Getting high on your mother’s milk…a reprise

RECENT events, particularly the appointment by President Duterte and acceptance of Vice President Leni Robredo as the new “Anti-Drugs Czar”, prompted a reprise of this column. You know, Leni the “barefoot lady from Naga”, the one with three daughters who are all girls.

Take note, we’re not talking about some kinky pornographic thing i.e. Leni’s breast and “Bolet”, but yes it will be about women’s breasts, specifically your mom’s, cannabinoids or the substance usually found in marijuana, and babies getting high while sucking milk from mom’s breasts.

And no, we’re not doing an Ed Peñaredondo here, this is really a serious matter with huge implications on child development and nutrition although we’ll discuss it in our usual dry Monthy Python-inspired humor.

We’re all pretty much aware of the hypocrisy and the ignorance why the use of marijuana both recreational and medical is banned and criminal in the Philippines although the exact opposite is now happening with the rest of the world.

It’s not just that most of the health, law enforcement officials and politicians in these islands are idiots with archaic if not obsolete concepts regarding marijuana, but the fact that the big pharmaceutical industry is up in arms in preventing the legalization of marijuana, particularly its medical use.

Quite simple really, they stand to lose millions if not billions of profit if medical marijuana becomes legal.

And let’s segue to babies, mom’s boobs, cannabinoids and getting high on mother’s milk.

Excerpts from a recent study published in www.cbdlifeuk.com:

Study confirms cannabinoids occur naturally in human breast milk

In January 2017 a study confirmed that cannabinoids occur naturally in human breast milk-and it’s proving now to still be as relevant of a study as ever.

According to the findings of several major scientific studies, human breast milk naturally contains the same cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant, which are vital for proper human development.

Cell membranes in the body are naturally equipped with these cannabinoid receptors which when activated support and maintain human health. Human breast milk is an abundant source of endocannabinoids, a specific type of neuromodulatory lipid that basically teaches a newborn child how to eat by stimulating the suckling process.

Dr. Melanie Dreher studied women using cannabis during their entire pregnancy and then studied the babies one year after birth. She found that babies of the women who had smoked cannabis daily during their pregnancy socialized more quickly, made eye contact more quickly and were easier to engage.

If it were not for these cannabinoids in breast milk, newborn children would not know how to eat, nor would they necessarily have the desire to eat, which could result in severe malnourishment and even death. Newborn children who are breastfed naturally receive doses of cannabinoids that trigger hunger and promote growth and development.

Observations of how babies’ acts after being fed show they exhibit symptoms of cannabinoid use. As well as the essential function of stimulating an infant’s appetite, cannabinoids also help to calm and relax the baby. Cannabinoids are not, however, present in baby formula, which makes it far more inferior to breast milk.

Furthermore, a study on the endocannabinoid receptor system that was published in the European Journal of Pharmacology reported: “The medical implications of these novel developments are far-reaching and suggest a promising future for cannabinoids in pediatric medicine for conditions including ‘non-organic failure-to-thrive’ and cystic fibrosis.”

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 cannabis.

This essentially means that the human body requires and produces endocannabinoids, as these nutritive substances play a critical role in supporting and maintaining human health.

And you thought all the while I was just playing you. Yes, based on that study one can actually get that all important substance cannabinoids essential for getting high and the other wonderful therapeutic and curative effects not only from ingesting cannabis oil or smoking marijuana but from your mother’s milk.

Of course we’re not suggesting here that you go out and search for lactating women and suck their breast, that would be gross and rather in poor taste (pun intended) although a certain geriatric councilor of “I Am Iloilo City” might find it appealing to his twisted sense of humor.

Seriously, what we are advocating for is breast feeding for babies and not baby formulas, natural mother’s milk and not artificial infant formulas.

It is already a scientific and medical fact with empirical evidence that children who were breastfed with natural mother’s milk when they were infants are far healthier, developed rapidly and are more intelligent than those who were given artificial infant formula.

Just between us though, please don’t tell Leni Robredo, the Department of Health and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency about this article as they might declare breast-feeding criminal, ban mother’s milk and mother’s breasts. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)

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