A very important interview of Dr. Vincenzo Di Marzo

CannabisPatientNet interviewed Dr. Di Marzo:
I interviewed Vincenzo in Tucson, Arizona at the 2012 National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics. The 2012 conference focused on The Endocannabinoid System: Clinical Implications for Health Care.

“Dr. Vincenzo Di Marzo is a Research Director at the Institute of Bio molecular Chemistry of the National Research Council (ICB-CNR) in Pozzuoli, Naples, Italy, coordinator of the Endocannabinoid Research Group in the Naples region, and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Dr. Di Marzo was awarded a ChemD from the University of Naples in 1983, and a PhD in biochemistry and molecular pharmacology from Imperial College in London in 1988. He also completed postdoctoral studies in lipid biochemistry and natural product chemistry at ICB-CNR in 1990.

Dr. Di Marzo is co-author of more than 450 articles published in peer-reviewed journals, including several reviews on endocannabinoids. He has been also Editor or co-Editor of three books on endocannabinoids. He is Editor-in-Chief of Recent Patents on CNS Drug Discovery. In addition, he is, or has been, on the editorial board of Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes, and Essential Fatty Acids; Critical Reviews in Neurobiology; Recent Patents in CNS Drug Discovery and the British Journal of Pharmacology, CNS & Neurological Disorders-Drug Targets, The Open Medicinal Chemistry Journal, The Open Drug Discovery Journal. He is Editor-in-Chief of Recent Patents in CNS Drug Discovery. In 2010 he was the 1th most cited author in the field of “Pharmacology and Toxicology”

Dr. Di Marzo has been the recipient of numerous research grants, including a Human Frontier Science Program research grant to study the biosynthesis, metabolism, and structure-activity relationships of anadamide; an INTAS research grant to study the immunomodulatory role of endocannabinoids; and a 3-year research grant from the VolkswagenStiftung in Germany. He has served as President of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) between 2004 and 2005. Since December 2005 he is member of the board of the International Chair of Cardiometabolic Risk of Laval. In June 2006 he was awarded a Merkator Fellowship for Foreign Scientists by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinshaft. In June 2007, he was awarded by the ICRS the Mechoulam Award for “his outstanding contributions to cannabinoid research’.”
(Patients Out of Time Website, medicalcannabis.com)

Universally accepted following its discovery in 1995, the endocannabinoid system asserts it power to heal and balance the other systems of the body by turning on or off the expression of genes. Cannabinoids hold the key that unlocks receptor sites throughout the brain and immune system triggering potent healing and pain-killing effects.

Aside from the cannabinoids produced by the body and those found in cannabis, there are numerous substances that interact with the endocannabinoid system, such as cacao, black pepper, echinacea, tumeric and even carrots. But it is the Cannabis plant that produces the most powerful cannabinoids mimicking most closely those produced by the body. No downsides, no side-effects, no drug interaction issues, and so far, no giving up your hard earned funds to big pharma.

Make no mistake, I’m not referring to THC, of which Americans smoke more of per person than any other people on Earth, but rather the “other,” non-psychoactive cannabinoid called Cannabidiol (CBD), a prominent molecular component of the cannabis plant.