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Ok i am looking for some one to party with and talk to.Marijuana arrests account for
almost half of all drug arrests in the United States, which spends $4 billion a year to
catch, prosecute and incarcerate offenders. Thats a lot of tax payer's money.
Do you know why weed is illegal?? The reason why it is illegal today is a completely
different reason why it was first made illegal, back in the 1930's, during the
"reefer madness era" many million dollar companies felt threatened by marijuana,
it was such a usefull plant, that it could put them out of business, so they began to lie
continuosly to the people, just so that marijuana would be made illegal and to save their
companies.Anyways, today, some people say, "its illegal because its bad for your body
and it can kill you." If this was true then why are cigarettes still legal?? Weed is
illegal only because the government cannot make any money from it being sold. Thats why
cigarettes are still legal, its legal because the government put a tax on it, so they make
money everytime somebody buys a pack. Tobacco kills over 470,000 people every year in the
U.S., plus its addictive, weed isnt addictive, and it kills 0 people every year.
I also found that of the 734,000 marijuana arrests in 2000, only 6 percent resulted in a
felony conviction. So they caught all those people, and they could only convict 6 percent
of them.
For years now people have been misrepresenting the effects of marijuana. For example, the
legislation claims, "There is evidence that (marijuana) has addictive properties
similar to heroin and other similar illegal controlled substances." Studies on both
human and animal data show that marijuana is less adictive than alcohol and tobacco, much
less cocaine and heroin. About 1/4 of people who try heroin become addicted . For alcohol,
the figure is about 15 percent. But of those who try marijuana, less than 10 percent
become addicted.
Alright, its time for me to stop talking about all these statistics, Im going to let
everybody know my personal opinion on weed. I personally think that weed actually saves
lives every day. Because there are a lot of people in the world that just have so many
problems and sometimes they feel that they just cant handle it anymore, and sometimes when
things get really rough, people start looking to suicide. Some people actually go through
with it. Other people sit down, pull out there weed, there pipe, and a lighter, and get
lost in the clouds. Weed allows you to escape from reality for awhile, it lets you take a
break from your problems, and it can clear your mind.
I realize that there are some bad things about marijuana, such as when people start
selling, and they get too caught up into everything and they start hurting other people,
but all that would go away if the government would only legalize marijuana. Lets say, if
weed was legal, and they started selling it at every corner sotre, drug dealers would go
out of business, because why would you call the drug dealer that lives across town to
deliver you some bud when you can just walk up to the corner store and pick it up
yourself.
There are more dangerous drugs than marijuana (cocaine, heroin, extasy). And i feel that
it is time that the government quit being selfish and greedy and they legalize marijuana.
I feel that the legalization of marijuana wont just save the U.S. $4 billion dollars a
year, but it could also save lives. Its time that the Weed Smokers of America come
together.
-Nelson Escobar
CANNABIS LEGALIZATION
by Jon Bellamy
This subject may be controversial, possibly even offending to certain members of our
society. However, after hearing the left-wing side of the story, people’s minds may be
changed. It is out of pure idiocy and pointless strife that marijuana, a drug made from
dried hemp flowers, is illegal and even wrongly categorized as a Schedule I drug, the same
category as LSD and opium . Hemp, by the way, is the most useful plant in the world.
Marijuana should be legalized because a lot of the myths that everyone is sure to be facts
are actually false, people have been smoking it for about 4,000 years and there hasn’t
been a problem with it till it became illicit (and the problem was: it was illicit), it
would make this country a better place, and it is good medicine as well as a recreational
drug.
There are a lot of myths on marijuana, many of them people believe just from watching
Reefer Madness, a propaganda film released in 1937 which is now a cult classic. One of
them is that marijuana is addicting, which is false. Marijuana contains no physically
addicting (cigarettes) substances and is barely mentally addicting (videogames), and most
marijuana smokers smoke gradually less after graduation . The myth about marijuana being
the gateway drug is also false . In Holland, marijuana was legalized in the 1970s, and
hard drug use (cocaine and heroin) actually DECREASED. In fact, scientists are
experimenting with marijuana as a replacement of coke for cocaine addicts. Plus, almost
all people smoke cigarettes and/or drink alcohol before they smoke marijuana . No one has
EVER died from marijuana . Some argue that it causes more carcinogens, or cancer
causing/promoting substances, than cigarettes due to marijuana smoking being unfiltered.
