And after hearing her story… I (Chris) think you’ll get why.
Karen will refuse to eat food for the duration of her strike. And she’s taking this extreme measure to save her 7-year-old son’s life.
His name is Murray. And he has a type of epilepsy called Doose syndrome.
Murray has about 600 seizures every day. They’re known as “drop attacks.” When Murray has fits, he collapses on the ground… risking serious injury.
And Doose syndrome is resistant to pharmaceutical epilepsy treatments. So Murray’s doctors tell Karen that she just has to focus on coping with his condition.
But one natural compound stops Murray’s fits altogether – cannabidiol (CBD).
It’s found in the cannabis plant. It doesn’t have any psychoactive effects. But it’s a wonder drug for certain types of epilepsy.
And it’s the reason Karen is going on hunger strike.
She spends the equivalent of $1,667 every month on a private CBD prescription.
And she’s running out of money to pay for it.
So she’s going to camp outside the home of the British prime minister. Then, she’ll start to starve herself.
It’s a desperate move. But as you can imagine if you have children, Karen is a desperate woman.
She hopes it will persuade the British government to cover the cost of Murray’s CBD… as it does with other epilepsy drugs.
And it makes my blood boil.
As regular readers know, cannabis legalization is one of the major investment themes we’ve been tracking for you here at the Cut.
But there’s still confusion over cannabis and its effects. So a lot of folks steer clear of the sector.
Some even actively support governments’ immoral war on cannabis. And people like Karen and Murray suffer as a result.
Sure, some people use cannabis to get high. And as Legacy Research cofounder Doug Casey has shown his readers, the feds have no right to stop them.
But the real drive behind legalization isn’t coming from “stoners” who want to get high.
It’s coming from parents, doctors, medical researchers, and entrepreneurs. They see that the medical benefits of cannabis are going to revolutionize medicine.
As regular readers know, colleague Nick Giambruno was one of the first analysts at Legacy to put this wave of cannabis legalization on readers’ radars.
And his top-performing cannabis pick at our Crisis Investing advisory is up 331% since Nick added it to the model portfolio in July 2017.
As he’s been telling his readers, one of the reasons he’s so bullish on the sector is the potential of cannabis to revolutionize medicine.
Ancient civilizations understood this well.
Records from second-century China reveal that physicians there used cannabis as an anesthetic. And the Ebers Papyrus, which dates to about 1550 B.C., describes medical cannabis use in ancient Egypt.
Ancient Greeks used cannabis to dress wounds. Ancient Indians used it to treat headaches and insomnia. And from the eighth to the 18th centuries, Arab physicians used it to treat inflammation and pain.
They even used it to treat seizures similar to the ones Murray suffers from.
And the reason cannabis is such a powerful medicine is that it contains a cornucopia of different compounds like CBD…
These are known as cannabinoids. And your body has evolved to interact with them.
You see, there’s a cell-signaling system in our bodies known as the endocannabinoid system (ECS).
Researchers didn’t discover it until the 1990s. And there’s still a lot we don’t know about it. But we do know that everyone has an ECS – whether they use cannabis or not.
It interacts with molecules you produce naturally in your body. They’re called endocannabinoids. And they’re similar to the cannabinoids in the cannabis plant.
Your ECS helps you regulate a range of functions. These include your appetite and your digestion… your metabolism… how you experience pain… how you respond to injury… your mood… how you learn and remember… the quality of your sleep… your cardiovascular system… how you form muscle and bone… your liver function… your reproductive system… along with how you deal with stress.
Here’s how Nick explained it to paid-up Crisis Investing subscribers…
The cannabis plant contains 113 known cannabinoids. There are likely more we don’t know of yet. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and CBD are the two most prominent and well-known.
THC is the psychoactive component that gets users high and has medicinal properties. CBD has medicinal and therapeutic properties and no intoxicating effects.
Today, we’re just scratching the surface of the incredible medicinal properties of THC and CBD. And there are some of the lesser-known cannabinoids that practically nobody else is talking about, but which show massive potential.
That’s tetrahydrocannabivarin.
As the name suggests, THCV is similar at a molecular level to the THC cannabinoid that gets you high. But it has different effects.
For example, THCV suppresses your appetite. And from what I heard from colleague Teeka Tiwari… it works.
If you saw him at our Legacy Investment Summit in Carlsbad, California, last month, you’ll know that Teeka has lost a ton of weight.
He told me he puts his weight loss down to two things – walking 10,000 steps a day and supplementing with THCV.
Research reveals that THCV can also help combat diabetes. It also shows promise in treating anxiety, panic attacks, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
And some promising preliminary studies suggest it could even help fight Alzheimer’s disease.
There’s also cannabigerol (CBG). It doesn’t get you high. But researchers think it may help suppress cancer cell growth.
There’s cannabinol (CBN). It doesn’t get you high. But it may help heal broken bones.
There’s tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA). It doesn’t get you high. But it can reduce nausea and vomiting.
And there’s cannabichromene (CBC). Again, it’s not something you smoke for fun. But it has antifungal and antibacterial properties.
The list of these medical compounds goes on and on…
Cannabis is a revolutionary medicine. And we’re only just starting to grasp its full power.
One day, cannabis-based medicines could become as commonplace in folks’ medicine cabinets as Tylenol, Pepto-Bismol, or Advil.
It’s why Nick believes the cannabis megatrend is nearer to the beginning than the end.
Remember, eight decades of federal prohibition of cannabis have meant we’re only just starting to learn about the medicinal benefits of cannabis. Nick again…
I have no doubt there will be significant breakthroughs in the months and years ahead as THC, CBD, and especially the other 111 cannabinoids are thoroughly researched.
Just think of how big the cannabis boom has been so far, and that’s only with our minimal knowledge of just THC and CBD. The true potential of all 113 cannabinoids – and the thousands of combinations of them – is truly mind-boggling.
The sector has underperformed the S&P 500 by about 50% so far in 2019.
And if you’ve already invested in the sector, that’s tough to go through.
But given the medical potential of the lesser-known compounds in cannabis… plus the legal catalysts I outlined for you yesterday… don’t expect it to last long.
And if you haven’t already invested in the sector, remember that lower prices today mean even higher returns in the future.
You can get broad exposure to this megatrend by buying shares in the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF (HMLSF).
It invests in a basket of the top cannabis stocks. These include companies that are unlocking the medical potential of a hundred or so lesser-known cannabinoids… as well as the major two, THC and CBD.
As always, be sure to do your own research before making any investments. And remember that legal cannabis stocks are highly volatile. So never invest money you can’t afford to lose.
Until tomorrow…
Chris Lowe
October 29, 2019
Dublin, Ireland