A US Government Agency Quietly Acknowledged That Marijuana May Help Fight Brain Tumors

[Panich52]

Vice:
A US Government Agency Quietly Acknowledged That Marijuana May Help Fight Brain Tumors

Researchers have been studying the medical benefits of marijuana for years, but this month marks the first time the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a research group funded by the US government, has acknowledged that cannabis extracts may help kill certain cancer cells and reduce the size of others.

NIDA quietly revised a page on its website titled, "DrugFacts: Is Marijuana Medicine?" this month to state that, "Evidence from one cell culture study suggests that purified extracts from whole-plant marijuana can slow the growth of cancer cells from one of the most serious types of brain tumors."

The update acknowledges research published last November in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapies by scientists from St. George's, University of London. The researchers found that THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in weed, and cannabidiol, an extract, caused "dramatic reductions" in the growth of glioma tumors in mice. Glioma accounts for 80 percent of malignant brain tumors in humans.

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http://dpa.convio.net/site/R?i=wHss_05M3h3e0xe1WbDEVg

[frylock]

1. Somebody tell our new drug warrior Attorney General

[nationalize the fed]

2. NIDA could have checked with the National Institutes of Health

which has had this page up for years

Have any preclinical (laboratory or animal) studies been conducted using Cannabis or cannabinoids?

Preclinical studies of cannabinoids have investigated the following activities:

Antitumor activity

Studies in mice and rats have shown that cannabinoids may inhibit tumor growth by causing cell death, blocking cell growth, and blocking the development of blood vessels needed by tumors to grow. Laboratory and animal studies have shown that cannabinoids may be able to kill cancer cells while protecting normal cells.

A study in mice showed that cannabinoids may protect against inflammation of the colon and may have potential in reducing the risk of colon cancer, and possibly in its treatment.

A laboratory study of delta-9-THC in hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) cells showed that it damaged or killed the cancer cells. The same study of delta-9-THC in mouse models of liver cancer showed that it had antitumor effects. Delta-9-THC has been shown to cause these effects by acting on molecules that may also be found in non-small cell lung cancer cells and breast cancer cells...
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/cannabis/patient/page2

Or maybe checked with the US PATENT OFFICE, which granted a patent on the USE OF CANNABINOIDS to ...THE US GOV in 2003

#6630507
Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6630507.PN.&OS=PN/6630507&RS=PN/6630507