Cannabis Study House - NORML Weekly News in Audio 2007.11.21

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Weekly News in Audio

Novmber 21, 2007

Pot Compound May Offer “Non-Toxic” Alternative To Chemotherapy

Decriminalizing Pot Will Reduce Prison Population, Have No Adverse Impact On Public Safety, Study Says

San Francisco, CA:
Pot Compound May Offer “Non-Toxic” Alternative To Chemotherapy

Administration of the nonpsychoactive cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) inhibits the spread of breast cancer, according to preclinical data published this month in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.

Investigators at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute reported that CBD limits the activity of the breast cancer metastasis gene Id-1. Researchers noted that CBD down-regulated Id-1 expression in human breast cancer cells more effectively than did the administration of the cannabinoids THC, CBG (cannabigerol), and CBN (cannabinol) and/or the synthetic cannabinoid agonist WIN 55,212-2.

“[Cannabidiol] offers hope of a non-toxic therapy that could [treat aggressive forms of cancer] without any of the painful side effects [of chemotherapy,]” lead researcher Sean McAllister told BBC News. Investigators added that CBD could potentially moderate the spread of other common forms of cancers, including colon cancer and prostate cancer, by modulating similar pathways.

Researchers at Italy's Instuto di Chemica Biomolecolare had previously reported that CBD administration moderated the spread of breast cancer cells by triggering apoptosis (programmed cell death).

Separate studies have demonstrated that cannabinoids can inhibit cancer cell growth in animals and in culture on a wide range of tumoral cell lines 窶� including pancreatic carcinoma and lung carcinoma.

Most recently, investigators at Madrid Complutense University, School of Biology, reported in the British Journal of Cancer that THC administration decreases recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (brain) tumor growth in patients diagnosed with the disease.

Previous preclinical trials on CBD have shown the compound to be neuroprotective against alcohol-induced brain damage, stroke, and mad cow disease.

Washington, DC:
Decriminalizing Pot Will Reduce Prison Population, Have No Adverse Impact On Public Safety, Study Says

Decriminalizing so-called ‘victimless’ crimes, particularly those related to drug use, can reduce the US prison population without adversely affecting public safety, according to the findings of a study published this week by the JFA Institute, a Washington, DC criminal-justice think tank.

“According to the US Department of Justice, approximately 30-40 percent of all current prison admissions involve crimes that have no direct or obvious victim other than the perpetrator,” the report finds. “The drug category constitutes the largest offense category, with 31 percent of all prison admissions resulting from such crimes.”

Previous data released last year by the Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates that 12.7 percent of state inmates and 12.4 percent of federal inmates incarcerated for drug violations are serving time for marijuana offenses.

The report states, “[V]iolence that surrounds drug trafficking in the United States is largely absent” in Western European countries that have liberalized their drug possession policies. The authors further note that the decriminalization of drugs, particularly marijuana, in regions that have enacted such reforms has not been associated with an increase in crime rates.

The report speculates that decriminalizing illicit drugs, along with enacting modest reforms in sentencing and parole, would save taxpayers an estimated $20 billion per year and reduce the prison population from 1.5 million to below 700,000.

Currently, more than 1.5 million Americans are serving time in state and federal prisons, up from fewer than 200,000 in 1970. (Another 750,000 Americans are incarcerated in local jails.) Yet, despite this increase in incarceration, the US crime rate today is approximately the same as it was in the early 70s, when the prison boom began.

A previous JFA report, commissioned for the NORML Foundation in 2005, concluded that depenalizing minor marijuana possession offenses would not increase marijuana use and would enable law enforcement to reallocate criminal justice resources toward addressing more serious crimes.

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