Can Cannabis Help Fight Cancer?

Now that Keele University in the UK has dispelled the myth of cannabis being a major cause of mental health problems, I got to wondering about what cannabis might have on offer to science. Medical marijuana aside, I had often seen claims of cannabis being used for treating cancer and other physical conditions. I was just as sceptical of these claims as I was of cannabis creating a lost generation or heavy users of a new, more potent strain growing a penis on their elbow. The problem to me was that both sides were equally as nutty as each other and there was no middle ground. In fact, I still find it hard to grasp that rising cannabis use has not increased incidents of mental disorders. But facts are facts, regardless of personal opinion.

Maybe I was wrong? Going back over some of the claims that cannabis can help with cancer research, I found this recent article(below). If they are right, we have lost decades of research through unnecessary restrictions brought on by government drug paranoia. What strikes me most though is that these reports are rarely in the mainstream media. As usual, good news about illicit drugs don’t make for good headlines.

Can anyone help shed some light on the subject for me?

Marijuana May Fight Brain Tumours
COSMOS
April 2009

WASHINGTON: The main chemical in marijuana kills cancerous brain cells, offering hope for future anti-cancer therapies, say Spanish scientists.

A team led by Guillermo Velasco of Complutense University in Madrid, found that the active component of marijuana – tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – kills tumour cells through a process called autophagy. This is the process that occurs when a cell self-destructs by digesting itself.

The research, which appears in the April edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, demonstrates that THC and related cannabinoids appear to be "a new family of potential anti-tumoral agents", the authors write.

Injecting THC
In the study the scientists conducted most of their research on mice, in which the growth of cancer was stimulated. But the researchers also looked at two patients suffering from a highly aggressive form of brain cancer who were enrolled in a clinical trial.

A mixture of THC in saline solution and injected it into each patient's tumour for 26 or 30 days, then the researchers took samples of the brain tumours. By analysing the tumours using electron microscopy, the researchers discovered that the cancer cells had been killed off while the normal cells stayed intact.

"Although these studies were only conducted in specimens from two patients," the researchers said, "they are in line with the preclinical evidence shown [in mice] and suggest that cannabinoid administration might also trigger autophagy-mediated cell death in human tumors."

Anti-Cancer Therapies
There have been previous studies that found cannabinoids curbed the growth of several types of tumours in rats and mice, but the mechanism by which is worked has been obscure until now.

Autophagy has a dual role in cancer: in some cases it promotes cancer cell survival and in other cases it inhibits cancer cell survival. This study identified the signalling route by which autophagy is activated for cell death.

The authors suggest that the study may prove useful in the development of future anti-cancer therapies based on THC or in the activation of the process that results in autophagy.

RELATED ARTICLES
Active Ingredient in Marijuana Kills Brain Cancer Cells
Whom Do You Believe?
New Study Explains How Cannabis Kills Cancer Cells

Another Possibility to Stop Opiate Addiction

The race is on for a therapy that enable patients to take opiates without developing a tolerance. In other words, non addictive narcotics. The prize for the first to the finish line is massive wealth and a chance to change history. Think about the consequences - powerful painkillers without the risk of addiction and even the end to heroin/morphine/oxycontin addicts. Heroin could once again be the king of pain management because the only real danger, addiction would have disappeared.

Now the question must arise - why have governments wasted $trillions on the "War on Drugs" when they could have been financing research into stopping opiate addiction? Maybe it’s their worse fear - heroin and morphine are basically non toxic so without any major harms, without the addiction and the associated crime of addicts looking to fund their habit, there is probably no reason to keep it illegal. Just a thought.

Blocking Potent Oxidant Could Prevent Morphine Tolerance
Drugs.com
Nov 2008

Blocking a substance called peroxynitrite, a potent oxidant that's formed when patients take morphine, can prevent the development of tolerance to the pain-relieving effects of the narcotic, according to animal tests conducted by Saint Louis University of Medicine researchers.

They said their findings, published in the November issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could lead to new therapies that prevent morphine tolerance and the severe side effects caused by having to give patients escalating doses of the painkiller.

Morphine and other opiate narcotics are the most powerful treatments for acute and chronic pain. However, their pain-killing effectiveness decreases quickly and significantly with repeated doses.

In this study, researchers found that repeated doses of morphine caused peroxynitrite to develop in the spinal cord, resulting in inflammation and damage to proteins and DNA in that area. Putting the brakes on peroxynitrite -- either by causing it to decompose once it formed or by blocking it from forming in the first place -- prevented morphine tolerance.

"We believe these findings represent a major breakthrough in understanding how tolerance to the pain-relieving action of morphine and other opiate medications develops -- and how it can be prevented from happening in the first place," study author Daniela Salvemini, a professor of internal medicine in the division of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine, said in a prepared statement.

This research may help in the development of therapies that enable patients to take morphine without developing tolerance.

"For instance, when morphine is administered, another drug could be given simultaneously that prevents peroxynitrite from working and thus causing tolerance to develop," Salvemini explained.

For those who want more technical details.

Spinal Ceramide Modulates the Development of Morphine Antinociceptive Tolerance via Peroxynitrite-Mediated Nitroxidative Stress and Neuroimmune Activation
Journal of Pharmacology And Experimental Therapeutics
Nov 2008

The effective treatment of pain is typically limited by a decrease in the pain-relieving action of morphine that follows its chronic administration (tolerance). Therefore, restoring opioid efficacy is of great clinical importance. In a murine model of opioid antinociceptive tolerance, repeated administration of morphine significantly stimulated the enzymatic activities of spinal cord serine palmitoyltransferase, ceramide synthase, and acid sphingomyelinase (enzymes involved in the de novo and sphingomyelinase pathways of ceramide biosynthesis, respectively) and led to peroxynitrite-derive nitroxidative stress and neuroimmune activation [activation of spinal glial cells and increase formation of tumor necrosis factor-, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-6]. Inhibition of ceramide biosynthesis with various pharmacological inhibitors significantly attenuated the increase in spinal ceramide production, nitroxidative stress, and neuroimmune activation. These events culminated in a significant inhibition of the development of morphine antinociceptive tolerance at doses devoid of behavioral side effects. Our findings implicate ceramide as a key upstream signaling molecule in the development of morphine antinociceptive tolerance and provide the rationale for development of inhibitors of ceramide biosynthesis as adjuncts to opiates for the management of chronic pain.

Michael M. Ndengele, Salvatore Cuzzocrea, Emanuela Masini, M. Cristina Vinci, Emanuela Esposito, Carolina Muscoli, Daniela Nicoleta Petrusca, Vincenzo Mollace, Emanuela Mazzon, Dechun Li, Irina Petrache, George M. Matuschak, and Daniela Salvemini

Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri (M.M.N., D.L., G.M.M., D.S.); Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine and Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Messina, Messina, Italy (S.C.); Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Centro Neurolesi "Bonino-Pulejo," Messina, Italy (S.C., E.Mas., E.E.); Department of Preclinical and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy (M.C.V., E.Maz.); Department of Experimental Pharmacology, University of Naples "Federico II," Naples, Italy (E.E.); Centro di Neurofarmacologia Sperimentale, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Mondino-Università Tor Vergata Rome, Rome, Italy (C.M., V.M.); and Indiana University Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Occupational Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana (D.N.P., I.P.)

Cannabis, Schizophrenia and Psychosis - Myth Finally Proven

Cannabis does NOT cause schizophrenia or psychosis. I’ll repeat it for you, cannabis does NOT cause schizophrenia or psychosis.

A study from Keele University, Staffordshire. UK has compared figures between cannabis usage rates and cases of mental illness. The study showed that whilst cannabis use has increased dramatically, the level of mental illness has remained stable or even declined slightly. For a more robust explanation, visit UKCIA.

