MarijuanaNews.com : What If Marijuana Could Cure Cancer? One More Reason Marijuana Prohibition Is Murder.

Posted February 29, 2000
(MarijuanaNews note: The suppression of the medical use of marijuana
has not only retarded the use of the whole plant, it has also greatly delayed this sort of
research on its constituents.

Even now such research is generally done on single ingredients because modern
medicine is hostage to the single molecule paradigm. We know that whole cannabis is
superior to single ingredients in many medical uses because the cannabinoids work
synergistically.

In any case, this is just one more example of the recently discovered
therapeutic uses of cannabis in ways that could directly save lives, not just reduce
suffering. This is also just one more bit of evidence in the case for saying that the
suppression of medical marijuana is murder, in fact mass murder.
See
Cannabis
May Prevent Brain Damage From Strokes; Slow Progress of Alzheimers and Parkinsonism
DEAland National Institute of Mental Health Study, But Reported In British Media
and
Marijuana
Derivative Used To Treat Severe Head Trauma,
Leading Cause Of Death In Children. The Wrong Message?
and

href=”http://www.marijuananews.com/marijuana_derivative_blocks_irre.htm”>Marijuana
Derivative Blocks Irreversible Brain Damage After Accidents; Another Way Marijuana
Prohibition Kills

No one fighting cancer should get his hopes too high on the basis of this report. If I had
brain cancer I would probably be smoking a lot of marijuana, but not expecting that to
cure it.

A reader who was one of several who kindly forwarded this item to me captioned his email
with “Gee, where did the dopey header go?” He meant, of course, that — for once
– the media did not find it appropriate to use a bad pun in the headline on a marijuana
related article, thereby conditioning the reader not to take it seriously.
For a really bad example of this
See

href=”http://www.marijuananews.com/marijuananews/cowan/johns_hopkins_study_shows_long.htm”>Johns
Hopkins Study Shows Long-Term Use Of Marijuana
Does Not Lead To A Decline In Mental Function.
But Writing About It In Prohibitionist Media Does.

Well, if they haven’t found a cure for cancer, at least they may have
found a cure for bad journalism, which might save even more lives.)

Study says marijuana ingredients kill rat tumors.
By Lisa Richwine

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Chemicals found in the marijuana plant were,
in a third of cases, able to kill a rare and usually fatal type of brain tumour when
tested on rats, researchers said on Monday.

The findings were called promising, but the implications for humans
are unknown as the study only involved 30 rats injected with cannabinoids, the active
chemical ingredients in marijuana.

Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, scientists at Complutense University
in Spain injected cannabinoids directly into cells of malignant gliomas that had been
implanted in rat brains.

The treatment “eradicated” the cancer in one-third of the cases and another third
survived longer than expected, they wrote.

Marijuana, or cannabis, is best known for its ability to give people
a “high,” but the plant also has medicinal properties, such as relieving pain and
nausea.
(MarijuanaNews note: How can that be? The Czar told us that
it was “Cheech and Chong medicine”, and that it was a “hoax.”

Actually, it is interesting that a Reuters report is stating that as a fact, which it is,
but notice that there is no qualifier, no “some say,” etc.)

The scientists said they did not know if the cancer treatment was appropriate for humans,
but they planned further studies. Cancer treatments that work in animals may be too toxic
or not effective in humans.

The chemicals activated two receptors, or chemical doorways to
cells, which prompted an increase in a lipid known as ceramide. The researchers theorised
that ceramide in turn activated a chain of protein reactions that killed the cancerous
cells.

One of the researchers, Dr. Manuel Guzman, said in an interview he
hoped to start human tests in about a year. “We are quite happy with (the findings),
and we believe we can at least try and see what happens in humans,” Guzman said.

Dr. Daniele Piomelli of the University of California at Irvine wrote in separate article
the rat findings were encouraging, given the bleak scenario for treating malignant
gliomas.

Patients usually receive surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, but median survival is 40 to
50 weeks.

“Although incomplete, these findings must be seriously considered,” Piomelli
wrote.