A Patent

Here is an abstract of patent #6630507

Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention. A particular disclosed class of cannabinoids useful as neuroprotective antioxidants is formula (I) wherein the R group is independently selected from the group consisting of H, CH3, and COCH3. ##STR1##

And yet the US Government says that cannabis has no medical value.

That leaves a question. Who did the work and who owns the patent?

The patent, awarded in 2003, is based on research done by the National Institute of Health, and is assigned to the US Dept. of Health and Human Services.

Now that is really interesting.

You might want to inform your Congress Critters of this information. Here is the US Government Patent Office listing for US Patent 6630507.

House of Representatives
The Senate

And for those of you who can't wait for Congress to act may I suggest growing your own:

Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas