Rick Simpson Interview: Cannabis oil as a cure for cancer

While we’re on the subject, the news came out today that a link has been found between young men, cannabis use and testicular cancer.

Some insight into how the framing of this (very small, government-funded and quite unscientific study) is being twisted and used as propaganda very close to election time, when 3 states are to vote on legalization – the mainstream media articles leave out some important points:

“The findings are biologically plausible but there is no proven mechanism to link marijuana to testicular cancer”

“While a 2X increase in testicular cancer risk appears moderately strong, in absolute terms, the increase is small (0.012%).”

Here is a review of the study sans propaganda:
Marijuana may increase marijuana cancer risk study

See also Marijuana cures cancer – government has known since 1974

Can Pot Treat Cancer Without The Devastating Effects of Chemotherapy?

 From Alternet

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from Acid Dreams author Martin A. Lee’s new book Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana — Medical, Recreational, and Scientific  (Simon and Schuster, 2012):

Peer-reviewed scientific studies in several countries show THC and other compounds found only in marijuana are effective not only for cancer symptom management (pain, nausea, loss of appetite, fatigue, and so on), but they confer a direct antitumoral effect as well.

CNN: Tommy Chong talks about curing cancer with Hemp oil

How Weed Can Protect Us From Cancer and Alzheimer’s

Hardly the harmful intoxicant that many once thought it was, cannabis is a nourishing plant that actually improves and prolongs life.

July 19, 2012

Via Alternet

The following is an excerpt from MARIJUANA: GATEWAY TO HEALTH—How Cannabis Protects Us from Cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease.

For thousands of years cannabis has been used as a medicine for a remarkably broad range of ailments. Opponents of medical marijuana have claimed that nothing works on so many diverse illnesses and that the only relief offered was one of stupor from being stoned. But in 1988, the first cannabinoid receptor was discovered and since then researchers have learned that there are two types of cannabinoid receptors which are distributed throughout our bodies and that we make chemicals within our bodies—endocannabinoids—that are similar to the cannabinoids made by the cannabis plant. Both plant and human cannabinoids bind to and influence these receptors in order to discourage the rise and progression of numerous disease processes.

The discovery of the cannabinoid receptor system has changed our entire understanding of cannabis and its effects. In fact, from the inception of the anti-marijuana campaign of the 1930s and its subsequent prohibition until today, almost everything we believed about it was wrong. Hardly the harmful intoxicant that many once thought it was, cannabis is a nourishing plant that can improve and prolong life.

We have recently learned that cannabinoids can help bring our bodies and nervous systems into balance, but what happens when certain compounds block the interaction between endocannabinoids and their receptors, effectively depriving our bodies of sufficient cannabinoids?

It is well known that one of marijuana’s most notable effects is appetite stimulation, or what is colloquially referred to as the “munchies,” a compelling drive to eat and snack. Researchers studying the endocannabinoid system have found that this phenomenon is linked to the activation of the CB1 receptor in the part of the brain that regulates appetite. With the increasing incidence of obesity becoming a public health crisis, scientists have begun to explore the effect of cannabinoids on the regulation of appetite. Researchers working for the international pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis, for example, began looking for chemical agents that effectively block CB1 receptor activity (known as CB1 receptor antagonists), which they reason could help suppress appetite and reduce compulsive eating. The company eventually developed a compound called rimonabant, which appeared to effectively inhibit the ability of cannabinoids to activate the CB1 receptor.

A Sitting NY Supreme Court Judge With Cancer Makes A Plea For Medical Marijuana

From Alterpolitics

After being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, New York Supreme Court justice Gustin L. Reichbach found himself immersed in a world of pain and misery, brought on by months of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

He’s spent 40 years in the law — over two decades as a judge — and thus never could have imagined that he would one day find himself turning to marijuana to quell his unbearable suffering, as he explains in his NY Times Op Ed:

Nausea and pain are constant companions. One struggles to eat enough to stave off the dramatic weight loss that is part of this disease. Eating, one of the great pleasures of life, has now become a daily battle, with each forkful a small victory. Every drug prescribed to treat one problem leads to one or two more drugs to offset its side effects. Pain medication leads to loss of appetite and constipation. Anti-nausea medication raises glucose levels, a serious problem for me with my pancreas so compromised. Sleep, which might bring respite from the miseries of the day, becomes increasingly elusive.

The Truther Girls: Weed Isn’t Evil, It Cures Cancer!

From the YouTube page:

I used to think smoking cannabis meant serving the devil, but faced with the evidence, I’ve had to conclude that those serving the devil are the ones prohibiting the cannabis! I’ll be interviewing Rick Simpson tomorrow on the radio. All the links you need are in my blog post here:
http://thetruthergirls.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/919/
radio show listen live 17 May, 2012: http://americanfreedomradio.com
Chat room: http://truthergirls.chatango.com

Flawed study inflates Testicular Cancer-Risk from Marijuana

The wire services are having a field day. Marijuana causes testicular cancer!

Well, you can relax. The results of the study published in the Journal Cancer, (and released online February 9th) is full of caveats, and say it only “appears” that a link “may” exist.

The results and methodology of any research must be looked at closely, and this one is no exception. First of all, an analysis of the research on Medpage , indicates that the study done at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer research center was instituted by a scientist, Janet R. Daling, Ph.D who may very well have set out to prove a link between testicular cancer and cannabis use. While this does not necessarily indicate a bias, it is valuable to note, as studies of this nature often have flaws (and this one is no exception.)

A little about testicular cancer.

First of all, understand that testicular cancer is very rare, amounting to only 1 percent of all cancers in U.S. males. Only about 8000 men are diagnosed with this type of cancer each year, and less than 400 die. It is most common in white males of Scandinavian descent. Other risk factors include: a family history of the disease, abnormal testicular development, or undescended testes.

There are two types of testicular cancer, nonseminoma and seminoma.

It is important to note that the study did not show a direct link, it only suggested a possible one. In addition this potential correlation was only with the nonseminoma variety, which accounts for just 40% of such cancers, or about 3200 annual cases.

A very small study indeed.

The study was based on a very small sampling of 369 men with testicular cancer who filled out a questionnaire. The responses were evaluated based on lifestyle choices, and compared to the answers from a group of 979 cancer-free group with similar backgrounds.

In addition researchers were only able to interview about 250 of men from the first group, and little more than half of the cancer-free control group. Another problem is that the questionnaire relied on self-reported use of marijuana, which, because it is an illicit drug, can skew answers, and finally, there was no central review of the pathology.

So, whether young men facing a diagnosis of cancer are more likely to admit to cannabis use than those not faced with a life threatening disease, cannot be determined from this study. It is also a distinct possibility that other issues such as exercise, diet, tobacco, alcohol and other illicit or prescription drug use were not effectively factored in to the questionnaire.

All in all, the holes in this study make it highly questionable, and in an age where cannabinoid research in the United States has been limited to those studies meant to show harm rather than benefits, we should take these results with a large grain of salt.

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