U.S government funded research institution, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA,) cites study done on the cannabis plant and it’s effects on brain cancer.

NIDA was created, and is continually funded, to bring proper science and information to patients of drug abuse and addiction. Last year they updated their website to cite a study done at St George’s University in London. The study was conducted to highlight the medicinal effects of cannabis on brain cancer.

This quote, taken from NIDA’s Drug Facts: Is Marijuana Medicine, is the most intriguing:

“Recent animal studies have shown that marijuana extracts may help kill certain cancer cells and reduce the size of others. Evidence from one cell culture study suggests that purified extracts from whole-plant marijuana can slow the growth of cancer cells from one of the most serious types of brain tumors. Research in mice showed that treatment with purified extracts of THC and CBD, when used with radiation, increased the cancer-killing effects of the radiation”

Before this properly momentous acceptance of what we all already knew, the U.S government and National Cancer Institute (NCI) would only admit that medical cannabis has ‘potential benefits’ for people dealing with cancer. Those listed ‘potential benefits’ were pain relief, improved sleep and appetite stimulation and anti-emetic effects.

Dr Wai Liu, who headed this study, stated that the test subjects were split into three groups.

One group was treated solely with cannabinoids, the second group was treated solely with irradiation and the last group was treated with both. Dr Liu said the results showed that the animals treated with both irradiation and cannabinoids showed far more drastic changes that those treated solely with one or the other. In most cases there was a drastic reduction in the size of the tumor, while in some rarer cases, the tumors were effectively removed from the subjects.

Of course, as much as this evidence shows that cannabis can be used against cancer, the FDA aren’t just going to approve it as a proper cancer treatment anytime soon. They require very strict and controlled studies for that to happen, but this information is definitely a step in the right direction for worldwide medical cannabis.

Perhaps even better is the fact that more and more studies that show cannabis in a good light will only mean that more studies are done in the future. This can only be a good thing! Check out Dr Christina Sanchez, taking part in a separate study, explaining exactly how cannabinoids fight and destroy cancer cells.