This Is Your Brain Cancer on Maryjane
Medicinal use of marijuana is nothing new. Debate has raged for years about the prescribing of its active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (lovingly known by potheads as THC), in the treatment of glaucoma, asthma, and the extreme nauseau caused by chemotherapy. Not to mention the generations of parents who’ve bewailed pot’s stupefying effects with threats of “you’re killing your brain cells.”
Now, researchers in Spain say the opposite may be true: In a clinical trial, direct application of THC to the brains of two patients caused their brain tumors to feed upon themselves, and shrink. And even this may not be new; Harvard University researchers announced findings in 2007 that THC cut tumor growth in lung cancer, and significantly retarded the cancer’s ability to spread.
A conundrum, indeed.