September 22, 2011

from PreventDisease Website

Spanish version

Ever wonder why a plant made from nature for all of us to enjoy is criminalized?

Look no further than the wheels that turn government - namely greed and corporate profits on behalf of Big Pharma. After all, why else would something natural be banned? In this case, because it helps prevent cancer. Researchers in Spain have discovered that a marijuana makes brain tumors shrink by halting the growth of blood vessels that supply the tumors with life.

Since when are herbs classified as drugs? We really should pose this question to Wikipedia who classifies the herb a drug under its listing.

It's no surprise that the United States has decreed that marijuana has no accepted medical use and should remain classified as a highly dangerous drug like heroin. Accepting and promoting the powerful health benefits of marijuana would instantly cut huge profits geared towards cancer treatment and the U.S. would have to admit it imprisons the population for no cause.

Nearly half of all drug arrests in the United States are for marijuana.

It's not just the U.S. either. Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper is getting tougher on pot growers than he is on rapists of children. Under the Tories' recent omnibus crime legislation, a person growing 201 pot plants in a rental unit would receive a longer mandatory sentence than someone who rapes a toddler or forces a five-year-old to have sex with an animal.

In the U.K. a top judge has issued a stark warning to anyone caught growing cannabis in South Yorkshire - immediate prison awaits. In other words, don't infringe on artificial means of cancer treatment, or else. Prevention hurts the bottom line, especially if it's natural.

Cannibus, better known as marijuana, has chemicals called cannabinoids that could effectively starve tumors to death, say the researchers. The team used mice to demonstrate that the cannabinoids block vessel growth, and the procedure is also effective in humans.

Previous research from Harvard has shown that the active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread.

The Spanish team, led by Dr Manuel Guzmon, wanted to see whether they could prevent a form of cancer (glioblastoma multiforme) from growing by cutting off its blood supply.

Glioblastoma multiforme is one of the most difficult cancers to treat - it seldom responds to any medical intervention, especially conventional methods which poisoning and primatively destroy cells such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery.

The mice were given a cancer similar to the human brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme). The mice were then given cannabinoids and the genes examined. The genes associated with blood vessel growth in tumors through the production of a chemical called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) had their activity reduced.

Cannabinoids halt VEGF production by producing Ceramide. Ceramide controls cell death.

Dr Guzmon said:

"As far as we know, this is the first report showing that ceramide depresses VEGF pathway by interfering with VEGF production."

They then wanted to see if this would also happen with humans.

They selected two patients who had glioblastoma multiforme and had not responded to chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery. The scientists took samples from them before and after treating them with a cannabinoids solution - this was administered directly into the tumor.

Amazingly, both patients experienced reduced VEGF levels in the tumor as a result of treatment with cannabinoids.

The researchers said that the results were encouraging. In order to be sure about their findings they need to carry out a larger study, they said.

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 MarijuanaNews.com editor Richard Cowan, the answer is because it is a threat to cannabis prohibition,

“...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.