Original subtitles

- [Narrator] When most of us hear the words,

weed or cannabis, we imagine happy hungry stoners,

unwashed and lazing about on the sofa,

playing computer games or watching TV,

not a care in the world, as they waste their life,

and brain, into oblivion.

Sadly, this has become the popular image and stigma

surrounding the plant.

Even though research has shown that cannabis

has hundreds of active compounds,

is relatively safe to consume,

and can treat, or even cure, thousands of medical ailments,

including cancer, cannabis remains illegal or controlled,

all over the world.

The media ply us with stories

about the harm cannabis causes,

and how it induces psychosis, and even suicide,

but neglect to highlight the small details.

To this day, not one person has died

from an overdose of cannabis.

It has been theorized, that it would take

over a thousand pounds of cannabis,

being consumed, within an hour, to have a fatal effect.

Since this is impossible, we will not be seeing

any death certificate, with a cause of death

marked as cannabis overdose, any time in the future.

Cannabis, or its non-psychoactive form hemp,

has been used by humans for thousands of years,

and until not so long ago,

was a plant prized amongst all others.

So why, in this day and age,

does such a useful plant cause such controversy?

Why, in the UK,

and so many other countries around the world, is it illegal?

In this documentary, we will delve into the past,

and discover the evolution of the cannabis plant,

and the endocannabinoid system,

that evolved within mammals,

eventually becoming perfect partners.

We will explain how our ancestors used the plant,

and how empires were forged,

with hemp as the main driving force.

Most importantly of all,

we will look into the medical benefits of cannabis,

and how one plant has, and can again,

change the world.

(soft piano music)

Our story begins, well, at the beginning.

13.7 billion years ago,

a phenomenon we now call the Big Bang, began.

This single event was a genesis of all matter,

and life, in the universe.

Within 10 to the minus 34 of a second,

that's a hundredth, of a billionth, of a trillionth

of a second in age,

a singularity that seemed to pop out from nowhere,

had expanded by 90 times its size,

and created all the elementary particles

needed to build the universe.

During the first three minutes of the universe,

the light elements were born in a process known as,

big bang nuclear synthesis.

Temperatures cooled from 1032 Kelvin, to 109 Kelvin,

and protons and neutrons collided to make deuterium,

an isotope of hydrogen.

Fast forwarding through 13.2 billion years,

and we observe the formation of the stars,

and then the galaxies.

The Milky Way is formed,

and roughly 4.3 billion years ago,

on a far flung spiral, our home,

planet Earth, starts to form.

A fiery ball that will soon host

and take part in all of human history,

millions and billions of years pass.

The planets cool, and the oceans form.

At an estimated three billion years BC,

single-cell structures form in the ocean.

Then, multicell.

Then, small creatures.

We will stop at 600 million years BC.

This is where our particular story begins.

The creature you're looking at here,

is the humble sea squirt.

The sea squirt has evolved within itself,

the endocannabinoid receptor system,

to control how much water

goes in and out of its siphon.

The endocannabinoid system was only recently discovered

in mammals, in 1992, by doctor Raphael Mechoulam,

as well as researchers, William Devane,

and doctor Lew Mahan.

They discovered the first naturally-occurring

endogenous cannabinoid, or endocannabinoid,

anandamide.

Anandamide is a fatty acid neurotransmitter,

and was named from the Sanskrit word, anada,

meaning, joy or bliss.

Previously, in 1963, Doctor Raphael Mechoulam,

discovered the structure of delta-9 THC,

and in 1988, Doctor William Devane

discovered the protein receptor sites, CB1 and CB2,

in the brain and throughout the body.

- Although I was surprised at the amount of work

that's currently being done, and has been done,

on what's called the human endocannabinoid system,

it may not be known, but all humans produce cannabis,

if you like, in their brain.

It's a natural product,

called the endocannabinoid system.

We produce cannabis-like compounds,

which have a profound effect

on many aspects of our behavior, on pain,

on motor control, movement control,

on growth and adaptability of the brain,

potentially on cancer, on mood, on memory.

It's a fascinating system.

- And this is the largest

neurotransmitter network in our body,

that was only discovered in 1988,

so relatively speaking, a very recent knowledge.

And the endocannabinoid system consists of receptors.

There are two types of receptors identified so far.

Receptors in the brain, in the immune system,

in our guts and in most organs of the body.

The receptors is the first element,

the second elements are ligands,

or microscopic amounts of chemicals, or fats,

oils or fats which are called endocannabinoids.

And the third element of the endocannabinoid system

are enzymes.

The enzymes are responsible for manufacturing

the endocannabinoids in the first place,

or will help with them to break down.

So these three components, working together,

are the endocannabinoid system.

And the reason it's called the endocannabinoid system,

is because these cannabinoids, these endocannabinoids,

are remarkably similar, they're not exactly the same,

but they're remarkably similar

to the cannabinoids that you find in the cannabis plant.

- [Narrator] Anandamide fits the CB1 and CB2 receptor sites,

like a key in a lock.

As well as being a mood enhancer,

Anandamide helps control height, weight,

and reproduction, amongst other things in the body.

Leaving the sea squirt behind, we move forward

566 million years in time, to 34 million years BC.

Here, in the mountains of Kazakhstan,

the cannabis plant has evolved from humulus lupulus,

or more commonly known as, the hops plant,

the flower of which is still used to this day,

in the brewing process for beer.

Evolving at such high elevation,

presented the plant

with many unique environmental pressures.

To better survive, the high UV radiation levels,

low oxygen, and increased predators,

cannabinoids such as THC were used to retain water,

reflect sunlight, and ward off predators.

Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC,

is the most famous cannabinoid,

and the one responsible for the plant's psychoactive affect.

THC was discovered by Doctor Raphael Mechoulam,

in the 1960's, by separating the compounds of the plant,

and testing each individually on animals,

and then humans.

Noticing that only one gave a sedative effect,

Mechoulam discovered the psychoactive compound

responsible for the marijuana high,

the naturally-occurring chemical compound, THC,

found in the cannabis plant,

has a different chemical makeup,

that fits the CB1 and CB2 receptor sites perfectly,

magnifying the mood-enhancing effect,

normally caused by endogenous cannabinoids,

such as anandamide.

It is not just anandamide in THC,

that act on these receptors.

There are many other cannabinoids, and endocannabinoids,

that act directly, or indirectly,

such as 2AG, CBD, CNB,

and THCA, amongst others,

and each has a different effect on the body.

- So, the cannabis plant,

and the reason the cannabis plant

has a therapeutic response in living organisms,

has a physiological impact on users,

creates an emotional response,

has to do with the fact that it has

multiple unique biologically and physiologically

active compounds in the plant.

The two most prevalent compounds

that we find in the cannabis plant,

are tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC,

and the other being CBD, cannabidiol.

Now, they are far from the only

active constituents in the marijuana plant,

but again they're the ones that we find

most prevalent in the plant.

- [Narrator] Over the next 34 million years,

man will evolve from primates,

and nearly 99% of all species that ever existed

have been wiped out.

8000 years BC,

the plant has gone through many changes,

and a relatively new species,

roughly 250,000 years old,

has become the top predator,

and the first to drastically manipulate its environment

through thought, desire, and determination.

A major leap forward will be their agricultural crops.

This will lead to an explosion in technology,

the ability for humans to live in groups larger than 150,

and is the basis of modern civilization.

For now, we are in an ancient village,

located in an area of modern day Taiwan.

From this village archeologists have found hemp cord,

used in pottery.

Hemp refers to strains of cannabis sativa,

that have been bred specifically for its fibers,

and not for its psychoactive effect.

This is the oldest known use for the plant,

and marks the beginning of human agricultural crops.

In 1977, Carl Sagan stated that,

marijuana may actually have been

the world's first agricultural crop,

leading to the development of civilization itself.

6000 BC, China,

cannabis is recorded for its seeds and oil, used in food.

5000 BC, India,

stems were used for fiber to make cloth.

its fruit for food and oil,

and its resin for medicine.

2737 BC, Emperor Jang Ying of China

is recorded for prescribing marijuana tea,

for the treatment of malaria, rheumatism, gout,

to help with the sharpening of memory,

increased eloquence, and the stimulation of appetite.

The plant's popularity as a medicine,

spreads throughout Asia, the Middle East,

and down the eastern coast of Africa.

Ancient physicians prescribed marijuana

for everything from pain relief,

to earache, to childbirth.

Throughout the world, cannabis is quickly becoming

a wonder treatment for hundreds of ailments, and disorders.

Its popularity seems unstoppable.

1550 BC, Egypt,

by 1550 BC, ancient Egyptians were very aware

of the medical properties of cannabis,

in some ways, way surpassing our modern knowledge.

The Avis Papyrus was written around this time period,

and is one of the oldest complete medical texts

discovered so far.

The book mentions medical compounds

containing hemp for many medical problems,

including inflammation, glaucoma,

hemorrhoids, epilepsy, to wave off depression,

and other psychological problems,

and even in the treatment of cancer.

It was noted that cannabis was not a cure,

but treatment to help with the symptoms of the ailment.

The mummy of Ramses II,

that was excavated in 1881,

was found to have traces of cannabis in its remains.

Since then, many mummies that have been exhumed,

have shown similar traces of the plant in their systems,

indicating that cannabis was part of the culture,

and everyday life, in ancient Egypt.

