in order to get unbiased results for medical research in which the researcher doesn't know who is getting want substance, and the subject doesn't know who's getting what substance until the study is over. and so he decided you some double-blind methodology and he thought harvard. harvard would lead into the study so he did at boston college. and they did allow him to do the

study. he did the study and he found out there's no significant harm from it. it raises blood pressure slightly, or lowers blood pressure sometimes and raises heart rate, and there's just no significant harm. and he also found that people who are regular users of marijuana frequently perform certain activities better while they're under the influence of marijuana. so he published that study, and then committees later he, who was the big proponents of psychedelics around that time, a little earlier he was arrested going from texas into mexico by the u.s. authorities for having one joint. and it was under the tax act, it was federal customs agent and he was sentenced to i believe 37 years in prison for it, for one joint. he had fielded on the grounds that this is double jeopardy,

because if he paid the tax for the joint, which you can do anyway, which he had he would be declaring himself of violating texas anti-marijuana laws. so this conflict was untenable and unconstitutional. so the justices throughout the marijuana tax act of 1969 just in time for woodstock. so during 1969 there were no federal laws against marijuana. the 1970, john mitchell under the direction of richard nixon constructive the controlled substances act, marijuana was put in the most restrictive category, schedule one, having no medical use at a high level of abuse, threat of abuse. this seemed pretty ridiculous to a lot of people. so the there was, a commission was established to look at this and see where marijuana should be placed. it was sort of put in schedule one, to err on the side of

caution. the shafer commission, nixon appointed a number of members of this panel. he appointed right wing ideologues who would come back against marijuana. but these people look at marijuana. they researched it. they went to afghanistan and met with producers and at least some of them smoked hash with afghani tribal lord, and they came back and they produced a report that said at marijuana should be legalized for personal use and small amounts of exchange between friends, and there should be some restrictions on large-scale distribution. but that overall it was doing far more criminalization was doing far more harm than it was good, and we needed to deal with this. so back to harvard. right about this time, lester greenspan, his son got ill with leukemia and was bombing after every treatment and was

reluctant to go to continue treatment. he heard through the grapevine there was a leukemia patient in texas you have been getting marijuana and had responded really well and not acknowledge a. so lester's wife went to the local high school, got some kids to score a joint for her, had her son spoke to before his next chemo treatment. he didn't throw up, and on the way home he asked to stop and get a submarine sandwich, which lester could really. from then on they actually, the doctors allowed him to smoke in the chemotherapy war. so this is what -- chemotherapy ward. this is how it started. a popular social use intersected with people serendipitously who happened to be ill. another one of those was robert crandall. he was a young college student in the d.c. area. he had glaucoma. he was losing his vision fairly rapidly. none of the ephemeral medicines were working to keep it over to

a friends house, smoked a joint, walked home and noticed that the halos around street lights that are symptomatic of increased pressure were not there. and every time he tried marijuana, his vision improved and the halos disappeared. so he started growing marijuana. he was arrested. he thought it under medical necessity. he won. he sued the government and established the compassionate ind program that provides him with marijuana as a research subject. he had to get a doctor to agree to conduct research on him even though the government never looked at the research, but it was sort of way to get him in avalanche of marijuana after he threatened to sue them. this was any sense to his mind, he saw as a way to get other people on. he could've stopped and kept of marijuana, kept his fight quite but he went out and he raised hell. and he recruit people and doctors to try and get on the

compassionate ind program. but it was very resistant to the regular lost people submitted by doctors for patients. i mean, want to, three times and then when it got through, they would send it back saying you have made a mistake. it could be a slight punctuation air but they wouldn't tell them what it was but it was just this whole wall, enough to keep anyone from getting on, but people did get on. they persisted, and a few people got on. earth rosenfeld who as an illness that causes tumors parks, and founds using marijuana stop the growth of the spikes and relieve his pain. another glaucoma patient, and then we got to the point where aids it. and aids was really sort of the straw that broke the camels back, and because marijuana worked for aids patients. icing the puck it stimulates

