Providing further evidence that humans and cannabis were meant to co-exist, a study from 2004, of which an abstract was recently published in the European Journal of Pharmacology, shows that breast milk naturally produces cannabinoids, chemicals also found to naturally occur in the cannabis plant. “”[E]ndocannabinoids have been detected in maternal milk and activation of CB1 (cannabinoid receptor type 1) receptors appears to be critical for milk sucking … apparently activating oral-motor musculature,” the study says.

In layman’s terms, the endocannabinoids in breast milk teach babies the desire for milk, without which they would starve to death. The process is similar to the one that gives marijuana users the “munchies” and allows cancer patients and the like the ability to eat and live when they use medical cannabis.

There are two types of cannabinoid receptors in the body — the CB1 variety which exists in the brain, and the CB2 variety which exists in the immune system and throughout the rest of the body. Each one of these receptors responds to cannabinoids, whether it be from human breast milk in children, or from juiced marijuana, for instance, in adults.

This essentially means that the human body was built for cannabinoids, as these nutritive substances play a critical role in protecting cells against disease, boosting immune function, protecting the brain and nervous system, and relieving pain and disease-causing inflammation, among other things. And because science is finally catching up in discovering how this amazing cannabinoid system works, the stigma associated with marijuana use is, thankfully, in the process of being eliminated.

Seen in this light, the prohibition of marijuana looks even more ridiculous. Not only is it a non-toxic plant, it was likely put here – through creation or evolution or whatever you believe – to help us. And then some of us got together and decided we didn’t want that help and that we should destroy it all.

Maybe one day we will rectify our mistake.

- Joe Klare