Cell studies performed by researchers at Madrid’s Universidad Complutense demonstrate that THC, one of the active compounds in marijuana, can induce cell death in certain brain tumor cells without effecting the surrounding healthy cells.
Dr. Franjo Grotenhermen of the German-based Association for Cannabis as Medicine (ACM) proposed that marijuana’s constituents may one day play a role in cancer treatment. “It is desirable to have a substance that induces programmed cell death in tumor cells but not in health cells for the treatment of cancer,” he wrote in the December 13 issue of the ACM-Bulletin. “It has been demonstrated by the Spanish scientists … that THC could be such a substance.”
The Spanish research team said that their findings “might provide the basis for a new therapeutic application of cannabinoids.”
At least one previous American animal study documents that THC may potentially protect against malignancies. The study, which went unpublicized by federal officials for more than 2 1/2 years, found that rats given high doses of THC suffered from fewer cancers than those not treated with the agent. The $2 million federal study became known only after copies of the draft report were leaked to the publication AIDS Treatment News in January of 1997. The Boston Globe broke the story nationwide days later.
Details of the Spanish cell research are available in the latest editions of the scientific journals FEBS Letters and Molecular Pharmacology.
For more information, please contact The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751. For additional information, please contact the ACM online at: http://www.hanfnet.de/acm or by e-mail at: ACMed@t-online.de.