Marijuana: The Next Diabetes Drug?

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From TIME

By Maia Szalavitz, May 21, 2013
Toking up may help marijuana users to stay slim and lower their risk of developing diabetes, according to the latest study, which suggests that cannabis compounds may help in controlling blood sugar.

Although marijuana has a well-deserved reputation for increasing appetite via what stoners call “the munchies,” the new research [PDF], which was published in the American Journal of Medicine, is not the first to find that the drug has a two-faced relationship to weight. Three prior studies have shown that marijuana users are less likely to be obese, have a lower risk for diabetes and have lower body mass index (BMI) measurements. And these trends occurred despite the fact that they seemed to take in more calories.

Why? “The most important finding is that current users of marijuana appeared to have better carbohydrate metabolism than non-users,” says Murray Mittleman, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the lead author of the study. “Their fasting insulin levels were lower, and they appeared to be less resistant to the insulin produced by their body to maintain a normal blood sugar level.” Continue reading →

Dem Rep. Blasts Holder for Drug War, Marijuana Crackdown

During Wednesday’s congressional appearance, Attorney General Eric Holder was questioned on a number of other topics, including the administration’s failure to close Guantánamo Bay and the ongoing scandal surrounding the IRS. Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee took Holder to task over the Justice Department’s record on the drug war, including a continued crackdown on dispensaries providing medical marijuana.

Rep. Steve Cohen: “The Pew Research Group shows that 52 percent of Americans think marijuana should not be illegal. And yet there are people in jail, and your Justice Department is continuing to put people in jail, for sale and use, on occasion, of marijuana. That’s something the American public has finally caught up with. There was a cultural lag. And it’s been an injustice for 40 years in this country to take people’s liberty for something that was similar to alcohol. You have continued what is allowing the Mexican cartels’ power, and the power to make money, ruin Mexico, hurt our country, by having a prohibition in the late 20th and 21st century. We saw it didn’t work in this country in the ’20s. We remedied it. This is the time to remedy this prohibition.”

In response, Holder said he still plans to announce a new Justice Department policy on how to respond to Washington and Colorado’s legalization of recreational marijuana.

From Democracy Now

Study: Frequent marijuana use tied to reduced bladder cancer risk

More frequent marijuana use — smoking pot more than 500 times — was associated with greater risk reduction than infrequent marijuana use — smoking once or twice, the researchers found.

“The theory is that there are receptors in the bladder that are affected by cannabis,” he said. The cannabinoids 1/8compounds3/8 in the marijuana may link with the cannabinoid receptors in the bladder and somehow protect against cell changes that can lead to cancer” From USA Today

Study: Frequent marijuana use tied to reduced bladder cancer risk (via Raw Story )

In findings presented last week at the American Urological Association’s annual conference, researchers announced that the conclusion of an 11-year study has found a strong association between frequent marijuana use and a significantly reduced bladder cancer risk, USA Today reported Saturday.

The study, which has not yet undergone peer-review and was not published in any established journal, looked at the cancer risk of more than 83,000 men who smoke cigarettes, marijuana or both.

They found that men who smoke cigarettes multiply their risk of bladder cancer, while men who smoke only marijuana actually lower their risk. Men who smoke both still had an elevated risk of bladder cancer, but it was lower than those who just smoked tobacco.

“Cannabis use only was associated with a 45 percent reduction in bladder cancer incidence, and tobacco use only was associated with a 52 percent increase in bladder cancer,” study author Dr. Anil A. Thomas told the paper.

More amazing still: study participants who used marijuana more than 500 times a year saw even lower bladder cancer risks than those who only used marijuana occasionally. A total of 41 percent of the men studied said they smoked marijuana, while 57 percent smoked tobacco and 27 percent smoked both.

Critics pointed out that the study could have been more thorough if it included a control group of non-smokers and filtered for other lifestyle habits.

The link between lower cancer risks and higher marijuana usage rates is still unexplained, but Thomas speculated that human bladders may have cannabinoid receptors that react to the non-psychoactive components of marijuana, protecting cells against dangerous mutations that can cause cancer.

Although another recent study found that men who used marijuana in their adolescence and then quit experience a slightly higher risk of testicular cancer, those who continued using the substance into adulthood did not show that same risk. Less recently, a 2007 study in the scientific journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics found that a compound in marijuana called CBD can actually slow down and stop gene activity related to breast cancer.

For these and many other reasons, the American Medical Association voted in 2009 to recommend that lawmakers reclassify marijuana to allow for more scientific research into its potential medical uses. Congress, the White House and the courts, however, have refused to act.