Marijuana proven effective in treating different types of cancers

[loylty gets u nothing]

Marijuana proven effective in treating different types of cancers

 

The Times-Standard

Posted: 10/18/2009

Dave Stancliff

 

Marijuana opponents in the federal government are up against the wall and the wall is crumbling. The feds have fought marijuana use for decades, disregarding its medicinal applications, in a senseless war against the herb.

 

The demonized killer weed is turning out to be anything but that. As myths about this ancient herb are dispelled, scientists are using it to treat everything from chemotherapy-induced nausea to different cancers.

 

In August, The British Journal of Cancer published the results of a study that found THC (the main active component in marijuana) is effective in fighting prostate cancer. Reportedly, pot attacks prostate cancer cell types that do not respond to the usual hormone treatments.

 

A recent study by a team of Spanish researchers discovered THC kills various brain cancer cells by a process known as autophagy. Michigan's new law regarding marijuana use went into effect in April. Patients, with doctor's prescriptions, get a state-issued ID Card (a lot like California's) which allows them to grow and use marijuana to treat pain and other symptoms of cancer and multiple sclerosis.

 

In October 2003, the University of California, San Francisco, released the results of a study that said pot was effective when used in combination with opiate pain medications. Dr. Donald Abrams, MD, UCSF professor of Clinical Medicine and chief of the Hematology-Oncology Division at SF General Hospital Medical Center, told the press, “Marijuana uses a different mechanism than opiates and could augment the pain relief of opiate analgesics.”

 

The Marijuana Policy Project recently reported on a study that suggests moderate amounts of marijuana use reduces risk of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). This study suggests cannabinoids have potential anti-tumor properties.

 

A study released in July, “White matter in adolescents with history of marijuana use and binge drinking,” says marijuana use actually protects brain cells. The study involved adolescents with alcohol use disorders.

 

One group had just alcohol-drinking teens. The other group drank alcohol and used marijuana. The report said that binge drinkers who used marijuana retained more white matter than the other group. In other words, alcohol destroyed more brain cells when a person didn't use marijuana.

 

How many times have you heard someone say, “Pot destroys your brain cells”? If that's true, what about this study? Why do doctors use marijuana to fight brain cancer if it destroys brain cells? Remember the Spanish study?

 

In April of 2007, Harvard University researchers released the results of a study that concluded THC cuts tumor growth in common lung cancers and reduces the ability of the cancer to spread.

 

A study conducted by UCLA's medical school in June 2005 concluded smoking marijuana did not cause lung cancer. That impressive piece of news, along with the Harvard study, seems to have been ignored by most mass media outlets.

 

Fred Gardner, editor of the medical marijuana research journal, O'Shaughnessy's, recently wrote an article, “Smoking Marijuana Does Not Cause Cancer,” about this groundbreaking UCLA study that barely made headlines.

 

Gardner reported that an investigative team was contracted with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in 2002 “to conduct a large, population-based, case-controlled study that would prove definitively that heavy, long-term marijuana use increases the risk of lung and upper-airway cancers.”

 

Guess what? This study backfired! It turned out that increased marijuana use did not result in higher rates of lung and pharyngeal cancer. The study also concluded that tobacco smokers who also puffed on pot were at a slightly lower risk of getting lung cancer than those who didn't!

 

Perhaps the icing on the cake is the fact that UCLA Medical professor Donald Tashkin led the investigation. Tashkin has led government studies on marijuana since the 1970s and is well known for his belief that heavy marijuana use causes lung and upper-airway cancers. To his credit as a professional, he ended up disproving his own original hypothesis.

 

Despite the government's efforts to keep it illegal, it's apparent that marijuana does offer help in the battle to treat cancer. The facts about marijuana's medical potentials are finally causing cracks in the government's wall of lies built up over the years.

 

As It Stands, it's time to bring down that wall.

 

Dave Stancliff is a columnist for The Times-Standard. He is a former newspaper editor and publisher. Comments can be sent to richstan1@suddenlink.net or www.davesblogcentral.com.

 

Ref: http://www.times-standard.com/othervoices/ci_13588713

[FDL]

Wow, thats all i have to say. Going to show this one to the parents. Maybe it will finally convince them its not soo bad.

[Crunchy]

i just emailed the link to my dad, .

