Glaucoma , pain , sickness , loss of appetite , epilepsy and multiple sclerosis ; the list of complaint thatmedical marijuanashows hope in treat seems to be steadily spring up . But what about the disease most citizenry seem to be interested in , cancer ? Despite an abundance of anecdotal evidence brook its use , clinical trials are nigh non - existent .
But cell culture and animal studies for one type of brain cancer , glioma , have been so promising that scientists are now crowdfunding for a new human subject to investigate its possible curative welfare . And given the overwhelmingly positive public response that this same start - up crowdfunding platform , Walacea , get originally this year when touch out for funds for a humanLSD psyche imagination project , it seems likely that the campaign will be a success .
“ Donating to cannabis aesculapian research is of the essence to play up the potential of cannabinoids to deal a range of conditions , ” Jorge Cervantes , horticulturalist and aesculapian cannabis advocate , enounce in a command .
But if these cannabinoids –the biologically active compounds found in cannabis plants– withstand so much hope , why is public money needed to fund such significant enquiry ? Like heroin and LSD , marijuana stay aSchedule 1 drug , mean it is either deemed as having no accepted medical treatment use or there is a want of accepted safety equipment for its use of goods and services . That ’s despite the fact that it has been legalized for medicative or personal use in some US DoS . Unfortunately , the result control placed on drugs within this family name scientific research into their therapeutic usesvirtually impossible .
“ The law is there to protect people , ” Natalie Jonk , founder of Walacea , tellsIFLScience . “ Yet by take cannabis a schedule 1 drug , it makes people who wish to benefit from its medicative property criminals . ” Cancer patients wishing to use the drug therapeutically are also forced to swear on forum and personal experience , which is dangerous as doses are not base on clinical evidence .
Gliomasare a common type of brain cancer , accounting for around 45 % of case . Because they have a tendency to produce into normal brain tissue paper , operative removal is super difficult and often bits of neoplasm remain despite a surgeon ’s best efforts , offering the chance for the Cancer the Crab to bring back or spread to other body site . This , fuse with the fact that this organ is untouchable to many therapeutic agents , thanks to its protective blood - brain barrier ( BBB ) , mean that gliomas are notoriously tricksy to treat .
Here ’s where ganja comes in : cannabinoids can rapidlycross the BBB , exerting various effectsby mimicking natural substances bring about by our body , the endocannabinoids , which stick to and activate so - call cannabinoid sense organ . One such burden is their apparent antitumor bodily process , demonstrated in various unlike cancerous tissues in the lab .
Encouragingly , cannabinoids seem to cause cell that drive glioma progression and return , calledglioma - initiating cells , to self - destruct in the lab , a physical process know as apoptosis . If the inwardness can do the same thing in glioma patient , then scientists are hopeful they may make up a new way to tackle these cancers . But until scientist conduct right command trials , we wo n’t know whether this is the case or not .
Hopefully , if this advise trial goes onwards , we may ultimately glean some long - anticipated answer . The program is due to commence this Autumn , conduct across 4 - 6 Spanish hospitals . It will imply between 30 - 40 glioma patient who will be administered cannabinoids in combination with other anticancer drug .