Well, what can I say but ... bprtttttttttttttttttttttttt [raspberry].

I have long asked the question ... where are the bodies? If cannabis was as bad as claimed, our hospital system would be over flowing with zonked out mental patients. I remember Michael Gormly of the Kings Cross Times first asking the question a while back and it’s simplistic logic got my attention. Where are the bodies? So simple but so telling. Thank you Michael ... you are 100% correct.

The hoax is over and there should be some really red faces. How many times did we hear this warning? Politicians, government backed doctors, drug warriors etc. all made it perfectly clear that they had irrefutable evidence that cannabis caused mental disorders like schizophrenia and psychosis. How truly embarrassing.

Is there going to be an apology to the millions who have suffered because of the cannabis hysteria from zealots? Will the UN update their position on cannabis? Are governments going to re-evalaluate their drug policies? Will Australia change their anti-cannabis advertisements?

How did it get to this, BTW? There was never conclusive evidence that cannabis caused permanent mental disorders but the authorities ignored this. They chose the popular position put forward by anti-drug crusaders without clarifying it first and played on the public’s ignorance. How much money has been wasted putting out this lie without sufficient evidence? How many resources have been squandered to push some theory that was never proven?

We can only wait and see what effects stem from this study. I doubt if it will even make most MSM pages and if it does, it will be buried deep between an article on a horse that dances and Lindsay Lohan’s new hairdresser. Remember that some groups are still claiming that the gateway theory is true and that Amotivational Syndrome exists. I also don’t see the government making a special announcement that they got it wrong or Miranda Devine running a correction in the Sydney Morning Herald. I especially doubt Drug Free Australia (DFA) or other anti-drug campaigners will change their rabid attacks but I am certain they will try to discredit the study using some bizarre logic. I fear that nothing much will really change for the next year or so but scientific facts are hard to argue with and thankfully, always win out in the end.

Assessing The Impact Of Cannabis Use On Trends In Diagnosed Schizophrenia In The United Kingdom From 1996 To 2005

PubMed
National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)

Frisher M, Crome I, Martino O, Croft P.
Department of Medicines Management, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, United Kingdom

A recent systematic review concluded that cannabis use increases risk of psychotic outcomes independently of confounding and transient intoxication effects. Furthermore, a model of the association between cannabis use and schizophrenia indicated that the incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia would increase from 1990 onwards. The model is based on three factors: a) increased relative risk of psychotic outcomes for frequent cannabis users compared to those who have never used cannabis between 1.8 and 3.1, b) a substantial rise in UK cannabis use from the mid-1970s and c) elevated risk of 20 years from first use of cannabis. This paper investigates whether this has occurred in the UK by examining trends in the annual prevalence and incidence of schizophrenia and psychoses, as measured by diagnosed cases from 1996 to 2005. Retrospective analysis of the General Practice Research Database (GPRD) was conducted for 183 practices in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The study cohort comprised almost 600,000 patients each year, representing approximately 2.3% of the UK population aged 16 to 44. Between 1996 and 2005 the incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia and psychoses were either stable or declining. Explanations other than a genuine stability or decline were considered, but appeared less plausible. In conclusion, this study did not find any evidence of increasing schizophrenia or psychoses in the general population from 1996 to 2005.

RELATED ARTICLES:
Cannabis And Mental Illness - The Keele Study
Study Debunks Claim That Pot Smoking Causes Mental Illness
New Study: Marijuana Doesn’t Increase Your Risk of Going Crazy
Chronic City: After Further Review, Smoking Pot Doesn't Make You Crazy -- Blimey!

Previous Articles Debunked
Cannabis Use And Risk Of Psychotic Or Affective Mental Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review
Effects of cannabis use on outcomes of psychotic disorders: systematic review
Are Smoking Pot and Psychosis Linked?