Drug Policy

Last edited Sun Jul 21, 2013, 01:45 PM - Edit history (1)

afaik - the studies that have shown THC and/or CBD cause autophagy (death) of cancer cells has all been done with synthesized molecules.

The most recent study in Spain was done on patients who were already beyond treatment by current methods and direct application of cannabinoids shrunk gliomas. This was the first human lab experiment (clinical trial) for cancer, afaik.

The only cannabis in this U.S. that is available for use in research is not high quality and is grown on a farm in Mississippi. It's very hard to get permission to use this cannabis for tests and the research will not be approved if the scientist is not trying to find a harm from the use of cannabis - that's how our "science" is done here regarding cannabis. A study to look at benefits for vets who deal with ptsd, for instance, was recently denied, even tho cannabis is already used for ptsd in other western democracies.

Only one medical firm, GW Pharma, is legally-allowed to produce any kind of "FDA" approved cannabis oil (it's not actually FDA-approved, tho GW Pharma has appealed the DEA to allow their product, Sativex, into the American market. iow, it meets all the standards for the introduction of a drug into the U.S. market.)

It's already used in Canada, Israel, Germany and GB for epilepsy, MS, ptsd and other things, legally.

Sativex is, iirc, 50/50 THC/CBD, with a mix of sativa, indica and ruderalis strains of cannabis, suspended in alcohol, and sprayed into the mouth.

Cannabis Science Research Co., founded by biologist/Prof. Robert Melamedes (who has done a lot of work in this field) has published some patient-provided pictures of the use of cannabis oil on skin cancer, and his for-profit research group is interested in this application - but they also note these are not peer-reviewed. So, there's only is anecdotal evidence on oil itself. again, afaik.

This link shows the skin cancer pictures, etc.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1170201

The evidence that cannabis shrinks cancer cells, however, has been around since the 1970s. The research was suppressed. There are at least 5 studies that indicate anti-cancer and tumor suppression activity via cannabinoids.

This link has some of those studies:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/117030

So, the problem with producing research on this topic is within the bureaucracies of the federal govt. who protect their turf and will not, until forced, allow medical research to go forward on this topic. However, there is research, and a lot of it is funded by the U.S. govt, but it's done in places like Spain or Israel, for the most part, tho important studies have been done in CA.

One of the leading doctors with experience with cancer and cannabinoids is in San Francisco. Donald Abrams dealt with a lot of HIV/AIDs cancer patients in the 1980s and observed the medical efficacy of cannabis - though he, too, has noted that studies he has proposed have been rejected or, in one case, rewritten to indicate the intent to show a harm, tho the evidence did not prove any harm.

Donald Tashkin, a pulmonary specialist, has done long-term studies of cannabis and lung function (and there's at least one 20-year-long study) that indicate that, not only does cannabis not harm lung function, those who smoke cannabis have lower rates of lung cancer than those who abstained from both cannabis and cigarettes.

So, there's quite a bit of reason to study this issue because, based upon the small amount of work that has been done, cannabis appears to offer anti-cancer benefits.