>Subject: [catapult] Digest Number 1623
>Pot Kills Cancer Cells
>Posted by: "Big Bodie" fluttergas@... fluttergas
>Date: Sat Jul 8, 2006 4:16 pm (PDT)

>http://www.sierratimes.com/03/11/07/article_kubby.htm

A new study published in Nature Reviews-Cancer provides an
historic and detailed explanation about how THC and natural
cannabinoids counteract cancer, but preserve normal cells.

The study by Manuel Guzm=E1n of Madrid Spain found that
cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana, inhibit
tumor growth in laboratory animals. They do so by modulating
key cell-signalling pathways, thereby inducing direct growth
arrest and death of tumor cells, as well as by inhibiting
the growth of blood vessels that supply the tumor.

The Guzman study is very important according to Dr. Ethan
Russo, a neurologist and world authority on medical
cannabis: "Cancer occurs because cells become immortalized;
they fail to heed normal signals to turn off growth. A
normal function of remodelling in the body requires that
cells die on cue. This is called apoptosis, or programmed
cell death. That process fails to work in tumors. THC
promotes its reappearance so that gliomas, leukemias,
melanomas and other cell types will in fact heed the
signals, stop dividing, and die."

"But, that is not all," explains Dr. Russo: "The other way
that tumors grow is by ensuring that they are nourished:
they send out signals to promote angiogenesis, the growth of
new blood vessels. Cannabinoids turn off these signals as
well. It is truly incredible, and elegant."

In other words, this article explains several ways in which
cannabinoids might be used to fight cancer, and, as the
article says, "Cannabinoids are usually well tolerated, and
do not produce the generalized toxic effects of conventional
chemotherapies.

Usually, any story that even suggests the possibility of a
new treatment for cancer is greeted with headlines about a
"cancer cure" - however remote in the future and improbable
in fact it might be. But if marijuana is involved, don't
expect any coverage from mainstream media, especially since
mainstream editors have been quietly killing this story for
the past thirty years.

That's right, news about the abilility of pot to shrink
tumors first surfaced, way back in 1974.

Researchers at the Medical College of Virginia, who had been
funded by the National Institutes 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 Washington Post reported on the 1974 study -- in the
"Local" section -- on Aug. 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."

"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," complained MarijuanaNews.com
editor Richard Cowan , who said he was only able to find the
article through a link that appeared briefly on the Drudge
Report Web page. "The New York Times, The 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," added Cowan.

On March 29, 2001, the San Antonio Current printed a
carefully researched bombshell of a story by Raymond Cushing
titled, "POT SHRINKS TUMORS; GOVERNMENT KNEW IN '74." Media
coverage since then has been nonexistant, except for a copy
of the story on Alternet.

It is hard to believe that the knowledge that cannabis can
be used to fight cancer has been suppressed for almost
thirty years, yet it seems likely that it will continue to
be suppressed. Why?

According to Cowan, the answer is because it is a threat to
cannabis prohibition. "If this article and its predecessors
from 2000 and 1974 were the only evidence of the suppression
of medical cannabis, then one might perhaps be able to
rationalize it in some herniated way. However, there really
is massive proof that the suppression of medical cannabis
represents the greatest failure of the institutions of a
free society, medicine, journalism, science, and our
fundamental values," Cowan notes.

Millions of people have died horrible deaths and in many
cases, familes exhausted their savings on dangerous, toxic
and expensive drugs. Now we are beginning to realize that
while marijuana has never killed anyone, marijuana
prohibition has killed millions.

JCT: And I only accused Justices Doherty Goudge and Simmons
for the deaths of the greater than 3000 epileptics who died
since their ruling pretenting they brought the criminal
prohibition on medicine back to life. Now I can add cancer
victims over the past 2.5 years to their K-slab too.

Prohibiting medicine is genocide, obvious to a child,
cognitively dissonant to adults.



--
Abolitionist Slave Leader John C."The Banking Systems Engineer" Turmel
for UNILETS interest-free time-based currency in U.N. resolution C6
to Governments in the http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration.htm
http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel 519-753-0645 USENET: can.politics