Fwd: who knew??

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>Fwd: who knew?? >Fri, 07 Sep 2001 19:01:32 EDT > >here's the one that got me thinking I had to get your email. Combines two great themes of the 60's - pot and conspirarcy. Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

 

 

Pot Shrinks

Tumors; Government Knew in '74 Raymond Cushing, AlterNetMay 31,

2000

The term medical marijuana took on dramatic new meaning in February, 2000

when researchers in Madrid announced they had destroyed incurable brain tumors

in rats by injecting them with THC, the active ingredient in cannabis.

 

The Madrid study marks only the second time that THC has been administered to

tumor-bearing animals; the first was a Virginia investigation 26 years ago. In

both studies, the THC shrank or destroyed tumors in a majority of the test

subjects.

 

Most Americans don't know anything about the Madrid discovery. Virtually no

major U.S. newspapers carried the story, which ran only once on the AP and UPI

news wires, on Feb. 29, 2000.

 

The ominous part is that this isn't the first time scientists have discovered

that THC shrinks tumors. In 1974 researchers at the Medical College of Virginia,

who had been funded by the National Institute of Health to find evidence that

marijuana damages the immune system, found instead that THC slowed the growth of

three kinds of cancer in mice -- lung and breast cancer, and a virus-induced

leukemia.

 

The DEA quickly shut down the Virginia study and all further cannabis/tumor

research, according to Jack Herer, who reports on the events in his book, "The

Emperor Wears No Clothes." In 1976 President Gerald Ford put an end to all

public cannabis research and granted exclusive research rights to major

pharmaceutical companies, who set out -- unsuccessfully -- to develop synthetic

forms of THC that would deliver all the medical benefits without the "high."

 

The Madrid researchers reported in the March issue of "Nature Medicine" that

they injected the brains of 45 rats with cancer cells, producing tumors whose

presence they confirmed through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). On the 12th

day they injected 15 of the rats with THC and 15 with Win-55,212-2 a synthetic

compound similar to THC. "All the rats left untreated uniformly died 12-18 days

after glioma (brain cancer) cell inoculation ... Cannabinoid (THC)-treated rats

survived significantly longer than control rats. THC administration was

ineffective in three rats, which died by days 16-18. Nine of the THC-treated

rats surpassed the time of death of untreated rats, and survived up to 19-35

days. Moreover, the tumor was completely eradicated in three of the treated

rats." The rats treated with Win-55,212-2 showed similar results.

 

The Spanish researchers, led by Dr. Manuel Guzman of Complutense University,

also irrigated healthy rats' brains with large doses of THC for seven days, to

test for harmful biochemical or neurological effects. They found none.

 

"Careful MRI analysis of all those tumor-free rats showed no sign of damage

related to necrosis, edema, infection or trauma ... We also examined other

potential side effects of cannabinoid administration. In both tumor-free and

tumor-bearing rats, cannabinoid administration induced no substantial change in

behavioral parameters such as motor coordination or physical activity. Food and

water intake as well as body weight gain were unaffected during and after

cannabinoid delivery. Likewise, the general hematological profiles of

cannabinoid-treated rats were normal. Thus, neither biochemical parameters nor

markers of tissue damage changed substantially during the 7-day delivery period

or for at least 2 months after cannabinoid treatment ended."

 

Guzman's investigation is the only time since the 1974 Virginia study that

THC has been administered to live tumor-bearing animals. (The Spanish

researchers cite a 1998 study in which cannabinoids inhibited breast cancer cell

proliferation, but that was a "petri dish" experiment that didn't involve live

subjects.)

 

In an email interview for this story, the Madrid researcher said he had heard

of the Virginia study, but had never been able to locate literature on it.

Hence, the Nature Medicine article characterizes the new study as the first on

tumor-laden animals and doesn't cite the 1974 Virginia investigation.

 

"I am aware of the existence of that research. In fact I have attempted many

times to obtain the journal article on the original investigation by these

people, but it has proven impossible." Guzman said.

 

In 1983 the Reagan/Bush Administration tried to persuade American

universities and researchers to destroy all 1966-76 cannabis research work,

including compendiums in libraries, reports Jack Herer, who states, "We know

that large amounts of information have since disappeared."

 

Guzman provided the title of the work -- "Antineoplastic activity of

cannabinoids," an article in a 1975 Journal of the National Cancer Institute --

and this writer obtained a copy at the University of California medical school

library in Davis and faxed it to Madrid.

 

The summary of the Virginia study begins, "Lewis lung adenocarcinoma growth

was retarded by the oral administration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and

cannabinol (CBN)" -- two types of cannabinoids, a family of active components in

marijuana. "Mice treated for 20 consecutive days with THC and CBN had reduced

primary tumor size."

 

The 1975 journal article doesn't mention breast cancer tumors, which featured

in the only newspaper story ever to appear about the 1974 study -- in the Local

section of the Washington Post on August 18, 1974. Under the headline, "Cancer

Curb Is Studied," it read in part:

 

"The active chemical agent in marijuana curbs the growth of three kinds of

cancer in mice and may also suppress the immunity reaction that causes rejection

of organ transplants, a Medical College of Virginia team has discovered." The

researchers "found that THC slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers

and a virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives by as

much as 36 percent."

 

Guzman, writing from Madrid, was eloquent in his response after this writer

faxed him the clipping from the Washington Post of a quarter century ago. In

translation, he wrote:

 

"It is extremely interesting to me, the hope that the project seemed to

awaken at that moment, and the sad evolution of events during the years

following the discovery, until now we once again Œdraw back the veil‚ over the

anti-tumoral power of THC, twenty-five years later. Unfortunately, the world

bumps along between such moments of hope and long periods of intellectual

castration."

 

News coverage of the Madrid discovery has been virtually nonexistent in this

country. The news broke quietly on Feb. 29, 2000 with a story that ran once on

the UPI wire about the Nature Medicine article. This writer stumbled on it

through a link that appeared briefly on the Drudge Report web page. The New York

Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times all ignored the story, even though

its newsworthiness is indisputable: a benign substance occurring in nature

destroys deadly brain tumors.

 

Raymond Cushing is a journalist, musician and filmmaker. This article was

named by Project Censored as a "Top Censored Story of 2000."