Pubdate: Tue, 7 Oct 2008
Source: Daily Nexus (UC Santa Barbara, CA Edu)
Copyright: 2008 Daily Nexus
Contact:  http://www.ucsbdailynexus.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2729
Author: Alex Hoffman
Note: Daily Nexus drug columnist Alex Coffman is sure a sack of weed 
can write his term papers and take his midterm too.

BONG RIPS CURE CANCER?

The Truth About Weed the Feds Don't Want You to Know

You read that right, my sleepy-eyed stoners. Cannabis CURES cancer. 
Okay, that is a bit of propaganda wrapped up in overstatement. But 
guess what? It is our turn to spread the real propaganda of ganja. 
The thing that the government, religious fanatics and our parents 
alike will hate the most about our propaganda is that it is full of truth.

According to "The Cannabible 3," in 1974, a study funded by the 
United States Federal Government found evidence demonstrating that 
Tetrahydrocannabinol, the most active cannabinoid in cannabis, 
reduces growth rates of three kinds of cancer. The assholes in the 
Drug Enforcement Administration office decided it might be bad for 
business if the public knew this. No major media outlets reported the 
story and research was halted in that area.

"What a pothead" you scoff. "Believing some pipe-dream a stoner threw 
into a book about weed." Oh, ye of little faith. Still can't trust 
your brethren to be intelligent on the most important issues facing the world?

Do you trust scientists working at Harvard to be intelligent? On 
April 17, 2007, www.sciencedaily.com reported on Harvard researchers 
delving deeper into the relationship between cannabis and cancer. 
"'The beauty of this study is that we are showing that a substance of 
abuse, if used prudently, may offer a new road to therapy against 
lung cancer,' said Anju Preet, Ph.D., a researcher in the Division of 
Experimental Medicine."

Since the initial discovery in 1974, multiple international studies 
have confirmed that THC can halt or reverse the growth of cancer 
cells. In Germany: A study demonstrates the anti-cancerous effect of 
cannabinoids in lung and cervical cancer. At the Complutense 
University of Madrid Spain: One third of infected rats have their 
brain tumors eliminated after treatment with synthetic THC. In Italy: 
Cannabinol is shown to inhibit the growth of cancerous glioma cells, 
both in vitro and in vivo. The list goes on.

Perhaps the study most worth mentioning is a secret study financed by 
the U.S. government. In 1997, it was leaked to the media that the 
U.S. National Toxicology Program had conducted a study worth $2 
million, pointing to the fact that THC protected against malignant 
tumors. This is the only other study funded by the government to 
investigate the anti-cancerous properties. As with the first study, 
the findings were kept away from the public eye for a few years. News 
of this event came only after an inside source deliberately took the 
report to the media.

Taking stock of this situation is sure to confuse and enrage. Let 
Mary Jane soothe the rage as I take care of the confusion. (Mary Jane 
has trouble helping with confusion. It is not her fault, she's just 
too stoned to figure out how.) The situation is as follows: we are 
surrounded by liars. All our short stoner lives, people have been 
telling us that smoking marijuana will give us cancer. Scary lies 
like "One joint is equal to 20 cigarettes" are paraded as facts. The 
government, the one by the people and for the people, takes our taxes 
to fund studies that may lead to the cure for cancer, then hides the 
results from us.

The media chooses not to publicize these findings because then there 
would be less time to terrorize us with stories of violence and 
despair. Health care providers, the people supposedly fighting 
diseases for the benefit of others, are not interested in learning 
more about this issue. It is hard to blame them, though. How can that 
juggernaut of an industry support itself when a cure for cancer could 
be grown in a person's back yard?

Health care providers have to be able to pay the scientists, do the 
research, discover the drug and test the pill, which has to pass the 
tests set up by the feds, so they can make money. This is so the 
public "knows" that when they have to buy health care to pay to see 
the doctor. How else are you going to afford those little white pills 
the pharmacy gives you instead of letting you know that many ailments 
can be cured by changes in diet, exercise or cheaper, natural, 
healthier substances, like weed?

So, does cannabis prevent or possibly even cure cancer? Pass me that 
bong and we'll find out together.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake