From: Henryindivideo@webtv.net   
      
   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. Tools   
   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   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)