A new study
published in
Nature Reviews-Cancer
provides an historic and detailed explanation about how THC and
natural cannabinoids counteract cancer, but preserve normal
cells.
The study by Manuel Guzmán
of Madrid Spain found that cannabinoids, the active components
of marijuana, inhibit tumor growth in laboratory animals. They
do so by modulating key cell-signaling pathways, thereby
inducing direct growth arrest and death of tumor cells, as well
as by inhibiting the growth of blood vessels that supply the
tumor.
The Guzman study is very important according to Dr.
Ethan Russo, a neurologist
and world authority on medical cannabis:
“Cancer occurs
because cells become immortalized; they fail to heed normal
signals to turn off growth. A normal function of remodelling
in the body requires that cells die on cue. This is called
apoptosis, or programmed cell death.
That process
fails to work in tumors. THC promotes its reappearance so
that gliomas, leukemias, melanomas and other cell types will
in fact heed the signals, stop dividing, and die.”
“But, that is not all,” explains Dr. Russo: “The other way
that tumors grow is by ensuring that they are nourished:
they send out signals to promote angiogenesis, the growth of
new blood vessels. Cannabinoids turn off these signals as
well. It is truly incredible, and elegant.”
In other words, this
article explains several ways in which cannabinoids might be
used to fight cancer, and, as the article says,
“Cannabinoids
are usually well tolerated, and do not produce the
generalized toxic effects of conventional chemotherapies."
Usually, any story
that even suggests the possibility of a new treatment for cancer
is greeted with headlines about a “cancer cure” - however remote
in the future and improbable in fact it might be.
But if marijuana is
involved, don’t expect any coverage from mainstream media,
especially since mainstream editors have been quietly killing
this story for the past thirty years…
That’s right, news about the ability of pot to shrink tumors
first surfaced, way back in 1974. Researchers at the Medical
College of Virginia, who had been funded by the National
Institutes of Health to find evidence that marijuana damages the
immune system, found instead that THC slowed the growth of three
kinds of cancer in mice - lung and breast cancer, and a
virus-induced leukemia.
The Washington Post reported on the 1974 study - in the “Local”
section - on Aug. 18, 1974.
Under the headline, “Cancer Curb Is
Studied,” it read in part:
“The active
chemical agent in marijuana curbs the growth of three kinds
of cancer in mice and may also suppress the immunity
reaction that causes rejection of organ transplants, a
Medical College of Virginia team has discovered.”
The researchers,
“found that THC
slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers, and a
virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged
their lives by as much as 36 percent.”
“News coverage of the Madrid discovery has been virtually
nonexistent in this country. The news broke quietly on Feb.
29, 2000 with a story that ran once on the UPI wire about
the Nature Medicine article,” complained
MarijuanaNews.com editor
Richard Cowan, who said he was only able to find the article
through a link that appeared briefly on the Drudge Report
Web page.
“The New York
Times, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times all
ignored the story, even though its newsworthiness is
indisputable: a benign substance occurring in nature
destroys deadly brain tumors,” added Cowan.
On March 29, 2001,
the
San Antonio Current printed a
carefully researched, bombshell of a story by Raymond Cushing
titled, “POT SHRINKS TUMORS; GOVERNMENT KNEW IN ‘74.”
Media coverage since
then has been non-existent, except for
a copy of the story on Alternet.
It is hard to believe that the knowledge that cannabis can be
used to fight cancer
has been suppressed for almost thirty
years, yet it seems likely that it will continue to
be suppressed.
Why? According to
Cowan, the answer is because
it is a threat to cannabis
prohibition.
“If this article
and its predecessors from 2000 and 1974 were the only
evidence of the suppression of medical cannabis, then one
might perhaps be able to rationalize it in some herniated
way. However, there really is
massive proof that the
suppression of medical cannabis represents the greatest
failure of the institutions of a free society, medicine,
journalism, science, and our fundamental values,” Cowan
notes.
Millions of people
have died horrible deaths and in many cases, families exhausted
their savings on dangerous, toxic and expensive drugs.
Now we are just
beginning to realize that while marijuana has never killed
anyone, marijuana prohibition has killed millions.