appetite. it lets the need and keeps them alive. and so a young couple came to robert randall, barbara and kenny james, and she was a gotten age through transfusions. they were married. they were monogamous. they were high school sweethearts. and they became perfect spokespeople in an age in which aids, people were so fearful of aids, and still though so much homophobia and also the stigma of drug, injection drug use for other aids patients, they were the perfect couple to promote marijuana for aids. and so what robert crandall did was make a form that any doctor could fill out, instead of doing is really complicated research and doing the forms that they needed to get on the ind, he made it a form that could be filled out for aids, a uniform template. and so the aids physicians could

fill it out, submit it, and they did it. and it was sent out to aids care organizations throughout the country. the nih was flooded with requests for marijuana for aids patients, at which point they shut it down and develop the marinol pill, which they had synthetic thc. they put it into sesame oil output into a pill, found a pharmaceutical company to get the to and they start producing it. they shut down the ind program and said no more, sorry. the ones who are on it can stay. the ones who applied and crew don't get it, you get marinol. there's also a federal movement to pass an medical marijuana bill. interestingly enough it was cosponsored by a representative mckinney and newt gingrich. newt gingrich was an early proponent of marijuana, medical marijuana, and was a real pit bull for it until ronald reagan got elected and nancy reagan adopted the just say no.

he did want to get on the wrong side so he dropped medical marijuana like hot potato and went to the other side. so the aids population, and then it was like everything was more of, nothing was happening. the federal bill was killed by henry waxman. the compassionate 90 program was close to that's when dennis came into the picture. he's a marijuana dealer here in san francisco an and a cayman wo had colossal my friends to aids and was providing marijuana for his friends with aids, and he was arrested for selling marijuana. his partner who is in the last stages of aids was brutalized either police, and he decided that he was a buddhist pacifist anti-need to figure out a way to get even without being violent. so he came up with the idea that if they could provide, sell marijuana to aids patients, then he could humiliate them come

because every person with aids needs marijuana. that's his quote. so we opened up, well, he already had a marijuana shop. that's where i used to get marijuana for my friends who died of aids. and he passed locally property which was a hip advisory measure that said the city and the people in city of san francisco decided the state to make hemp medications available for the patient population begin to that pass with about 84% of the vote, and they opened up a medical, open their want to shop and started medical marijuana dispensary and started promoting it as such. because he knew that if he was arrested, the jury pool is drawn from the voter registration, and 84% of the jurors would be on his side. it grew immensely. people came with all sorts of

illnesses and really jumped on the bandwagon. then from there he moved to pass prop 215, and so may people worked on that. there is just a huge effort to came together and it was the first state medical marijuana proposition, and it passed in 1996. so right before that time there was also something going on at s. f. general, donald abrams was treating aids patients at the dedicated aids ward at san francisco general. and a lot of them were using marijuana. there was a volunteer brownie mary who provided marijuana brownies to aids patients, and she was arrested taking marijuana brownies. donald saw her arrest on tv. it went national on cnn, actually international. he sought in amsterdam at an international aids conference.

others saw, and approach donald about doing a study. he began trying to do the study but was flummoxed and prevented from this by the bureaucracy, the dea, nida, it was just really insein prison because the national institute on drug abuse is is the only source for research grade marijuana. and their charter states that they can only provide money and resources for research intended to assess harm. so it is illegal in the united states, forbidden essentially, to conduct research on marijuana for beneficial purposes. and that's what he was trying to do and they wouldn't let him. so he went through and was trying, and as to when i was approaching -- went to 15 was approaching election day, donald was saying the drugs are saying there's no evidence marijuana is safe and effective but they're

nothing in the do the research that would prove that it is. so 215 past, and that's when everything really started to change, because it opened up a whole realm of freedom for which people could experiment and employ cannabis medicines again, and could see what they worked for. and more people -- it was less stigmatized and people felt safe and dead safe access. more people had it was decided if it would work for them and they found that they would be. migraines, the list continue to grow. menstrual cramps. all sorts of ailments that people had. they were finding relief from marijuana. now, in the '60s no one knew how marijuana did what it did, soy researcher in israel decided to investigate. and using modern techniques for

pulling apart the can have annoyed. because the quite ace geeky mess. he called it a horrible set of can have a point. it's hard to isolate or using modern techniques he was able to, and isolated cbd, cannabidiol, the cannabinoids, anti-chico and the determined that this was the psychoactive component by testing it in monkeys. and he said he was surprised it was just one component had primary cycle activity. so he established that there were cannabinoids and that these were the active components. no one still new have acted in our bodies until 1988 when all the talent and a research assistant found the first cannabinoid receptor, and that was in a rats brain. and so that told us that we

don't have this receptor because marijuana makes you nablus. we have a because it reacts with this receptor. and so that was 1988. in 1992, william devane and, working in the lab in israel discovered that the first endocannabinoid agent, this is the cannabinoids that we make that a sort of the corresponding cannabinoid to thc, and so they found that this docks with receptors in the human body. 1993, a group from cambridge found the second cannabinoid receptor, endocannabinoid receptor, and in 1995 raffaello identified the second enjoy -- endocannabinoid agent which is two way gee, and he found in spleen tissue which was very

surprising because people sort of thought is receptors are primarily located in the central nervous system. but we see that there asked industry throughout the body and so that was very surprising to find it in the spleen tissue come up what they found from there until really about the year 2000, 2003 when they were mapping out is that these receptors are expressed throughout the body in nearly every system and organ in our body. they are amazing networks for communication. and no one ever knew it existed before. it's a network that regulates the activity of the body and works to maintain homeostasis, a balance and harmony within the body. so we have this plotted, and no one had ever knew it existed before. and so here's a whole new body

of science that is just a risen and it is opportunities to exploit it, had arisen. a professor of pharmacology at oxford said from the original goal of studying a psychotropic plant, we now see an opportunity of reviewing a holy novel physiological control system in the body. this explains a broad range of medical claims. cited by people for cannabis. so from that point the research began to see what cannabis does in the body and how it affects the body, even more dedicated research. and amazingly, what researchers have found is that cannabinoids have powerful antitumor effects. thc and cbd both work through these receptors to communicate to the body information that

down regulates harmed chemicals that facilitate the viability of cancer cells and tumors, and to up regulate compounds that are hostile to these alien cells, normal cells. and it's really been quite an amazing revelation because there was, research, in 1975, the cannabinoids inhibited lung cancer cells. it was never picked up, never exploited. 1997, a study at the national toxicology project found that the more thc rats and mice in just in the longer you live, the proportionate decrease in tumors. and so now we see that what happens is these chemicals, thc connects with receptors and communicates with the receptors.

and these are minutes of these chemicals that we have, the endocannabinoid to the job of the endocannabinoid is to maintain an environment that is hostile to the development of disease and to attack the disease process and interrupted and stop it, stop it when it gets a hold on us. and so what we find is really amazing, cannabinoids work by reducing inflammation. they also inhibit the ability of cancer cells to produce blood vessels so they can feed themselves. it's called and you citizens and inhibit a chemical that facilitates this. the cannabinoids also inhibit the ability of cancer cells to migrate and spread to other organs, and what's even more interesting maybe is that they selectively target cancer cells.

it's called a top doses and they target the cells for death to get rid of them boston and actually nurturing the healthy cells. so this is completely amazing that you have this whole cocktail that works on so many ways. and this evidence for breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, bile duct cancer, colon cancer, brain cancer, melanoma, lung cancer. so to support this information in my book, what i did was i presented this preclinical data. but then i wanted to boost it so i looked at the epidemiological data. and what we find is there's a study meant to prove that marijuana causes lung cancer, and found that there's actually a 37% reduction in lung cancer, and smokers over non-smokers. there's 63% reduction over non-smokers. and there is a reduction in lymphoma, hodgkin's disease.

and so, this supports the activity we have seen. now the other area that is really fascinating with regard to marijuana is neurological disease, specifically alzheimer's. researchers have found that cannabinoids work to reduce inflammation in the brain and to present the accumulation of the plaque that is associated with alzheimer's. alzheimer's is a disease that interrupts the flow, the communication in the brain. and the plaque that forms in roads the nerve pathways to this communication doesn't work. anti-chico zen in and eradicates the plaque, and also seems to effect how, which is another agent that causes the degeneration of brain cells. and even more fascinating, thc triggers the production of

healthy functional new brain cells. this is pretty amazing because we've been told that marijuana kills brain cells, causes brain degeneration. when in reality both studies were done by suffocating monkeys with marijuana smoke and actually have oxygen deprivation. but when you look at the introduction of cannabinoids to the human being, you find that they are highly protective of the central nervous system and nursing of the central nervous system. researchers who are looking at lou gehrig's disease, als, have said that treating the truck would require a cocktail that would work on your transmitters, enzymes, inflammation and neurons. and remarkably cannabis as a kid in all of those areas. so it is really amazing that this plant has been so attack

him can protect the brain for the most devastating illnesses that we know. i think all summit is probably the worst illness there is. you lose your sense of self and to become a vegetable and die a miserable death. so, the research for alzheimer's was done at scripps and the researchers said we don't want to be in the position of recommended that people use an illicit drug. there's nothing we have available that is as effective as thc for protecting the brain from the changes that come with alzheimer's. and it was another study were a neurologist at ohio university, and he found that thc is the best available agent for protecting the brain from the changes that result from aging and lead to alzheimer's disease and similar their logical illnesses. and he said his colleague recommends a path a day, because

one of the date of marijuana is enough to protect the brain from the degeneration associate with alzheimer's. now, i also think that it's interesting because it was a huge lawsuit wrought by professional football players recently last week against the nfl for allegedly hiding the damage that comes from repeated blows to the head. it's chronic trauma, it produces illnesses that are similar to alzheimer's. it actually produces a lot of cow in the brain. there's good evidence that thc, especially coupled with other cannabinoids, will go in and attack it, eliminate it, and trigger the repair mechanisms for the brain. so i say that marijuana, scientifically speaking marijuana should be as common in nfl locker rooms as our ice packs. yeah, it's a controversial and

somewhat its understated but it's true but if you look outside, there's no reason except for the old bias and bigotry that is aligned against cannabis. so the other thing that i want to mention is cbd is very promising for diabetic neuropathy which is the leading cause of blindness in the united states. and also seems to have the quality of the leading and minimizing the onset of diabetic symptoms. so it seems to counter act, the changes that come through the body through diabetes. so why is it illegal? why is this plant still illegal and why aren't people talking about this. that's what i wrote the book because i came upon this vast body of data, and it's generally and if this from every study is reported, if it is mixed with stoner whimsy, i guess cheech

and chong won't be getting cancer, or if it's ignored, or is just reported on an output into the context of the whole. and what we see is that we have a plan that is an ally of humanity whose compounds matchup an identically with compounds we generate in her body to protect ourselves from serious illness. the government keeps this from us through prohibition. and i think i just want to say about prohibition is if you wonder why, maybe it's because dea has $2 billion budget, the national institute on drug abuse has a 1 billion-dollar budget, and the ondcp, the drug czar's office, and i think this is right, i double checked it. actually amazing. $15 billion for the drug czar's propaganda machine. and a lot of this money goes into creating pseudoscience to convince people that marijuana is one horrible.

there was a study last you the came out, and the headlines were marijuana more harmful than previously thought to teenage brain. but when you look at the study, they injected teenage rats, adolescent rats, injected them with synthetic cannabinoids, not marijuana, not natural cannabinoids. and then promoted this as a study about marijuana. so there's just a whole level of deceit and dishonesty, and we really need to get over that and begin to look at this scientifically. barack obama that when he took office that he would put science over ideology, and he made a big production about that, that he wasn't going to be like the last president and he was going to go for science. but he's failed, and someone really needs to make a change. and one place to start is to eliminate a blockage to doing research into the benefits of

