The Massachusetts resident began taking marijuana in 2010
Across the U.S., an estimated 5.7 million people are living with Alzheimer’s. The disease is debilitating and carries a range of neuropsychiatric symptoms that are usually not treatable with laboratory medications. One Alzheimer’s patient who survived three different concentration camps during World War II, found his solution in marijuana-infused granola bars.
Alexander Spier emigrated to the U.S. after being liberated from a concentration camp in 1945. He eventually settled in Massachusetts, opening his own jewelry business before turning to real estate. In 2010, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, a disease that prevented him from being able to sleep and caused horrible flashbacks to the time he was in the prison camps.
When physician-prescribed medication didn’t help, Spier was given small amounts of granola bars that were laced with cannabis. The octogenarian saw his nightmares dissipate and he was finally able to sleep peacefully.
Spier passed away last year, but his name lives on. His family has launched the Spier Family Foundaton in an effort to pay for marijuana research to find treatments for Alzheimer’s. The foundation has already found a great deal of support and has now partnered with the McLean Psychiatric Hospital at Harvard to lead the research.
Spier’s story is not the first time Alzheimer’s has been found to be treatable by marijuana. A recent study conducted by Yvonne Bouter and the University Medical Center Goettingen in Germany showed that marijuana was proving to be a powerful response to the disease.