Seshat, the goddess of wisdom,

is depicted here with a colorful cannabis leaf

above her head.

These depictions date back from thousands of years ago.

207 BC, China,

the Hung Dynasty period.

Hemp was being mixed with mulberry tree bark,

to make a low-cost durable paper, used by the masses.

The Old Testament mentions cannabis,

in the recipe for the holy anointing oil.

Exodus 30, verses 22 to 23.

The healer of a local renown,

will infuse nine pounds of a plant

known in Aramaic as keneh bosem, the fragrant cane,

into about six quarts of olive oil,

along with essential extracts

of myrrh, cinnamon, and cassia.

Keneh bosem has been translated to mean cannabis,

rendered from the traditional Hebrew word, kanabos.

Interestingly, the first time the word, keneh bosem,

is mentioned in the Bible,

is in relation to Moses and the burning bush,

when God gives him the recipe for the holy anointing oil.

The Roman Empire traded in hemp.

They imported it from the far-flung corners of the empire,

and distributed it around the world.

They used it for rope, sails, clothes,

paper, food, and medicine, amongst others.

The demand was such,

that the whole empire was in constant production,

and could never produce enough.

The power of the Roman Empire

made the plant commonplace across the globe.

AD 160, Greek physician, Claudius Galen,

writes for the first time in Europe

about the plant's psychoactive effect.

Galen noted that hemp cakes, if eaten in moderation,

produced a feeling of well-being,

but taken to excess,

they led to intoxication and dehydration.

AD 400, hemp is cultivated in the UK.

With the fading of the Roman Empire,

Europe begins to grow its own hemp

to replace the Roman imports.

The Vikings used hemp in nearly all aspects of life,

from clothes, to sails on their ships.

900 AD, Arabs learn techniques for making paper,

using the same techniques that the Chinese used

thousands of years before them.

By the 12th century,

the paper-making knowledge was taken to Europe.

As early as the 10th century,

the Persian medical writer, Alan Musaca,

recommended that the juice of the hemp leaves

be poured into the nose to prevent seizures.

In the 15th century, the polymer, Ali Baradi,

claimed that the epilepsy

of the son of the Caliphate's chamberlain,

was successfully treated with cannabis resin.

1533, England,

King Henry the Eighth issues a royal proclamation

that farmers must put land aside for the growth of hemp.

Countries such as India, China,

and the African colonies,

are chosen for their hemp-growing potential,

as the British Empire grows,

and the demand for ropes, sails, fishing line,

oil, paper, medicine and clothes, increases.

1753, the Swedish botanist, Carolus Linnaeus,

names the plant, cannabis, for the first time.

More specifically, cannabis sativa,

from the Latin meaning, cultivated.

He based the word on kannabis, an old Greek word for hemp.

In 1764, medical marijuana appears

in the New England dispensary.

In 1840, Britain, Sir JR Reynolds,

chief physician to Queen Victoria,

prescribes medical marijuana to the Queen,

to aid with her menstrual cramps.

In Victorian Britain, medical cannabis was being used

for ailments such as,

muscle spasms, rheumatism, and epilepsy.

Studies in 1840 by French doctor, Jacques-Joseph Moreau,

found that marijuana suppresses headaches,

increases appetite, and aiding people to sleep.

By 1850 in America, cannabis-based medicines are available.

The US pharmacopedia lists its use

for 100 separate illnesses and diseases,

including pain management, as a cold treatment,

neuralgia, tetanus, typhus, cholera, rabies,

dysentery, alcoholism, opiate addiction,

anthrax, leprosy, incontinence, gout,

compulsive disorders,

tonsillitis, insanity, excessive menstrual bleeding,

and uterine bleeding, amongst others.

Cannabis, a simple plant, classified as a weed,

a plant that has an almost

symbiotic relationship with humans.

We disperse it around the planet,

and it repays us with medicine, food, oil,

and strong natural fibers.

A plant that has shaped the modern world

like no other before it,

is about to be systematically made illegal

around the western world.

Thousands of years of cultivation, medicine,

paper, and clothing, is about to come to an end,

along with a safe, powerful, medicine.

By 1914 in America,

in response to the influx of Mexican immigrants,

who use cannabis for its psychoactive properties,

rather than the medical use,

the Harrison Act in the US

defined the use of marijuana as a crime.

By 1915, cannabis begins to be prohibited

for non-medical use all across the United States.

By 1927, the prohibition is complete.

- If we look at the origins of cannabis prohibition

in this country,

they really begin with the stigmatization

of certain races that were believed to be using cannabis.

And even today, those stereotypes continue to exist,

they continue to be perpetuated.

This is really part of a larger cultural and class warfare,

in our society,

and actually has very little to do with marijuana itself.

- [Narrator] In 1928 recreational use of cannabis

is banned in Britain.

Cannabis was made illegal in the United Kingdom

on the 28th of September, 1928,

as an addition to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1920.

However, doctors were able to prescribe cannabis

for medical use, until exactly 43 years later,

when on September 28th, 1971,

the Misuse of Drugs Act was introduced.

In 1936, the American propaganda film, Reefer Madness,

was produced to scare the American youth away from cannabis.

The film incited that cannabis causes madness,

and turned men into rapists.

- [Announcer] Marijuana,

the burning weed with its roots in hell.

(Hawaiian music)

♪ Here's a word of warning to those old and young ♪

♪ Pay heed to me before it is delayed ♪

♪ There's a vicious plant ♪

♪ That looks so innocent ♪

♪ But it stems from the roots of hate ♪

♪ Marijuana the devil's flower ♪

♪ If you use it you'll be enslaved ♪

♪ Marijuana it brings you sorrow ♪

♪ And may send you to your grave ♪

- [Narrator] 1937, the US Congress passes

the Marijuana Tax Act, which criminalizes the drug.

In response, William C Woodward,

testifying on behalf of AMA told Congress that, quoting.

(reading above)

His comments were ignored by Congress.

As part of the testimony for Congress,

to pass the 1937 act, derived from articles in newspapers

owned by William Randolph Hearst,

who had a significant final interest in the timber industry,

that manufactured his newspaper.

In 1941, cannabis is removed from the US pharmacopedia,

and its medical use is no longer recognized in America.

So where are we now?

Present day, the plant is still illegal

across most of the world.

Pharmaceutical companies fill the medical gap

with synthetic and toxic drugs.

Oil is being pumped from the oceans.

Our paper is inferior,

and hemp can produce four times the yield

in a comparable timeframe.

The worst of these,

is the removal of a safe medicine.

600 years ago, the Arabs were treating

childhood epilepsy successfully with cannabis.

Today, in a world of overwhelming

technological advancements,

our children and adults

are placed on a plethora of toxic drugs,

that have little to no effect,

and in most cases are highly addictive.

- My name's Charlotte Caldwell,

and I have a little boy called Billy,

who has a condition called intractable epilepsy,

and he's also he's in the highest spectrum of autism.

Billy,

the intractable epilepsy is just that his seizures

cannot be controlled by epilepsy medications or by diet.

He's also a status epileptic,

which means that when Billy goes under a seizure,

he can't come back out on his own.

Any type of seizure in a child is very very dangerous,

but in Billy's case,

the status epileptic as Billy's in,

required a rescue med,

each time that he was into a status seizure,

and he also goes blue and requires oxygen.

He also then at that stage

had just developed this

where he would only take his seizures at night,

which again is real dangerous for him,

he was taking them in his sleep.

I tried to access the,

an evaluation,

an urgent medical evaluation here in our own country,

but to no avail.

I was told it would be six to nine months waiting list.

In March of 2006

when Billy

was sent home to die the first time,

with his condition, epilepsy,

I had found at that stage

what was called a pediatric hepatologist in Chicago,

called Professor Nordley,

and he had saved Billy's life.

After numerous tests, when we arrived in California,

and there was numerous tests on Billy.

They discovered a lesion on his left temple lobe.

They looked at the lesion, and through many different scans,

the lesion, the left temple lobe

actually controls your speech and memory,

and in Billy's case it would have been most likely,

if they were to proceed with surgery,

that Billy, they would had to have removed

all of his left temple lobe,

which would have meant the Billy would have lost

his speech and his memory,

hence his ability to walk, pick up his toys,

drink from his cup, et cetera.

So after a long discussion with Billy's hepatologist,

we considered the fact that Billy

had been through many epileptic medications.

We discussed medicinal cannabis,

and I suggest let's give it a go.

What have we got to lose?

So, Billy started first on CBD,

with the doctor's advice.

He had to establish whether Billy

was a CBD responder or not.

We tried a couple of different forms of CBD oils,

till we eventually found one

that was looking like it was working for Billy.

It was micro-dosed by small doses,

slowly over a period of time.

I think probably the first time I actually

realized that the CBD was actually working for Billy,

was when he was still having the same amount of seizures,

but the length of the seizures was actually reducing,

which was amazing for me, even to get him to that stage,

where he had a reduction in the length of his seizures,

was just absolutely amazing because that meant

that Billy didn't need a rescue med,

which was just fantastic for me,

because a lot of the time he suffered quite badly

from the side effects of the rescue medication.

He then started to, I noticed with him, as well,

his eye contact

getting a lot better,

becoming more aware of his surroundings,

noticing things more, paying more attention to me,

more attention to his books, his toys, et cetera,

he was, it was like his brain was making connections

that I had never seen before.

But the really really great part about it for me as well,

as Billy's mummy was, that I was seeing,

it was almost like I was meeting

my new son.

It was like Billy had lived with me,

and I had been his mummy for 11 years,

but I was starting to see a different Billy,

it was like meeting a new son,

it was just an amazing feeling,

and every week that went past,

the seizures then started to reduce in quantity,

and he started to improve

in all aspects

of his physical ability

and his mental ability.

Till finally we got him where

we couldn't go any higher on the CBD,

but we had got Billy to 98% seizure free,

which was absolutely incredible.

- We found good evidence,

not quite as overwhelming but good evidence

for a variety of other indications.

One was epilepsy and,

particularly children with various forms

of childhood resistant epilepsy,

it can work wonders for them,

it can actually stop people having

several tens of seizures each day.

So that's a remarkable effect in some people,

but not in everybody.

But more studies need to be done on that indication.

- Yeah, kids with epilepsy,

yeah, I think we probably have about three, four kids,

parents come in and they buy tinctures,

and their doctor told them,

hey start out with the low doses,

and they come in and buy 'em,

and they literally, you see them like every week,

and they're like, it's so much better

than giving them like 10 pills a day,

and hurting their stomach,

and not only that, just the price itself.

- The other indication was for Parkinson's disease.

Surprisingly there's been some very good

individual examples of cannabis

really stopping profound movements in Parkinson's disease.

It can be dramatically helpful for some people.

But the evidence that it is across the spectrum

is still rather lacking,

and again it simply means those studies haven't been done,

to confirm what helps, what dosage, what type of cannabis,

how often you have to take it,

what form you have to take it in,

it's those studies that are lacking.

It clearly helps many people with Parkinson's,

but the evidence is still a little bit thin on the ground

to sort of formally recommend it.

- My name's Ian Frizell,

I have early onset Parkinson's Disease.

I was formally diagnosed in 2011,

but I've been suffering symptoms since about 1995.

The main symptom I suffer due to Parkinson's is tremor,

which affects all four limbs,

my neck, my jaw, and my tongue.

Aside from tremor, I have dystonia in my feet,

which causes my toes to curl under my foot,

and muscular stiffness and weakness.

Those are all motor symptoms,

of the non-motor symptoms, lack of motivation is the worst,

and most debilitating symptom I have.

There are many other minor symptoms,

which is also sense of smell.

But those are my major symptoms.

My life has changed quite dramatically since diagnosis.

I have decided to retire from being a computer consultant,

and do a little property development

to keep me busy and to earn a trust.

I've just bought this cottage as a renovation project.

I had completely gutted it,

and then had symptoms I didn't relate to my tremor,

which I'd suffered with mildly for many years.

I lacked energy, was falling asleep during the day,

had no motivation,

and all of these things turned out

to be due to my Parkinson's.

My symptoms have become more pronounced

following some dental work,

which led to my diagnosis with PD.

These days I do not work, I simply don't have the energy,

and I'm constantly battling a lack of motivation,

which is one of the non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's.

I came to use cannabis through researching

natural tremor control on the internet.

There are various foods

that are said to be high in dopamines,

but I tried them and got no benefit.

I came across a number of accounts

of people with Parkinson's using cannabis to calm tremor.

I was getting desperate at this stage,

so I asked a friend who I knew used cannabis recreationally,

if he could get me some to try.

I smoked a little, and the effects were almost instant.

It gave me a 90 to 95% reduction in tremor.

As a bonus, it also relieved my dystonia

and helped with my speech.

I've used it ever since.

As soon as you vape the cannabis,

you do get the hit so,

immediately you feel a slight rush,

and then sort of five or 10 minutes later,

the relaxation kicks in,

and I just feel the tremor melt away, really.

- Yes, I've personally seen cannabis working.

The most dramatic I've seen is in the context

of Parkinson's disease,

where people can have a side effect of medication,

or as part of the Parkinson's disease itself,

they can have quite profound tremors,

and sometimes even wild movements of the arms,

and you can give cannabis and it can stop those movements.

So that's the most dramatic and short-term immediate impact.

- [Narrator] So what's the science here?

The endocannabinoid system is the largest

neurotransmitter network in our bodies.

The main function of endocannabinoid system is homeostasis.

Homeostasis is a concept that most biological systems

are actively regulated to maintain conditions

within a narrow range.

Homeostasis is a regulation of the body's functions,

and has been compared to the concept

of the Goldilocks zone.

Deriving from the story of Goldilocks,

and her three bears,

where Goldilocks prefers the just-right porridge,

not too hot, and not too cold,

just the right balance of both.

This expression is used mainly to show a planet,

like Earth, that is just the right distance

from the sun to sustain life,

a position that is just right.

A body's conditions need to be just right

for ourselves to maintain an optimum performance.

The body's endocannabinoid system

is a vital system for helping to maintain homeostasis.

It helps the cells stay in their Goldilocks zones,

often referred to as the modulation effect.

This gives us a very good insight

as to how cannabis, CBD, and THC,

stop or calm epileptic or Parkinson's fits and tremors.

In one example, endocannabinoids are created

when an overactive neuron fires excessively,

such as in the case with epilepsy.

The neurons connected that are not affected,

will send endocannabinoids to lower the activity

and bring the cell back to the Goldilocks zone.

In cases of severe epilepsy,

the endocannabinoids are too weak, and too few,

to overcome this imbalance.

Coupled with the fact that metabolic enzymes,

such as FAAH and MAGL,

quickly break down anandamide and 2AG,

shortening their effects.

CBD and THC, are like a steroid shot

to the endocannabinoid system,

having a much stronger effect

than the endocannabinoids themselves.

CBD and THC, are FAAH and MAGL resistant,

meaning that the effects last longer,

and are more pronounced.

CBD also prolongs the effects of endocannabinoids,

such as anandamide.

This is why the flavor of foods,

especially those containing milk,

such as chocolate and cakes, et cetera,

are hyper-exaggerated whilst on cannabis.

The anandamide breakdown is delayed by the CBD and the THC,

meaning it's blissful effects last longer,

in turn, the modulation effects last longer,

and afflictions such as fits and tremors

reach a point of homeostasis quicker,

and are maintained for longer.

Although cannabis is not a cure for epilepsy,

or Parkinson's, it is an effective treatment,

and it is so safe, it can be used by children

without any known negative side effects.

The endocannabinoid system is often only activated

where and when it is needed,

so when CBD is taken,

it goes, in a sense,

straight to where the problem is located.

- The cannabis oil, again it was a very slow process.

His eye contact, Billy would have never ever given ye

full on eye contact,

in fact would just completely avoid it at all costs.

He is more interested in his surroundings,

more interested in me, looking at me,

and a big thing for me was,

he wants to interact with me now.

He didn't know how to interact,

but now he will sit up beside you,

come and sit down and sit beside you,

sit at the table beside you.

He will hug you.

He wants to interact with you.

He started this thing as well lately,

of coming and looking straight into your face

and staring into your face,

which I find hilarious.

I remember the first time he did it,

which was absolutely the most amazing thing in the world,

and it made me also realize that

there was a little boy in there,

and he was wanting to come out,

and he was going to come out.

I just had to keep doing what I was doing

with the medicinal cannabis

because it was just making him

start to express himself,

and it was such an amazing thing,

and as a mommy after 11 years not having any of that,

and then all of a sudden

he wants to do that with me so it was

an amazing positive moment.

- I think current legislation regards to cannabis

verges on the criminal.

And there aren't to my knowledge any studies

which prove the case for medicinal use

of cannabis for Parkinson's,

and health care professionals will tell you

that it is unproven.

Those same health care professionals do know,

and some have admitted, that it can be useful in some cases.

I'm one of those cases.

I've asked repeatedly over the last two or three years

to be prescribed cannabis,

only to be told they're unable to do so.

Yet those same health care professionals

are quite happy to prescribe powerful drugs

with unpleasant known side effects,

which they know do not help my symptoms.

That's just got to be wrong.

- When we think about the medical benefits of cannabis,

we really need to understand what they are based on,

and it turns out that the human body,

endogenously, our own body,

produces identical or virtually identical compounds

to what you find in the cannabis plant,

and the neurotransmitter system

that produces and regulates those compounds

is called the endocannabinoid system.

It's present in your

brain, it's present in your organs,

it's present in your skin.

It's present in upwards of 90% of your body,

and wherever the endocannabinoid system is,

its purpose is the same,

which is to maintain or restore homeostasis,

your body's natural balance.

So, cannabis is good for just about anything that ails you,

and in the beginning when I started talking about cannabis,

we didn't even know about the endocannabinoid system.

People would just say, oh that hippy is crazy.

He thinks cannabis is good for everything, right?

Well it turns out, that cannabis is,

because what it does,

it has this modulating effect,

where it restores your body's natural balance.

The best example of the modulating effect

of cannabis that I can give,

comes out of an Israeli nursing home study,

where something like a hundred nursing home,

elderly nursing home patients, were supplied with cannabis,

and all of them reported improved sleep,

decrease in nightmares,

but the really interesting thing was that

those who were overweight, dropped weight,

and came closer to their ideal body mass index,

and those who were underweight, gained weight,

and came closer to their ideal body mass index.

This is the modulating effect of cannabis.