marijuana. and i think to legalize marijuana on a state-by-state basis. so thank you very, very much. [applause] >> thank you. for our audience we are listening to a talk by clint werner, author of "marijuana gateway to health." now this talk is over the questions and comments. please come to the microphone on the right. i have a question to start with. although research on the health benefits is limited in the united states, what about european countries and other countries? chemistry research going on in other places. >> that's where most of the research has been done. they're still blockades internationally, and prejudice against using human subjects to study cannabis, but most of the studies that have shown benefit and have been aimed defined

benefit have been done in italy, israel, spain, thailand. it's not here because you can't do studies to show benefit. the studies we have here that show benefit were intended to show harm, and had this serendipitous result. and they are pretty frequent. let me just say there is a study, they wanted to show that marijuana amplified the damage to teenage brains from alcohol window is poly drug abuse. so they wanted to prove that marijuana may the alcohol more harmful, but they found that actually using marijuana conferred a significant protection against the alcohol brain damage, that there was significant reduction, i'll call related brain damage in teenage using marijuana. >> thank you for that excellent overview. you mentioned ironically that cheech and chong could not get cancer, but the news last week was that chong action has prostate cancer, and reportedly

is treating it with hemp oil. can you discuss hemp oil as a treatment for cancer? >> okay, hemp oil, some people think it's a misnomer to call a hemp oil because a lot of people get hemp oil at whole foods are the natural food store and it's extracted from sea. but this refers to a highly concentrated extract from marijuana where a pound of really potent marijuana buds have active oils that cannabinoids, concentrated down. and there is a huge movement and is called the cure where hemp oil, cannabis oil is being promoted as a cure for cancer. and i personally have problems with that because i think cure is a huge work. i was going to call my book how cannabis prevents cancer and alzheimer's disease, but on some reflection i realize it's not the right word to use because prevention is a huge word, a

huge hurdle to get over, as is cured. so the science, supporting this is solid. i mean, it's not incomprehensible that if you flood your body with cannabinoids from marijuana, and you have cancer, that you are going to powerful antitumor activity. and i know someone who has recently been cleared of lung cancer who is doing this with cannabis oil. she was also doing chemotherapy and dietary therapy, but still it's a pretty amazing recovery she's had. but we need to research it. we can't research it because it's illegal. and if you have cancer, i would say go ahead and take the oil, but do it with effective traditional therapies, to. >> the california medical association has a technical advisory committee, which is called legalization and taxation, and actually the

california medical association supported legalization and taxation as the best way to manage cannabis. i think one question that comes up is it's currently a schedule one substance, as you mention. should it be rescheduled? should it be a drug? should it be treated as a dietary supplement or regulations like tobacco and alcohol? what you're thinking? >> i think it needs to be rescheduled to the harm that comes from, i'm not saying there aren't any harms, young people can get distracted from developing, yeah, their life skills if the user. some people can get, a few small percentage of people can get in a bad relationship with. i would say if you're sitting home and doing bong hits watching spongebob although you've probably got a problem. but there's just nothing, you know, that is so harmful that it should be regulated. other than maybe some age restrictions. i do think it should be treated

more botanical and have some restrictions. >> hi, thank you for speaking. earlier you mentioned something about while doing a study on the advantage and disadvantages of marijuana, and you did studies at boston college. i was, and the study actually showed that actually increased physical activities or physical performance of people who are actually doing it. i think, i'm a physical therapist and i wanted to know what do i tell people, what kind of physical act of these impersonal performers are they expecting to improve? >> they performed tasks more efficiently if they were regular users, if they were under the influence of marijuana. in terms of physical activity,

certain marijuana's are more stimulated and certain our more relaxing. one thing i will point out though, sort of an offshoot of the question is that there was a drug developed in order to cause weight reduction to counter act the munchies. and when people took this drug got lost their can happen at receptor activity, they had nodded, vomiting, panic attacks, depression. they were a couple of suicides in the test subjects, and there is a significant increase in falls, contusions, whiplash, car accidents, all sorts of accidents. and then there were a couple of studies that show that marijuana users had a reduced likelihood of visiting an emergency room or injuries than non-marijuana users, and that the more marijuana use it is a proportionate decrease and the

likelihood of having injuries. and it seems strange, but if you understand the endocannabinoid system, it deals with balance, coordination. and if you ever well-nourished endocannabinoid system, it's very likely that you're a little more balanced and coordinated. this also may speak to the data that came out recently that found marijuana drivers are very, very safe drivers, are actually far safer than anyone on alcohol and maybe a little safer than people who are not on marijuana. >> i'm also caregiver to my mother who is actually in early stage dementia. does, and she doesn't smoke. doesn't make a difference if she takes it in brownies? >> no. >> she loves brownies. >> i would suggest someone like that use use cash as well as traditional before outlawed. suspension and alcohol and to be put into a tea or under the tongue. and it can be delivered without

reaching a level of psychoactivity. you can get to the point where she's not going -- also, cbd tempers the psychoactive qualities of teachings of to get a remedy because cbd which also enhances the activities of thc, then you could have as much concerned about -- >> thank you. >> thank you. >> a follow-up to that question. can you talk about other modes of delivery, like these new ways of balkanizing it so that people who don't want to take products of ingestion into the lungs by the other modes of delivery? is there research on these other modes of delivery? >> yes. there was an iom commission by barry mccaffrey after got slapped down for his cheech and chong nonsense. he had to back off because it's threatening, to put doctors in

prison. and the impound an iom group to study marijuana, and thinking that i said yes, it's very effective, make it immediately available to be with cancer and aids, which has abandoned. but they also said the problem is that you're getting harmful compounds when you combust and smoke marijuana. we need a rabbit, a fast rapid onset delivery system, which is the benefit of smoking is you get the facts quickly. you don't have to wait for digestion. so the marijuana community came up with vaporizers, all sorts of vaporizers. and what these do is keep the marijuana to the point at which the cannabinoids are liberated. there's one, the volcano, and blows a stream of heated air up. they go into it that, you take the bag off and inhale. you get no combustion, toxins. you get no carbon monoxide the you don't get particulate matter, and there was a study by doctor abrams that confirmed this, that the levels are

actually increased in length and the blood a little longer. and you don't get the byproducts, the harmful byproducts. but even with the harmful byproducts, it's interesting that thc is strong enough to override those and still protect against lung cancer. and there's others, you know, the joy of the 215 and the liberalization of the laws in california is people, marijuana, it doesn't all have to go to the black market. you can committed health market and people are experimenting with juicing fresh marijuana and getting thc a that is not psychoactive because it hasn't been heeded, and they can ingest far more of this thc a than thy could thc, the active compound, that it still has protected beneficial biological activity. the production of the cannabis oil. you need to have a lot of that. so this legalization in california has really pushed

sort of guerrilla research ahe ahead. >> is the cannabinoids system involved anyway with the immune system? >> it is. in fact, that was one of the interesting things that came out of some of dr. abrams research was that, he finally got to do his research on aids patients when he hit his study as an assessment of farm and had secondary values that showed benefits, sort of a trojan horse study. so we found that actually cannabinoids improved the immune function, people with aids, and there's a study that just came out recently that found that they inhibit the ability of the aids virus to infect cells. that's not really boosting the immune function but it is boosting resistance to aids.

and it is, they are symmetrical, yes, they work with every aspect of health, including bone preservation. it may be that thc fights osteoporosis because there's some evidence that cannabinoids help secure and maintain bone. >> thanks for a very good talk. i wanted to ask if you have any comments about a product called -- which i know is in the uk and other european countries, a spray to be used mms spent so, -- >> so, let me just i visited a growing facility in great britain server years ago. and they grow marijuana that is uniformly produced on tables, and shine dashing and giant

greenhouses. to trigger the flawed process, bring into darkness. they of these tables and tables, warehouses and marijuana plants and extract the cannabinoids, somewhati smilarly, not the same, but similar idea to the hemp oil, cannabis oil that has been produced, and then produced it into a sublingual medicine that you spray it under your tongue and it is absorbed. they have done great research. they probably got a great product but the only problem i have is that sometimes i worry that they want to rely on prohibition, and the government wants to use that to maintain prohibition. in other words, you don't need your medical marijuana. we have this pharmaceutical product that costs 100 times what it would cost you to get a comparable product has been produced in the community and tested in your community, and

