taxpayers billions of dollars annually), the serious effort against cannabis abuse is justifiable. Cannabis can work to varying degrees (including severely) against health by contributing to an unhealthy mindset. There are strains that amplify discomfort in certain situations (the higher the intake amount, the worse the discomfort in these cases), and it certainly is insufficient to distinguish cannabis at the indica versus sativa level. Strain education is critical towards abuse prevention.
Details of this hypothesis will be included in future posts.
I leave my beloved readers with one fairly-pressing thought — this hypothesis needs the right name. Feel free to make suggestions (and have fun doing so). If your hypothesis name sticks, then so too will the corresponding credit (unless you prefer to remain anonymous).
I am an honest freak (or reasonably responsibly balanced "misfit", if you prefer) of an artist working and resting to best carefully contribute towards helping society. Too many people abuse reasoning (e.g. 'partial truth = whole truth' scam), while I exercise reason to explore and express whole truth without any conflict-of-interest -- all within a sometimes offbeat style of psychedelic artistry.
Spirit Wave Journal 
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