-Caveat Lector-
(But this threatens G Dubya family's drug company empire?!! Well no
wonder, I'll bet the conservatives do not like this one bit. Damn, a natural
drug that treats cancer and cannot be patented! No profits for big business.
And look at what hemp will do to the price of timber, and ***OIL***. Egad!)
Pot Shrinks Tumors; Government Knew in '74
Raymond Cushing, AlterNet
May 31, 2000
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The term medical marijuana took on dramatic new meaning in February,
2000 when researchers in Madrid announced they had destroyed incurable
brain tumors in rats by injecting them with THC, the active ingredient in
cannabis.
The Madrid study marks only the second time that THC has been
administered to tumor-bearing animals; the first was a Virginia
investigation 26 years ago. In both studies, the THC shrank or destroyed
tumors in a majority of the test subjects.
Most Americans don't know anything about the Madrid discovery. Virtually
no major U.S. newspapers carried the story, which ran only once on the AP
and UPI news wires, on Feb. 29, 2000.
The ominous part is that this isn't the first time scientists have discovered
that THC shrinks tumors. In 1974 researchers at the Medical College of
Virginia, who had been funded by the National Institute of Health to find
evidence that marijuana damages the immune system, found instead that
THC slowed the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice -- lung and breast
cancer, and a virus-induced leukemia.
The DEA quickly shut down the Virginia study and all further
cannabis/tumor research, according to Jack Herer, who reports on the
events in his book, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes." In 1976 President
Gerald Ford put an end to all public cannabis research and granted
exclusive research rights to major pharmaceutical companies, who set out -
- unsuccessfully -- to develop synthetic forms of THC that would deliver all
the medical benefits without the "high."
The Madrid researchers reported in the March issue of "Nature Medicine"
that they injected the brains of 45 rat with cancer cells, producing tumors
whose presence they confirmed through magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI). On the 12th day they injected 15 of the rats with THC and 15 with
Win-55,212-2 a synthetic compound similar to THC. "All the rats left
untreated uniformly died 12-18 days after glioma (brain cancer) cell
inoculation ... 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." The rats treated
with Win-55,212-2 showed similar results.
The Spanish researchers, led by Dr. Manuel Guzman of Complutense
University, also irrigated healthy rats' brains with large doses of THC for
seven days, to test for harmful biochemical or neurological effects. They
found none.
"Careful MRI analysis of all those tumor-free rats showed no sign of
damage related to necrosis, edema, infection or trauma ... We also
examined other potential side effects of cannabinoid administration. In both
tumor-free and tumor-bearing rats, cannabinoid administration induced no
substantial change in behavioral parameters such as motor coordination or
physical activity. Food and water intake as well as body weight gain were
unaffected during and after cannabinoid delivery. Likewise, the general
hematological profiles of cannabinoid-treated rats were normal. Thus,
neither biochemical parameters nor markers of tissue damage changed
substantially during the 7-day delivery period or for at least 2 months after
cannabinoid treatment ended."
Guzman's investigation is the only time since the 1974 Virginia study that
THC has been administered to live tumor-bearing animals. (The Spanish
researchers cite a 1998 study in which cannabinoids inhibited breast
cancer cell proliferation, but that was a "petri dish" experiment that didn't
involve live subjects.)
In an email interview for this story, the Madrid researcher said he had heard
of the Virginia study, but had never been able to locate literature on it.
Hence, the Nature Medicine article characterizes the new study as the first
on tumor-laden animals and doesn't cite the 1974 Virginia investigation.
"I am aware of the existence of that research. In fact I have attempted many
times to obtain the journal article on the original investigation by these
people, but it has proven impossible." Guzman said.
In 1983 the Reagan/Bush Administration tried to persuade American
universities and researchers to destroy all 1966-76 cannabis research
work, including compendiums in libraries, reports Jack Herer, who states,
"We know that large amounts of information have since disappeared."
Guzman provided the title of the work -- "Antineoplastic activity of
cannabinoids," an article in a 1975 Journal of the National Cancer Institute -
- and this writer obtained a copy at the University of California medical
school library in Davis and faxed it to Madrid.
The summary of the Virginia study begins, "Lewis lung adenocarcinoma
growth was retarded by the oral administration of tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC) and cannabinol (CBN)" -- two types of cannabinoids, a family of
active components in marijuana. "Mice treated for 20 consecutive days
with THC and CBN had reduced primary tumor size."
The 1975 journal article doesn't mention breast cancer tumors, which
featured in the only newspaper story ever to appear about the 1974 study --
in the Local section of the Washington Post on August 18, 1974. Under the
headline, "Cancer Curb Is Studied," it read in part:
"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."
Guzman, writing from Madrid, was eloquent in his response after this writer
faxed him the clipping from the Washington Post of a quarter century ago.
In translation, he wrote:
"It is extremely interesting to me, the hope that the project seemed to
awaken at that moment, and the sad evolution of events during the years
following the discovery, until now we once again 'draw back the veil' over
the anti-tumoral power of THC, twenty-five years later. Unfortunately, the
world bumps along between such moments of hope and long periods of
intellectual castration."
News coverage of the Madrid discovery has been virtually nonexistent in
this country. The news broke quietly on Feb. 29, 2000 with a story that ran
once on the UPI wire about the Nature Medicine article. This writer
stumbled on it through a link that appeared briefly on the Drudge Report
web page. The New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times
all ignored the story, even though its newsworthiness is indisputable: a
benign substance occurring in nature destroys deadly brain tumors.
For a history of cannabis prohibition, pick up "The Emperor Wears No
Clothes" by Jack Herer, or log on for excerpts from the book at
http://www.jackherer.com . Raymond Cushing is a regular contributor to the
Sacramento News & Review and the Anderson Valley (CA) Advertiser.
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