Big Pharma Monsanto-Bayer and the Monopolizing of GMO "Herbal Medicine"

[Hervé]

Monsanto and Bayer are moving to create a marijuana monopoly

Emilyn Gil Healthy Holistic Living
Mon, 23 Jul 2018 20:41 UTC

You've heard of Monopoly, right? The fun little board game with fake money, little plastic houses, and get out of jail free cards? It's a great way to pass the time. That is, depending on who you're playing with.

But when it comes to real-life properties, business, and products, however, a monopoly becomes a whole lot more dangerous.

Two major companies, Monsanto and Bayer, have recently joined together and seem to be plotting to take over the cannabis industry. In other words, create a monopoly on marijuana.

What Is Monsanto?
Monsanto is an agricultural company that has been around for hundreds of years. In a nutshell, they provide farmers with genetically modified (GMO) seeds and crop pesticides. They easily hold the lead position in the corn and soy industries with their genetic engineering.

What Is Bayer?
Bayer is a pharmaceutical company that has also been up and running for more than a century. Their main focus is to produce and sell medicine and healthcare products, however, they also have a foot firmly planted in the agricultural realm.

How The Marijuana Monopoly Works
For years there have been rumors going around about Monsanto planning to take over the marijuana industry with genetic engineering. And because they already seem to have an extreme upper hand in other industries, the rumors seem to be coming closer and closer to reality.

Monsanto and Scotts Miracle-Gro have started working together and taking suspicious action that seems to point to a marijuana monopoly. One of Scott's front groups has started buying out several major marijuana growing companies and attempted to buy many others. Monsanto definitely has their eye on the marijuana industry.

Bayer also made a recent business move to buy out Monsanto for $66 billion, so we know that these two companies are not only working together but are essentially one and the same.

So, now that Bayer and Monsanto are on the same team, they are able to share their production secrets with each other and grow together as a mutual business. Both companies have information about genetically modifying crops, and Bayer is in a partnership with GW Pharmaceuticals, which grows proprietary marijuana genetics. So the way things are going, all things point to Bayer and Monsanto trying to get in on GMO marijuana.

Due to the corporate power of these two companies, if this monopoly were to occur, Monsanto and Bayer would likely gain complete and total control over marijuana for medicinal and recreational use. This doesn't look good for medical users, or anyone else who is planning on getting into this industry.

What Can You Do?
Although it may seem too big a task to go up against these corporate giants, there are some simple things that you can do to fight back against this monopoly disaster!

1. Say No To GMO! Choose today to stop purchasing genetically engineered products. Buying organic, locally grown produce is the best way to go.

2. Don't Support These Companies! Do your research before purchasing any product to make sure that you aren't supporting any of these major businesses, or other companies that do business with them.

3. Stay Informed! Spread the word out to your friends, and keep an eye out for any new information on this and other similar issues so you can take action as soon as possible.

Conclusion
Monopoly is much more than a game! These companies are treading dangerous grounds, but that doesn't mean that you can't do your part to interfere. Take the right kind of action to prevent this dangerous monopoly at all costs.

Related:

• The War on Weed is winding down, but is Monsanto behind the push to legalize?

• The War on Weed part II: Monsanto, Bayer, and the push for corporate cannabis

• Monsanto-Bayer: Eliminating the name will not erase the history

[william r sanford72]

Ah..flash forward twenty years from today..standing at the self check out line..with my purchase of NON-GMO 100% cert.Organic weed..what strange times we live in.

[enigma3]

It was just a matter of time before the big boys entered the game. The time and circumstances had to be right. That time is now as more states see how much money is taken in from cannabis sales and want in.
The weakness in this picture is the average cannabis user, who wants nothing to do with Bayer/Monsanto and all their ilk. Most folks I know will steer well clear of corporate cannabis for fear of "what are they putting in their pot"? The big boys have neglected this area for so long that there is now a well established sub culture of users who don't trust anything smacking of big business. This sub culture has also set up a very wide reaching base of strains to choose from. Bayer et all will only focus on a few strains. Recreational pot laws allow homeowners to grow enough to sustain themselves. Convenience will attract new buyers who ignore the machinations of big business, but the vast majority of users will steer clear of that stuff. Want a peek of how vast the strain base is? Go to "seedfinder.eu" and view over 12000 strains in their database. The big boys will make inroads, but I'm not holding my breath.
As a side note, did you know that the father of the USA, George Washington, took copious notes of his gardening adventures. He planted several cannabis strains. And only replanted the good stuff!! From a post graduate thesis on the gardening notes of George.

[Dennis Leahy]

My understanding of cannabis plant genetics is that the genus (cannabis) has a very strong tendency to express genotype variety. So, even if a grower starts from a single female and a single male plants, the seeds produced will each show genetic variance. To me, that says Bayer (who swallowed Monsanto), cannot "take over" cannabis, because every seed is different.

Yes, it makes sense that they could create a transgenic species (usually called "GMO", transgenic species have DNA from different species or even a different genus inserted), and use that as a marker to make legal claims (as they did with soybeans) claiming it is their genetics. The fact that they have not done it probably means they can't reliably do it (for example, maybe only some of the seeds from an F1 hybridization would carry the GMO marker gene?)

If Bayer-santo tries to go into the cannabis seed business, I would guess it would be for hemp. ("Hemp" is a nickname for the cannabis plant, twisted into a legal term in the USA to mean a cannabis plant that has less than 0.3% THC.) Unfortunately for Monsanto-Bayer, there are already farmers and seed companies producing billions of "hemp" cannabis seeds, with China being the number 1 exporter of hemp. I doubt Bayer could do anything about Chinese cannabis farmers saving their hemp seeds.

(A little background info to help understand non-hemp cannabis)
A "hybrid" is a cross, a natural cross (pollen from male stamens contacting female pistols) of cannabis species (sativa, indica, and ruderalis) or of cannabis varieties. ("Land races" are not seen as hybrids by many authors, but in reality, they are natural hybrids that have genetically stabilized over time by back-crossing.)

"Cloning" is growing another plant from a "parent" plant tissue. When you cut a house plant and stick a piece in water and it grows roots - that new plant is a clone, with the same genetics and sex as the parent plant.

The other end of the cannabis spectrum from hemp, in terms of volume/percentage of specific cannabinoids and terpines (smell, taste, and medicinal properties), are any of several thousand named cannabis varieties. ("Blue Dream", "Green Crack", "AC/DC", "Girl Scout Cookies", "Monica Lewinsky", "Alien Kush", "Black Widow", "Purple Monkey Balls", "Jeff Sessions", "BlueAvianPoopOnMyWindshield™", etc.* ...) Most commercial (non-hemp) cannabis is grown indoors, from clones. This is (at this point) dominated by commercial growers growing cannabis to be smoked for euphoria, so high THC percentage is their prime target. Growers growing for medicinal benefits is a smaller -but to me, the most important- segment of the industry, though I can argue that mood alteration is medicinal as well.

There are at least 100 different cannabinoids (I have seen the number 134 a while ago), but the most prominent and well known are THCa and CBDa. Cannabis variety breeders work to create hybrids with the desired cannabinoid ratio, terpine profile, and other plant characteristics. The breeding includes hybridization directed towards raising (usually) or lowering specific cannabinoid percentages, and specific combinations of terpines, and then the variety breeders can offer commercial growers named varieties of either plant clones or F1 hybrid seeds. The existing market of breeders and growers is huge and diverse with thousands of established varieties that Bayer can't ever claim - and an innumerably large amount of potential crosses of those varieties. I'd say Bayer-santo has a zero percent chance to take over that market.

*(One of the variety names I listed is not real. I'll let you guess which one)

[CurEus]

Realistically I expect tobacco companies to give Monsanto/Bayer a run for their money. They are probably just as evil. Kinda like watching Satan fight the Devil.....

[onawah]

The Endocannabinoid System and the Important Role It Plays in Human Health
Written by Dr. Joseph Mercola
1/31/19
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/a..._rid=533798138

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LhxsIFqi9dA

"STORY AT-A-GLANCE
Cannabinoid receptors in the human body were discovered in the 1990s, which in turn led to the realization that we make compounds in our body — endogenous cannabinoids — that influence these receptors
Endocannabinoid deficiency has been identified in people who have migraines, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory and neurological conditions and a variety of treatment-resistant conditions
While CBD has gained the most attention, CBD alone cannot fully support your body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS). You need the other phytocannabinoids and terpenes as well
Hemp has been outlawed in the U.S. since 1938. The latest Farm Bill, signed into law at the end of 2018, makes it legal again; hemp oil with full-spectrum phytocannabinoids may benefit a wide range of health problems
There’s an intimate relationship between your ECS and your omega-3 status. Omega-3 fats make your cannabinoid receptors more active, and are used as backbone structures to produce cannabinoids in your body
Hemp has been outlawed in the U.S. since 1938. Thankfully, the latest Farm Bill signed into law at the end of 2018 makes it legal. In this interview, board-certified clinical nutritionist and expert on phytocannabinoids, Carl Germano, discusses the exciting implications of this change.

Now, there's a difference between cannabidiol (CBD) products made from hemp and those made from marijuana. While many mistakenly believe hemp and marijuana are interchangeable, they're actually two different plants.

"Both are considered Cannabis sativa by genus and species, but that's where the similarity ends," Germano explains. "Hemp has been cultivated for many reasons for the past few thousand years — food, clothing, fiber and fuel. The plant itself contains naturally occurring active compounds called phytocannabinoids, of which CBD is just one of them.

Marijuana, on the other hand, has been cultivated for its primary phytocannabinoid, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). While it has recreational value at small levels, it does have medicinal value.

Nevertheless, many decades ago, hemp got dumped into the definition of marijuana. Hemp was unjustly placed into the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which kind of hampered its access, its ability to have U.S. farmers grow it, or to have even medical or academic institutions study it.

We’ve been in the Dark Ages for decades. Thanks to Israel and Europe, who’ve championed all the research, we’ve [discovered] the cannabinoid system in the body called the Endocannabinoid System (ECS).

Trump did sign a Farm Bill that finally deregulates hemp. It takes it out of the CSA … It gives the rights of farmers to grow it. It will open up the doors for academic and medical institutions to study it. It will give consumers access to [what is] probably the most important botanical we have on this planet."

Why Whole Hemp May Be Better Than Isolated CBD
The hemp plant contains over 100 different phytocannabinoids, of which CBD is one. And while hemp has now been taken off the CSA, CBD is still under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is responsible for the labeling of supplements and enforcing the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).

"With the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), you have several things against CBD. First, CBD was not in commerce prior to 1994, so it could not be grandfathered as a dietary supplement, yet hemp oil has been in commerce prior to 1994, so we’re OK there.

Secondly, DSHEA states that if you want to submit a new dietary ingredient application, you can do so and petition the FDA for an ingredient to be classified as a dietary supplement.

Well, if you were to do that today, you would get rejected immediately because the other part of DSHEA states that if Big Pharma takes a natural ingredient and makes a drug that gets approved, it’s hands-off to the dietary supplement industry.

GW Pharmaceuticals has two drugs using isolated purified CBD in it. Therefore, we've got several strikes against putting CBD on the front panel, calling it a dietary supplement, and I say, why bother? Because the story is much bigger than CBD, both clinically, scientifically and legally."

Hemp oil is a food that happens to have CBD in it. But while CBD may not be legally advertised on the label, CBD-containing hemp products can be labeled as having phytocannabinoids — the class of compounds to which CBD belongs. While CBD has gained the most attention, CBD alone cannot fully support your body's endocannabinoid system (ECS). You need the other phytocannabinoids and terpenes, which are very complementary to the phytocannabinoids, as well.

"Those of us in botanical medicine understand that the sum of all the parts of the plant is greater than any one single ingredient,” Germano says. “Let’s face it. There’s more than one ginsenoside in ginseng. There’s more than one curcuminoid in curcumin. There’s more than one isobutylamide in Echinacea. There’s more than one ginkgolide in ginkgo.

Well, there's more than just one phytocannabinoid in hemp. Back in 2011, Dr. Ethan Russo in the British Journal of Pharmacology1 … wrote about the entourage effect of all the phytocannabinoids and terpenes needing to be present to give rise to full clinical, meaningful benefit …

While CBD may be the most dominant phytocannabinoid in hemp, the others are there in minor in number, but they are not minor in the body as they all participate in nourishing, supporting the ECS, which is the bigger story."

Understanding Your ECS
While the discovery of the ECS is fairly recent, genetically it dates back over 600 million years.2 Cannabinoid receptors in the human body were discovered in the 1990s, which in turn led to the realization that we make compounds in our body — endogenous cannabinoids — that influence these receptors.

It was also discovered that the ECS orchestrates communication between other bodily systems, such as your respiratory, digestive, immune and cardiovascular systems. The ECS does this via receptors found in every organ, including your skin.

"Your ECS is like the conductor of the orchestra. The orchestra are our organ systems. We cannot be healthy, we cannot be well if our ECS does not function well," Germano says.

"Your body produces cannabinoids similar structurally to the cannabinoids found in cannabis. Your body feeds off of them. If you don't produce enough to feed every single receptor, various conditions and various illnesses will ensue."

Two Types of Endocannabinoid Receptors Have Been Identified
There are two primary ECS receptors: cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1) and cannabinoid receptor type 2 (CB2). While CB1 is typically thought of as being primarily in the brain and CB2 primarily in the immune system, both types of receptors are in fact found throughout your body.

One of the two cannabinoids your body produces is called anandamide — a nod to the word “ananda,” the Sanskrit word for “bliss,” as it attaches to the same CB1 receptors that THC attaches to. The other, 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), is found throughout your body.

"The ECS has been the subject of many scholarly textbooks … Quite frankly, this is something that should be taught from high school to college to medical school. Unfortunately, because of the stigma attached to cannabinoids … less than 13 percent [of medical schools in the U.S.] are teaching the ECS.

I say, ‘Are you insane? This is like saying that for the next 70 years we will not teach the cardiovascular system, as if it never existed.’ We now have to dismantle this medical travesty … The whole thing is about education. This is critical and crucial to our health and well-being.

We have to dismantle the stigma, and we have to start educating ourselves to understand that the ECS is probably one of the most important medical discoveries in quite some time. Understanding the enormity of this system and what it does and what it influences throughout the entire human body."

Low Endocannabinoid Levels Result in Ill Health
With age, our bodies tend to become less efficient in creating the compounds needed for optimal health, and this holds true for anandamide and 2-AG as well. According to Germano, these two cannabinoids can actually be used as biological markers for certain illnesses and conditions.

Endocannabinoid deficiency has been identified in people who have migraines, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory and neurological conditions and a variety of treatment-resistant conditions. Germano also cites a paper3 in Translational Psychiatry, which found low anandamide levels are a statistically positive indicator for stress-induced anxiety.

They’ve also discovered there’s an intimate relationship between your ECS and your omega-3 status.4 As it turns out, omega-3 fats make your cannabinoid receptors more active, and are used as backbone structures to produce cannabinoids in your body.

"What do we see in people who have low omega-3 status? We see the same things we see in people who are endocannabinoid deficient: pain, inflammation, stress, anxiety, depression and so on. It is a perfect marriage between omega-3s and phytocannabinoids, which act like a multivitamin for the ECS.

But it doesn't stop there. Look at bones … the reason we give post-menopausal women estrogen is because it influences the cells that build up bone, osteoblasts, and the cells that break down bone, osteoclasts. What does this have to do with the ECS?

We now know that if you stimulate the CB1 receptors, you start to stimulate the brain-to-bone communication by slowing down the brain from releasing bone-breaking compounds, like norepinephrine. Then when you stimulate the CB2 receptors, it increases osteoblasts, the bone makers, and decreases osteoclasts, the bone breakers."

Top conditions associated with low cannabinoid levels include:

Pain, inflammation and inflammatory conditions
Stress, anxiety and insomnia
Ocular health
Bone health
Neurological conditions
"These are all conditions that can be suitably treated with phytocannabinoids," Germano says. "These are conditions that we see in people who are endocannabinoid-deficient."

Running Dramatically Boosts Anandamide Level
While runner's high is typically attributed to the release of endorphins, running also dramatically increases anandamide in the body, and anandamide not only targets the CB1 receptor, but it also influences opioid and endorphin receptors. Not surprisingly then, the higher an individual's anandamide level, the better they report feeling.

"That makes sense, because anandamide hits the receptors in the brain that are involved in reward and mood," Germano says. "We also understand that the cannabinoids we produce are quite promiscuous.

They certainly touch the CB1 and CB2 receptors, but they [affect] other receptors as well, [such as] the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT3) receptors, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors, and receptors that control inflammation, pain, reward, anxiety and things of that nature."

A paper5 published in PLOS ONE also details how various nutrients (such as omega-3 fats), drugs, exercise, chiropractic care, massage and acupuncture influence the function of your ECS.

Your ECS — A Key Player in Inflammation
Curcumin, boswellia, fish oil and quercetin are all well-recognized anti-inflammatory nutrients, but none can compare to what cannabinoids can do, Germano says, especially when the full spectrum is used.

As noted in a 2014 paper6 in Current Opinions in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care, the ECS is an emerging key player in inflammation, because it's intertwined with all of the inflammatory pathways, including the eicosanoid ones that omega-3 fish oils influence.

Germano also cites other research showing that targeting the ECS can ease both inflammatory and neuropathic pain, and describe how cannabinoids act as analgesics. According to Germano:

"You cannot contend with any inflammatory condition unless you're supporting the ECS. They can be used interchangeably; phytocannabinoids along with curcumin and boswellia and fish oils would be remarkable, as they are complementary to each other by doing different things.

Again, we must address the ECS in any inflammatory condition, whether it be irritable bowel syndrome or injuries — even inflammation in the brain, which is one of the hallmarks of all neurological diseases. In 2003, the United States government got issued a patent on the neuroprotective effects of cannabinoids.

At that time, while the government has been telling us that phytocannabinoids are like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and heroin — [meaning they] have no medical value — they go out and get a patent on the medical value.

But that was followed up, and there are many papers that talk all about the anti-inflammatory effects in the brain and in the nervous system, of these cannabinoids … There is nothing else like supporting the ECS with phytocannabinoids."

Your Endocannabinoid System Also Plays a Key Role in Your Gut Health
You’re probably familiar with the fact that there’s a strong connection between not only your brain and your gut, but also your immune system. The importance of this triad in health and disease prevention cannot be overstated. Your gut not only is your largest immune organ, it’s also your second brain, containing hundreds of millions of neurons.

"We now understand how the gut is involved with communicating with the brain and the immune system, because it has brain cells and immune cells in it," Germano says. In the middle of this trio is your ECS. It is actually the orchestrator of this tri-directional communication. According to Germano, researchers have also discovered the ECS controls:

Motility in the gut
Intestinal inflammation
Abdominal pain
Gut permeability
Tolerance to antigens
The ECS also reduces the activity of the stress pathways, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) pathways. Anandamide, specifically, participates in the immunological response in the gut. What's more, there's also communication occurring between your endocannabinoid system and your gut microbiome (the bacteria in your gut).

Clinical Applications for Hemp Products
Again, a full-spectrum oil is actually far preferable to product in which CBD has been isolated. Germano cites a 2015 Israeli paper, which compared full-spectrum oil against isolated CBD, and found the full-spectrum oil was in fact clinically superior.

As for dosing, most of the literature demonstrates efficacy of CBD in the several hundred milligram range — but that is for “single magic bullet” isolated CBD. Preclinical studies and any clinicians are reporting that efficacy can be achieved with much lower doses when using a ful spectrum oil — some in the 10 to 25mg CBD range.

"Since CBD is the most dominant cannabinoid in hemp, when you extract oil from hemp, you do have much, much higher levels of CBD naturally in the oil as compared to the rest of the phytocannabinoid family. Providing 10 to 25 mg of CBD is the sweet spot for most conditions in the trade — especially when used with other synergistic ingredients …

People are responding quite remarkably, which [suggests] you don’t need a lot to jump-start the body’s ECS. Quite frankly, when we look at the bell-shaped curve with the isolates, the higher the dose, sometimes you decrease the effectiveness … When you use a full-spectrum oil and you’re getting the other important phytocannabinoid and terpene components, this is superior, and I’ll tell you why.

People have been focusing on CBD, which is the wrong message. It's the myopic message. Think about it, CBD does not attach to the CB1 or CB2 receptors. If anything, CBD supports the CB1 receptors by preventing the breakdown of anandamide in our bodies and anandamide hits the CB1 receptor.

What about the CB2 receptor that controls inflammatory cycling, pain signaling, insulin sensitivity and bone building? CBD does nothing for that, so we need something of a CB2 agonist. A perfect partner to CBD would be another phytocannabinoid called beta caryophyllene. Luckily, the family of other phytocannabinoids in a full-spectrum oil contains other phytocannabinoids that complement to what CBD is not doing as well.

We must get off this single magic bullet bandwagon. We must appreciate the full gamut of all these phytocannabinoids as a whole, and that they complement each other, because CBD is not the answer to support the ECS as a whole."

As with most things, too much can backfire. While CBD cannot kill you, using CBD isolate in too high amounts can reduce its effectiveness. Such problems are far less likely when using a full-spectrum oil.

"I don't foresee anybody really overdosing on the standard dosages that we're recommending," Germano says. "Nor when we look at the data that's been published, up to 1,500 mg of CBD chronically administered over time show that it was well-tolerated, minimal to no adverse reactions on physiological function, psychological functioning and other parameters in the body, including blood pressure. So, CBD is quite well-tolerated in humans."

Hemp Oil for Sleep
Aside from inflammation and pain, another area where a full-spectrum hemp oil can be beneficial is to improve sleep and treat insomnia. Germano recommends using a full-spectrum oil in a dose that provides 25 mg of CBD.

"CBD at that range does a number of things. No. 1, it reduces excitability in the brain. It can reduce glutamate toxicity and any excitatory conditioning. Secondly, CBD is involved in various neurotransmitters that are involved with a normal sleep cycle.

While it has a calming effect and helps to establish a normal sleep cycle, it's not necessarily a sedative. You can use it with melatonin. You can use it with lavender. You can use it with chamomile and passionflower, what have you. I would do that towards the latter part of the day, at least an hour or two before bedtime. Lower doses of CBD are more stimulating, so to speak, and more upregulating."

How the New Law Can Improve Quality of Hemp Products
In the past, prior to the signing of the new Farm Bill, the leaf, flower and bud of the hemp plant could not be used in the production of CBD-rich hemp oil. The oil had to be pulled from the stalk and stem of the plant only — the less concentrated part. With the new law, all parts of the plant can be used, which will make processing easier and more economical, as the cannabinoids are more concentrated in the leaves, flowers and buds.

The law also makes it legal to grow hemp in in every state, so if you wanted to, you could grow it in your backyard. This is something I'm definitely considering, as you can easily juice the whole plant or add it to smoothies.

"Growing it for yourself would be wonderful,” Germano says. “It is a weed. It has a short period of harvest. It grows very rapidly — July, August and September. Yes, the whole plant can be used rather than just extracting the oils from it. All the phytocannabinoids and lipids are found in the oils, but the leaf can be juiced and put into smoothies as well …

In terms of growing and processing it, it’s a rather easy plant to grow, because it is a weed. When we talk about the raw plant, a lot of these cannabinoids are in their acidic form. CBD is in CBDA, cannabidiol acid, form. To convert it to its useable form, the acid has to be decarboxylated.

So, while you may benefit from a lot of the phytocannabinoids [in the raw plant], it's going to be reliant on your body's ability to process it from the acidic forms that are in there. Exposure to heat, light, moisture and air will decarboxylate a lot of them as well. The more you process it yourself, the more useable some of those phytocannabinoids will be.

[To process it], you can take the leaf, flower and bud. You can blend it and store it in the refrigerator. Over a day or two of exposure to heat, air, light and moisture, it’ll decarboxylate to some extent and you’ll benefit more from that. How much do you get? Appreciable amounts of CBD may be difficult with just juicing alone …

I don’t want to misquote myself and say the wrong thing, but probably an ounce or two [of raw plant] would do the trick as a healthy plant beverage. Again, you don’t need a lot to jump-start your body’s ECS. It’s not a numbers game. Small doses, you would definitely respond to."

How to Identify a High-Quality Hemp Product
If you're not growing your own, attributes to look for when shopping for a hemp product include:

Organic

Kosher-certified

Non-GMO

Verified pesticide and herbicide free

Full-spectrum phytocannabinoids

Grown from certified seeds and not hybrids with marijuana

"I look for companies that are doing the right thing also. That is, they don’t mention CBD on the front panel or quantify it in the Supplement Fact box. Responsible companies talk about phytocannabinoids,” Germano says.

“They talk about hemp oil. They talk about nourishing the endocannabinoid system. This is a superior story to just CBD. Those are the more reputable companies that are telling the right story, [and not just talking about] isolated CBD."

More Information
Germano has written a book about the endocannabinoid system called, “Road to Ananda: The Simple Guide to the Endocannabinoid System, Phytocannabinoids and Hemp,” (www.roadtoananda.com) which is due out shortly. I am very proud to have written the forward to this book as it is a great resource. Definitely pick up a copy if you want to learn more about this fascinating topic.

"I’m ecstatic to announce that the person who wrote the introduction to the book is Raphael Mechoulam, the father of cannabinoid research and who was involved in the discovery of the endocannabinoid system.

He is well-known in the scholarly circles. There are certainly plenty of scholarly work out there, but we need to get this message, this story, which is enormous, out to the layman and practitioner out there who is really unaware still,” Germano says.

"I’ve been in this industry for over 35 years. I’m a clinical nutritionist by trade. I have not seen any natural compounds this clinically relevant since the inception of this industry. I can tell you that targeting the endocannabinoid system, supporting it, will dominate medicine and nutrition of the next couple of decades.

There are also topical applications for phytocannabinoids, because, again, our skin is one of our largest organs. It also has five to 10 times more cannabinoids in it than we have in our brain. The CB1 and CB2 receptors are there as well.

There are three targeted areas for topical applications. One, obviously, is pain and inflammation, because the CB2 receptors are there that control that. That is something that will blow away any of these compounds in the marketplace today for topical pain relief.

Then we know that certain cannabinoids strangle the sebaceous gland for acne. Certain cannabinoids also influence age spot development and antiaging. [There are] some very interesting things going on in the topical application area.

When we look at the global picture of what is the subcutaneous endocannabinoid system doing, it's helping to maintain normal cell proliferation, differentiation and immune competence. Oncologists are going to be interested in that aspect."

[amor]

I tried, but my eyes would burn out if I had to read a book-long post on computer. All that I know about this weed as used in the tropics is that those who use it have very RED EYES (I presume as a result of breaking capillaries) which does not speak well for what else it will be doing to the rest of the body, especially the brain. The very fact that it brings about a change of state of mind should tell everyone it is dangerous, especially over the long term. The one or two people I have encountered who admit to its use have complained that it stopped them from learning and concentrating profitably. All of which is in line with the NWO plot for the destruction of humanity.

[Dennis Leahy]

Posted by amor (here)
I tried, but my eyes would burn out if I had to read a book-long post on computer. All that I know about this weed as used in the tropics is that those who use it have very RED EYES (I presume as a result of breaking capillaries) which does not speak well for what else it will be doing to the rest of the body, especially the brain. The very fact that it brings about a change of state of mind should tell everyone it is dangerous, especially over the long term. The one or two people I have encountered who admit to its use have complained that it stopped them from learning and concentrating profitably. All of which is in line with the NWO plot for the destruction of humanity.

Allow me to give you the "tl/dr" relating to your comments:
When the whites of someone's eyes get red, that is indeed showing some temporary increased blood flow, but not broken capillaries.

THC (the substance in cannabis that creates the temporary "high" or euphoria feeling) is a mimitic for anandamide. Anandamide is a substance our body makes. It's a neurotransmitter. We now know that it is the main neurotransmitter in the newly discovered system in the human (and other animal) bodies; the fancy-sounding name of that newly discovered system is the "endocannabinoid" system, and it is known to be the super-regulatory system in the body. You have been making a class of neurotransmitter compounds (cannabinoids) since you were conceived, and your mother's milk gave you an extra blast of cannabinoids as well.

Cannabinoids are a natural and normal and critically important part of being alive.

So, we make cannabinoids in our bodies, they are fundamental and critical, and we can also take-in plant cannabinoids as supplements - just as we make vitamin D and yet we can take extra vitamin D supplements.

The article was primarily about a different plant cannabinoid, (cannabidiol), called "CBD" for short, which is a cannabinoid that has proven medical benefits, and does not get a person "high" or give them red eyes.

The THC molecule (that gives people the "high" that you mention that you don't approve of) is both a euphoric agent and is also powerfully medicinal (including killing cancer.)

Finally, the article underscores the synergistic effects of consuming the whole plant's compounds - many more than the 2 main cannabinoids, and other plant molecules called terpines. This was basically a caution so consumers will know not to buy overly-refined CBD, and rather to choose "full extract" CBD products.

I hope this was helpful. It is really exciting news for those that want to stay away from pharmaceutical drugs, and shows cannabis as the most powerful and versatile plant medicine.

[onawah]

I just ordered a gallon of organic hemp oil, on sale from Vitacost.com.
https://www.vitacost.com/nutiva-orga...oil-1-gallon-2
And I expect to see some results!

[Dennis Leahy]

Posted by onawah (here)
I just ordered a gallon of organic hemp oil, on sale from Vitacost.com.
https://www.vitacost.com/nutiva-orga...oil-1-gallon-2
And I expect to see some results!

Cannabis seed oil. Excellent nutritional oil, supposedly the perfect ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 for humans. Be diligent about keeping it refrigerated, it will go rancid faster than most vegetable/seed oils I have used. It has a strong taste and strong smell - so much so that neither my wife or daughter could handle the (kinda 'fishy'? maybe the Omegas?) smell and knew for sure they didn't want whatever I was cooking. You can blend it with other, milder oils to reduce the number of people running away from the dining table. Your mileage may vary.

Extracting the oil from cannabis flowers is a completely different process and product from the crushed seed oil. The extracted oil makes versatile medicine that interacts with and supplements the human endocannabinoid system. I think that growing some varieties of cannabis and extracting the medicinal oil is as important as the skills of gardening vegetables and canning them. Everyone should learn these skills. Any cannabis variety will produce some oil, and if you shop for seeds of known genetics, you can select plant varieties that have higher or lower amounts of specific cannabinoids (like CBD and THC) and terpines. Some cannabis varieties have nearly zero THC, in case you need to completely eliminate that particular cannabinoid from a batch of medicinal oil. With the passage of a new US farm bill into law, "hemp" (which is just a cannabis nickname, morphed into a US legal term, meaning less than 0.3% THC) is back to being legal to grow in all 50 states.

I think that all US citizens should grow some low-THC, high-CBD cannabis this growing season, and learn to extract the medicinal oil. Everyone would have some CBD oil as medicine, and medicinal oil extraction experience. When the high-THC cannabis becomes legal to grow in each state, everyone will already have the skills to grow and process it, so those who need the more potent medicine will have the skill to make it.

Having 'hemp' (low-THC) cannabis plants (which look just like cannabis plants with higher THC) in every garden and flower bed across the USA would pretty much make it impossible for the government agencies to do anything about whatever variety someone wants to grow. Actually, I think the USA owes it to the world, because it was the USA that spearheaded the prohibition of this plant that is easily the most medicinal plant yet known. Fully and formally ending the prohibition in the US will make it much easier for the rest of the world to reclaim their sovereignty with this plant.

That is how you take monsanto-bayer's power away from controlling cannabis.

[Bubu]

Posted by amor (here)
I tried, but my eyes would burn out if I had to read a book-long post on computer. All that I know about this weed as used in the tropics is that those who use it have very RED EYES (I presume as a result of breaking capillaries) which does not speak well for what else it will be doing to the rest of the body, especially the brain. The very fact that it brings about a change of state of mind should tell everyone it is dangerous, especially over the long term. The one or two people I have encountered who admit to its use have complained that it stopped them from learning and concentrating profitably. All of which is in line with the NWO plot for the destruction of humanity.

You'll never know how to dance without trying and its not good to teach when you knew nothing.

[onawah]

I can hardly believe it myself, but after taking only one tablespoon of hemp oil last night (it arrived yesterday), I woke up this morning feeling much more in my body and grounded than I have in quite awhile, and I had an unusually long, very relaxing, focused meditation.
I think I'm onto something!

Posted by onawah (here)
I just ordered a gallon of organic hemp oil, on sale from Vitacost.com.
https://www.vitacost.com/nutiva-orga...oil-1-gallon-2
And I expect to see some results!

[onawah]

The difference between hemp seed oil and hemp oil is crucial. I didn't understand that until today. Hemp seed oil is still a health food, but it only contains traces of cannabinoids.

Article here: https://zatural.com/blogs/blog/hemp-...s-cannabis-oil
(It contradicts itself. because in one place it says there are NO cannabinoids in hemp SEED oil, but in another place it says there are traces.)
"Hemp Oil is most commonly sourced from the Cannabis Sativa (Industrial Hemp) plant seed. It is also called Hemp Oil or Hemp Seed Oil. Hemp Oil is regulated in its production and is tested for THC and CBD levels, however it does not contain either of those Cannabinoids. Test have shown that there are no cannabinoids present in the seeds of the hemp plant. Hemp Oil is most commonly referred to as a Superfood, because of the high levels of Omegas, Vitamins, and other Nutrients. It may also assist with Pain, and stress due to its naturally occurring nutrients. Hemp Oil is also excellent for Hair and skin thanks to all of those Omegas and Vitamins! "

What the article from Dr Mercola did not explain was that the hemp oil they were referring to must be from the whole plant.
Big difference!

[Philippe]

As society is growing older one must study natural and softer painkillers like CBD-oil to avoid the opiate based drugs that are causing addiction and bad side effects or withdrawal symptoms.
Since some painful deaths and illnesses occurred in close family and relations of mine I have started to study this subject. Personally I have always been against any kind of psychotropic drugs or stimulants. But in many cases where people are not open or cannot obtain safely the therapeutic benefit of regression techniques (including hidden recent or extremely old past lives incidents with amnesiac influences) assisting their healing by reducing the psychosomatic aspect of illnesses is not possible. Therefore it is of value to have these forms of CBD-oil painkillers that are freely available on the market. The benefits can be improved if the oil also contains percentages of the illegal THC cannabinoid, the psychotropic compound in the Cannabis plant. Advice must be sought to better understand and dose that.
A family member is having some results mixing marihuana leaves in coconut gelatins and applying that externally to the painful area.
Whether the palliative treatment of painfully dying patients can be changed from morphine to cannabis is not clear yet for me.

In this discussion the difference between hemp and marihuana it is not clearly explained. For a start that has to be well defined with simple definitions =>

https://medium.com/cbd-origin/hemp-v...d-a837c51aa8f7

Further on there is so much to be understood about the different strains of plants that exists, how the highest THC content comes from the flowering female buds of the marihuana variety, etc.
Sorry to bring up this painful subject on a lively forum of immortals but it is needed out of love and compassion for those that suffer.

[Dennis Leahy]

Yes, the stigma is the "dope smoker" icon. I have come to see the euphoric effects, the "high" from THC, as medicinal, not "recreational." There are a lot of pharmaceutical drugs whose sole purpose is in the realm of mood alteration/attenuation/enhancement/stabilization, and the shelf they are on at the pharmacy is not labeled "Recreational."

The initial study paid for by the US government to prove that smoking cannabis is carcinogenic came back with paradoxical results: the more someone smoked, the LESS likely they were to get lung cancer. The results were then buried for years. The medical reality is that the cannabis smoke has anti-cancer medicinal compounds (most notably, THC itself) that were stronger than the carcinogens in the smoke. All smoke from combustion contains carcinogens, so, smoking is by far the worst way to administer cannabis medicine. The cannabinoids in cannabis are in the "acid form", such as THCa and CBDa in the unheated plant material, and are "activated" or "decarboxylated" (decarbed) with heat and become THC, CBD, etc. The acid forms have health benefits (look up info from Dr. Courtney Cox) with no psychotropic ("high") effect. Juicing the leaves and flowers of cannabis and drinking the (bitter) juice won't get a person high. If the cannabis is to be ingested as medicine, and you want the known benefits of the non-acid forms (like THC, CBD), then the cannabis must be heated (cooking, vaping, smoking) to activate/decarb it. Decarbed oil can be ingested or inserted, or added to a salve base for pain-killing salve.

If you have heard about people curing cancer or greatly shrinking tumors with cannabis oil, it is decarbed cannabis oil high in THC, sometimes with a significant percentage of CBD as well. CBD oil, to be legal in the US current laws, must contain less than 0.3% THC - an amount that I don't believe anyone could feel any psychoactive effect at all. Some diseases and conditions respond well to CBD, some to THC, and some to a combination that includes both. (It appears that adding CBD to THC is necessary to fight one type of breast cancer, and brain cancers.)

Public perception is still somewhat stigmatized, but my recommendation is for everyone to research this plant and its compounds (there are over 100 cannabinoids besides THC and CBD in cannabis plants, plus terpines and flavonoids.) Cannabis is easily the most medicinal plant on Earth: Since THC is a "mimetic" of the endocannabinoid made by the body called "anandamide", which is the primary neurotransmitter molecule in our super-regulatory system now known as the endocannabinoid system, THC is used by the body as additional available neurotransmitters used in regulating many (maybe all) systems. That's pretty astounding.

