My doc told me that sometimes he felt like the pharamaceutical company shipped entire lots of placebo because no one was getting better, some were getting much worse. The thing he wondered about were the side-effects, since I asked about them saying, "Since I had such few side-effects..." he jumped in, "You didn't have any side-effects!" Besides, I started feeling better immediately, and the medication notes mentioned it might take a few weeks to notice effects, not like I did. Now, the actual Celexa did cause pretty immediate headaches and blurred vision.

But, now that I think about it, I suppose I can't say for sure that it was placebo, but unless the medication, which is a form the citalopram in Celexa, is so well tolerated as to not cause anything, I'll suspect it was. However, there are three other possibilities: 1) It was the real deal, and the cannabis added to it or mitigated the side-effects (very possible) 2) It was the real deal, causing no side-effects and the cannabis didn't help (which I doubt seriously) 3) Neither one helped, but the food did. Of course, I wasn't eating without the cannabis! He also mentioned that these meds should be taken for at least six months, not just nine weeks.

My doc told me that sometimes he felt like the pharamaceutical company shipped entire lots of placebo because no one was getting better, some were getting much worse. The thing he wondered about were the side-effects, since I asked about them saying, "Since I had such few side-effects..." he jumped in, "You didn't have any side-effects!" Besides, I started feeling better immediately, and the medication notes mentioned it might take a few weeks to notice effects, not like I did. Now, the actual Celexa did cause pretty immediate headaches and blurred vision.

But, now that I think about it, I suppose I can't say for sure that it was placebo, but unless the medication, which is a form the citalopram in Celexa, is so well tolerated as to not cause anything, I'll suspect it was. However, there are three other possibilities: 1) It was the real deal, and the cannabis added to it or mitigated the side-effects (very possible) 2) It was the real deal, causing no side-effects and the cannabis didn't help (which I doubt seriously) 3) Neither one helped, but the food did. Of course, I wasn't eating without the cannabis! He also mentioned that these meds should be taken for at least six months, not just nine weeks.

One other way of describing it was like I was in a lion's den and he was hungry but I couldn't get out.

I recently participated in an anxiety medication study sponsored by the makers of Celexa. I was having some major anxiety that I couldn't control (exactly what the people on the commercials say; "like a loop that I can't stop", etc.) and I couldn't sleep at all, my legs were shaking, I thought if I didn't concentrate on breathing I'd just stop doing it altogether. I'd wake up in the middle of the night certain that I was in the process of dying and all that fun stuff. This is the reason I didn't visit this site for many months; I was going crazy. I'd look at the members of my family talking to each other and think, "They're just talking to each other...how the hell are they doing it?" It was like I was trapped in my own head, spiraling downward. If anyone has seen the Zoloft commercial where there is this shadow swooping down over the little guy, that was exactly what I felt at all times; this overwhelming sense of impending doom.

So, I went in to see if I'd qualify for the study. Now, I hadn't any cannabis in quite some time, and it was only a few times in the last couple of years. But, a few days before my interview, a neighbor gave me some stuff like I'd never seen. It looked like it was sprinkled with finely ground brown sugar and an Irish man's nose-hair. I then went in for my interview and medical exam. I had to take a whiz-quiz, but that's okay since I went ahead and told the doc about the "one-hitter quitter". I'll never take a pee test for a job, but I was looking for a little mental help here, and I already told them what they'd find. So, everything else checks out (like not having major diseases that might cause the anxiety), and they know about the herb. Incidentally, in all the information about the tests, they specifically mentioned looking for only cocaine and other hard drugs. Any wonder why no mention of cannabis?

Anyway, so I start the near-three month study, not knowing whether I'm getting placebo or the real thing. I start improving drastically from the start with absolutely no side-effects. I'm also hanging out with my new friend on a daily basis and taking little white pills as well. They bumped up the doseage half-way through, and I've still got no side-effects, except "occasional dry mouth". :)

So, at the end of the study, I've improved so much that other doctors are asking mine about me, even wondering such trivial things as "What does he look like?" After my last whiz-quiz, in which I left them the secret message: "Cannabis Works Wonders!" I am given three weeks worth of the real deal, Celexa. The first thing I noticed wasn't how well I felt, but how bad a headache I had! My vision also started to blur. Either the new test medication has no side-effects at all (yeah, right!), or it was the cannabis that, pretty much literally, saved my life. I don't know if I would have ever actually killed myself, but I thought about it an awful lot.

