| Photo: We Must Know |
Welcome to Room 420, where your instructor is Mr. Ron Marczyk and your subjects are wellness, disease prevention, self actualization, and chillin’.Worth Repeating
By Ron Marczyk, R.N.
Health Education Teacher (Retired)
In 1974 researchers learned that THC, an active chemical in marijuana, shrank or destroyed brain tumors in test mice.
But the Drug Enforcement Administration quickly shut down the study and destroyed its results, which were never replicated — until now.
Here is the study the DEA funded, then tried to destroy and remove from universities across the United States — and the first redo study that proved it correct.
This post is dedicated to our hero, Marc Emery, who is a political prisoner of the DEA, locked up in federal prison for legally selling cannabis seeds from Canada. Stay strong, Marc! You have not been forgotten! You are right and the DEA is wrong! Thanks for having the balls to stand your ground! http://freemarc.ca/category/usertags/news
We Tokies ask that President Obama pardon this peaceful, non-violent man who tried to help all of humanity with compassion and love.
| Photo: Patients for Medical Cannabis |
If you search, you will find many links to versions of this story. It was reported back in May 2000.
Then it went totally under the radar! 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.
This is one of the most important stories in the history of the War On Drugs. All Tokies who are down need to know the facts surrounding this “historical medical crime scene.”
This censorship of freedom of information is why we hold the moral high ground in our struggle for cannabis legalization.
You all should be able to explain the main points of this medical coverup by the DEA to all who will listen, to get the vote out and legalize in 2012.
The DEA and other federal agencies had ordered these tumor studies done after hearing erroneous reports of possible immunological problems associated with cannabis smoke. They wanted the report to show evidence that cannabis damages the immune system.
But in 1975, instead of health problems, an apparent medical breakthrough occurred and successful tumor reductions were recorded.
Following this remarkably positive discovery by the Medical College of Virginia, orders were immediately handed down by the DEA and the National Institutes of Health to defund all cannabis/tumor research and reporting.
Millions of Americans who might otherwise be alive today are dead because of these and other DEA orders regarding marijuana.
“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,” wrote Jack Herer. “We know that large amounts of information have since disappeared.”
Here is the study the DEA funded — then tried to destroy.
| Photo: Cannabis Culture |
Anticancer Activity of Cannabinoids
Purpose of the Study (Hypothesis)
“A preliminary report from this laboratory indicated that the ability of delta-9-THC to interfere with normal cell functions might prove efficacious against neoplasms. This report represents an effort to test various cannabinoids in several in vivo and in vitro tumor systems to determine the kinds of tumors that are sensitive to these compounds and reveal their possible biochemical sites of action(s).”
Main Findings of the Study: Effects of Cannabinoids on Murine Tumors
“Delta-9-THC, delta-8-THC, and cannabinol (CBN) all inhibited primary Lewis lung tumor growth, whereas cannabidiol (CBD) enhanced tumor growth. Oral administration of 25, 50, or 100 mg delta-9-THC/kg… inhibited primary tumor growth 8, 72, and 75 percent respectively, when measured 12 days post tumor inoculation. On day 19, mice given delta-9-THC had a 34 percent reduction in primary tumor size. On day 30, primary tumor size of 76 percent that of controls and only those given 100 mg delta-9-THC/kg had a significant increase in survival time (36 percent).”
“These results lend further support to increasing evidence that, in addition to the well-known behavioral effects of delta-9-THC, this agent modifies other cell responses that may have greater biologic significance in that they have antineoplastic activity.”
…….
Researchers at the Medical College of Virginia discovered that cannabis is an incredibly successful herb for reducing many types of tumors, both benign and malignant (cancerous). In 1996 and 2006, the Medical College of Virginia again applied to receive grants for cannabis research and again were turned down by the DEA. They were being punished for being truthful in the past.
If you have read my first four “Worth Repeating” medical reports on THC reducing cancer rates in lung, breast, head and neck, this 1974 U.S. government report validates what I have reported so far.
Need further supporting evidence? Here’s Part Two of this story.
THC Destroys Incurable Brain Tumors
February 2000: The first THC-cancer study since the 1974 government study cited above shows a possible cure. The study was by Dr. Manuel Guzman, et. al., of Complutense University. By the way, that’s the same Dr. Guzman who carried out the research on my last “Worth Repeating,” “Cannabinoid Therapy Reduces Breast Cancer Tumors.”
Anti-Tumoral Action of Cannabinoids: Involvement of Sustained Cera
mide Accumulation and Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Activation
mide Accumulation and Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Activation
Source: Nature
Main Finding
“Delta-9 THC, the main active component of marijuana, induces apoptosis of transformed neural cells in culture. Here, we show that intratumoral administration of delta-9-THC and the synthetic cannabinoid agonist WIN-55,212-2 induced a considerable regression of malignant gliomas in Wistar rats and in mice deficient in recombination activating gene 2. Cannabinoid treatment did not produce any substantial neurotoxic effect in the conditions used. Experiments with two subclones of C6 glioma cells in culture showed that cannabinoids signal apoptosis by a pathway involving cannabinoid receptors, sustained ceramide accumulation and Raf1/extracellular signal-regulated kinase activation. These results may provide the basis for a new therapeutic approach for the treatment of malignant gliomas.”
| Graphic: Beyond The Curtain |
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 admininstration 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.”
Dr. Guzman is the one who knew the truth about the government study and provided the title of the work — “Antineoplastic Activity of Cannabinoids,” which appeared in a 1975 Journal of the National Cancer Institute — that the government tried to destroy.
| World Hemp Revolution |
| Dr. Manuel Guzman |
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, Dr. Guzman said he had heard of the 1974 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,” Guzman said. “In fact, I have attempted many times to obtain the journal article on the original investigation by these people, but it has proven impossible.”
The real hero here is Jack Herer, who broke the story in his famous book The Emperor Wears No Clothes.
| Photo: Mental Floss |
| President Richard Nixon declared war on marijuana because he figured most of his political enemies used it. |
The DEA’s original, real mission was to silence and intimidate anti-war protesters’ free expression of speech — as guaranteed in our Bill of Rights — against the Vietnam War under President Richard Nixon. (See “Richard Nixon’s Vengeful War on Marijuana,” AlterNet.)
Nixon reasoned that many on the Left used cannabis, and by locking them up, this would shut down the anti-war movement. The DEA was formed by Nixon to attack his domestic political enemies. This is still the case today.
The DEA’s reason for being is anti-freedom, anti-Bill of Rights and anti-human. The DEA should be defunded and disbanded, and the resources redirected to cancer medical research and hard drug treatment. See the recent Toke of the Town story, “Cannabis Advocates To GOP: Why Not Cut The DEA Budget?“
The DEA destroyed a publicly funded medical report because its stunning and groundbreaking finding didn’t agree with their political views — then or now. It didn’t matter that a window opened for a possible cancer cure using cannabis. They tried to censor and wipe out the free flow of medical knowledge. This is the equivalent of burning a heretical book and its ideas, because it proves you wrong. “There is nothing more frightening than ignorance in action.”
We, the people of the USA have lost 37 years of medical research in the fight against cancer. If, in years to come, THC is proven as an effective cure for any form of cancer, the individuals involved in covering that up, in my opinion, should be tried as war criminals due to the fact that this was done as an action in the War On Drugs.
“If it turns out… that cannabis is the cure for cancer and the government suppressed this information for 25 years (and continues to suppress it), then the body count alone witll make this the biggest holocaust in recorded history,” wrote Raymond Cushing, author of the AlterNet background story linked above. “Virtually all federal drug policy makers of both parties since 1975 — including legislators, presidents and the DEA — will be complicit and criminally liable.”
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Tokies, how does it feel to be on the winning side? We were always in the right — stand tall! Welcome to the new Green Nation. ~ Ron
Editor’s note: Ron Marczyk is a retired high school health education teacher who taught Wellness and Disease Prevention, Drug and Sex Ed, and AIDS ed
ucation to teens aged 13-17. He also taught a high school International Baccalaureate psychology course. He taught in a New York City public school as a Drug Prevention Specialist. He is a Registered Nurse with six years of ER/Critical Care experience in NYC hospitals, earned an M.S. in cardiac rehabilitation and exercise physiology, and worked as a New York City police officer for two years. Currently he is focused on how evolutionary psychology explains human behavior.
ucation to teens aged 13-17. He also taught a high school International Baccalaureate psychology course. He taught in a New York City public school as a Drug Prevention Specialist. He is a Registered Nurse with six years of ER/Critical Care experience in NYC hospitals, earned an M.S. in cardiac rehabilitation and exercise physiology, and worked as a New York City police officer for two years. Currently he is focused on how evolutionary psychology explains human behavior.