Cannabis medicine containing the psychoactive THC molecules can be ingested before bed so you sleep through what would have been the noticeable psychoactive effects. It can also be taken in "micro-dosing" amounts to get benefits without the "buzz."

Yeah, onawah, cannabis seed oil is vegetable oil, very nutritious vegetable oil, and will always have a trace of CBDa, and possibly some infinitesimally small amount of THCa, if the lab's equipment can measure it. It is a poor source of cannabinoids.

[onawah]

Weekend watch party--Sacred Plant (Expires 3/17 11:59 p.m. Eastern)
Welcome to the The Sacred Plant Pain Relief Free Weekend Watch Party
Happening Now (Mar 16th – 17th)
3 life-changing videos that will inspire, inform and instruct those suffering in pain on how and why to treat their pain naturally with medical cannabis.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ScEUzhCUW0Q

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5fmoNWFKo_s

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=MaYnJ0S4I-8

[onawah]

Working to Reform Marijuana Laws
From the email update today from NORML News

I read the news today, oh boy…

Paul Armentano, NORMLMarch 21, 2019

"Call it Reefer Madness 2.0. The notion that marijuana makes you crazy is back – and with a vengeance.

If you’ve checked in with the mainstream media at all over the past 24 hours, there’s a good chance you have heard about a new study published in the British journal The Lancet purporting that up to half of all new cases of psychosis are due to cannabis.

Does this claim sound outrageous to you? That’s because it is.

As NORML details in our comprehensive response here, https://blog.norml.org/2019/03/20/no...s-today-oh-boy
...this study falls far short of establishing any sort of direct link between cannabis exposure and psychosis. In fact, despite the sensational headlines, this paper reports nothing particularly newsworthy at all.

It is well established that those with psychiatric illness typically use all intoxicants at greater rates than do the general public, so the fact that those admitted to institutions for first-episode psychosis are more likely to consume cannabis than are those in the general population is hardly surprising. But it is not evidence that marijuana in any way causes the condition. Rather, this association may exist because many psychiatric patients are self-medicating with cannabis. Or, this relationship may persist because many people predisposed to psychosis are similarly predisposed to also using cannabis — a theory that is supported by many experts in the field. See: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...s-today-oh-boy

Perhaps most importantly, the fact that cannabis has been used by various populations for decades at disparate rates, yet rates of psychosis and other psychiatric disorders have generally remained static over this same period of time, strongly argues against a direct causal relationship.

As you might imagine, we have much more to say about the issue. That is why I just published a new essay critiquing The Lancet study, and highlighting a number of new, yet under-reported studies assessing cannabis use and the brain. You can read the essay, entitled ‘Latest Science Debunks Claim That Marijuana Significantly Harms Brain,’ here: https://truthout.org/articles/latest...s-today-oh-boy

You can also check out NORML’s public criticism of the paper in a number of high profile media outlets, such as Web MD:
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/...s-today-oh-boy

Rolling Stone:
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture...s-today-oh-boy

US News and World Report:https://www.usnews.com/news/health-n...s-today-oh-boy

Yahoo News:https://finance.yahoo.com/news/real-...s-today-oh-boy

and Healthday:https://consumer.healthday.com/publi...s-today-oh-boy

... for further perspective.

Reefer madness is nothing new. But for decades these sort of exaggerations and half-truths would persist because there was no voice pushing back against it.

Today, we work to keep NORML the leading voice working to set the record straight, and to ensure that pundits, lawmakers, and the public have access to the facts about cannabis.
Stay in the fight."

Paul Armentano
NORML Deputy Director

[onawah]

Study: Medical Marijuana Access Linked To Greater Employment Among Older Adults
Thursday, 28 March 2019
https://norml.org/news/2019/03/28/st...e-week-3282019

"Baltimore, MD: The enactment of medical cannabis access laws is associated with better reported health outcomes among older Americans and greater labor participation, according to data published in The Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

A pair of researchers from the John Hopkins University School of Public Health in Baltimore and Temple University in Philadelphia assessed the relationship between medical marijuana laws and health in those ages 51 and older.

They found that those who qualified for medical cannabis access reported experiencing less pain, and greater overall health compared to matched respondents in non-medical states. Those eligible for medical cannabis access also showed increased participation in the workplace.

"These findings suggest that access to medical marijuana through MMLs (medical marijuana laws) allows at least some older adults to better manage symptoms associated with health conditions that can interfere with productivity and quality of life," authors reported. "Our findings suggest that there are potentially important social benefits to MMLs that must be considered in policy decisions regarding medical marijuana regulation."

The findings expand upon a previous working paper authored by the pair in 2016.

For more information, contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, "The effect of medical marijuana on health and labor supply," appears in The Journal of Policy Analysis and Management."

[onawah]

Gates Foundation quietly plans to control nutritional supplements for the ‘good of humanity’
by: Lori Alton, staff writer | April 14, 2019
https://www.naturalhealth365.com/gat...ents-2941.html
( I just noticed the dates on the articles being referenced and they are 1 or 2 years old, so I'm not sure why Natural Health is posting this now We are surely nowhere near being out of the woods re this issue, but I don't see any updated info about it. In any case, something to be aware of, certainly. )

"Gates Foundation plans major move against nutritional supplements(NaturalHealth365) For the majority of Americans, nutritional supplements are a mainstay of daily health and wellness routines. In fact, according to the 2017 CRN Consumer Survey on Dietary Supplements, 76 percent of American adults – over 170 million people – rely on dietary supplements for increased energy, immune health, bone health and overall wellness. Surely, the Gates Foundation – run by Bill and Melinda Gates – wouldn’t think of preventing us from obtaining these supplements … right?

Keep in mind, vitamins and minerals top the list, comprising a whopping 98 percent of all nutritional supplements consumed.

Yet – in spite of overwhelming public support for nutritional supplements – the multi-billion-dollar Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is sponsoring a plan that would ultimately threaten access to these vital nutrients at sufficient quantities needed for a therapeutic effect.

“Global harmonization” of nutrients will limit the potency of nutritional supplements
Many natural health experts – including those at the Dr. Rath Health Foundation – are concerned by a 2018 report that was released following a series of high-level meetings of international health authorities.

