This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on October 17, 2013.
You may have heard of Rick Simpson’s famous hemp oil, which he likes to call “Phoenix Tears”. Rick is a Canadian marijuana patient that has made a name for himself by proclaiming that hemp oil cured his cancer. Naturally, many people are skeptical of his claims, but it still leaves us wondering whether there is actually any truth behind this matter.
Before we get into curing cancer, it’s important to mention that there are a number of marijuana-based drugs available for cancer patients. For example, Marinol is a pure THC pill that can be prescribed as an alternative to medical marijuana. Although doctors have never suggested using Marinol to treat cancer itself, it is still useful for treating the side-effects of chemotherapy such as nausea and vomiting.
Still, there have been many studies over the years which show that marijuana actually has strong cancer-fighting properties. While these studies have not been conducted on humans yet, research has shown that THC reduces tumor growth and cancer spreading in animals with cancer.
On top of that, the effects of THC are not limited to a single type of cancer. Rather, research has confirmed its cancer-fighting effects in a variety of different cancer models such as lung cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer, prostate cancer and many more.
But once again, research has never been done on humans so it is impossible to say for certain whether medical marijuana can actually be used to fight cancer.
It’s unfortunate that our current prohibition laws prevent not only patients from accessing medical marijuana, but researchers as well. In the US, the federal government is the only source of marijuana for research and they continue to prevent many studies from taking place.
Just ask the non-profit research organization MAPS, who are all too familiar with these restrictions. MAPS has been attempting to conduct a study on medical marijuana and PTSD for the past few years with little success. Things looked hopeful when their proposal was approved by the FDA in 2011, only to be shot down by another federal agency a few months later. Their study still hasn’t been approved as of today.
Back to the topic of medical marijuana and cancer. It seems that only time will tell whether research can confirm its benefits in humans. Till then, we can only fight to raise awareness of medical marijuana research and hope that one day the feds will start to accept it as the medicine it truly is.
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