Can Marijuana Cure Cancer?
Marijuana
is nothing but a wonder drug when it comes to offering relief to the mankind, especially to those suffering from health complications, ranging from multiple sclerosis to the dreaded cancer.
The term medical marijuana took on a dramatic new meaning in February 2000 when researchers in Madrid made an announcement that they had destroyed incurable brain cancer tumors in rats by injecting them with the active ingredient in cannabis, THC.
It was revealed:
"All the rats left untreated uniformly died 12-18 days after glioma (brain cancer) cell inoculation %u2026 Cannabinoid (THC)-treated rats survived significantly longer than control rats. THC administration was ineffective in three rats, which died by days 16-18. Nine of the THC-treated rats surpassed the time of death of untreated rats, and survived up to 19-35 days. Moreover, the tumor was completely eradicated in three of the treated rats."
In a local section of the Washington Post on August 18, 1974, under the headline, "Cancer Curb Is Studied," it was reported, "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."
The Spanish researchers were led by Dr. Manuel Guzman of Complutense University and the findings were reported in an issue of "Nature Medicine."
The following studies also demonstrated that marijuana is highly effective in treating cancer.
1. "Cannabinoids, the active components of Cannabis sativa and their derivatives, act in the organism by mimicking endogenous substances, the endocannabinoids, that activate specific cannabinoid receptors. Cannabinoids exert palliative effects in patients with cancer and inhibit tumour growth in laboratory animals.
"The best-established palliative effect of cannabinoids in cancer patients is the inhibition of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. ....
"Other potential palliative effects of cannabinoids in cancer patients - supported by Phase III clinical trials - include appetite stimulation and pain inhibition. ....
"Cannabinoids inhibit tumour growth in laboratory animals. They do so by modulating key cell-signalling pathways, thereby inducing direct growth arrest and death of tumour cells, as well as by inhibiting tumour angiogenesis and metastasis.
"Cannabinoids are selective antitumour compounds, as they can kill tumour cells without affecting their non-transformed counterparts. It is probable that cannabinoid receptors regulate cell-survival and cell-death pathways differently in tumour and nontumour cells.
"Cannabinoids have favourable drug-safety profiles and do not produce the generalized toxic effects of conventional chemotherapies. ... "
Source:
Guzman, Manuel, "Cannabinoids: Potential Anticancer Agents." Nature Reviews: Cancer (October 2003), p. 746.
http://www.brainlife.org/reprint/2003/guzm%C3%A1n_m031000.pdf
2. "Our results, which were obtained in a clinically relevant animal model of ErbB2-positive breast cancer, suggest that these highly aggressive and low responsive tumors could be efficiently treated with nonpsychoactive CB2-selective agonists without affecting the surrounding healthy tissue."
From the abstract: "Conclusions: Taken together, these results provide a strong preclinical evidence for the use of cannabinoid-based therapies for the management of ErbB2-positive breast cancer."
Sources:
Caffarel, María M; Andradas, Clara; Mira, Emilia; Pérez-Gómez, Eduardo; Cerutti; Camilla; Moreno-Bueno, Gema; Flores, Juana; García-Realm, Isabel; Palacios, José; Mañes, Santos; Guzmán, Manuel; Sánchez, Cristina, "Cannabinoids reduce ErbB2-driven breast cancer progression through Akt inhibition," Molecular Cancer (London, United Kingdom: July 22, 2010), p. 1 and P. 8.
http://www.molecular-cancer.com/content/9/1/196
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2917429/pdf/1476-4598-9-196.pdf
3. "In conclusion, our data indicate that cannabidiol, and possibly Cannabis extracts enriched in this natural cannabinoid, represent a promising nonpsychoactive antineoplastic strategy. In particular, for a highly malignant human breast carcinoma cell line, we have shown here that cannabidiol and a cannabidiol-rich extract counteract cell growth both in vivo and in vitro as well as tumor metastasis in vivo. Cannabidiol exerts its effects on these cells through a combination of mechanisms that include either direct or indirect activation of CB2 and TRPV1 receptors and induction of oxidative stress, all contributing to induce apoptosis."
Source:
Ligresti, Alessia; Moriello, Aniello Schiano; Starowicz, Katarzyna; Matias, Isabel; Pisanti, Simona; De Petrocellis, Luciano; Laezza, Chiara; Portella, Giuseppe; Bifulco, Maurizio; and Di Marzo, Vincenzo, "Antitumor Activity of Plant Cannabinoids with Emphasis on the Effect of Cannabidiol on Human Breast Carcinoma," The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (Bethesda, MD: The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, March 2004) Vol. 318, No. 3, pp. 1386-1387.
http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/318/3/1375.full.pdf
4. "... we show that cannabinoid administration selectively down-regulates MMP-2 [matrix metalloproteinases] expression in mice bearing gliomas as well as in two patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme. Cannabinoid-induced inhibition of MMP-2 expression was also evident in cultured glioma cells, indicating that the changes observed in gliomas in vivo reflect-at least in part-the direct effect of cannabinoids on tumor cells. MMP-2 expression is upregulated in almost all human cancers, including gliomas, and this has been shown to be closely associated with negative prognosis."
