Cannabinoids As Cancer Hope

It’s been known by the government since 1974 that marijuana may play a role in cancer prevention but the government dismissed the information…..I can only assume they did  so because it didn’t suit their predetermined agenda of a war on drugs.

I wonder how many lives could have been saved or suffering averted had this information been made public and acted on.     One would almost think that curing cancer really isn’t a major priority for our government or our medical community.

I believe the government dismissed this information because we have  a profit driven health care community and an empire building drug enforcement community.  Given that roughly 556,000 a year die from cancer it I believe it is grossly immoral for these studies to be ignored and the research findings to be dismissed.

by Paul Armentano
Senior Policy Analyst
NORML | NORML Foundation

“Cannabinoids possess … anticancer activity [and may] possibly represent a new class of anti-cancer drugs that retard cancer growth, inhibit angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels) and the metastatic spreading of cancer cells.” So concludes a comprehensive review published in the October 2005 issue of the scientific journal Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry.

Not familiar with the emerging body of research touting cannabis’ ability to stave the spread of certain types of cancers? You’re not alone.

For over 30 years, US politicians and bureaucrats have systematically turned a blind eye to scientific research indicating that marijuana may play a role in cancer prevention — a finding that was first documented in 1974. That year, a research team at the Medical College of Virginia (acting at the behest of the federal government) discovered that cannabis inhibited malignant tumor cell growth in culture and in mice. According to the study’s results, reported nationally in an Aug. 18, 1974, Washington Post newspaper feature, administration of marijuana’s primary cannabinoid 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.”

Despite these favorable preclinical findings, US government officials dismissed the study (which was eventually published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 1975), and refused to fund any follow-up research until conducting a similar –- though secret –- clinical trial in the mid-1990s. That study, conducted by the US National Toxicology Program to the tune of $2 million concluded that mice and rats administered high doses of THC over long periods experienced greater protection against malignant tumors than untreated controls.

Rather than publicize their findings, government researchers once again shelved the results, which only came to light after a draft copy of its findings were leaked in 1997 to a medical journal, which in turn forwarded the story to the national media.
REST OF ARTICLE

Cannabinoids selectively inhibit proliferation and induce death of cultured human glioblastoma multiforme cells. Journal of Neurooncology. 2005

Cannabinoids and cancer. Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry. 2005

The endogenous cannabinoid, anandamide, induces cell death in colorectal carcinoma cells. Gut. 2005

Cannabinoid receptor as a novel target for the treatment of prostate cancer. Cancer Research. 2005

Antitumor effects of cannabidiol, a nonpsychoactive cannabinoid, on human glioma cell lines. Journal of Pharmacology And Experimental Therapeutics. 2004

Cannabinoids inhibit the vascular endothelial growth factor pathway in gliomas. Cancer Research. 2004

Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) inhibits lytic replication of gamma oncogenic herpesviruses in vitro. BMJ Medicine. 2004

Cannabinoids: potential anticancer agents. Nature Reviews Cancer. 2003

Inhibition of tumor angiogenesis by cannabinoids. The FASEB Journal. 2003

Inhibition of skin tumor growth and angiogenesis in vivo by activation of cannabinoid receptors. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2003

Anti-tumoral action of cannabinoids: involvement of sustained ceramide accumulation and extracellular signal-regulated kinase activation. Nature Medicine. 2000

Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol induces apoptosis in C6 glioma cells. FEBS Letters. 1998

The endogenous cannabinoid anandamide inhibits human breast cancer cell proliferation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. 1998

Toxicology and Carcinogenesis Studies of 1 trans-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in F344N/N Rats and BC63F1 Mice. National Institutes of Health National Toxicology Program, NIH Publication No. 97-3362. 1996.

Antineoplastic activity of cannabinoids. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 1975