The endocannabinoid system is the explanation

for why cannabis is good for reducing cancer tumors,

easing epileptic seizures,

quelling depression, alleviating anxiety and insomnia,

mitigating chronic pain.

There are an incredibly wide range

of medical uses for cannabis,

so 20 years from now,

my prediction is that the rediscovery

and the renaissance of medical cannabis,

will be looked upon as the most important

medical development since the discovery of germ theory.

(acoustic guitar music)

- [Paul] So there has long been interest

in the relationship between cannabis and cancer.

For many decades, it was presumed, or it was opined,

that cannabis might play a role in causing cancer,

cancer of the lungs,

cancer of the upper aerodigestive tract for instance,

and what we've seen over time,

is that the data has never substantiated that fear.

What is known today is that the use of cannabis,

even long-term, does not seem to be associated

with the diagnoses of the sort of tobacco-related cancers,

that many people expected,

and in fact some of those studies have shown that people

that use cannabis are actually less likely

to be diagnosed with some of these diseases,

compared to people who don't use marijuana at all.

So that's been a very interesting finding,

and it's led some scientists

to further look into this question

of whether cannabis, or again the constituents

in the cannabis plant,

might actually play a role in cancer prevention,

or in mitigating the spread of cancer.

Now we have preliminary data,

we have cell studies,

we have animal models,

that show that cannabinoids clearly can

kill cancer cells.

We know the mechanism of action,

and we have seen these results consistently,

again in Petri dishes, in animal models.

Of course the 64 dollar question is whether

cannabis would provide those same sort of results

and activity in humans with cancer,

and we don't know the answer to that question.

We know that cannabinoids can trigger apoptosis,

which is programmed cell death,

and eliminate cancer cells in animals.

We know that it can do that in a Petri dish,

we don't know the dosage that would be required

to safely and effectively achieve

those same sort of results in humans,

and it's unfortunate we don't know,

because absent the longstanding politicization of cannabis,

we probably would know the answer to that question today.

- My name's Lin Coxon, and I've got breast cancer.

I was diagnosed on the 28th of June this year,

with a grade three aggressive tumor,

estrogen positive, HER2 negative,

with extensive lymph node involvement

under my arm and in my neck.

And I have found a lump,

and went to see my GP,

and she said it was a cause for concern,

and referred me to the breast care unit.

I was lucky to get an appointment the following morning,

so about 10 o'clock the next day

I knew that I had breast cancer,

because I could see it on the scan, she showed it to me,

and I obviously said, is it a cyst,

and she said no, and I said, oh is it cancer?

She said yes.

The tumor was big,

it looked enormous,

and there was extensive lymph node involvement

under my arms and in my neck.

I saw the consultant,

on the Tuesday, and he told me that the tumor

was 33 millimeters, but it hadn't spread anywhere else.

It's just in my lymph node,

and he told me I would need eight rounds of chemotherapy,

followed by an lumpectomy or a mastectomy,

and then radio therapy.

So I went away

and I did lots of reading and research,

because I just wanted to know what I could do for me,

because the thing with cancer is,

it takes away your control.

You're not in control anymore,

and I don't find that very easy.

So I did a lot of research,

and I knew about cannabis oil, CBD oil,

because of someone that we'd helped through work,

and she got non-Hodgkin's lymphoma,

and chemotherapy hadn't worked, it hadn't killed the cancer,

so that she could actually have

a bone marrow transplant,

and they sent her home to die.

Her family got her onto CBD oil,

and when she went back for her scan,

A, they weren't expecting to see her,

and B, she was cancer-free and able

to have that bone marrow transplant.

And everything I've read, online,

and I got some books as well,

just reinforced the fact that CBD, cannabis oil,

seemed to work, and I thought I'm gonna give this a go.

So on the 7th of July, I started to take it.

I was seeing the consultant again on the 24th of July,

and he described the lump then as palpable,

which meant that it was soft.

Well, it hadn't been soft,

it felt like the corner of a table.

From then on, I couldn't actually feel this lump at all.

So it came to two days

before I was due to start my chemotherapy,

and I rang the hospital and said,

you know I can't feel this lump anymore.

Can I have another ultrasound scan?

And they said no.

So I rang my GP,

and she referred me to the

local Newfield Hospital,

and I had a private scan which I paid for.

What I didn't know was,

that the radiologist who did the scan,

actually was part of the breast care team,

and he had my original scan,

he'd asked for them,

so I could see him doing it,

I could see on the screen that

there was still some tumor there,

and he said, well actually it's smaller.

So I said, how much smaller?

He said, all in good time.

Well when he'd finished his eyes were like saucers,

and he said, it shrunk.

Do you mind if I do a mammogram?

And I said, no of course I don't.

So he did the mammogram

and then took me in the office and showed me.

And the original tumor, 33 millimeters,

was now 11 millimeters,

and the lymph nodes which had been 25 millimeters,

so they were big like grapes, were down to 10,

and in the mammogram,

whereas before the tumor was like a pebble,

it was just hazy,

so the whole density of it had changed completely.

So obviously then, I didn't really know what to do,

because I was due to start chemo on the Wednesday.

And in the end I had to go down to the hospital,

on the Wednesday morning,

and see the breast care team and say, look,

what am I doing?

I don't know what to do now.

And so they deferred my chemotherapy,

and I saw the consultant the following week,

after they had discussed me

at their management team meeting.

And he said, obviously it's amazing,

this is amazing but,

as clinicians we have to tell you

that we recommend that you have chemotherapy.

So I said to him, okay,

with a grade three aggressive tumor left eight weeks,

what would you have expected to see on that scan?

And he said, well it wouldn't have shrunk.

So, I said okay, if I'm prepared to take the risk,

will you monitor me?

And they said yes, we'd be delighted to.

And so that's what's happened since.

So now I'm down to about five millimeters,

and it's not a lump as such,

it's five millimeters of cancer cells.

- I could show you so much history,

but you know the one that just totally burns me up is

cannabis and cancer, right?

Now we know, I've seen it with my own eyes,

and you can go talk to Professor Guzman

from the University of Madrid,

and a whole army of other scientists,

who have established that cancer, that cannabis

stops the growth of cancer tumors.

So this isn't new information.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse

knew this is 1974.

They ran a study in 1974

that was designed to show that cannabis causes cancer.

The results came back showing the opposite.

Cannabis actually fights cancer.

What did they do?

They buried the study.

Not only did they bury the study,

they didn't refer it to anybody,

they didn't send it to the National Cancer Institute,

they did nothing, right?

Three years later, they did it again.

Another study designed to show

that cannabis causes cancer.

Same exact result.

Same exact result,

in both categories, the scientific results,

and what they did with it.

So again, it goes into the dustbin, right?

And then, several years later,

they do a third study, this time on lung cancer,

and they figure, ah lung cancer, smoke, smoke causes cancer,

we've got 'em this time.

They hired a doctor named Doctor Donald Tashkin,

to do the Tashkin Study.

Tashkin examined the rates of lung cancer

amongst cannabis smokers, tobacco smokers, and non-smokers.

He found the lowest rate of cancer incidence

in cannabis smokers.

The second lowest rate in non-smokers of anything,

and of course the highest rate in tobacco smokers.

And there's a very simple reason for that.

Despite the tar and other carcinogenic substances

that are in any smoke,

the cannabinoids that were in the cannabis smoke,

were so strong, they fought cancer so effectively,

that they completely,

they not only completely outweighed the smoke,

but pushed it in the other direction of prevention.

- My name's Jacqui Ritchie,

and I suffer from breast cancer.

I had the genetic BRAC1,

which usually gives you tumors of cancers,

so I had triple negative metaplastic cancer,

which is really severe cancer,

and on the other breast I had another cancer, H2,

and HAR2 positive breast cancer.

They said for me the cancer that I had

was just a lump on my breast,

and then when I went to the doctor and had a mammogram,

they discovered the lump on the other breast as well.

And because I had actual breast cancer,

they realized there was a possibility

that I would have the genetic BRC gene,

so I was tested as well.

And the treatment I've had is a radical double mastectomy,

and chemo regime for the two different types of cancer.

The effects of chemotherapy for me,

the first time I had chemotherapy was terrible.

I could hardly breath, I could hardly move.

I walked by everywhere with a plastic bag, like this.

Before I started chemotherapy

I already had a couple of immune system problems.

I had renal syndrome,

which is bad blood circulation in the fingers and toes,

and I already had the IBS, I was chemical intolerant.

So I was, I had IBS (muffled).

And once chemo started, that was all a lot worse,

it exasperated everything.

So constant white feet, constantly freezing,

and originally, I used cannabis when I was younger

to treat anxiety,

and I suffered anorexia when I was younger as well.

So I'd used it to treat that when I was younger.

So I'd already a big realization,

about the plant being used medicinally,

but I didn't realize about the cancer.

It wasn't until I started researching it

that I started realizing

that they'd done quite a lot of research

with regards to the cannabis plant,

and different types of cancer.

So I started doing all the research on that.

I actually managed to get in touch with Rick Simpson,

yeah I managed to get in touch with him

through his Facebook page,

so there was a correspondence there.

And he just directed me, where I needed to go

to go and watch the movie,

what strains that we need to grow,

and how it needs to be grown.

How to de-carboxylate it into the oil that I need,

what all the equipment that I need to do it.

