Pot Shrinks Tumors; Government Knew in '74 By Raymond Cushing, AlterNet. Posted

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Pot Shrinks Tumors; Government Knew in

'74 By Raymond Cushing, AlterNet. Posted May 31, 2000.

 

 

 

 

In 1974 researchers learned that THC, the active chemical in

marijuana, shrank or destroyed brain tumors in test mice. But the DEA

quickly shut down the study and destroyed its results, which were

never replicated -- until now.

 

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. "

http://www.alternet.org/story/9257/