The report, published by National Academies Press and titled “Harmonization of Approaches to Nutrient Reference Values,” reveals a plan to make setting “safe upper limit levels” for vitamins and minerals a top priority.

But many natural health advocates fear that the recommendations are simply a way to set the stage for the global “harmonization” (uniformity) of nutrient reference values. This, in turn, could lead to regulatory bans on nutritional supplements.

Upper nutrient levels refer to the highest amount of a nutrient that is likely to pose no risk of adverse effects for almost all individuals in the general population.

While the report purported to focus on establishing nutrient reference values for young children and women of reproductive age, critics say the real intention is to generate a uniform approach.

According to the report, NRVs should only be set by a global body, such as the WHO or FAO – a fact which raises suspicion among proponents of natural health therapies.

The meetings, held at the behest of the Gates Foundation, were attended by representatives from such “heavy hitters” as the World Health Organization; the US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; and other powerful entities and international stakeholders.

What’s wrong with ‘safe upper limits?’
The stated goal of global nutrient harmonization is to set “safe upper levels of intake” in order to prevent so-called “adverse effects of excessive intake.”

It sounds eminently reasonable – on the surface.

The problem with “safe upper limits,” say natural health advocates, is that the calculations used to arrive at them are essentially flawed. For example, several international health authorities are in favor of reducing permitted micronutrient quantities by subtracting the average amounts that people supposedly get from their dietary intake.

But, critics note that many people don’t eat a balanced diet, leading to widespread vitamin deficiencies.

In addition, many natural health experts say that soil depletion – along with modern farming and storage methods – has caused the micronutrient levels in food to decrease over the past 50 years.

Finally, nutrient utilization can also be affected by factors such as infection and disease. And, proponents of “safe” upper limits hope to take things one step further.

If the “safe” upper level of a micronutrient is close to the average daily intake, the nutrient could be banned from use in supplements completely.

It’s as if the very thought of generous, optimal supplementation puts these entities into a panic!

International standards for food and supplements are controlled solely by Codex
The Codex Alimentarius Commission, or Codex, is a United Nations body that advises the Directors-General of the WHO and the FAO on all matters pertaining to the implementation of the Joint WHO/FAO Food Standards Programme.

Ostensibly tasked with protecting the health of consumers and promoting coordination of all food standards internationally, Codex sets standards and guidelines for not only conventionally-grown, GMO and organic foods – but supplements, food labeling, advertising, health claims, food additives and pesticide residues as well.

This means that – in addition to setting restrictive upper limits – Codex can prohibit any claims that vitamin and mineral supplements can be used to prevent, alleviate treat or cure diseases.

In other words: prevention and treatment of disease should be left only to Big Pharma.

The creation of the World Trade Organization in 1995 caused Codex to become even more powerful, with the WTO relying on Codex as the arbiter of international trade disputes involving foods. This means that the 149 countries that are WTO members have little choice but to “go along with program” set forth by Codex.

By the way, Codex seems to think that carcinogens are an acceptable ingredient in organic foods. The Codex Committee on Food Labeling is attempting to weaken organic standards to permit the use of sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate – both potential cancer-causing agents – and carrageenan, which has been associated with cancerous tumors in the intestinal tract.

Follow the money: The popularity of supplements and organic foods threatens Big Pharma profits
According to the Dr. Rath Health Foundation, Codex has tried to limit nutrient doses in supplements for 20 years – thereby protecting the patent on the pharmaceutical giants’ control of healthcare.

How does discouraging the use of supplements – and other healthy practices, such as eating organic foods – benefit Big Pharma?

The answer is clear.

Organic foods, with their higher levels of micronutrients and their lack of GMOs and synthetic pesticides, promote human and environmental health.

For example, there is plenty of scientific (and clinical) evidence to show that optimal levels of vitamin C and D can help prevent pneumonia and breast cancer. In addition, CoQ10 and selenium can drastically reduce the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

Other studies have demonstrated many other health benefits from vitamin and mineral supplementation. But, for the pharmaceutical industry, maintaining great health is not a lucrative business model – their profits come from marketing drugs for sickness and chronic disease.

By the way, does it surprise anyone that the Gates Foundation has numerous investments in the pharmaceutical sector? Gee, what a surprise.

As the natural health community braces for fallout from the report, Paul Anthony Taylor, executive director of the Dr. Rath Health Foundation, dismisses it as a “desperate move.”

Desperate or not, time will tell if the move to limit supplements is successful. Obviously, we hope not."

Sources for this article include:

DrRathFoundation.org https://www.dr-rath-foundation.org/2...n-supplements/

NationalAcademies.org http://nationalacademies.org/hmd/Act...endations.aspx

NationalAcademies.org/hmd http://nationalacademies.org/hmd/~/m...0617%20(2).pdf

CRNUSA.org https://www.crnusa.org/resources/201...ry-supplements

[A Voice from the Mountains]

Posted by Hervé (here)
Two major companies, Monsanto and Bayer, have recently joined together and seem to be plotting to take over the cannabis industry. In other words, create a monopoly on marijuana.

These two companies are owned by some sick people.

Case in point:

Bayer division 'knowingly sold' HIV-infected protein

A division of the German pharmaceutical company Bayer knowingly sold blood-clotting agents infected with HIV to Asia and Latin America months after withdrawing them from Europe and the US, an American newspaper claimed yesterday.

Cutter Biological continued to dump stocks of the factor VIII blood-clotting agent for haemophiliacs on poor countries for nearly a year after introducing a safer alternative, the report in the New York Times said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...annegoldenberg

Bayer Documents: AIDS Tainted Blood Killed Thousands of Hemophiliacs

An examination of internal Bayer company documents by The New York Times reveals that the company was engaged in unsavory, probably criminal marketing practices. The documents reveal that Bayer continued to sell contaminated blood plasma causing thousands of hemophiliac patients to be infected with AIDS. The company continued to sell the contaminated blood in Asia for over a year when it had already introduced a safer, heated blood plasma version in the US and Europe in February 1984.

https://ahrp.org/bayer-documents-aid...-hemophiliacs/

Monsanto is no better. They starved a huge number of people in India by selling them self-terminating seeds without telling them. First year, they got a crop. Second year, the seed didn't sprout, and mass starvation ensued. The people who own these companies clearly seem to have a fascination with population reduction.