He more or less handed me all the information

that I needed.

The day that I was diagnosed

I started looking to see

if I could actually get some cannabis oil.

And I did manage to get small amounts of cannabis oil,

and because I'd managed

to get small amounts of cannabis oil,

I actually put my surgery off.

The wanted to do surgery immediately

because of the two different types of cancer.

So I put this surgery off until May,

from February to May.

I used oil whenever I could get it,

but it was quite sporadic,

so I ended up running out of oil,

and so I started growing.

Up to that point I'd actually managed to do

just the tumor quite a bit,

and the pain from the tumor had, it disappeared as well,

I wasn't gettin' pain from the tumor.

Because I couldn't procure any more oil,

I ended up, surgery, radical double mastectomy.

But from the time I had the surgery,

I already had oil sitting, waiting for me.

But at that point,

because from more or less just after I was diagnosed,

I actually started growing a couple of plants.

So I knew if I put things off a bit,

I would have my own oil ready

by the time I started chemo therapy.

So I used my own oil by the time

the second chemotherapy treatment had happened.

It was my own oil that I had made,

that I researched extreme.

So I had the surgery on May,

and chemotherapy started in July.

So, like I said, from the second chemotherapy,

for all the rest of the chemotherapy all the way through,

I took oil.

I took oil.

And I have the pathology from my mastectomy,

and the really rare cancer that I had

that it was nearly a five centimeter tumor,

the majority of it was actually necrotic tissue.

It was just a few cancer cells on the inside of that.

And from the prognosis he gave me

from that pathology,

they have my risk of recurrence

within the next two years, at nearly 100%,

and I'm sitting at over three years now,

and I haven't had a recurrence yet, as far as I know.

And just before my last chemo,

I had an appointment with the oncologist,

and at that point the oncologist said to me

that they found a scar in the liver region,

and at that point I'm sitting thinking to myself,

chemotherapy obviously hasn't worked,

and I need to up my oil intake,

because I need to sort this out.

And I said to my oncologist then,

I'm just gonna do one more chemotherapy,

and that's my chemotherapy regime finished.

I don't want anymore.

I don't want any more allopathic treatment.

I'm gonna treat my liver lesion

with diet supplements, and oil.

And when I finished chemotherapy,

I still had a skull and liver lesion.

A month later when I went down to England,

after doing my diet and my oil and everything,

for the full month and been really really good,

and I went down to England

to get a full body thermographic scan,

and thanks to (muffled)

I got results back from the team of doctors,

and they said, you're clear.

You've got no evidence of disease,

there's no skull and liver lesion or anything there.

So I'm a very very happy woman,

a very happy woman,

and I've been mentioning stores

on and off ever since then.

So yeah, here I am now.

- Well, so let me strike a little closer to home.

Sir John Reynolds, who you may know as

the personal physician to Queen Victoria's household,

not only prescribed it for the Queen's menstrual cramps,

but also hailed it as the most effective preventative

and remedy for what we now call Alzheimer's disease,

for which we have excellent scientific evidence now,

because cannabis helps prevent the accumulation

of plague in your brain,

and there's good hard science on this now.

So, you can find a similar trail

through medical history,

for literally dozens of ailments.

- I think the most surprising thing I've learned

about cannabis, is the immense amount of good

it does for people.

Working as a medical journalist I began to become aware

of the fact there was more and more evidence emerging,

but it was only when I actually got involved in a campaign,

that I started to meet people

who have some of the most terrible medical conditions,

either diseases, often neurodegenerative diseases,

things like Parkinson's or MS,

but also people who suffer from things like spinal injury,

or injuries, or deformities,

or things like stenosis, or scoliosis,

and you see these people who have

intense, chronic, neuropathic pain,

which conventional, and very dangerous painkillers,

usually opioids, barely touch.

And you see how their life

is literally completely transformed by the use of cannabis.

- [Narrator] In the United Kingdom,

cannabis is a class B drug,

meaning that a person in possession of cannabis,

could face up to five years in prison,

and up to 14 years in prison for supplying.

This makes it extremely difficult

for anyone that wants to use cannabis as a treatment.

The United Patients Alliance

has been set up to campaign on behalf of patients

for legal access to medical cannabis,

to treat chronic conditions.

Every year, the UPA puts on events

to raise awareness of medical cannabis,

and to keep the conversation in the public consciousness.

- Hi, I'm Jon Liebling, I'm vertical director

of United Patients Alliance.

We are a medical cannabis organization.

There are round about one million medical cannabis patients

currently in the UK, consuming cannabis

because they find that better for them,

than prescription medications.

And we support them.

We've got about 10,000 people

who we directly support,

and we also lobby for change,

so that we can get legal access to cannabis,

for the hundreds of thousands of people that need it.

Every single one of us in United Patients Alliance

is a medical cannabis patient,

every single one of us.

I'm someone who suffered from anxiety and depression

for most of my life,

and I've managed that adequately with cannabis.

Some years ago, unfortunately I got onto

the wrong side of the law for growing my own medicine,

and that's kind of how I got involved.

And United Patients Alliance formed a couple of years ago,

it was 2014, and we're all patients,

so I found Clark French,

he's a multiple sclerosis sufferer.

He was diagnosed when he was 24.

And when he came across cannabis,

he could reduce the amount of opiate medications he was on,

the tramadol, and the gabapentin,

and he was able to replace that with cannabis.

And he was able to start using his walking stick.

He was actually more mobile,

and in fact he got so well

he helped create United Patients Alliance.

And so we're here raising awareness.

- United Patients Alliance started as just

a small group of patients who use cannabis as a medicine,

and we wanted to change the law around that,

because we were fed up with being persecuted,

and made to feel like criminals for our choice of medicine.

What we actually did when we started trying to lobby

and change the law, by accident,

we grew up this really lovely community

of people who are already using cannabis

as a medicine in the UK,

so now what we have is a really good online community,

where patients who are just starting out

in their cannabis journey,

they can come and learn from other patients

about what strains work best for certain things,

oil-making methods,

and all the sort of things that go along with that.

It's a really good, reliable source of information,

because it's patients learning from other patients.

And we're creating a best practice

for within our communities,

so that when the law changes

we will have the knowledge there, ready to enact,

and help as many people as we can.

(soft piano music)

- Folks, we're told about five minutes ago by messenger

that it has passed absolutely, all the ayes have it.

There are no people saying no to it.

(crowd cheering)

I want to thank you all for coming.

Thank you so much for being here.

- Blast off, the bill has passed.

(cheering)

We must now use this to lobby our politicians.

You must speak to your MP today.

Get your phone out, email them now.

Let your elected representative know,

that you came here today in support of this,

and that you believe that cannabis

needs to be regulated as medicine.

It doesn't matter who you work for.

It doesn't matter what banner you want to raise,

what matters is that we're all here on the same page,

voicing for cannabis as medicine.

(cheering)

(soft piano music)

- My name's Calli Blackwell, and my son is Deryn Blackwell,

and in 2010 he was diagnosed with leukemia.

Two years later he has a second cancer

called Langerhans Cell Sarcoma,

subsequently, had four bone marrow transplants

in 10 months to try and prevent either cancer coming back.

And unfortunately on his fourth and final transplant,

he developed three catastrophic infections.

He had no functioning bone marrow,

and they told us that nobody

had ever engrafted after 50 days,

so we got to day 46,

and there was nothing there at all,

so we were sent to hospice,

and my son was given possibly three days to a week to live.

Deryn started to get very anxious because

he was facing his death,

planned his funeral, planned everything about it,

and I decided to start administering a tincture

that we made off cannabis,

mainly to alleviate his anxiety he was suffering from,

and they were also trying to give him a lot of morphine,

and he made it very clear

that he didn't want to die on morphine,

he wanted to be compos mentis.

So we started giving him cannabis tincture,

and five days later his bone marrow kicks in at 875,

and he officially grafted at say 104.

They called him a miracle,

because they had never seen a boy

who was on no other medication,

other than what I was giving him,

which I had to keep secret because

back then you're always scared of social services,

and losing my children,

and now losing the one thing that was helping Deryn.

I had this published in April of this year,

and it's a full complete story of the whole journey.

It's not just about cannabis though,

cannabis is a tiny tiny part of the end.

I wrote it hopefully because I want to give people hope.

I want to give people the chance to understand

that there are other opportunities.

There are other options,

we don't have to just go with what they tell us.

There are other ways.

Deryn is proof of that, living proof of that.

I saw hundreds of people here today.

- The bill is to reverse an error in a previous bill,

which said that cannabis has no medical value.

The legislation on cannabis at the moment is an act.

It actually states that cannabis has no medicinal value,

and is in contrary to the experience

of 5000 years of the use of cannabis,

in all civilizations in the world.

But if we get through that,

and decide it has some medicinal use,

then flowing from that is the possibility

of the sale of various products that are already available.

But the world's tide is turning against prohibition,

and we've already seen the majority of states in America,

29 of them, have legalized medicinal cannabis.

Canada is leading the way, Uruguay,

a whole range of countries throughout the world

are realizing that we need a new policy.

- The UK has one of the toughest drug policies

across the western world,

and we differ in particular from the USA,

and many countries in Europe.

As we know, the majority now of US states

now have legalized cannabis for medical use,

many have also legalized it for social use,

but we're not discussing that yet.