"As It Stands, it's time to bring down that wall."

[FDL]

I showed this too my parents, my father almost considered taking up smoking. My mum however just tried to turn it against me by saying.

 

"you want to use this as your excuse to get blasted all day, everyday and wasting your life as a stoner."

 

I guess some peoples minds have been made up on the subject.

[u4r1k]

Cool someone really needs to collate all this positive pro-cannabis information in one place and start the re-education of the misinformed, the only reason for this anti-cannabis bullshit is the yanks bullshit "war on drugs" propaganda in 69!

 

I think the main reason for the whole bullshit "war" was because pot was the symbol of the anti-vietnam protestors ....If you cant attack peace what can you attack?

Hmmm says Nixon lets label a whole generation low life drug fiends! ....Who listens to what a spaced out hippie has to say about politics!

A war is what we need just like LBJ did in 64 with his "war on poverty"

 

Besides we have a new unwinnable "war" now, the "war on terror" funny how there is more cultivation of poppies in afghanistan now than ever before. Its been 40 years and in that time the positive findings of cannabis far outweigh the negatives. This site is also proof that stoners arent retarded junkies ready to kill and sell their soul for their next fix. What can be found in nature is not dirty! ...Its time to find a new scapegoat!!

 

Everytime I hear "war" or hey look what these bastards did to us they attacked us first I am very skeptical!

 

These wankers have been using these tactics and the media against us for far too long!

 

Its time to wake up and learn from the past!

 

 

"An evil exists that threatens every man, woman and child of this great nation. We must take steps to ensure our domestic security and protect our homeland"

President Bush post 9/11 (Reason for invading Afghanistan - Started "war on terror")

 

 

"An evil exists that threatens every man, woman and child of this great nation. We must take steps to ensure our domestic security and protect our homeland"

Adolf Hitler post Reichstag fire (Reason for invading Poland in 1933 - Started WWII)

 

 

"You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier."

George W Bush

 

 

“How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.”

Adolf Hitler

 

 

“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it”

Adolf Hitler

 

 

 

Sorry about the rant but I got carried away

 

 

U4R1K

Edited October 24, 2009 by u4r1k

[oztrail]

I showed this too my parents, my father almost considered taking up smoking. My mum however just tried to turn it against me by saying.

 

"you want to use this as your excuse to get blasted all day, everyday and wasting your life as a stoner."

 

I guess some peoples minds have been made up on the subject.

 

Dont dismiss your parents advice just because they dont share your perspective. there might be some benefit in considering the things they say to you at times. If you dismiss their sentiments out of hand you are as close minded as they are.

[elwood]

gotta agree with you there oztrail, the only way to ever stop the 'war on drugs' is to present ourselves as educated, open minded people who are willing to listen to all sides of an argument, pursue knowledge on the subject and then make up our own minds. When the general population start to see that people don't have to be scumbags to enjoy smoking a little bit of weed then maybe it will become more acceptable to do so.

 

and FDL, dude, if your mum thinks you get stoned too much she is probably right, parents know you better than you like to think. My olds spoke to me about my mood because i had been hitting the bongs a lot, they told me that i seemed less interested in everything and always seemed to be "somewhere else" (they thought i may have depression). Now i could have produced the studies showing cannabis to help depression but whats the point, I'm an individual and despite the fact that a study of 3000 people showed that cannabis, on average, helped depression you can't deny the fact that cannabis may not effect you in the exact same way it does everyone else. It took this talk with my parents for me to realise that i had been smoking way too much, so i pegged it back a bit and am now feeling much better in myself. The strangest thing is that if i had just kept on smoking at the rate i had i probably wouldn't have noticed how i was feeling. Now don't get me wrong, the first week of not smoking much was filled with sleepless nights, a really depressed mood and i was being a real c**t to the missus but after that week i felt my mood start to gradually improve, things became easier at uni and i am generally much happier. I still smoke a few times a week but in much lower amounts, the best thing about it is that i actually get a real stoned feeling when i smoke now, instead of the shit high i got when my tolerance was way up.

[Chop_n_burn]

Pot is the only drug that helps me with my cancer

[sew850i]

great read indeed and @ U4R1K: you're right man, its about time the public stood up against these governments and not in small numbers.. in LARGE numbers, then it will make them realise.