More information on the benefits of using marijuana:
Pot Shrinks Tumors; Government Knew in '74
By Raymond Cushing, AlterNet. Posted May 31, 2000.
In 1974 researchers learned that THC, the active chemical in marijuana,
shrank or destroyed brain tumors in test mice. But the DEA quickly shut
down the study and destroyed its results, which were never replicated --
until now. Tools
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 rats 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.
Raymond Cushing is a journalist, musician and filmmaker. This article
was named by Project Censored as a "Top Censored Story of 2000