"As MMP-2 up-regulation is associated with high progression and poor prognosis of gliomas and many other tumors, MMP-2 downregulation constitutes a new hallmark of cannabinoid antitumoral activity."
Source:
Cristina Bla´zquez, Mari´a Salazar, Arkaitz Carracedo, Mar Lorente, Ainara Egia, Luis Gonza´lez-Feria, Amador Haro, Guillermo Velasco, and Manuel Guzman, "Cannabinoids Inhibit Glioma Cell Invasion by Down-regulating Matrix Metalloproteinase-2 Expression," Cancer Research (March 2008), pp. 1951 and 1945.
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/reprint/68/6/1945.pdf
5. "Cannabinoids have a favourable drug safety profile. Acute fatal cases due to cannabis use in humans have not been substantiated, and median lethal doses of THC in animals have been extrapolated to several grams per kilogram of body weight. Cannabinoids are usually well tolerated in animal studies and do not produce the generalized toxic effects of most conventional chemotherapeutic agents. For example, in a 2-year administration of high oral doses of THC to rats and mice, no marked histopathological alterations in the brain and other organs were found. Moreover, THC treatment tended to increase survival and lower the incidence of primary tumours. Similarly, long-term epidemiological surveys, although scarce and difficult to design and interpret, usually show that neither patients under prolonged medical cannabinoid treatment nor regular cannabis smokers have marked alterations in a wide array of physiological, neurological and blood tests."
Source:
Guzman, Manuel, "Cannabinoids: Potential Anticancer Agents." Nature Reviews: Cancer (October 2003), p. 752.
http://www.brainlife.org/reprint/2003/guzm%C3%A1n_m031000.pdf
6. "Cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana and their other natural and synthetic analogues have been reported as useful adjuvants to conventional chemotherapeutic regimens for preventing nausea, vomiting, pain, and for stimulating appetite. Before the discovery of specific cannabinoid systems and receptors, it was speculated that cannabinoids produced their effects via nonspecific interaction with cell membranes. Cannabinoids are proving to be unique based on their targeted action on cancer cells and their ability to spare normal cells. Variation in the effects of cannabinoids in different cell lines and tumor model could be due to the differential expression of CB1 and CB2 receptors. Thus, overexpression of cannabinoid receptors may be effective in killing tumors, whereas low or no expression of these receptors could lead to cell proliferation and metastasis because of the suppression of the antitumor immune response."
Source:
Sarfaraz, Sami; Adhami, Vaqar M.; Syed, Deeba N.; Afaq, Farrukh; and Mukhtar, Hasan, "Cannabinoids for Cancer Treatment: Progress and Promise," Cancer Research (Philadelphia, PA: American Association for Cancer Research, January 2008) Vol. 68, pp. 341-342.
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/reprint/68/2/339.pdf
is nothing but a wonder drug when it comes to offering relief to the mankind, especially to those suffering from health complications, ranging from multiple sclerosis to the dreaded cancer.
The term medical marijuana took on a dramatic new meaning in February 2000 when researchers in Madrid made an announcement that they had destroyed incurable brain cancer tumors in rats by injecting them with the active ingredient in cannabis, THC.
It was revealed:
"All the rats left untreated uniformly died 12-18 days after glioma (brain cancer) cell inoculation %u2026 Cannabinoid (THC)-treated rats survived significantly longer than control rats. THC administration was ineffective in three rats, which died by days 16-18. Nine of the THC-treated rats surpassed the time of death of untreated rats, and survived up to 19-35 days. Moreover, the tumor was completely eradicated in three of the treated rats."
In a local section of the Washington Post on August 18, 1974, under the headline, "Cancer Curb Is Studied," it was reported, "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."
The Spanish researchers were led by Dr. Manuel Guzman of Complutense University and the findings were reported in an issue of "Nature Medicine."
The following studies also demonstrated that marijuana is highly effective in treating cancer.
1. "Cannabinoids, the active components of Cannabis sativa and their derivatives, act in the organism by mimicking endogenous substances, the endocannabinoids, that activate specific cannabinoid receptors. Cannabinoids exert palliative effects in patients with cancer and inhibit tumour growth in laboratory animals.
"The best-established palliative effect of cannabinoids in cancer patients is the inhibition of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. ....
"Other potential palliative effects of cannabinoids in cancer patients - supported by Phase III clinical trials - include appetite stimulation and pain inhibition. ....
