Robin Prosser was a former concert pianist and systems analyst from Montana who suffered from an immunosuppressive disease similar to lupus for over 20 years. The disease stiffened her muscles, limited her mobility, and caused chronic pain, heart trouble, nausea, and migraines. It also made her allergic to most pharmaceutical painkillers, and the ones she wasn’t allergic to had no effect.

Only medical marijuana brought her relief, so she looked to local law enforcement authorities for permission to grow her own marijuana to keep a steady supply of medication without having to fear being arrested or prosecuted, but Police Chief Bob Weaver stated that Prosser would “be busted if she grows pot and we learn about it.”

According to this article from the MPP, Prosser emailed her therapist explaining that she was going to commit suicide because she was not able to deal with the constant pain anymore. When the police showed up at her house, they found her nearly unconscious after having taken prescription sleeping pills ordered off the Internet. They also found a little marijuana and two pipes.

She was charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia because, according to Police Captain Marty Ludemann, “the reason we charged her is Montana does not allow the medical use of marijuana.” He also stated that “if it happened tomorrow under the same circumstances, we would arrest her again.”

The charges were dropped, so long as Prosser stayed out of trouble for nine months, and six months later, Montana passed a medical marijuana initiative. It seemed as though Prosser’s troubles were over until federal law enforcement officers intercepted the medicinal marijuana her licensed caregiver had sent her through the mail.

After this incident, Prosser had a lot of trouble finding the type and quality of medical marijuana she needed to help with her symptoms. She experienced excruciating pain in the following months until on Oct. 18, 2007, she took her own life.

This isn’t the first time the government sentences innocent people to death because they smoke marijuana, and I’m sure, unfortunately, it won’t be the last. This was an extremely intelligent woman who used to make beautiful music, but because our government denied her the only medication she could take, she’ll never strike a piano key again.

All I can hope is that she’s at peace and pain-free, making beautiful music in another life.

What are two substances you would never imagine would help prevent Alzheimer’s Disease? If you answered Marijuana and Red Wine, you’d be absolutely correct. And according to researchers from UCLA and the University of Ohio, they do!

According to this article, “Scientists are gaining a clearer understanding of the mechanics of memory deterioration and discovering some promising approaches to prevention.”

Gary Wenk, a psychologist from the University of Ohio, found that a synthetic drug much like THC lowers inflammation in the part of the brain associated with short-term memory and stimulates the growth of new brain cells. When tested on elderly rats, those who had been given the THC treatment performed better at memory tests than the control group, who had not been given the THC-like drug.

Similarly, polyphenols, a natural component of red wine are responsible for blocking the formation of the toxic plaque long-associated with the destruction of brain cells and the reduction of pre-existing deterioration.

David Teplow, a neurologist from UCLA, extracted polyphenols from grape seeds and gave them to rats exposed to Alzheimer’s disease. He concluded that the polyphenols block the formation of toxic aggregates in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Gary Wenk noted that to be completely effective, treatment must start before memory loss is obvious.