A dozen countries in Europe

now have legalized one way or another,

the use of cannabis for medical purposes.

It's interesting that Denmark passed their law

actually in November last year,

legalizing medical cannabis.

Germany passed their law through their lower house,

in January this year.

We have Ireland with their law

going through parliament as we speak,

so the move towards recognizing

the incredible medical value of cannabis,

is I would say becoming more and more rapid

across the world.

But the UK? No change, no change at all.

So, we're really getting left behind here.

- In a way, the Lib-Dems took a risk.

We went out and advocated for reform,

and we sought to appeal to all those reform-minded voters,

who absolutely see the nonsense in the current position.

We didn't get that case heard well enough

in the general election.

But in time other political parties I think will see,

that public opinion has changed,

and that increasingly the public think

the existing laws are ludicrous, as they are.

- Well the most important thing about it,

about regulating cannabis,

would be to restrict access to children.

I mean I'm a great admirer, and I would completely endorse

the strategy that Justin Trudeau has adopted in Canada,

where almost,

in the same sentence as saying

we're going to legalize cannabis,

he said we're going to restrict access to it.

And I think that is the way forward.

Now many people would argue

that you don't need to restrict access to cannabis,

and it should be treated like

cauliflowers or carrots or tomatoes.

And it was to have some sort of

emotional sympathy with that.

I think if you're being pragmatic about it,

in the real world that's not a sensibile attitude.

And there's no doubt that if cannabis does cause harm,

and again, let's be honest, cannabis can cause harm.

Only in a very small number of cases,

but cannabis can cause harm.

It's a psychoactive substance,

to suggest it can't, would be foolish.

So if it can cause harm,

then children are the most vulnerable.

- I'm keen to give this place laws that make sense.

At the moment, most laws are prejudiced which,

and evidence-free,

and the cannabis laws are irrational,

unscientific, and do a great deal of damage.

They actually increase crime,

they increase abuse of drugs,

and they waste a fortune,

but the cruelest aspect of laws of prohibition,

are that seriously ill people

are denied their medicine of choice,

and there's an abundance of evidence

that cannabis has a unique role to play,

particularly relieving the symptoms of

a very cruel disease, multiple sclerosis.

- We had a report on the medical benefits of cannabis,

undertaken by Professor Barnes, for inquiry,

and really we rely very much on his report

of worldwide research to talk about,

that is the issue of the specific medical conditions

for which cannabis is most helpful.

And what he found is that there is good evidence

for medical cannabis for conditions like

chronic, and in particular, neuropathic pain,

in dealing with seizures for example,

in the case of people with multiple sclerosis,

for epilepsy, in young children, for example.

And certainly for the symptoms

of nausea, sleeplessness, and so on,

that arise as the result of people with cancer

taking chemotherapy.

So there are those conditions anyway,

for which the evidence

according to Professor Barnes is good.

There are a number of other conditions,

where there is some evidence that cannabis can be helpful.

It's truly remarkable actually,

the extent to which cannabis can help people,

with very very different kinds of conditions.

- Yes, I've been involved with (muffled) pain

since the early days.

Basically, that campaign is designed to

make cannabis legal for medical use.

Without getting too technical at the moment,

it's a schedule one drug in the misuse of drugs act.

That means that it has no medicinal value,

which is complete nonsense.

And there's overwhelming evidence

that it does have medicinal value.

Many countries around the world,

over half of the American states,

have now recognized its use and made it legal.

So for the government to maintain

that it's a schedule one drug with no medicinal value,

is it's nonsense.

- It's just the inertia in this country,

and the prediction clearly in that article

was wholly misplaced,

but I think in a way the difference

between the United States and the United Kingdom is that,

their much more devolved style of government,

where states have considerable control over policymaking

in a whole range of areas,

facilitates experimentation and innovation in lawmaking.

And so you've had a few states going out ahead,

and California went out ahead on medical use of cannabis,

some years ago now, and have now voted for

legalization of recreational use.

Colorado has had recreational use legalized

for two or three years now.

And as people see that it's worked,

it hasn't led to collapse of morality, or law-breaking,

or anything of that sort.

Then it convinces other states that they can try it,

but in this country it's all or nothing.

You have to convince the national government to do it,

and that's much more difficult.

- [Narrator] In the US, cannabis is legal

in nine states for medical and recreational use.

30 states in all, have passed laws allowing some degree

of medical use of marijuana.

California has a long history of fighting for legalization,

since the 1960's,

and gained huge ground in the early 90's,

with Proposition 215.

Proposition 215, was conceived by San Francisco

marijuana activist Dennis Peron,

in memory of his partner, Jonathan West,

who had used medical marijuana

to treat the symptoms of AIDS.

In 1991, Peron organized Proposition P,

the San Francisco medical marijuana initiative,

which passed with 79% of the vote.

Proposition P did not have the force of law,

but was simply a resolution

declaring the city's support for medical marijuana.

Proposition 215 was enacted into law on November 5th, 1996,

by means of the initiative process,

and passed with 55.6% of the vote in favor.

Since that time the medical cannabis industry

in California has had its ups and downs,

but is now a thriving industry,

adding billions to the state's economy.

With the passing of Proposition 64, in November, 2016,

legalizing the sale of recreational cannabis for adults,

estimates based on their current illegal market,

could mean that California could see a rise

in over 5.7 billion dollars in revenue,

from the legalization of recreational cannabis.

- The Atria Group issues a report every year,

on the international cannabis market,

and we know that in the United States,

cannabis, legal cannabis,

is the fastest growing industry in the entire country.

- My name is Joshua,

I'm a manager here at Kush LA Collective.

We are a medical dispensary in California,

and we are here to provide great medicine

for great patients.

I'm a budtender, or I could be considered the manager here.

It's like a bartender, mix that with some bud in it.

When I first started doing this actually,

I remember walking up to my Mom when I was 18,

and telling her, hey Mom, look I'm a doctor.

You know, it was like, I'm a pharmacist now.

I was like, I prescribe medicine to people, all day long.

In a sense, it definitely is a medication.

The way I look at it is,

herbal medicine.

You know there's people that do straight herbal medicine,

that are considered you know, voodoo doctors,

witchcraft doctors, whatever they want to be called,

and all this other alternative medicine,

but they're still considered technically a doctor,

because it's the herbal medicine.

Same thing, cannabis is just an herbal medicine,

so I definitely relate to that idea

of us being doctors and being pharmacists,

because that's what we do, we treat people.

It's like a bartender, you know,

they say they have a, what is it?

A bachelors is psychiatry right?

That's how I feel sometimes when I'm here.

My patients come in, bad day, good day,

they come in to talk to me, they tell me their problems,

they tell me they're stressing about,

and I recommend weed that I feel would be best for them.

Sometimes people are having really bad days,

and they don't feel like talking as much,

so they want something to mellow them out.

Other times some people are feeling really bad, or upset,

that they just want to have something

to make them have an uplifting feel,

so you get something more like a citrus,

or something that has a more upbringing feel to it.

Originally, when it first came out, when it was medically,

walk into a doctor's office,

and you'd go into the office,

and you'd first talk to one of the receptionists,

will probably be a very attractive woman,

depending on how it is, because in California

there's a lot of backwoods doctors,

the give out recs like nothing.

You know, oh you're sleepy?

Here, get some cannabis.

But then there are doctors that actually ask you more

thorough questions, actually ask you,

what are your pains and your insomnias,

to see if cannabis is best for you.

And so it really just depends on where that person goes

to get their doctor recommendation,

which is really determined on the process.

The change in culture you can see,

is it's a lot less black market,

it's a lot more open.

You see a lot more cops obviously

just being more compliant with it.

You know, just more of a sense of

being accepting of it.

It's a whole culture of like you see

even the older generation

that used to call of us drug users, and drug abusers,

you're even seeing them start seeing and hearing about it,

and it's very big with the Hispanic culture,

that's something that would be

looked down upon and would be frowned upon.

I heard also (muffled) is just like,

honestly it's just about the naturalness of it.

Like weed is very natural,

but it's also if you feel sick sometimes,

and you feel crappy and sluggish,

you need to eat better.

You need to put better things in your body.

Weed is a better alternative to any kind of medicine

you could be taking because pill forms

and all this other stuff that they add,

and all these gels and powders and stuff

that break down your body,

like what's all that extra?

Compared to just burning a leaf?

- My name is Kendrick Mahia, AKA Poly Rob,

and I am a producer and engineer

and co-owner of Local Astronauts.

Local Astronauts is a company which consists of

a collective of creatives,

that's coming together for culture rebranding,

music production, video production,

and we're really about advancing the culture

as we see it and where we want to see it,

within the next couple of years.

At 34 years old,

being I consider

the business prime of my time.

Before, I never used to smoke weed, at all.

During my 20's, early 20's, mid 20's,

I never used to smoke weed.

In my brain it was always

a point of trying to just stay abrupt,

and be just the first person moving,

and I felt that weed was the exact opposite

of what I was trying to accomplish.

You know all of my friends, they smoke weed,

which all due respect is great, not a problem,

it was just for me, I didn't want to feel sluggish,

I didn't want to feel like I was

the person that would just forget things,

or you know just kind of the cliche ideas

of what you thought marijuana would do to you.

And this is only just my natural ignorance

of not knowing about marijuana.

So, fast forward to

about a couple of years ago.

