Alzheimer’s

by Jack Herer
jacks-mom
 
Around 1983, when my mother was 75 years old, she was in the first stages of Alzheimer’s disease. She came out to California from Miami Beach for six weeks to visit my children and me. My son, Barry went into the airport to get her, while I waited in the car. Although she had just seen him the year before, she didn’t recognize him and thought he was trying to pick her up. My older sister, Marlene, explained to me that was a symptom of the disease.
At that time, I was just beginning to write a book called “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” about the history of hemp, including the medical history of cannabis. I had read many reports about diseases being treated with cannabis, including the first reports on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. One report said that if you smoke marijuana morning, noon and night you won’t have a problem with Alzheimer’s. It won’t go away but it won’t progress and may even go backwards a little bit.
My mother didn’t smoke except for maybe 10 tobacco cigarettes a year. When she came to California I gave her marijuana morning, noon and night. She smoked it and ate it. She had never tried it before.
Prior to this, I was never able to really talk to my mother. Our conversations always consisted of her telling me to “don’t do this” or “don’t do that.” Now, for the first time, I was able to talk to my mother about everything including politics, family and about when she first came to the U.S. from Poland 60 years before. It was the most wonderful time in my whole life being able to talk with my mother like that. My only regret was that I didn’t give it to her when she was 45 or 55.
After six weeks she had no symptoms of Alzheimer’s whatsoever. Then it was time for her to go back to Miami Beach to my stepfather. I sent her back with about 60 joints. I was planning on sending her 60 already rolled joints a month.
When she got home she showed her husband what she was doing and he had a fit about her smoking so she quit. He said “You can’t smoke marijuana. I don’t care if you think it’s good for you or not. It’s against the law.” They threw away the 60 joints.
Two years later my mother got so bad she was put into a hospital. One year later she didn’t recognize me or my children at all. She died in 1990. The last 4 years she didn’t recognize me at all when I came to visit.
When I wrote the first edition (106 pages) of my book, I wrote that Alzheimer’s disease is best treated by using marijuana morning, noon, and night (not once in a while). Everyone thought I was crazy, including my brother and sister.
I have kept up on all the information about marijuana for the last 30 years. I’ve known about the preliminary studies for Alzheimer’s since the early ‘80s.
It was recently reported on CNN and newspapers throughout the world that using marijuana is the best treatment for Alzheimer’s. If you use marijuana morning, noon and night it won’t progress. You may even get better. If you start using it when you’re 20 or 30 or 40, your chances are high you will not get Alzheimer’s. Cannabis has been proven to be many times more effective than the drugs currently being used to treat it. But marijuana is illegal in most places.