June 24, 2008
Senator Ted Kennedy is putting forward a brave face following his
recent surgery but the sad reality remains. Even with successful
surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy treatment,
gliomas -- a
highly aggressive form of brain cancer that strikes approximately 10,000
Americans annually -- tragically claim the lives of 75 percent of its
victims within two years and virtually all within five years.
But what if there was an alternative treatment for gliomas that could
selectively target the cancer while leaving healthy cells intact? And what
if federal bureaucrats were aware of this treatment, but deliberately
withheld this information from the public?
Sadly, the questions posed above are not entirely hypothetical. Let me
explain.
In 2007, I reviewed over 150 published preclinical and clinical studies
assessing the therapeutic potential of marijuana and several of its active
compounds, known as cannabinoids. I summarized these numerous studies in a
book, now in its third edition, entitled
Emerging Clinical
Applications for Cannabis and Cannabinoids: A Review of the Scientific
Literature. (NORML Foundation, 2008) One chapter in this book,
which summarized the findings of more than 30 separate trials and
literature reviews, was dedicated to the use of cannabinoids as potential
anti-cancer agents, particularly in the treatment of gliomas.
Not familiar with this scientific research? Your government is.
In fact, the first experiment documenting pot's potent anti-cancer effects
took place in 1974 at
the Medical College of Virginia at the behest federal bureaucrats. The
results of that study, reported in an Aug. 18, 1974, Washington Post
newspaper feature, were that marijuana's primary psychoactive component,
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."
Despite these favorable preliminary findings (eventually
published the
following year in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute),
U.S. government officials refused to authorize any follow-up research
until conducting a similar -- though secret -- preclinical trial in the
mid-1990s. That study, conducted by the U.S. National Toxicology Program
to the tune of $2 million, concluded that mice and rats administered high
doses of THC over long periods had greater protection against malignant
tumors than untreated controls.
However, rather than publicize their findings, the U.S. government shelved
the results, which only became public after a draft copy of its findings
were leaked
to the medical journal AIDS Treatment News, which in turn
forwarded the story
to the national media.
In the years since the completion of the National Toxicology trial, the
U.S. government has yet to authorize a single additional study examining
the drug's potential anti-cancer properties. (Federal permission is
necessary in order to conduct clinical research on marijuana because of
its illegal status as a schedule I controlled substance.)
Fortunately, in the past 10 years scientists overseas have generously
picked up where U.S. researchers so abruptly left off, reporting that
cannabinoids can halt the spread of numerous cancer cells -- including
prostate cancer,
breast cancer,
lung
cancer,
pancreatic cancer, and
brain cancer.
(An excellent
paper summarizing much of this research, "Cannabinoids for Cancer
Treatment: Progress and Promise," appears in the January 2008 edition of
the journal Cancer Research.) A
2006 patient trial
published in the British Journal of Cancer even reported that the
intracranial administration of THC was associated with reduced tumor cell
proliferation in humans with advanced glioblastoma.
Writing earlier this year in the scientific journal Expert Review of
Neurotherapeutics, Italian researchers
reiterated, "(C)annabinoids have displayed a great potency in reducing
glioma tumor growth. (They) appear to be selective antitumoral agents as
they kill glioma cells without affecting the viability of nontransformed
counterparts." Not one mainstream media outlet reported their findings.
Perhaps now they'll pay better attention.
What possible advancements in the treatment of cancer may have been
achieved over the past 34 years had U.S. government officials chosen to
advance -- rather than suppress -- clinical research into the anti-cancer
effects of cannabis? It's a shame we have to speculate; it's even more
tragic that the families of Senator Kennedy and thousands of others must
suffer while we do.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-armentano/what-your-government-know_b_108712.html