"Cannabinoids inhibit tumour growth in laboratory animals. They do so by modulating key cell-signalling pathways, thereby inducing direct growth arrest and death of tumour cells, as well as by inhibiting tumour angiogenesis and metastasis.
"Cannabinoids are selective antitumour compounds, as they can kill tumour cells without affecting their non-transformed counterparts. It is probable that cannabinoid receptors regulate cell-survival and cell-death pathways differently in tumour and nontumour cells.
"Cannabinoids have favourable drug-safety profiles and do not produce the generalized toxic effects of conventional chemotherapies. ... "
Source:
Guzman, Manuel, "Cannabinoids: Potential Anticancer Agents." Nature Reviews: Cancer (October 2003), p. 746.
http://www.brainlife.org/reprint/2003/guzm%C3%A1n_m031000.pdf
2. "Our results, which were obtained in a clinically relevant animal model of ErbB2-positive breast cancer, suggest that these highly aggressive and low responsive tumors could be efficiently treated with nonpsychoactive CB2-selective agonists without affecting the surrounding healthy tissue."
From the abstract: "Conclusions: Taken together, these results provide a strong preclinical evidence for the use of cannabinoid-based therapies for the management of ErbB2-positive breast cancer."
Sources:
Caffarel, María M; Andradas, Clara; Mira, Emilia; Pérez-Gómez, Eduardo; Cerutti; Camilla; Moreno-Bueno, Gema; Flores, Juana; García-Realm, Isabel; Palacios, José; Mañes, Santos; Guzmán, Manuel; Sánchez, Cristina, "Cannabinoids reduce ErbB2-driven breast cancer progression through Akt inhibition," Molecular Cancer (London, United Kingdom: July 22, 2010), p. 1 and P. 8.
http://www.molecular-cancer.com/content/9/1/196
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2917429/pdf/1476-4598-9-196.pdf
3. "In conclusion, our data indicate that cannabidiol, and possibly Cannabis extracts enriched in this natural cannabinoid, represent a promising nonpsychoactive antineoplastic strategy. In particular, for a highly malignant human breast carcinoma cell line, we have shown here that cannabidiol and a cannabidiol-rich extract counteract cell growth both in vivo and in vitro as well as tumor metastasis in vivo. Cannabidiol exerts its effects on these cells through a combination of mechanisms that include either direct or indirect activation of CB2 and TRPV1 receptors and induction of oxidative stress, all contributing to induce apoptosis."
Source:
Ligresti, Alessia; Moriello, Aniello Schiano; Starowicz, Katarzyna; Matias, Isabel; Pisanti, Simona; De Petrocellis, Luciano; Laezza, Chiara; Portella, Giuseppe; Bifulco, Maurizio; and Di Marzo, Vincenzo, "Antitumor Activity of Plant Cannabinoids with Emphasis on the Effect of Cannabidiol on Human Breast Carcinoma," The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (Bethesda, MD: The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, March 2004) Vol. 318, No. 3, pp. 1386-1387.
http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/318/3/1375.full.pdf
4. "... we show that cannabinoid administration selectively down-regulates MMP-2 [matrix metalloproteinases] expression in mice bearing gliomas as well as in two patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme. Cannabinoid-induced inhibition of MMP-2 expression was also evident in cultured glioma cells, indicating that the changes observed in gliomas in vivo reflect-at least in part-the direct effect of cannabinoids on tumor cells. MMP-2 expression is upregulated in almost all human cancers, including gliomas, and this has been shown to be closely associated with negative prognosis."
"As MMP-2 up-regulation is associated with high progression and poor prognosis of gliomas and many other tumors, MMP-2 downregulation constitutes a new hallmark of cannabinoid antitumoral activity."
Source:
Cristina Bla´zquez, Mari´a Salazar, Arkaitz Carracedo, Mar Lorente, Ainara Egia, Luis Gonza´lez-Feria, Amador Haro, Guillermo Velasco, and Manuel Guzman, "Cannabinoids Inhibit Glioma Cell Invasion by Down-regulating Matrix Metalloproteinase-2 Expression," Cancer Research (March 2008), pp. 1951 and 1945.
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/reprint/68/6/1945.pdf
5. "Cannabinoids have a favourable drug safety profile. Acute fatal cases due to cannabis use in humans have not been substantiated, and median lethal doses of THC in animals have been extrapolated to several grams per kilogram of body weight. Cannabinoids are usually well tolerated in animal studies and do not produce the generalized toxic effects of most conventional chemotherapeutic agents. For example, in a 2-year administration of high oral doses of THC to rats and mice, no marked histopathological alterations in the brain and other organs were found. Moreover, THC treatment tended to increase survival and lower the incidence of primary tumours. Similarly, long-term epidemiological surveys, although scarce and difficult to design and interpret, usually show that neither patients under prolonged medical cannabinoid treatment nor regular cannabis smokers have marked alterations in a wide array of physiological, neurological and blood tests."