they need in your community. but here, this is the only way you can get your cannabinoids. so i welcome them produce the product because their people are going to want a more pharmaceutical product to use. and a going to want to make sure they can avoid psychoactivity, but we don't need it. coming, we are doing really well here locally. with testing labs that check for potency levels and contamination. we have people that developed their own sublingual sprays. we have bills, we have capsules, we have food. so i'm glad they've done the research and i don't begrudge them a market place, but i don't want and have a monopoly. -- i don't want them to have a monopoly. >> ethical marijuana use for chronic pain, and it just works sometimes when others d't. you didn't talk much about pain,

but why is the efficacy, why did it happen? isn't psychosomatic to what's going on with the pain control? >> i can't get into depth about that, but it is not psychosomatic. that's what a lot of proponents are saying about medical marijuana before. nothing works on such a broad range of an lesbian getting high and forgetting that they feel bad. no, it has powerful anti-inflammatory activity. it seems to work in some fashion on the chemistry of the nerds and their signaling. -- the nerves and their signaling. again, dr. abrams did a study with opiates and found that there is capitulation of the opiates affect on pain that is beyond what you would expect for just simple interaction. in other words, there's a dynamic that really ups the response and can lower. and opiates don't work so well

in nerve path of pain that cannabinoids do. so i can't tell you exactly the chemistry of it, but it does work through signaling, the signaling system, and conveying information. >> talk to you about medical positive impact of marijuana, but what about children? kind of simple -- the majority of their friends already smoke marijuana. what happens? isn't that dangerous? >> it's not physiologically good for them in terms of toxicity. the point i made, norman mayer had a great quote. this is paraphrased. i always tell my kids, marijuana is great for making association with the brain for letting me think about things are having great ideas are but fill your

brain with thanks to think about before you start using marijuana. that's a problem for young people is if they start using it regularly, they won't, don't get in a cul-de-sac in this opportunities to develop skills, to find out where the interests lie, to develop the skills within these interests to create a career. and that is the concern. if youngsters are using it occasionally, if they're getting good grades, if they are active and have interest, i don't think it's a tragedy. it's not like alcoa. it doesn't call brain cell death but it doesn't damage the liver. it doesn't cause any sort of physiological impairment, other than the high, the inebriation in a sense. but i would just say, young people should stay away because they are not mature enough to regulate their own use frequently. well, i think that we need to have conversations with them a part of the problem is if you

don't its dangers, it's horrible, don't use it because it's going to cause damage, and then they it doesn't, but if we start to talk and have this conversation about what it really does and why the good reasons are that they should wait, then you might make some inroads with them. and if they're drinking alcohol and using marijuana, at least they are protecting their brains from the alcohol that it is doing. [laughter] [applause] >> what are you reading this summer? booktv wants to know. i'm just finishing -- which is the first of the trilogy. i know a lot about this but it's an area i've always been interested in. she does a national of telling a story that is off told and yet telling it in a brand-new way.

and this and i'm probably going to read a new novel called the age of wonders. that has been getting a lot of attention. and i haven't read bob's most recent lbj book yet, but i certainly haven't on my bedside table and will be reading it sometime this summer. >> for more information on this and other summer reading lists, is a booktv.org. [cheers and applause] >> how are you guys doing? hi, everyone. can you hear me? good, wow. this is so exciting.

