Pubdate: Thu, 16 Mar 2006
Source: Bradenton Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2006 Bradenton Herald
Contact:  http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/58
Author: Allan Erickson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

CANNABIS TRUTH HIDDEN

Like letter writer James Stepp, (Suppressing truth?, March 11) I too 
appreciated your article on hemp.

I must correct Mr. Stepp on a minor point in his letter. The cannabis 
study on cancer was conducted in 1974, where researchers at the 
Medical College of Virginia, who had been funded by the National 
Institute of Health to find evidence that marijuana damages the 
immune system, found instead that THC slowed the growth of three 
kinds of cancer in mice - lung and breast cancer, and a virus-induced 
leukemia. That study was shut down by the Drug Enforcement Agency and 
buried. It was validated again in 2000 when researchers in Madrid 
announced they had destroyed incurable brain tumors in rats by 
injecting them with THC, the active ingredient in cannabis.

Also, see the Journal of the American Medical Association, Oct. 20, 
1975. You will find a study of the value of marijuana in controlling 
epileptic convulsions. The list of supportive studies on cannabis 
medical efficacy is too long for my letter. There is a disturbing 
corruption in our prohibition of cannabis. We still follow blindly 
the bigoted rantings used as "evidence" against cannabis by our first 
Drug Czar, Harry Anslinger, in his "Reefer Madness" campaign.

Allan Erickson

Drug Policy Forum of Oregon

Eugene, Ore.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman