hightimes.com — With a deficit that only gets bigger and bigger by the day that President Bush is in office, and clearly the war on drugs is a failure! Why after the government’s report that came out and listed the three most addictive drugs alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine, all big money makers, and all legal. How is it not now a time for a change in this country?
Or is it 7 billion – who knows for sure?
Also check out this gem from the prometheus institute – don’t arrest, invest.
Archive for December, 2007
Marijuana Laws Cost Government aka American Taxpayers $42 Billion Annually
Friday, December 28th, 2007
Pot Slows Cancer in Test Tube Marijuana Ingredients Slow Invasion by Cervical and Lung Cancer Cells
Thursday, December 27th, 2007Pot Slows Cancer in Test Tube
Marijuana Ingredients Slow Invasion by Cervical and Lung Cancer Cells
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Dec. 26, 2007 — THC and another marijuana-derived compound slow the spread of cervical and lung cancers, test-tube studies suggest.
The new findings add to the fast-growing number of animal and cell-culture studies showing different anticancer effects for cannabinoids, chemical compounds derived from marijuana.
Cannabinoids, and sometimes marijuana itself, are currently used to lessen the nausea and pain experienced by many cancer patients. The new findings — yet to be proven in human studies — suggest that cannabinoids may have a direct anticancer effect.
“Cannabinoids’ … potential therapeutic benefit in the treatment of highly invasive cancers should be addressed in clinical trials,” conclude Robert Ramer, PhD, and Burkhard Hinz, PhD, of the University of Rostock, Germany.
Might cannabinoids keep dangerous tumors from spreading throughout the body? Ramer and Hinz set up an experiment in which invasive cervical and lung cancer cells had make their way through a tissue-like gel. Even at very low concentrations, the marijuana compounds THC and methanandamide (MA) significantly slowed the invading cancer cells.
Doses of THC that reduce pain in cancer patients yield blood concentrations much higher than the concentrations needed to inhibit cancer invasion.
“Thus the effects of THC on cell invasion occurred at therapeutically relevant concentrations,” Ramer and Hinz note.
The researchers are quick to point out that much more study is needed to find out whether these test-tube results apply to tumor growth in animals and in humans.
Ramer and Hinz report the findings in the Jan. 2, 2008 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
View Article Sources Sources
SOURCES: Ramer, R, and Hinz, B. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Jan. 2, 2008; vol 100: pp. 59-69.