Could it be true, does the U.S. Government own a patent on some Cannabis Cures?  

Yes it does seem like this is a reality.  

Marijuana remains a scheduled I drug and is included with the likes of heroin, LSD, ecstasy, meth and peyote.  Thus Cannabis has been classified as having a "high potential for abuse" and having "no currently accepted medical use'.  Ironically, there is a patent for "Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants" which has be in effect since October 7, 2003 and it is assigned to none other than... you guessed it,  The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services (Washington, DC).

So while maintaining the stance that Cannabis is harmful to our health and has no medicinal value, the corporation of The United States of America over a decade ago has been assigned the patent for cannabis as a antioxidants and neuroprotectants.  Here is the Abstract about the patent:

Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention. A particular disclosed class of cannabinoids useful as neuroprotective antioxidants is formula (I) wherein the R group is independently selected from the group consisting of H, CH.sub.3, and COCH.sub.3. ##STR1## 

If you are interested in reading more about this patent and what it entails, here is the link to United States Patent # 6630507, Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants. 

What are your thoughts, should the United State of America have he rights to this patent?