I just discovered this message from Michelle in the "Drafts" section of the blog, written in summer 2021. Apparently, she started it to be an announcement of the research paper from her collaboration with Hinanit, which she was expecting to be published "any day now" (more news on that in the next post). The final paragraph must have been writte near the end, when it seemed clear that the paper wasn't going to come out in time. But she never got around to pushing the "Publish" button. I don't think there's anything here that she'd unsay, so here are some of Michelle's final words about cannabis medicine.
-- Bruce
I have a big secret. I have been wanting to share it for months. During this challenging chemo treatment it is the only thing that kept me going. If not for this secret hope I might have given up and asked Hospice for my "I'm done with this terminal disease suffering" pills, which are legal in California. But I have hope, and I am finally allowed to share my secret science, because today this paper was published.
Did anyone who knows me think I was going to let the DEA stop me from doing the science that might save my life? Yeah, NO. So I founded a BioPharma company. I barely passed college chemistry, clearly for lack of interest, but now I'm desperate and motivated. I scoured pubMed and designed a research project that just might save my life. I partnered with a leading Cannabinoid Oncology lab in Israel, a scientific powerhouse that does not prohibit Cannabis science, and in just a few months we got the research done. Boom! This is how breakthroughs happen. This is what the DEA has been blocking for five decades, since the publication of this very first paper published in 1975. And if you think I'm nuts, here is another "real" bioPharma company working on Cannabis formulas for many cancer cell lines.
Not that I have ever been timid, but having a year to live has given me a certain sense of power, forcefulness and passion. So just fu*k you DEA. Fu*k your science denying, racist, prohibition, power-grabbing bullshit. Fu*k you for stonewalling, lying, and dragging your feet for decades. Fu*k you for blocking life saving research. Fu*k you for every everyone who has suffered because you have lied about these molecules.
The world will know what you have done. I hope I am here to see it. With my last breath I will hold you to account. You want to come arrest me? You think I am a felon? Try it. I am the hero in this story and you are the evil bastards. I will be seeing you in court!
I have been very quiet about Cannabis lately. Aside from an occasional 10mg THC/CBN for sleep I have abstained because of the unknown interactions with Chemo agents. I have been anxiously waiting for groundbreaking, hot of the pre-print server, science that I have not been able to discuss because I signed a NDA. And while the paper is not quite ready for publication, another few weeks, I can say I have a glimmer of hope. So if I am alive in a month, or not, you will see big news on the blog. I hope you will check back when we are free to share the google scholar and PubMed links. Miracles, powered by science, are in the works.