So, the only thing I changed during the course of the trial was to eat more ("munchies"?) and laugh hysterically with my own herbal supplement. I have absolutely no doubt about the efficacy of cannabis on Chronic Anxiety. I even had to laugh at a re-run of an old SNL last Saturday night when John Lovitz was a Hippie professor, and rolled up a towel to put at the base of his office door...that was the only thing that made me nervous: the police kicking in the door, all because my REAL medication, the one that saved me, wasn't sponsored by the makers of Celexa.

Drug Enforcement Administration officials have estimated that profits from opium sales netted the Taliban 40 million annually, with some estimates ranging far higher.

I thought $40 million was the dollar amount our government gave the Taliban to stop growing poppies. They did stop growing that year! Seems to me that they managed to doubled their $40 million profit last year courtesy of the American Taxpayer & Uncle Sam's wise choices in spending our money.

If 80-90% of all European heroin comes from Afghanistan poppies I would venture to say Afghanistan made more than $40 million bucks. And if not, they are blownin the heroin problem in Europe way out of proportion.

where marijuana is condemned but can be obtained for children by prescription.

but obviously intended

where marijuana is condemned but Zoloftcan be obtained for children by prescription.

I've seen the Zoloft commercial she uses as an example of that hypocrisy. Here are the pill-shaped cartoon characters who, smiling and bouncing, push Zoloft drug on television:

http://www.zoloft.com/

The hypocrisy is all the more starkly revealed when one considers the side effects of Zoloft. The TV ad itself tells us that Zoloft can cause diarrhea, unspecified sexual side effects, insomnia and sleepiness.

Insomnia AND Sleepiness?? You heard me right. Other side effects are listed on Zoloft's own web page

http://www.zoloft.com/index.asp?pageid=43

and they include:

dry mouth

upset stomach

decreased appetite

feeling unusually tired or sleepy

trouble sleeping

sexual problems in men and women

diarrhea/loose stools

tremor

feeling agitated

indigestion

increased sweating If you are concerned about CHILDREN AND DRUGS, read on:

Children who take ZOLOFT may also have other side effects such as excessive movement or twitching, fever, not "feeling well," trouble concentrating, not thinking normally, nosebleeds, weight loss, easy bruising, manic or excited behavior, or rapid mood swings.

and if these are not enough for you, then

ZOLOFT may cause other less common side effects besides those listed here. For a list of all side effects that have been reported, ask your doctor or pharmacist for the ZOLOFT Professional Package Insert.

Here's a list of drug companies and what they spend lobbying Congress to continue the the war on marijuana:

http://stonernet.org/Activists_WhoBenefits.asp?topic=drug

Pfizer, the manufacturer of Zoloft, spent $8,000,000.

Marijuana is used to treat depression, but its side effects, other than a little bit of a pleasant feeling, are nothing at all compared to those of Zoloft.

The principal side effects of marijuana are: prison, forfeiture of all your property and life savings, forfeiture of your vehicle, loss of a job that you are performing very well, government confiscation of your children and little terrorists for placement in homes where marijuana is condemned but can be obtained for children by prescription.

The drug companies that advertise on television know that they push inferior products that have limited efficacies and frequent severe side effects.

But the author of the article takes it one step further - which is far more than I can say for the rest of those with access to the media but have remained silent. She has pointed out the inherent hypocrisy of advertising against some drugs, and advertising for others…which are used for exactly the same reason.

Ms. Paltrow is a member of an organization that seeks to keep Federal, State and local bureaucratic paws off of her rights and her body. She is keenly aware of the efforts of the mostly male-led, Religious Right’s moves to circumscribe her reproductive choices by any and all means. She knows what’s at stake.

But like far too many people, she has not quite tumbled yet as to the depths to which these self-proclaimed moral proctors will go to achieve their ends. All she has to do is look at how illicit drug consumers are treated by the law enforcement apparatus of this country to see what her future may someday look like.