 | NORML News: Studies show cannabis can beat cancer |
 NORML News Autumn 2003
Despite attempts by governments and media to stifle the truth, there is a growing body of evidence that cannabis could help cure cancer.
In 1973, researchers at the Medical College of Virginia showed that cannabinoids THC and CBN inhibited lung and breast cancer growth in mice, especially delta-9 THC.1 The research was sponsored by the government, which quickly suppressed the unwanted findings.2
The cancer killing properties of cannabis resurfaced in the early 90s when US government researchers found that large doses of THC shrunk stomach cancers in mice (the opposite had been expected). The study was eventually leaked to AIDS Treatment News and the Boston Globe who published it, forcing general release in 1997. 3
Intrigued, Dr. Manuel Guzman and his team at Complutense University (Madrid) administered THC to rats with glioma brain cancer. A third of the rats were cured and another third lived longer than the control rats, who all quickly died. Synthetic cannabinoids achieved similar results. The study, “Antitumoural activities of cannabinoids” published in Nature Medicine 2000, suggested cannabinoids cause a reaction in cancer cells called apoptosis, or programmed cell death. The researchers carefully monitored the sample rats for harm from large doses of cannabinoids and found no substantial changes, either biochemical of behavioural.4
Another recent study on mice showed certain cancers were retarded by THC and synthetic cannabinoids. They also did test tube research on human leukaemia cells exposed to THC, anandamide and synthetic cannabinoids, with further success.5
Several test tube studies have also shown plant-derived, synthetic and endo-cannabinoids to have similar cancer-shrinking effects. A 1998 Italian study showed that anandamide retards breast cancer cell growth.6 Anandamide is an endo-cannabinoid (one produced naturally in the body). Could this mean that our body’s endogenous cannabis system plays a role in cancer resistance?
In New Zealand there has been no mainstream coverage of the new findings, despite our high cancer rate. However, papers were recently happy to trot out, once again, an old study suggesting a link between heavy cannabis smoking and lung damage, treating it as news. One might have thought that new research suggesting a potential cure for cancer would be more interesting. Lung damage due to cannabis smoking is a result of inhaling sublimated plant matter. Using a vaporiser to inhale active cannabis resins would largely eliminate this hazard. Cannabis may even be protective against lung cancer, given it’s anti-cancer properties. This might be wishful thinking, but more serious research is clearly warranted.
Fortunately, some kiwi cannabis/cancer research is apparently underway. NORML News understands from staff at Auckland University cancer research centre that Professor of Pharmacology, Bronwyn Connor, has instigated studies on the topic. This has not yet been verified.
So is marijuana the cure for cancer? Unfortunately, the quantities of cannabinoids used in the experiments were so great that patients would be rendered constantly unconscious. It is perhaps more likely that cannabis will illuminate new areas of research. Some alarmed US doctors have even seen fit to warn cancer sufferers not to replace radiotherapy with marijuana. But NORML News questions whether the use of massive doses of virtually nontoxic THC is really less attractive than administering smallish doses of radiation.
The 1973 Virginia study was apparently undertaken because of earlier research showing that cannabinoids inhibited normal cell activity. Most of those studies have since been debunked, which, cosmically enough, means that the researchers proceeded on false premises, but came up with a correct and now well established result: active cannabinoids kill cancer cells.
The Virginia researchers were government funded to produce reefer madness propaganda. But, apparently on a hunch, they turned around and did a couple of cancer studies and cannabis came up smelling good. What motivated these pioneers is unclear, but their contribution to medical science could prove invaluable.
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References:
1 A.E. Munsen et al, Antineoplastic Activity of Cannabinoids, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol 55, No. 3, Sep 1975 www.hempforus.com/med6.htm
2 Colmon Jones, Reefer-Mad in Newsroom, NOW Magazine (Canada), 06.04.00 www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n572.a11.html
3 ibid
4 Raymond Cushing, Pot Shrinks Tumors; Government Knew in ‘74, San Antonio Current, 29.03.01] www.mapnic.org/drugnews/v01.n572.a11.html
5 Robert J McKallip et al, Targeting CB2 cannabinoid receptors as a novel therapy to treat malignant lymphoblastic disease, Blood, 15.07.02. V. 100, No. 2, pp 627-634 www.bloodjournal.org
6 Luciano De Petrocellis et al, The endogenous cannabinoid anandamide inhibits human breast cancer cell proliferation, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 29.04.98 www.pnas.org
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