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.

Marijuana was decriminalized in New York in 1977, making possession of anything less than 25 grams only a violation with a $100 fine. Smoking or possession in public, however, is a misdemeanor. If caught holding or smoking in public, you can get up to three months in jail.

If this is the case, why has New York City been the ‘Pot Bust Capital’ of the world for the past 10 years? According to an article I read on AlterNet by Steven Wishnia, police and crackdown defenders are giving a few reasons:

• · Making large numbers of arrests for minor offenses has reduced major crimes
• · It’s an easy way for police supervisors to show their precincts’ productivity
• · It’s an easy way for individual officers to get overtime
• · It keeps a reserve of officers occupied

Almost 400 thousand people were arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession in the past ten years, and a new study sponsored by the New York Civil Liberties Union says the crackdown is both racist and fraudulent:

• · Five out of six of the people arrested were black or Latino.
• · Nine out of ten were male.
• · Most were under the age of 25.

An estimated two-thirds to three-quarters of the people arrested were not even smoking the marijuana! They usually had it well concealed inside their clothing. Why are they still getting arrested? They are victims of police scams. Police officers stop people near suspected dealing spots and tell them that they saw them coming out; if they give up what they’ve got, all they’ll get is a ticket. If they fall for it and hand over the marijuana, they’re charged with possession of marijuana open to public view.

According to Wishnia, this is all thanks to Rudolph Giuliani’s decision to make public toking a top police priority. Though Giuliani’s not in office anymore, new Mayor Michael Bloomberg is continuing with his legacy. And hypocritically, I might add: When asked if he’d ever smoked pot, Bloomberg declared, “You bet I did — and I enjoyed it!”

This war on drugs needs to end! Deborah Peterson-Small, one of the authors of the NYCLU study, states that it violates the spirit of the state’s decriminalization law: “The ban on public smoking was originally intended to apply only to people creating a public nuisance, not to someone lighting up discreetly in the alley behind a jazz club.”