This article originally appeared on Cannabis Now.
THC has a miraculous capacity to help those
who suffer from cancer. The wonder compound increases appetite, reduces
nausea and can even help to quell pains that patients suffer from
cancer and its unpleasant list of symptoms. However, despite the
numerous findings and studies that have been published about this, cannabis is still vilified by the government and kept federally illegal.
A clip from documentary called Clearing the Smoke depicts a microscopic view of cancer cells that have had THC administered to them, which causes the malignant cells to weaken and eventually die completely.
The video itself is fantastic visual
evidence that THC, even administered in low doses (as was depicted), can
be a highly-effective tool in the ongoing fight against cancer.
News as exciting as this is not something
new to the federal government; in fact, a study that was published in
the August 18, 1974 issue of the Washington Post reported that
THC “slowed the growth of lung cancer, breast cancers, and
virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives as
much as 36 percent.”
The results themselves read: “Animals
treated for 10 consecutive days with delta-9-THC, beginning the day
after tumor implantation, demonstrated a dose-dependent action of
retarded tumor growth. Mice treated for 20 consecutive days with
delta-8-THC and CBN had reduced primary tumor size.”
The study was conducted by a team of
researchers at the Medical College of Virginia acting on the behalf of
the federal government. Unfortunately, the government was unhappy with
the results and had U.S. officials dismiss the study completely. It was
then buried it under the Watergate scandal. The findings were eventually
published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute a year later.
No new reports of findings regarding THC
and cancer surfaced after this study until a clinical trial that was
conducted in the mid-1990s. This study was conducted by the U.S.
National Toxicology program and worked off a $2 million federal budget.
The clinical trials gave very similar
results: “that mice and rats administered high doses of THC over long
periods experienced greater protection against malignant tumors than
untreated controls.”
Even tests conducted throughout the world
have found similar results to these. In 1998, researchers at Madrid’s
Complutense University released a study that concluded that by
administering THC to malignant brain tumor cells, the doctors were able
to selectively induce apoptosis, or planned cell death. This allowed the
researchers to systematically kill individual cancer cells without
harming any of the nearby healthy cells.
And yet government officials and
politicians have been adamant in keeping the law the same and condemning
cannabis to be federally illegal, making this form of treatment an
impossibility for a majority of U.S. cancer patients.
Hopefully this video will be enough visual
and scientific proof that THC can be beneficial to be used by those
suffering from cancer. At the very least, it may be able to save a few
lives from suffering and bring new hope to those who are fighting
cancer.
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