National Geographic- Science Seeks to Unlock Marijuana’s Secrets

As the once-vilified drug becomes more accepted, researchers around the world are trying to understand how it works and how it might fight disease.

National Geographic

With so much advancement and information in the medical cannabis field lately I almost feel like I'm beating a dead horse by posting this. But then again information is power, and I believe this article brings some important things to light.

Typically, pharmaceutical companies making cannabis-based medicines have sought to isolate individual compounds from the plant. But Mechoulam strongly suspects that in some cases those chemicals would work much better in concert with other compounds found in marijuana. He calls this the entourage effect, and it’s just one of the many cannabis mysteries that he says require further study.

I feel this is why the pharmaceutical industry has an issue with cannabis. From my understanding they prefer single compound-single effect. Something with 80 individual compounds that work in harmony for a multitude of diseases ailments are not preferred.

Take Marinol for example. It's said to be a true synthetic THC substitute. But has side effects never before associated with the consumption of cannabis before. Mainly seizures! It's a true Frankenstein molecule is what it is. Only nature can coax an electron to revolve around it's nucleus in perfect harmony.

“We have just scratched the surface,” he says, “and I greatly regret that I don’t have another lifetime to devote to this field, for we may well discover that cannabinoids are involved in some way in all human diseases.”

That is a profound statement. But he understands that we all came from the same primordial soup so we all share a similar carbon makeup. Cannabis simply feeds this carbon based system called the Endocannabinoid system.

The developing embryo expresses cannabinoid receptors early in development that are responsive to anandamide secreted in the uterus. This signaling is important in regulating the timing of embryonic implantation and uterine receptivity.

Cannabinoids are found in breast milk.
No worries good doctor. Me and many others have committed our lives to answering that exact question. I was sceptical at first to the medicinal prowess of cannabis. Sure it's relaxing, and eases pain. But can it really cure cancer?

This is where it always gets convoluted.
Manuel Guzmán attests.

“When the headline of a newspaper screams, ‘Brain Cancer Is Beaten With Cannabis!’ it is not true,” he says. “There are many claims on the Internet, but they are very, very weak.”

There are hundreds of stories like Tommy Chongs.

In this study Guzmán and his colleagues, who’ve been treating cancer-riddled animals with cannabis compounds for 15 years, found that the tumors in a third of the rats were eradicated and in another third, reduced.

This is the kind of finding that gets the world excited, and Guzmán constantly worries that his breakthrough research may give cancer sufferers false hope—and fuel specious Internet claims. “The problem is,” he says, “mice are not humans. We do not know if this can be extrapolated to humans at all.”

That is a good point.
But I question.
If cancer cells used in the experiment were taken from a human host.
Doesn't that mean the treatment killed human cancer cells?
Like I said this is where it gets convoluted...

Will cannabis help fight cancer? “I have a gut feeling,” he says, “that this is real.”

Dr. Guzmán thinks thinks it will help. People like myself and Dr. Mechoulam tend to think it's the front line defense against cancer and just about every other disease that plagues humanity.

Fantastic information

Regardless how many times marihuana makes the news about its highly useful properties, it should never be suppressed simply because the information should be common sense by now. The unfortunate fact is, too many people think otherwise still, and we see massive rejection from big pharma due to their potential loss of business.

Keep the info rolling. Deny Ignorance!

originally posted by: Ghost147
Fantastic information

Regardless how many times marihuana makes the news about its highly useful properties, it should never be suppressed simply because the information should be common sense by now. The unfortunate fact is, too many people think otherwise still, and we see massive rejection from big pharma due to their potential loss of business.

Keep the info rolling. Deny Ignorance!

Still not sure why acknowledging the benefits is resisted.

Considering the age of the opponents and their very similar attitudes to other catastrophic legislative mistakes, it is probably simply self-preservational denial due to the horror of realizing the magnitude of the errors.

the problems with weed simplefied

me ... weeds not really bad at al alcohol is far worse

brother inlaw: than why is it illegal

me : corperations making money

him: no way that would never happen

me : you know they make a pill with thc in it for medical use

him : not uhh its illegal and bad

me : also proven safe and little bad health effects

him : what about it causing you to use heroin

and thats proof some people are born sheep and why we make a plant illegal but yeast pee is ok even thow its a solvant
that little fact slone should be a wtf we drink this factor but ehh

to be fair i drink alot but to consider a oil based compound more dangerus than a solvant is insane to me
i know other drugs are oil based and maby worse but the next time u think about witch is worse remember solvants break down dna fast

Marijuana is a natural medicinal herb. Like many herbs it is from the earth and has natural compounds that conform to the human body and its systems in a harmonious way, influencing the body to react according to the variety. (E.g. St. John's Wort; echinacea; etc...).
Marihuana incites a physiological chemistry between cell receptors in human brains. The brains have cannabanoid receptors built in specifically to receive cannabis molecules. Pretty cool, and it's free. The world will take care of everyone if we just let it.