This is also false , cigarette smoking is worse than marijuana smoking in terms of health.
In fact, medium to heavy tobacco smokers will live seven to ten years longer if they smoke
marijuana (read footnote). Also, the myth about marijuana causing damage to the
brain…false . The most well known study that marijuana damages the brain was done by Dr.
Robert Heath. The experiment was incredibly biased and poorly done, and it later received
a lot of negative criticism.
Marijuana has been used since at least 2,727 BC . In 1916, a report showed marijuana was
encouraged, and workers smoked it to make them work harder . They had “smoke breaks,”
similar to coffee and lunch breaks. Soldiers used cannabis during the civil war as pain
relieving medicine. It has a wide-range of historical use, including religious and medical
use.
An average of 698,151 people are arrested each year for marijuana , 87% of which is just
for possession. 83 million Americans admit to having tried cannabis. The US spends about
$7.6 BILLION annually on prohibiting marijuana use . That’s YOUR tax money that you worked
for. The only crime that pot smokers commit is smoking pot. Marijuana use does not lead to
crime simply because the desire to smoke it just isn’t strong enough like other drugs. It
actually makes people more peaceful. If marijuana were legal, it would actually be HARDER
for kids to gain possession of it because the only way they could obtain it would be to
have older friends buy it for them, or grow it themselves. Both which get rid of the risk
of using laced weed and/or getting ripped off. Marijuana could also be taxed and turned
into a benefit towards the economy . All beneficial points aside, people in ABSOLUTELY NO
WAY harm anyone by smoking at their house and watching TV stoned.
Marijuana is also great medicine for people with AIDS, cancer, nausea, glaucoma, and
“spasm,” as it is also a great pain and stress reliever . Some people argue that there are
pills that replace marijuana, but the problem with pills is that they are expensive, they
don’t always work, they have side effects, and dosage isn’t always known since it isn’t
smoked. Weed, however, is cheap and easy to grow. Depressed people can rely on pot rather
than expensive anti-depressants. It can also be a good recreational drug. It makes music
sound better, art look better, enhances creativity especially in music (name one classic
rock band that didn’t smoke weed), and increases laughter, and there is nothing wrong with
laughter. Cannabis can expand your mind and make you think in ways you’ve never thought
before (not in a bad way).
Cannabis is wrongly judged, been used over 4,000 years, able to make this country better
than it already is, and is good medicine. Anyone who singles out someone else for using
such a substance has most likely not done their research, or have only heard one side of
the story.
Posted By David.
The reason marijuana is illegal is because the government doesn't believe in personal
freedoms. The more restrictions the government can impose on us, the more power it has. We
do not live in a democracy; we live in an aristocracy. Sure the Constitution guarantees us
certain rights, but the rights we actually enjoy are few and far between. For example: the
First Amendments guarantees us the right to practice whichever religion we desire. But
what about the Rastafarians? The consumption of marijuana is critical to their religion as
it brings them closer to Jah. However, the government cannot allow this because it
conflicts with national drug laws. After all, the only real religion allowed in this
country is patriotism. Only the rich have the power to make laws and they frown upon
marijuana use. Why? Because marijuana was never socially accepted among the aristocrats.
It was always part of the subculture, the resistance. Smoking marijuana is like saying
"FUCK YOU" to the system. Marijuana is not legal for the same reason gay
marriage is not legal. These fascist politicians who run the country are so closed minded
they refuse to allow anything that deviates from what they perceive as "socially
acceptable". Alcohol and tobacco are legal because all the politicians in power drink
and use tobacco. They are more socially acceptable than marijuana, sure tobacco use is
starting to be more and more frowned upon but it makes way to much money for the
government to be banned.
It is possible that in the next few years, pot smokers will start to see more rights, but
as long as a corrupt and fascist government rules us, we will never truly be free. With
every passing year new laws are passed that restrict our rights. This has got to stop. To
guarantee our rights as human beings, an overthrow of the government is necessary. Because
as long as they have the power, they will continue to tighten the stranglehold they have
around all of our collective necks.
THE MARIJUANA CONSPIRACY
by Doug Yurchey
Posted June 16.05
MARIJUANA is DANGEROUS. Pot is NOT harmful to the human body or mind. Marijuana does NOT
pose a threat to the general public. Marijuana is very much a danger to the oil companies,
alcohol, tobacco industries and a large number of chemical corporations. Various big
businesses, with plenty of dollars and influence, have suppressed the truth from the
people.
The truth is if marijuana was utilized for its vast array of commercial products, it would
create an industrial atomic bomb! Entrepreneurs have not been educated on the product
potential of pot. The super rich have conspired to spread misinformation about an
extremely versatile plant that, if used properly, would ruin their companies.
Where did the word 'marijuana' come from? In the mid 1930s, the M-word was created to
tarnish the good image and phenomenal history of the hemp plant...as you will read. The
facts cited here, with references, are generally verifiable in the Encyclopedia Britannica
which was printed on hemp paper for 150 years:
* All schoolbooks were made from hemp or flax paper until the 1880s; Hemp Paper
Reconsidered, Jack Frazier, 1974.
* It was LEGAL TO PAY TAXES WITH HEMP in America from 1631 until the early 1800s; LA
Times, Aug. 12, 1981.
* REFUSING TO GROW HEMP in America during the 17th and 18th Centuries WAS AGAINST THE LAW!
You could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769; Hemp in
Colonial Virginia, G. M. Herdon.
* George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers GREW HEMP; Washington and
Jefferson Diaries. Jefferson smuggled hemp seeds from China to France then to America.
* Benjamin Franklin owned one of the first paper mills in America and it processed hemp.
Also, the War of 1812 was fought over hemp. Napoleon wanted to cut off Moscow's export to
England; Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer.
* For thousands of years, 90% of all ships' sails and rope were made from hemp. The word
'canvas' is Dutch for cannabis; Webster's New World Dictionary.
* 80% of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linen, drapes, bed sheets, etc. were made from
hemp until the 1820s with the introduction of the cotton gin.
* The first Bibles, maps, charts, Betsy Ross's flag, the first drafts of the Declaration
of Independence and the Constitution were made from hemp; U.S. Government Archives.
* The first crop grown in many states was hemp. 1850 was a peak year for Kentucky
producing 40,000 tons. Hemp was the largest cash crop until the 20th Century; State
Archives.
* Oldest known records of hemp farming go back 5000 years in China, although hemp
industrialization probably goes back to ancient Egypt.
* Rembrants, Gainsboroughs, Van Goghs as well as most early canvas paintings were
principally painted on hemp linen.
* In 1916, the U.S. Government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp
and that no more trees need to be cut down. Government studies report that 1 acre of hemp
equals 4.1 acres of trees. Plans were in the works to implement such programs; Department
of Agriculture
* Quality paints and varnishes were made from hemp seed oil until 1937. 58,000 tons of
hemp seeds were used in America for paint products in 1935; Sherman Williams Paint Co.
testimony before Congress against the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act.
* Henry Ford's first Model-T was built to run on hemp gasoline and the CAR ITSELF WAS
CONTRUCTED FROM HEMP! On his large estate, Ford was photographed among his hemp fields.
The car, 'grown from the soil,' had hemp plastic panels whose impact strength was 10 times
stronger than steel; Popular Mechanics, 1941.
* Hemp called 'Billion Dollar Crop.' It was the first time a cash crop had a business
potential to exceed a billion dollars; Popular Mechanics, Feb., 1938.
* Mechanical Engineering Magazine (Feb. 1938) published an article entitled 'The Most
Profitable and Desirable Crop that Can be Grown.' It stated that if hemp was cultivated
using 20th Century technology, it would be the single largest agricultural crop in the
U.S. and the rest of the world.
The following information comes directly from the United States Department of
Agriculture's 1942 14-minute film encouraging and instructing 'patriotic American farmers'
to grow 350,000 acres of hemp each year for the war effort:
'...(When) Grecian temples were new, hemp was already old in the service of mankind. For
thousands of years, even then, this plant had been grown for cordage and cloth in China
and elsewhere in the East. For centuries prior to about 1850, all the ships that sailed
the western seas were rigged with hempen rope and sails. For the sailor, no less than the
hangman, hemp was indispensable...
...Now with Philippine and East Indian sources of hemp in the hands of the
Japanese...American hemp must meet the needs of our Army and Navy as well as of our
industries...
...the Navy's rapidly dwindling reserves. When that is gone, American hemp will go on duty
again; hemp for mooring ships; hemp for tow lines; hemp for tackle and gear; hemp for
countless naval uses both on ship and shore. Just as in the days when Old Ironsides sailed
the seas victorious with her hempen shrouds and hempen sails. Hemp for victory!'
Certified proof from the Library of Congress; found by the research of Jack Herer,
refuting claims of other government agencies that the 1942 USDA film 'Hemp for Victory'
did not exist.
Hemp cultivation and production do not harm the environment. The USDA Bulletin ..404
concluded that hemp produces 4 times as much pulp with at least 4 to 7 times less
pollution. From Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1938:
'It has a short growing season...It can be grown in any state...The long roots penetrate
and break the soil to leave it in perfect condition for the next year's crop. The dense
shock of leaves, 8 to 12 feet above the ground, chokes out weeds.
...hemp, this new crop can add immeasurably to American agriculture and industry.'
In the 1930s, innovations in farm machinery would have caused an industrial revolution
when applied to hemp. This single resource could have created millions of new jobs
generating thousands of quality products. Hemp, if not made illegal, would have brought
America out of the Great Depression.
William Randolph Hearst (Citizen Kane) and the Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division of
Kimberly Clark owned vast acreage of timberlands. The Hearst Company supplied most paper
products. Patty Hearst's grandfather, a destroyer of nature for his own personal profit,
stood to lose billions because of hemp.
In 1937, Dupont patented the processes to make plastics from oil and coal. Dupont's Annual
Report urged stockholders to invest in its new petrochemical division. Synthetics such as
plastics, cellophane, celluloid, methanol, nylon, rayon, Dacron, etc., could now be made
from oil. Natural hemp industrialization would have ruined over 80% of Dupont's business.
THE CONSPIRACY
Andrew Mellon became Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury and Dupont's primary investor. He
appointed his future nephew-in-law, Harry J. Anslinger, to head the Federal Bureau of
Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
Secret meetings were held by these financial tycoons. Hemp was declared dangerous and a
threat to their billion dollar enterprises. For their dynasties to remain intact, hemp had
to go. These men took an obscure Mexican slang word: 'marihuana' and pushed it into the
consciousness of America.
MEDIA MANIPULATION
A media blitz of 'yellow journalism' raged in the late 1920s and 1930s. Hearst's
newspapers ran stories emphasizing the horrors of marihuana. The menace of marihuana made
headlines. Readers learned that it was responsible for everything from car accidents to
loose morality.
Films like 'Reefer Madness' (1936), 'Marihuana: Assassin of Youth' (1935) and 'Marihuana:
The Devil's Weed' (1936) were propaganda designed by these industrialists to create an
enemy. Their purpose was to gain public support so that anti-marihuana laws could be
passed.
Examine the following quotes from 'The Burning Question' aka REEFER MADNESS:
a violent narcotic.
acts of shocking violence.
incurable insanity.
soul-destroying effects.
under the influence of the drug he killed his entire family with an ax.
more vicious, more deadly even than these soul-destroying drugs (heroin, cocaine) is the
menace of marihuana!
Reefer Madness did not end with the usual 'the end.' The film concluded with these words
plastered on the screen: TELL YOUR CHILDREN.
In the 1930s, people were very naive; even to the point of ignorance. The masses were like
sheep waiting to be led by the few in power. They did not challenge authority. If the news
was in print or on the radio, they believed it had to be true. They told their children
and their children grew up to be the parents of the baby-boomers.
On April 14, 1937, the Prohibitive Marihuana Tax Law or the bill that outlawed hemp was
directly brought to the House Ways and Means Committee. This committee is the only one
that can introduce a bill to the House floor without it being debated by other committees.
The Chairman of the Ways and Means, Robert Doughton, was a Dupont supporter. He insured
that the bill would pass Congress.
Dr. James Woodward, a physician and attorney, testified too late on behalf of the American
Medical Association. He told the committee that the reason the AMA had not denounced the
Marihuana Tax Law sooner was that the Association had just discovered that marihuana was
hemp.
Few people, at the time, realized that the deadly menace they had been reading about on
Hearst's front pages was in fact passive hemp. The AMA understood cannabis to be a
MEDICINE found in numerous healing products sold over the last hundred years.
In September of 1937, hemp became illegal. The most useful crop known became a drug and
our planet has been suffering ever since.
Congress banned hemp because it was said to be the most violence-causing drug known.
Anslinger, head of the Drug Commission for 31 years, promoted the idea that marihuana made
users act extremely violent. In the 1950s, under the Communist threat of McCarthyism,
Anslinger now said the exact opposite. Marijuana will pacify you so much that soldiers
would not want to fight.
Today, our planet is in desperate trouble. Earth is suffocating as large tracts of rain
forests disappear. Pollution, poisons and chemicals are killing people. These great
problems could be reversed if we industrialized hemp. Natural biomass could provide all of
the planet's energy needs that are currently supplied by fossil fuels. We have consumed
80% of our oil and gas reserves. We need a renewable resource. Hemp could be the solution
to soaring gas prices.
THE WONDER PLANT
Hemp has a higher quality fiber than wood fiber. Far fewer caustic chemicals are required
to make paper from hemp than from trees. Hemp paper does not turn yellow and is very
durable. The plant grows quickly to maturity in a season where trees take a lifetime.
ALL PLASTIC PRODUCTS SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP SEED OIL. Hempen plastics are biodegradable!
Over time, they would break down and not harm the environment. Oil-based plastics, the
ones we are very familiar with, help ruin nature; they do not break down and will do great
harm in the future. The process to produce the vast array of natural (hempen) plastics
will not ruin the rivers as Dupont and other petrochemical companies have done. Ecology
does not fit in with the plans of the Oil Industry and the political machine. Hemp
products are safe and natural.
MEDICINES SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP. We should go back to the days when the AMA supported
cannabis cures. 'Medical Marijuana' is given out legally to only a handful of people while
the rest of us are forced into a system that relies on chemicals. Pot is only healthy for
the human body.
WORLD HUNGER COULD END. A large variety of food products can be generated from hemp. The
seeds contain one of the highest sources of protein in nature. ALSO: They have two
essential fatty acids that clean your body of cholesterol. These essential fatty acids are
not found anywhere else in nature! Consuming pot seeds is the best thing you could do for
your body. Eat uncooked hemp seeds.
CLOTHES SHOULD BE MADE FROM HEMP. Hemp clothing is extremely strong and durable over time.
You could hand clothing, made from pot, down to your grandchildren. Today, there are
American companies that make hemp clothing; usually 50% hemp. Hemp fabrics should be
everywhere. Instead, they are almost underground. Superior hemp products are not allowed
to advertise on fascist television. Kentucky, once the top hemp producing state, made it
ILLEGAL TO WEAR hemp clothing! Can you imagine being thrown into jail for wearing quality
jeans?
The world is crazy...but that does not mean you have to join the insanity. Get together.
Spread the news. Tell people, and that includes your children, the truth. Use hemp
products. Eliminate the word 'marijuana.' Realize the history that created it. Make it
politically incorrect to say or print the M-word. Fight against the propaganda (designed
to favor the agenda of the super rich) and the bullshit. Hemp must be utilized in the
future. We need a clean energy source to save our planet. INDUSTRIALIZE HEMP!
The liquor, tobacco and oil companies fund more than a million dollars a day to
Partnership for a Drug-Free America and other similar agencies. We have all seen their
commercials. Now, their motto is: ‘It's more dangerous than we thought.’ Lies from the
powerful corporations, that began with Hearst, are still alive and well today.
The brainwashing continues. Now, the commercials say: If you buy a joint, you contribute
to murders and gang wars. The latest anti-pot commercials say: If you buy a joint...you
are promoting TERRORISM! The new enemy (terrorism) has paved the road to brainwash you any
way THEY see fit.
There is only one enemy; the friendly people you pay your taxes to; the war-makers and
nature destroyers. With your funding, they are killing the world right in front of your
eyes. HALF A MILLION DEATHS EACH YEAR ARE CAUSED BY TOBACCO. HALF A MILLION DEATHS EACH
YEAR ARE CAUSED BY ALCOHOL. NO ONE HAS EVER, EVER DIED FROM SMOKING POT!! In the entire
history of the human race, not one death can be attributed to cannabis. Our society has
outlawed grass but condones the use of the KILLERS: TOBACCO and ALCOHOL. Hemp should be
declassified and placed in DRUG stores to relieve stress. Hardening and constriction of
the arteries are bad; but hemp usage actually enlarges the arteries...which is a healthy
condition. We have been so conditioned to think that: Smoking is harmful. That is NOT the
case for passive pot.
Ingesting THC, hemp's active agent, has a positive effect; relieving asthma and glaucoma.
A joint tends to alleviate the nausea caused by chemotherapy. You are able to eat on hemp.
This is a healthy state of being.
{One personal note: During the pregnancy of my wife, she was having some difficulty
gaining weight. We were in the hospital. A nurse called us to one side and said: ‘Off the
record, if you smoke pot...you'd get something called the munchies and you’ll gain
weight.' I swear that is a true story}.
The stereotype for a pothead is similar to a drunk, bubble-brain. Yet, the truth is one’s
creative abilities can be enhanced under its influence. The perception of time slightly
slows and one can become more sensitive. You can more appreciate all arts; be closer to
nature and generally FEEL more under the influence of cannabis. It is, in fact, the exact
opposite state of mind and body as the drunken state. You can be more aware with pot.
The pot plant is an ALIEN plant. There is physical evidence that cannabis is not like any
other plant on this planet. One could conclude that it was brought here for the benefit of
humanity. Hemp is the ONLY plant where the males appear one way and the females appear
very different, physically! No one ever speaks of males and females in regard to the plant
kingdom because plants do not show their sexes; except for cannabis. To determine what sex
a certain, normal, Earthly plant is: You have to look internally, at its DNA. A male blade
of grass (physically) looks exactly like a female blade of grass. The hemp plant has an
intense sexuallity. Growers know to kill the males before they fertilize the females. Yes,
folks...the most potent pot comes from 'horny females.'
The reason this amazing, very sophisticated, ET plant from the future is illegal has
nothing to do with how it physically affects us…..
…POT IS ILLEGAL BECAUSE BILLIONAIRES WANT TO REMAIN BILLIONAIRES!
ps: I think the word ‘DRUGS’ should not be used as an umbrella-word that covers all
chemical agents. Drugs have come to be known as something BAD. Are you aware there are
LEGAL drugstores?! Yep, in every city. Unbelievable. Each so-called drug should be
considered individually. Cannabis is a medicine and not a drug. We should DARE to speak
the TRUTH no matter what the law is.
Posted by FoM on June 06, 2000 at 19:15:06 PT
By Raymond Cushing, AlterNet
Source: AlterNet
The term medical marijuana took on dramatic new meaning in February when researchers in
Madrid announced they had destroyed incurable brain cancer 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 U.S.
newspapers carried the story, which ran only once on the AP and UPI news wires, on Feb.
29.
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 UC 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 (lastimosa evolucion) 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 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. |
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