Cure for cancer may be in Marijuana – Deputy Premier Pickering
On the floor with the topic in brief were Deputy Premier and Minister for Natural Resources and Labour Dr the Hon Kedrick D. Pickering (R7) and Leader of the Opposition, Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1).
Marijuana for medicine?
As an active medical practitioner Dr Pickering expressed confidence in the possibilities of a major breakthrough with the properties in cannabis, “as I was grumbling there I wasn’t being facetious,” he said as co-host of the evening’s activity Mrs Angelle A. Cameron was not comfortable repeating what she heard the Deputy Premier said, “The Ganja plant will eventually hold the answer to solving a lot of these problems.”
“Some of you laugh but obviously you are not paying attention,” Dr Pickering told the applauding audience. “Dr Sanjay Gupta the medical correspondent on CNN only this week made a pitch for the United States to get full force behind the research that is being done with the cannabis plant,” he said.
He urged persons not to get confused, “There two major components of the cannabis plant are THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (Cannabidiol). THC is what makes you high, it has nothing to do with the medicinal value of the plant and the research that is being done now, there are like twenty-five different drugs that are being developed from the plant,” Dr Pickering said.
“If you pay attention you will see that the treatment for epilepsy that previously could not be treated is now being treated with one of the extracts from CDB,” he said.
Early diagnosis of cancer
However, Dr Pickering gives the brighter side of the over 50 cases of cancers diagnosed in the Territory, “The cancers are being diagnosed much earlier… the research is much more advanced and people are taking opportunities to be tested and therefore be treated,” he said.
The Doctor said the more research that can be done, the more people will bring attention to the disease, “The more push we get from the private sector, the more treatments will be evolving and twenty years from now, some of you are going to sit in the room and say what was cancer? What was that thing they were talking about a couple years ago?” the treatment would have evolved he said.
Hon Fahie on the other hand, said that he comes from a background with a familiarity with natural medicines in China, “It is time we see cancer die,” he said, “We have to find how to let the western medicine coexist with the eastern medicine and we have to find how to embrace it,” he said.
While noting that most medical doctors don’t like to hear that, Hon Fahie said “We have to find how to embrace it because no matter what religion you are, one thing holds true is that the bible says that everything that a man needed was already provided… So that tells me that whatever cure is needed is already here and that tells me that cancer is not only a sickness but it is a business and one that we have to shut down,” the Opposition Leader said.
“And to shut it down we have to open our minds for policies, open our minds for laws… allow the eastern medicine to coincide with the western medicine and I could almost guarantee that we would save a lot of our lives,” he said.
18 Responses to “Cure for cancer may be in Marijuana – Deputy Premier Pickering ”
We are tired or the rhetoric every election cycle then ayo go back like crabs in their holes only to come out when a vote is needed or there is money to derive from being on the inside track. Let’s see whom are bold enough to say they are for it and get the ball rolling. Same as the other relevant legislation (consumer protection, public finance management, whistle blowers protection, FOI..and I can go on...) that’s been bogged down by this Government. Action is what the electorate want and need no more LIP SERVICE! Are we resigned to be followers at the back of the pack or are we leaders/pioneers? BVI wake up and see how far we have fallen in regards to being a proactive and inclusive society that we once were. Successive leaders have failed miserably to advance this territory and have just kept the status quo which is buckling as we speak.