[cheers and applause] this is my very first book and my very first and probably only book signing. [cheers and applause] this is so good. this is so good. well, yeah, let me just say, i am so proud of this product. it is, the book "american grown" is everything i would have imagined. i wanted the book to be beautiful and i think that the pictures are absolutely beautiful. i could tell because when malia and sasha picked it up, you know, your book, how need. they actually got pulled in by the pictures, and then they couldn't put it down and they started looking through and dennis are actually reading it. and then eventually i got actually a thumbs up. so that's what we hope the book will be. the book is really not just the start of the white house garden and how it came to be and how we had our ups and downs and trials and tribulations. but it's also a story of

community, gardens across the country. everything from a wonderful community garden and hawaii to some excellent school gardens that are happening right smack dab in the middle of new york with some great school kids. so the stories of the work that people are doing across this country are really an important part of the book as well. but we also talk about one of my key initiatives, which is let's move, and it's all about getting our kids healthy. so the book shares that journey and some of the interesting statistics and work that are going on all across the country to help our kids lead healthier lives. then it's a little practical, too. it gives a q-tip's, you know. i'm not the best gardener in the world i had a great team of national parks service people and i had my bankrupt and tubman kids, tubman and bankrupt kids. they are my partners in crime in this respect.

these two schools have been with us from the very beginning and that was when the things we said we started exporting with we could plan a garden on the south lawn. they would have to be a teaching garden. it would have to be a garden that kids could participate in and understand where their food comes from, and engage in the process because that's really what i learned in my own life is that when i involved my kids in the food they ate, and we didn't garden in chicago but we certainly went to farmers markets and we got them involved in really changing their diets and owning that process, that they accepted it a lot more. and we have seen that with these kids. you know, these kids are working in the garden in their own schools but i know they're bringing back ideas and questions to their own families, and helping to change the way to eat and do great things. so these kids have been amazing. and they have just been a pleasure. they come to the white house. they don't get starched up. they don't look around.

they get to work. and make it our garden planted and harvested in a matter of 10, 15 minutes. sometimes 30 minutes if they just get it done. so we couldn't do this without them. and i'm so proud of you all. so proud, proud, proud of you all. thank you for helping. [applause] thank you for helping me. so, i just want to thank you all for staying in the rain, for coming out. i am just thrilled and i hope you all enjoy the book, and i hope it becomes the beginning of many conversations in your own homes, in your communities. and i hope that it leads to a healthier generation of kids at some point. that are also some good recipes in there that are easy to fall and they are pretty good. white house chef. i urge you to try them. thank you so much and i look forward to seeing you all up here. [applause]

[inaudible] [inaudible conversations] >> all right. that's my first book. here is the first signed copy. >> thank you very much. >> do you guys want to come around and get your books? >> come on, get your books.

there you go. that's great. come around. [inaudible conversations] >> thanks, sweetie. thanks for all your help. there you go. >> very special. >> see if you can see pictures of you in there. did you find some?

hey, how are you? it is so good to see you guys. thank you for taking the time to come out. [inaudible conversations] thank you. we couldn't do this without schools. how are you? it's so good to see you. oh, my goodness, thank you. they are amazing. [inaudible conversations] this is a good way to end the year. >> hi, how would you? >> good.

i remember. thanks so much. it's good to see you all. you're going to keep reading, right? thanks for coming out. we appreciate you. they're going to keep me signing. [inaudible conversations] >> it's wonderful to see. thanks for taking the time.

how are you? are you a gardener? oh, my goodness. that's okay. >> thank you so much. >> how are you? it's so good to see you. so, are you a gardener? [inaudible] >> excellent. >> thank you so much for coming today. >> the recipes are good.

they are easy to follow. >> how are you doing? >> good. how are you doing? >> good. >> that's what we think about. we are doing it with these kids. [inaudible conversations] >> hi, how are you?

excellent, congratulations. hi, how are you? good. >> how are you? it all happened. it all worked out. >> did you see all those little people? i'm great, how are you? are you a gardener? excellent. >> thank you so much.

>> thank you so much for taking the time. spent my pleasure. >> tell him i'm very proud. >> i will. >> hey, what's going on? ladies, tell me names, ages, all the vitals. are you going into high school? >> yeah. >> congratulations. you are eight? excellent. what grade are you going in next year? and you? >> i'm 11. >> are you guys interested in gardening, healthy eating? >> yeah.

>> you're going to spread the word about eating vegetables, right? thanks for coming to see me. [inaudible] >> the girls went to the concert. i met him once but i don't know their names. [inaudible] but they are a little older. they are not like your age. [inaudible conversations] >> you've been watching the