This plant could potentially save lives (Picture: AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, file)

Marijuana can kill cancer cells, the US government has confirmed.

It is believed that the drug – which is legal in a number of American states – can also shrink some of the most serious types of brain tumours.

The research was carried out by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which is funded by the federal government.

Part of a NIDA publication reads: ‘Recent animal studies have shown that marijuana can kill certain cancer cells and reduce the size of others.


‘Evidence from one animal study suggests that extracts from whole-plant marijuana can shrink one of the most serious types of brain tumors.



‘Research in mice showed that these extracts, when used with radiation, increased the cancer-killing effects of the radiation.’

It comes as a bill is being put together which would re-categorise cannabis to a new level that states it has some medicinal value.

MORE: Father thinks he’s having stroke after eating daughter’s marijuana brownies

MORE: Man charged with possession of marijuana and giving horse a blow job

MORE: £3 million worth of marijuana plants found growing in a public park

MORE: Someone’s invented cannabis lube