Cannabis fights breast cancer
How about that? We make illegal what actually does us some good in certain situations... but, by all means, we legally keep inhaling poisonous nicotine until our lungs turn black... and drinking toxic alcohol until our livers explode.
Hold on now... shouldn't we wait for scientists to synthesize this cancer fighting compound and patent it so that Big Pharma and its Big Stockholders can get their hit?
From washingtonpost.com, Nov. 19 -- "A non-toxic, non-psychoactive compound in marijuana may block the progress of metastatic breast cancer, according to a new study by researchers in California.
"This is a new way to treat a patient that is not toxic like chemotherapy or radiotherapy. It is a new approach for metastatic cancer," said lead researcher Sean D. McAllister, an associate scientist at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco.
The compound found in cannabis, called cannabidiol (CBD), inhibits a gene, Id-1, that researchers believe is responsible for the metastatic process that spreads cells from the original tumor throughout the body.
....in metastatic cancer "when [the genes] wake up, they are very bad," he said. "They push the cells to behave like embryonic cells and grow. They go crazy, they proliferate, they migrate." Desprez said, "We need to be able to turn them off."
According to the study, CBD does exactly that.
....McAllister also suggested that Id-1 is "so important in providing the [metastatic] mechanism in these cells in so many types of cancers" that they "provide us an opportunity potentially to target other types of cancers." [..]"
This is the kind of great news for cancer victims that should break down the walls of a silly prejudice.
To criminalize the growing of hemp is just stupid. Hemp cloth is high quality and longer lasting than cotton, and the list of non-drug uses of this plant is as long as your arm.
If only we could run our cars on hemp oil.....
I do believe the issue of legalizing hemp is an economic one. Whose ox would be gored if hemp were to become legal? Look for the fiber industry, paper industry, and various agricultural interests to be lobbying big time.
I feel strongly that the use of cannabis leaves should be allowed for medicinal purposes out of simple humanity.
My little granny always said look to nature to find cures for what ails you... for every disease there is a plant, root, tree or bark which can cure or alleviate it. We just have to find it.
I thought of her when scientists discovered that the bark of a rare Yew tree in CA could shrink ovarian cancer tumors, among other miracles. Read about it here at nytimes.com:
I also read about a study that intended to prove that pot smokers had increased rates of lung cancer, but lo and behold, researchers were shocked to find it wasn't true. They found a reduced rate of lung cancer compared to cancer in non-smoking control groups.
I just found this at washingtonpost.com, 2006:
"The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer."
I'm certainly not recommending that we all go out and buy bongs and light up, just that many sick people could have better lives if they could use something that's only kept from them because of prejudice... not scientific knowledge.
I continue to be amazed that study after study, starting back in Nixon’s time, has demonstrated the safety of pot and its different chemicals, and found even more new therapeutic values from a so-called noxious weed.
This possible miracle plant is still suppressed because -- heaven forbid -- it also makes one feel good. We can’t have people feeling good... better to keep them in pain than risking that.
All of us probably know people who have suffered the effects of cancer, some surviving and some not. I've lost several loved ones to cancer. Some of them said that chemo was so bad that they'd rather just go ahead and die than go through more of it.
Any treatment that includes gentle side-effects would greatly improve the lives of cancer victims and their family and friends.