Source:
Guzman, Manuel, "Cannabinoids: Potential Anticancer Agents." Nature Reviews: Cancer (October 2003), p. 752.
http://www.brainlife.org/reprint/2003/guzm%C3%A1n_m031000.pdf
6. "Cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana and their other natural and synthetic analogues have been reported as useful adjuvants to conventional chemotherapeutic regimens for preventing nausea, vomiting, pain, and for stimulating appetite. Before the discovery of specific cannabinoid systems and receptors, it was speculated that cannabinoids produced their effects via nonspecific interaction with cell membranes. Cannabinoids are proving to be unique based on their targeted action on cancer cells and their ability to spare normal cells. Variation in the effects of cannabinoids in different cell lines and tumor model could be due to the differential expression of CB1 and CB2 receptors. Thus, overexpression of cannabinoid receptors may be effective in killing tumors, whereas low or no expression of these receptors could lead to cell proliferation and metastasis because of the suppression of the antitumor immune response."
Source:
Sarfaraz, Sami; Adhami, Vaqar M.; Syed, Deeba N.; Afaq, Farrukh; and Mukhtar, Hasan, "Cannabinoids for Cancer Treatment: Progress and Promise," Cancer Research (Philadelphia, PA: American Association for Cancer Research, January 2008) Vol. 68, pp. 341-342.
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/reprint/68/2/339.pdf
Marijuana Legalization
Marijuana is one of the most commonly used drugs across the world, yet it is given an illegal status by some countries. The valid reason for this illegality is none and the valid reasons for granting it the legal status are endless.
If you have been wondering why marijuana is an illegal drug, this is because big pharmaceuticals are threatened by marijuana, the wonder drug, which could be used to treat almost every medical complication known to the mankind. Drug cartels in Mexico and beer distributors in California opposed the legalization of marijuana as they feared it would reduce their profits.
If that is not all, some politicians oppose legalization of marijuana as they are afraid they will be accused of being "pro-drug", labeled as weak on crime, and believe that marijuana is not a wonder drug (even if that means overriding scientific and medical evidences without any valid reason and proof). Moreover, how would court expenses that are paid by marijuana offenders be justified and how would the police departments justify their budgets fighting marijuana and making a lot of money by seizing property during marijuana busts?
Why Legalize Marijuana?
Legalization of marijuana would not only create thousands of jobs based on a clean and sustainable source of fuel, medicine, and fiber, but it would also help the treasury earn taxes worth billions. Moreover, legalizing marijuana would save taxpayers' money by the elimination of the money spent on law enforcement, the courts, and the prisons. More importantly, it would help individuals and families who have been criminalized by a system that promotes arrests, fines, and confiscation.
Legalizing marijuana would not only restore social consent and help billions of people worldwide get cured of medical complications, but to also avoid lives of people getting ruined by unjustified arrest and confiscation.
The belief that people who advocate marijuana use are either uninformed or their jobs depend upon the mandatory acceptance of marijuana prohibition is nothing but a pure myth. This is primarily because the laws against marijuana are arbitrary, unjust, and wrong and the findings that gave birth to these laws are biased towards big pharmaceutical companies that are threatened by the greatest gift of the Mother Nature, marijuana.
The findings of the Canadian Senate Special Committee (on Illegal Drugs. 2002. Cannabis: Summary Report: Our Position for a Canadian Public Policy. Ottawa) says it all. "We believe %u2026 that the continued prohibition of cannabis jeopardizes the health and well-being of Canadians much more than does the substance itself or the regulated marketing of the substance. In addition, we believe that the continued criminalization of cannabis undermines the fundamental values set out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and confirmed in the history of a country based on diversity and tolerance.
%u2026 It is for this reason that the Committee recommends that the Government of Canada amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to create a criminal exemption scheme, under which the production and sale of cannabis would be licensed, [and] %u2026 to permit persons over the age of 16 to procure cannabis and its derivatives at duly licensed distribution centers."
In short, marijuana prohibition is nothing but unjust, the epitome of unwarranted big government intrusion into and interference with our private lives, and a huge waste of police, legal, and taxpayer resources. The time is not far when marijuana would be made easily accessible for adults who choose to use it, whether for medical use or pleasure and relaxation.
References:
Dr David Bearman's Home Page
Dr Tod Mikuriya's Home Page
Eugene (Oregon) - Compassion Center
Falcon Cove Biology Laboratory
Forfeiture Endangers American Rights
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Hello I am for the legalization of Marijuana and I would like to get my message across to the people who dont know the benefits and magic it has done... more »
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