If we had a name for the rhesus monkey who died in a critical 1974 cannabis study for the U.S. government, then we could at the very least pay homage to the only mammal in history to die under the auspices of marijuana overdose.
Let's call this rhesus monkey - for the sake of this story - Herb.
In 1974, a Health/Tulane University study proclaimed that Herb received 30 joints a day for a year and had died, citing severe brain damage.
This was debunked in 1980 after NORML and Playboy sued the government over research procedures that led to such conclusion.
"The monkeys were suffocating...Three to five minutes of oxygen deprivation causes brain damage...
With the concentration of smoke used, the monkeys were a bit like a person running the engine of a car in a locked garage for 5, 10, 15 minutes at a time every day.
The Heath Monkey study was actually a study in animal asphyxiation and carbon monoxide poisoning". Link
Poor Herb, our marijuana-toking brother.
Herb, the rhesus monkey, will go down in as the highest mammal in history of the world.
But would he also go down as the smartest monkey in history, too?
"Heath killed the half-dead monkeys, opened their brains, counted the dead brain cells, and then took control monkeys, who hadn’t smoked marijuana, killed them too, and counted their brain cells. The pot smoking monkeys had enormous amounts of dead brain cells as compared to the “straight” monkeys. Link
Now we have scientific proof that cannabis use stimulates brain cell growth.
"Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon found that the administration of synthetic cannabinoids in rats stimulated the proliferation of newborn neurons (nerve cells) in the hippocampus region of the brain". Link
"The recent discovery that the hippocampus is able to generate new neurons (i.e., neurogenesis) throughout the lifespan of mammals, including humans, has changed the way we think about the mechanisms...of drug addiction " link
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Speaking for myself, the death of Herb to substantiate why I should not smoke pot is one of the most heinous acts the U.S. government has ever perpetrated against my health and well being - when in fact cannabis does quite the opposite.
My government is trying to keep me in a state of unhealthiness, and I will not have it.
I've often wondered why I am so cerebral, while I puff on marijuana everyday of my life. I compare myself to people around me, family, friends, co-workers and casual acquaintances. I smoke substantially more than the next person, by a far cry.
Yet, of all the people I know, I am the only creative writer; not one single person I know has any desire to wordsmith.
But for some reason, it had never hit me that I am not any less intelligent than others around me, nor witty, nor creative, nor critical in my thinking. As a pot smoker, it was easy for me to accept that I am just plain 'normal'.
Yet I am not. I have an elevated sense of my surroundings; I have deep connections with people, even if I just met them; I have uncanny perception; I am strongly empathic; and I have an undying thirst for knowledge, just to scratch the surface.
However, my strongest suit is my empathic ability, and when it comes to a smoking brother, Herb, who died 40 years ago in a government laboratory trying to prove cannabis is unsafe - thanks, my man, for taking one for the team.
Sources:
1. http://www.jackherer.com/thebook/chapter-fifteen/
2. http://norml.org/component/zoo/category/cannabis-and-the-brain-a-user-s-guide
3. http://www.truthonpot.com/2013/07/13/scientists-discover-another-way-marijuana-helps-the-brain-grow/
