Hey Look, Researchers Find Health Benefits in a Plant. No, Not That One.

Perusing Science Daily as we do, we came across a story about a Virginia Tech research team that discovered that the olive-derived compound oleuropein helps the body secrete more insulin, a central signaling molecule in the body that controls metabolism.

Allow us to quote liberally from the report: "The health benefits of olives -- and associated natural products such as olive oil -- have long been recognized and touted by proponents of the Mediterranean diet. But it seems that little was previously known about what specific compounds and biochemical interactions in the fruit contribute to its medical and nutritional benefits such as weight loss and prevention of type 2 diabetes."

Let's stop, dear readers, and enjoy the irony of deep investigations into a plant that humans have used for thousands of years, whose health benefits have been rumored, and which can create great joy during consumption (see photo if you're still not convinced). Those benefits are apparently as valid for the olives that kids love to put on their fingertips as for olive oil, staple of the "Mediterranean Diet."

In case our opponents are allergic to irony, let's shout it from the rooftops: Cannabis has many many many more health benefits than olives, many many many more uses than olives, and the only thing that stands in between patients, doctors, parents, and yes, politicians and enlightenment is Cannabis' place on Schedule I instead of Schedule III. It's our whole deal here at the American Cannabis Report.

To the US Congress: move cannabis to Schedule III and turn the scientists loose!