For The First Time in History, State University Now Offers Cannabis Scholarship

Matt Agorist, The Free Thought Project
Waking Times

Detroit, MI — Across the country last November, Americans made their voices heard in regard to the war on drugs. A record five states legalized cannabis in some form. Montana voted to legalize cannabis for those 21 and up, New Jersey, South Dakota, and Arizona also approved recreational use and Mississippi approved medicinal use. Legal weed started from a trickle in 2012 with Washington and Colorado and has now developed into a landslide with dozens of states legalizing it in some form. The war on pot is collapsing and those who continue to keep it alive are being exposed as the tyrants they are.

Illustrating just how dead the war on cannabis is, a university in Michigan has launched the nation’s first ever cannabis scholarship. On Monday, officials with Lake Superior State University in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula made history when announcing America’s first cannabis scholarship.

Hazel Park-based Steadfast Labs, which works to ensure access to safe cannabis medicine, has launched an annual $1,200 scholarship for students pursuing a degree in cannabis chemistry at the Sault Ste. Marie university, officials said in a statement, according to the Detroit News.

“This donation not only continues our trendsetting ways in this vital new field but also makes our already affordable tuition even more reasonable,” said Steven Johnson, dean of the LSSU College of Science and the Environment.

“When our Cannabis Center of Excellence began operations, members from Steadfast Labs toured the facilities and conducted guest lectures for our students. By funding this scholarship, Steadfast Labs again demonstrates their commitment to supporting future chemists who will enter the workforce and provide public safety in the cannabis field.”

Avram Zallen, founder and CEO of Steadfast Labs, said: “It is our great pleasure to grant this unprecedented scholarship for a cutting-edge program in an innovative industry. This grant is another opportunity for Steadfast to help LSSU students pursue careers in this exciting and important industry. ”

When colleges begin announcing scholarships to study cannabis, this is a sign that we, as a society, are progressing out of decades of dark ages in which people are kidnapped, caged, and killed over this plant.

Despite it being federally illegal, universities have found ways around the ban to study it in limited capacity. Even though the science has been drastically limited by legal roadblocks, the study of cannabis has led to incredible scientific breakthroughs.

One recent study on which TFTP has reported, the University of Chicago in Illinois has shown yet another incredible application for the cannabis plant. Researchers discovered in the study that a particular cannabis compound inhibits infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in human lung cells.

According to the study, the same metabolite that treats epilepsy — 7-OH-CBD — is likely the same one which block SARS-CoV-2 infection at early stages of infection and is associated with a lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans. Researchers say that these results show promise that cannabis compounds could potentially fight other viral infections in the future.

This is the second such study which ties cannabis to the potential reduction of SARS-CoV-2 infection on which TFTP has reported. In the other study, out of a Canadian university, researchers found that certain strains of cannabis may also increase resistance to the coronavirus.

Another extremely promising university case study involving cannabis was recently published in the Journal of Medical Case Reports illustrating the positive effects of cannabis extract and its association with improved autism related behavioral symptoms.

According to the authors, “the pharmacological treatment for autism spectrum disorders is often poorly tolerated and has traditionally targeted associated conditions, with limited benefit for the core social deficits. We describe the novel use of a cannabidiol-based extract that incidentally improved core social deficits and overall functioning in a patient with autism spectrum disorder, at a lower dose than has been previously reported in autism spectrum disorder.”

The case study focused on a child with autism who was switching out prescription seizure medicine for his epilepsy with a very low cannabidiol-based extract dose. The study found that not only did the cannabidiol extract help with his seizures, but he also “experienced unanticipated positive effects on behavioral symptoms and core social deficits,” according to the study.

Knowing these incredible effects, imagine the obstinance, cruelty, and sheer lunacy that it takes for those in Washington to keep cannabis a Schedule 1 drug — claiming it has no medical use whatsoever. Luckily, as this university scholarship and other recent shifts in the paradigm illustrate, these prohibition dinosaurs are rapidly becoming extinct.