I'm getting off a plane

after 18 hours of doing a session in Ohio,

I get off the plane,

and I come back to my studio in Los Angeles.

Another set of clients

calls me about three in the morning,

this is like my peak hours to either

keep working or finish the day off,

like completely finish the day.

So, they called me and they said hey man,

we're in town, we got off the plane early,

we're in town, so they pull up to my studio,

and we proceed to play music,

talk a little bit about business or whatnot,

and we just were enjoying each other's company, of course,

till about five, six in the morning.

So when they leave,

they said okay we're going back to the hotel.

We're gonna settle in, get some sleep,

wake up, and let's continue to discuss

whatever it is we need to do.

So fine, they're gone.

I proceed to lay down because now I'm in the studio,

I'm not gonna travel home.

I'm just not traveling home.

So I sleep in the studio,

and I lay on my couch,

and when I wake up,

however my face was laid on the couch,

it stayed like that,

completely, like it was my entire face

was shut into just one facial expression.

It was drooping, my face was very droopy.

So I'm trying to wash my face with water,

trying to figure this thing out, and it just wouldn't go,

so I had to postpone the meeting,

went to the doctor,

and the doctor told me I had Bell's palsy,

and Bell's palsy is pretty much, in a nutshell,

it's when your

brain nerves don't react to your face nerves.

So, you know, it's terrible,

and it comes from lack of sleep,

inner stress, stress you don't know you have.

You can be working 18, 20 hours,

if you don't allow your body to relax,

and tranquilize,

you can easily put your body into

almost like a semi-stroke.

I had to take pills, I took pills for about four days,

muscle relaxers.

I just wasn't into it, wasn't into it at all.

So one of my colleagues suggested that

I smoke marijuana.

They asked me, they said,

have you ever tried smoking marijuana

to relax your nerves?

I'm like, no I don't smoke.

And they're like, you should definitely try it,

like this is something that can eventually

turn into a major stroke if you don't treat it properly.

I thought about it for a minute,

then other options of

cannabis lotions,

taking edibles, some things like that.

So I started to smoke, to smoke marijuana,

and like literally immediately,

after my face would just, it would twitch a little bit,

and then it would formulate itself

for me to be able to speak a lot better,

and like even now,

like you can still see bits of my face,

that are still working itself out,

and it really, it works a wonder,

it really puts my face back into normal,

along with of course proper eating and

facial exercises.

It allows me to get everything back into motion,

and just had a newfound respect

for what marijuana does.

I have a totally, totally newfound respect,

and after doing a lot more homework,

social media is just open so

after doing a lot more homework,

I started to figure out that it's just so many

health benefits for cannabis.

I'm definitely appreciative

of being able to have the opportunity

to even get myself back to normal, you know.

The average person,

if they're not on medication,

and they have a Bell's palsy, or cerebral palsy,

or mini-strokes or different

diseases or symptoms,

like some of them are so far gone

they don't have the ability to get back.

It's like their body is at that point

where it's a breaking point.

So, I was lucky,

to be able to have the privilege of even,

have the opportunity to get back.

It's changed the whole way I kind of look at

how I enjoy and endure life, as well,

you know what I mean?

So it's a beautiful thing for me now.

- So I was inspired to open Harborside,

by the lack of a really responsible,

professional dispensary.

When I came to California,

there were dispensaries that had been stared by activists,

which were very amateurish,

and there were dispensaries that were started by people

who really just wanted to make as much money as they could,

as quickly as they could,

and they were ugly and scary.

So, I wanted to create a gold standard

for cannabis retailing to show that when this activity

is done with intelligence and integrity,

that it can bring benefits to communities instead of harm.

The whole idea of Harborside from the beginning was

to create a truly responsible, professional

cannabis retail environment,

some place that was really worthy of the plant,

and so we set out from the beginning

to sort of create a temple to cannabis.

Harborside started as a family business.

As we've grown, it's become bigger

than my family could manage,

and we are now growing into a real company,

a real corporation.

But we always work hard to maintain

the same sense of caring

about each other, and for each other,

that you would see in a family

that we've always had here at Harborside.

We don't want to just create a new business,

or even a new industry,

we want to create a new kind of business,

and a new kind of industry that smashes the old models,

and is really like committed to building

the kind of world we all want to live in,

a world that has sustainable practices in it,

a world that reflects the diversity of human beings,

a world that's fair to everybody,

and takes care of everybody,

and so we try to do that here

and model that world we want to live in.

- [Narrator] The four-year experiment in Colorado.

Cannabis was first decriminalized in Colorado in 1975.

Though it was still illegal,

it was not a criminal offense,

meaning that you could not go to prison for possession,

only a civil fine could be imposed.

In 2000, the 20th amendment to the state's constitution,

made cannabis legal for medical purposes.

Anyone with a doctor's prescription

could now access cannabis as a medicine.

In 2014, Colorado legalized recreational cannabis,

in the 64th amendment to its constitution.

Since that time, adults over 21

can legally smoke or ingest cannabis on private premises.

Also, people can grow up to six plants,

and travel instate with up to one ounce.

The Colorado Department of Revenue

showed that recreational and medical cannabis sales

reached 1.3 billion in 2016.

Eight out of the 12 months in that year,

reached over 100 million in revenue,

which yielded nearly 200 million in tax.

2017 saw a rise to around 1.8 billion in revenue.

As the rest of the United States is seeing a rise in crime,

Colorado is seeing a decrease in serious crimes,

such as homicide and robbery since legalization.

Cannabis use in 12 to 17 year olds,

has decreased significantly.

But adult use,

especially those over 50, have skyrocketed.

Drug-related deaths have decreased

due to the decline in opiod use, and other hard drugs.

In 2017, three years after legalizing cannabis,

Colorado had the lowest unemployment rate in the country,

at 2.3%, the lowest since 2001.

In 2015 alone, the state's cannabis industry

created 18,000 new full-time jobs.

Cannabis turns out to be a stronger economic driver

than 90% of the industries active in Colorado.

- My name is Pepe Breton,

and I'm the owner-CEO of Euflora,

which is a chain of retail stores in Denver, Colorado.

At the beginning, I was in corporate America,

and I was kind of tired,

and I always wanted to do my own business,

and at the time I was searching for

what I could do business-wise that I could be my own boss.

And at the time, this whole medical marijuana movement

was going like crazy,

and I said hey like, if drug dealers can do it,

that are not so smart,

I'm sure I can figure out how to do it.

So, at the time I partnered up with a friend of mine,

that grew tomatoes, and the one thing I knew is,

that if you can grow tomatoes you can grow anything.

So I partnered up with my friend,

and I was like dude, you know how to grow tomatoes,

let's start growing marijuana

for medicinal purposes.

And it just kind of started from there,

it took a $30,000 investment to what we are now.

Really, recreational was,

what took marijuana to the next level,

because back then it was just about 100,000 patients,

and you have hundreds of dispensaries,

and once it became recreational

now you're talking millions of people,

millions of tourists,

so now it really has become a legitimate industry

that creates millions of dollars on tax revenue,

and hundreds of thousands of jobs now.

It really has helped the Colorado economy tremendously.

No, I think the best statistic that I've heard

is as far as crime coming down,

they used to say that April was the highest month

as far as crime rate goes,

and now with 420 being April 20th,

they said this last year was like

the least crime in the month of April.

Definitely yes, like marijuana has taken some share

from drinking, so maybe the people that were drinking,

now they're smoking,

and typically when you're gonna be smoking,

you just want to sit at your house and relax.

You never see anybody trying to get violent

or crazy or ballsy,

they're just cool, chill people who want to relax happy.

So that's a huge positive when you think about

marijuana versus alcohol.

So yeah, definitely marijuana has definitely changed,

I'll say, maybe not the world now,

but definitely has changed Colorado.

Like there's no way that without marijuana

Colorado will be where it is,

which we're one of the top states

as far as growth, and real estate,

and we see thousands of people moving every month

from different states

and probably have about 100 employees.

Out of those 100 employees, like 78% of them,

they come from different states,

and they come because of this industry.

- The United Nations meeting last April,

of the United Nations General Assembly special session,

on drugs,

turned global drug policy on its head,

and that was an incredibly important meeting.

What the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

representative said, was that evidence-based,

public health policy on drugs is here to stay.

The relevance of this to medical cannabis

is that in our view there is now adequate evidence

to show that patients should have access

to cannabis for medical purposes.

The UN is saying, let's have evidence-based policy.

In my view they are therefore saying,

let's have legalization of cannabis for medical use.

They haven't actually said that,

but the implications of what they said about evidence,

are very clear to me,

and I feel the UK should therefore act.

- We need to regulate all drugs,

not in the interest of the pharmaceutical companies,

but in the interest of those who are vulnerable,

who are taking them, and certainly

when cannabis is on sale here,

there ought to be regulations to prevent

use by children, by pregnant women,

by people with mental health problems.

What we need is cannabis that can be used,

without being mixed with that hideous

toxic killer drug, tobacco,

which is terribly responsible for so much harm in the world.

And we can do that, with a legal market,

it can be used as a food, as a drink, as a vapor.

It doesn't need to give you a high

to have its medicinal effect.

That's the way the progress will be made,

but at the moment scientific research is inhibited

by law, that restricts research,

and restricts its use in experimental ways.

- This whole subject area is packed full of hypocrisy.

The fact that probably a lot of government ministers

smoked cannabis, at a younger age,

and yet are happy to condemn their fellow citizens

to a criminal record,

and the consequence of blighting those people's careers.

The fact that many of those ministers will drink

significant quantities of alcohol,

which we know in terms of an objective assessment of harm,

is significantly more harmful than cannabis,

and indeed many of them will smoke as well.

So, there's hypocrisy everywhere to be seen,

and my plea is for us to base our

policy-making, and our law-making, on evidence,

not on fear and anxiety,

and prejudice.

- I said to my MP,

a year or so ago,

I'm in a constant lobbying situation,

and I said to him, why can you not

just place the responsibility in the hands of doctors?

You know, we trust doctors.

They're trained, they're professionals.

We rely on them in all aspects of our health.

Why can you not just give it to doctors and say,

you can decide whether or not to prescribe cannabis?

And he said to me,

but the trouble is if we did that, they'd prescribe it,

which is almost like a Yes Minister script.

It's just ridiculous.

But that's the sort of bigotry,

and intransigence that we're up against.

- I strongly think we should decriminalize cannabis use.

There's a lot of people who would benefit from it.

If you think of all the thousands of people in this country

with chronic pain from various causes,

all those people with muscle spasm

from endless causes of stroke

and brain injury and multiple sclerosis,

let alone those with anxiety, or epilepsy,

or nausea after chemotherapy.

The numbers are tens of thousands of people,

tens of thousands who could benefit from cannabis.

At the moment, we're forcing them into the criminal market,

we're making them criminals.

There are one or two compounds

that you can legally prescribe,

but they're of rather limited value

in terms of their usefulness

for certain specific conditions,

but generally speaking,

those who use cannabis for medical reasons,

are criminals, because they have to buy it illegally,

and I think that is appalling,

it really is time we changed that,

and we're behind now the rest of the world,

in terms of the number of countries

who are looking at, or have already,

legalized cannabis for a whole variety

of medical conditions.

It's time the UK government caught up with world opinion,

and world evidence,

and may decriminalize cannabis for medical use.

- I think it's hypocritical to oppose use of cannabis,

even for recreational use,

but particularly for medicinal use.

We're happily allowing the populace to kill themselves

with tobacco and alcohol,

whilst in the case with politicians

enjoying taxpayer-subsidized alcoholic beverages

in the House of Commons bar,

and pocketing profits from their association

with pharmaceutical companies,

pharmaceutical companies who oppose legalization,

because, A, this plant is more effective

than the drugs that they produce,

and supply to the Health Service at exorbitant prices,

and B, because they can't patent a plant.

I think the world is twisted.

- The crazy roller coaster journey that Billy

has taken me on over the last number of years,

has flagged up a really important

issue that is happening within our country,

within Ireland, and within the United Kingdom,

for me as well,

and with

710 Holding's MME,

and naming the CBD oil after Billy, Billy's Bud,

we are entering into a project,

where we want to open research facilities,

here in Ireland,

and throughout the UK.

First and foremost, obviously the legislation has to change,

and medicinal cannabis has to be legalized,

for medicinal purposes only.

Research facilities, we have to be allowed

to go and do this.

We have to be allowed to demonstrate

what tincture or what screen

of the medicine is appropriate for what condition.

With being allowed to do all that,

within the UK and Ireland,

we should be able to move on then,

and pump money into the economy,

pump money into the hospitals,

and into education and create more jobs.

It really is a must, but for me,

in my opinion,

Billy has now been on medicinal cannabis

for just over a year.

For me the deal is done.

It's already legal.

So I don't say the debate,

I don't say the discussions.

My word,

and my message to the politicians,

and to the doctors, in our country,

look, let's just get on with the job, let's get this done.

Billy is the proof in the pudding.

Medicinal cannabis has given me back

my right as a mummy to hope,

but the most important thing in the midst of all of this,

is medicinal cannabis has given Billy back

his right to life.

- My experience tells me,

I mean at the end of the day I'm 69.

I've got 10 grandchildren.

I've never taken drugs.

But my experience tells me that this works, medicinally.

I believe that the politicians should take notice of that.

I'm not on my own.

There are lots and lots of people,

if you look on the internet,

who've had the same experience.

I know that's only anecdotal,

but we need everybody to get together,

and so that they've got lots of us,

telling them that this has worked for me,

and they need to change things,

they need to legalize it for medicinal purposes.

- It's a plant, it's a plant.

I just think it's ridiculous.

It is a plant.

Whoever decided that a plant should be illegal,

they should be shot.

And I think our government have been highly hypocritical,

because GW Pharmaceuticals,

well, they PR our government for growing in this country,

don't they?

And the fact that it's about 200 tons,

200 plus tons, of medical cannabis

that they actually grow down in England,

but not one part of it's left in Britain

for any patients.

It's all shipped to other countries in the world,

for medicinal purposes.

That's what makes it so highly,

but we need to wonder how many of them

have shares in GW Pharmaceutical.

- So one of the questions I'm always asked,

is, why is this criminalization policy,

this failed public policy,

why does it continue to be perpetuated?

Why does it continue to exist, in America?

And quite frankly, around the globe?

And while I can't speak directly to the motivations

of those that are advocating

for the continued criminalization of cannabis,

you'd have to ask those people yourself

what their motivations are.

My suspicion, having done this work,

for so many years,

is that the criminalization and stigmatization

of cannabis, and the users of cannabis,

is not so much about the plant itself,

it's an outgrowth of a broader and ongoing culture war,

where you have one segment of the population,

typically a segment that is in political power,

targeting another segment of this population,

again, typically those that are poor,

those that are ethnic minorities,

those that lack political power,

and it's always been about one segment of our population

targeting the other,

and attributing certain cultural beliefs that they have,

negative beliefs and negative stereotypes,

and applying them to these other segments of society,

and using cannabis as a way to be able

to exert political and legal pressure

upon those segments of society.

It's not about cannabis per se,

it's about the stereotypes that revolve around those

who certain segments of society believe use cannabis,

and that's really what this is about, today,

and that's what it has always been about.

- I can well understand that some police forces

decide that there's a better use of their time

in chasing serious criminals,

rather than in arresting people

who are using cannabis.

My hope is that all police forces would decide

that if they find someone using cannabis

for a medical purpose,

that they would simply turn away.

And the more we can do to persuade police forces

of that approach,

the better for these poor patients

who are suffering so much,

and for ridiculous political reasons,

cannot get a hold of medical cannabis to help them.

- We have five objectives,

I'm not sure I can remember them all off the bat,

but the first one is to end the prohibition of cannabis,

as simple as that.

The second one is to promote the matter of urgency

and compassion, for the prescription

of medicinal cannabis by doctors.

The third one is to institute

a system of regulation and supply,

for adults about cannabis,

to remove the market from the control of criminals.

The fourth one is to educate

about the benefits of cannabis,

and the fifth one is to encourage

the production of industrial hemp.

So really, we're interested in

ending the prohibition of cannabis in total,

but it's undoubtedly the case that the most urgent

necessity, is to deal with the medical issue.

- When you look at the neuro-protectant

qualities if cannabis,

and actually when you look at mental health,

around the world,

two of the most popular reasons for people

to consume cannabis, is anxiety and depression,

and we're not talking about clinical anxiety and depression,

we're talking about that which gets you down every day,

the kind of thing that you'll have a beer in the evening,

because you want to calm down before you go to bed.

You got your mind spinning and all that,

there's no doubt that it's therapeutic,

and in some ways it is medicinal for everybody,

whether they happen to be using it recreationally,

whether that's what they call it,

or whether they actually have a medical condition

that they're treating with it.

So we take the view that all cannabis use

has therapeutic value,

as long as it's being used in a safe and responsible way,

and as long as you know what it is that you're using,

how you're using it, what the risks are,

and that's kind of where we're coming from.

What we're fighting for,

is to gain access, legal access, for our patients.

Our personal belief is that a medical reason

to access this medicine is of primary concern,

and that's why we're fighting for it, specifically.

- This cannabis movement, and it's a global movement,

every living creature on the planet

has an endocannabinoid system, except insects.

So every human being on planet Earth,

has an endocannabinoid system.

Every human being can benefit hugely from this medicine.

We have a natural right to this medicine.

Mother Nature made us to use it.

Our bodies produce it themselves.

So it is a global movement,

and we're just beginning to

get the laws in the shape that we want them to be

in the United States.

There's a whole world of reform waiting,

and so my message to people of good conscience anywhere,

is the time to deal with this issue is now.

(soft piano music)

- Well, the amazing thing happened,

I'm actually in remission,

so here I am, no treatment of any sort,

no chemo, no op, no radio therapy,

just CBD oil, and I'm in complete remission.

Lymph nodes are all back to normal.

I feel great.

I'm the only person I know who hasn't had a cold,

and I'm convinced that that's the oil.

It just balances my body and makes me feel well.

- Today Billy is the only person

within the United Kingdom and Ireland,

to have a prescription on medicinal cannabis.

Billy's neurologist

in our main hospital in Belfast,

they agreed to support Billy, and write his prescription,

so Doctor Branton O'Hare

has been our family GP for many years,

wrote Billy's prescription.

And 710 Holdings MME, who are supplying Billy his medicine,

now supply it through, Billy's prescription, via the NHS.