Less than a year ago, the American Alliance for Medical Cannabis determined to create a website to provide the latest information and resources for patients, caregivers, families, health care providers, decision makers, and the general public. In this effort our former volunteer Webmaster Jeff Scott ably assisted us. Jeff designed one wonderful website and interest was sparked all over America. AAMC stumbled a bit in the late Fall of 2001 when Jeff left to further other humanitarian causes. We have rebounded though with the able assistance of our Oregon Director Art Livermore and Board Member Eric Heimstadt. We have a way to go in updating the site, particularly with links and news but we are on our way.

In less than a year over 160,000 "hits" have been recorded on the site. This tremendous response has gratified and surprised all of us. What we didn’t realize, though, was how much interest there would be from people all over the globe.

Recently, I reviewed the data on site visitors and discovered intense interest in medical cannabis in Japan, Mexico, Canada, England, and France, along with some twenty other nations ranging from the Netherlands to the United Arab Emirates. While English-speaking countries were the most frequent visitors, the Japanese, by far, read the most pages.

The use of medical cannabis as an adjunctive therapy in a wide range of diseases and disorders is a worldwide phenomenon. This shouldn’t be too surprising as ancient Chinese pharmacologists wrote about the practice, and evidence suggests that cannabis was widely used medicinally throughout Asia and the Middle East in ancient times. Widespread recreational use of cannabis in America and Europe in the 1960’s initiated a rediscovery of medicinal properties leading to today’s worldwide movement. Ironically, scientific research into the medical uses of cannabis is found primarily outside of the United States with excellent work being conducted in England, Israel, Italy, and Japan. With the United States in the grip of drug war cannabis prohibition it is the medical establishments of other nations that are leading the way.

AAMC will now be highlighting medical cannabis efforts not only in America but also throughout the world. We encourage writers from other nations to submit articles for website posting. Just as our traffic analysis indicates that folks in other nations are curious about events in America, many of us in America are intensely curious about medical cannabis in other countries.

Canada seems to be leading the world in the common sense recognition that cannabis is one wonderful treatment for many illnesses. England and the Netherlands are close behind. From the intense interest identified from Japan and France, we would not be surprised to learn of organized efforts in those nations to provide medical cannabis to needy patients. Italy, New Zealand, and Australia are not too far behind.

The United Nations has reaffirmed medical cannabis as a useful adjunctive therapy. We hope that international treaties may be modified or created to reflect this worldwide consensus. We hope too that other nations may help show America the way to compassionately provide for suffering without the prejudice of lumping medical cannabis into the rhetoric of the failed drug war.

We ask readers from other nations to contact us and let us know what is happening in your countries. Simply E-mail Dr. Jay Cavanaugh, Ph.D to forward your comments or questions.