Cannabinoids, not just THC, shown to help fight brain cancer
A brand new study published in the journal “Molecular Cancer Therapeutics” has taken aim at the ability of cannabinoids to inhibit the spread of a certain type of brain cancer known as glioblastoma. It was the kind of cancer that ended Senator Ted Kennedy’s life.
Cannabidiol Enhances the Inhibitory Effects of Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol on Human Glioblastoma Cell Proliferation and Survival
We observed that plant-derived cannabinoids inhibit the proliferation of human glioblastoma cell lines. Compared with Δ9-THC, cannabidiol was significantly more potent at inhibiting cancer cell growth. This finding is in agreement with studies using models of aggressive breast cancers. Δ9-THC is currently being used in a clinical trial for treatment of recurrent glioblastoma.
… Compared with individual drug treatments with specific cannabinoid-based compounds, may represent an improvement for the treatment of patients with glioblastoma and perhaps additional cancers. It is also possible that other constituents of C. sativa that are not structurally related to cannabinoids could improve antitumor activity when combined. An important next step will be to carry out studies testing for synergistic antitumor activity of cannabinoids in additional pre-clinical models of glioblastoma. Even if synergism is not evident, combination treatments may allow for increased dosing due to nonoverlapping toxicities and decrease the development of resistance to the activity of Δ9-THC or cannabidiol when administered alone. With the growing evidence showing cannabinoids are effective inhibitors of multiple types of cancer, it is likely that additional clinical trials will be carried out. Combination treatments with cannabinoids may improve overall efficacy in these future clinical trials.
This is incredible news that may lead to further breakthroughs in cancer research. However, as exciting as this is, we’d be remiss in not mentioning that the government had conducted trials at the University of Virginia, funded by grants from the National Institute of Health, back in 1974 showing that cannabis had promise as an anti-cancer therapy. The research was buried by our government, which even tried to get researchers to destroy any reports or evidence that the “demon reefers” might actually be beneficial. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, research into cannabis’ anti-tumoral properties was stymied at every turn, as Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton escalated the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco Free) Drugs.
Imagine if we were reading this abstract in 1980, not 2010. Imagine the lives that might have been extended or saved with thirty more years of research.
Contact your elected representatives and urge them to 'Stop Arresting Marijuana Smokers'. 
So.. The moral of the story is: the government is an evil, corrupt body that wants people to suffer and die from cancer.
But old news is old news.. Time to do something about it.
Thanks for the correction!
Correction Russ:
The 1974 study was conducted at Virginia Commonwealth University aka the Medical College of Virginia, and not the University of Virginia aka “The University”.
When I went to high school, my government teacher asked me where I was going to college, and he replied’ “you go to VCU to study smoking pot!” … that study shows he wasn’t lying. LOL
And not just your relatives and politicians, but others who may have been able to make a difference to the way humanity evolved if they’d been with us a bit longer:
“A longtime sufferer of migraines, in mid-1999 McKenna returned to his home on the big island of Hawaii after a long lecturing tour. He began to suffer from increasingly painful headaches. This culminated in three brain seizures in one night, which he claimed were the most powerful psychedelic experiences he had ever known. Upon his emergency trip to the hospital on Oahu, Terence was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, a highly aggressive form of brain cancer. For the next several months he underwent various treatments, including experimental gamma knife radiation treatment. He died on April 3, 2000, at the age of 53, with his loved ones at his bedside. He is survived by his brother Dennis, his son Finn, and his daughter Klea.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna
Greed. oldest reason in the book.
If prohibition did not exist, my dad may still be alive today.
Compare: “Anslinger was scrutinized for insubordination by refusing to desist from an attempt to halt the ABA/AMA Joint Report on narcotic addiction, a publication edited by the sociology Professor Alfred R. Lindesmith of Indiana University. Lindsmith wrote, among other works, Opiate Addiction (1947), The Addict and the Law (1965), and a number of articles condemning the criminalization of addiction.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger)
with the above, “…the government had conducted trials at the University of Virginia, funded by grants from the National Institute of Health, back in 1974 showing that cannabis had promise as an anti-cancer therapy. The research was buried by our government, which even tried to get researchers to destroy any reports or evidence that the “demon reefers” might actually be beneficial.”
Dirty, old habits, it would seem, die hard.
I remember reading somewhere else about Anslinger that he had gone as far as to use taxpayers’ money to buy every single copy of a report (I can’t remember it it was the above report or another.) he could get his hands on, because it wasn’t damning enough of cannabis. Wow, these people are not just obsessed or pathological but really ill! What is it that makes them like that?
First let me apoligise for my rant The way I see it Imagine your 12 yrs old in 1872 You might be cussing mom or grama for shouing that nasty spoonful of yuk in your mouth Little do you know that the opressers the founders defeated were still grabbing control I’m sure they thought guns and bombs did’nt work we must control the economy Hemp is their money crop how can we control it Opiates are strong drugs let’s protect the people and then hemp has a drug strain which gives us the control of their economy Now that 12 yr old is about 64 grandkids maybe a bottle of that nasty hemp oil on the shelf !937 What about the children The government starts the largest drug ad ever Today in a way you almost have to thank the government otherwise you might not know what a joint is Listen to the news and I see hemp is at the root of most of the problems There are not enough hemp roots in the ground to give us our green economy our carbon neutral lifestyle legal hemp would break their control on the economy That is who we fight
That is amazing news what a breakthrew
You know this article gives me hope and pisses me off at the same time. There are so many dieing from brain cancers (most caused by our wisdom in pollutions we caused ), like my brother did and our Gov doesn’t want to hear or see it. Maybe one of the things promoting cancer more so in our society than previous ones is the fact they use to use cannabis for so many things. One aspect the Gov. did not look at is the negative physical and ecological effects of taking a plant out of circulation on our earth.
we will soon follow. What makes these “wise” guardians of our society think they can do such things without major repercussions?
I learned as a kid that when the frogs start to disappear
this story should be front page news around the world and just for the fact our government kept a possible cure from us, OMG all Americans should be steaming mad, ready to take over man!The thought of parents and kids and grandparents that all could have been helped or even saved! If this doesn’t get big play and get huge reaction, I truly dont know what will?
I’m beyond my abilty to understand that knowing it is the cure,like Ted they would not use it Who is the greater terrorist Going to the grave dening the cure for cancer or strapping dynamite around yourself and blowing up women and children None of our leaders are hero’s or at least very few