Cannabis Compound Said To "Halt Cancer" 383
h.ross.perot informs us of research out of the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute suggesting that a compound found in cannabis may stop breast cancer from metastasizing. Cannabidiol, or CBD, could develop into a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy some years down the road, if animal and human trials bear out its effectiveness. The article notes that smoking cannabis will not deliver significant quantities of CBD.
Chemotherapy (Score:3, Interesting)
What form of Cannabidiol (Score:2, Interesting)
They say that smoking it would not yield much cannabinol. What of long time marijuana users, surely they would have build up cannabinol in their bodies.
unpatentable: don't hold your breath (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:This comes up every few years (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Chemotherapy (Score:0, Interesting)
If people want to say "hacker" to communicate the concept formerly known as "cracker", so what? And if "chemotherapy" were to mean "any medical treatment using chemicals", it would be a very useless concept indeed.
It's like those idiots who insist that someone who hates Arabs is, technically, an "antisemite". Because Arabs are a Semitic people. That's bullshit, okay? Alice uses word XYZ to transmit a message to Bob. Alice knows what she means by XYZ. Bob knows what is meant by XYZ. You, the parent poster, know what is meant by XYZ. Why are you even taking the time to say that XYZ used to mean something else, or that XYZ could possibly mean something else in a different context, or that XYZ would mean something else if one were to look at X, Y and Z separately? Why do you do that? Just shut up already.
Words are not holy. Words are what we want them to be. I should know, linguistics are my fucking job. What you're doing is known as prescriptive linguistics, and it's only jutified when learning a new language. When you're a native speaker of a language, the only way to approach it is through descriptive linguistics. Look it up.
Natural Selection.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Just a thought, but I wonder if it could be possible that humans are genetically disposed to loving cannabis? It has been a commonly used plant for a long, long time. The seeds have been used as food and seem to have the perfect balance of essential fats. Now it seems we've discovered it suppresses certain forms of common cancer. Certainly, there are people who abuse themselves with it, but maybe we want them to. In my experience, the people who overuse pot are the same people who have trouble restraining many of their impulses. One of my room mates seemed to actually became a human when he was high... otherwise he was intolerable. By taking these people's pot away, we don't make them better people, just angrier.
Another thing to note is that, while cannabis is illegal now, if we are genetically disposed to love it, cannabis will win the legal battle eventually no matter what the logic for it's legalization is. People legalize things they love and suppress the things they hate ignoring all logic in the process. You can't fight your nature. :)
Re:I volunteer (Score:5, Interesting)
hard to estimate doseage... (Score:5, Interesting)
Generally speaking, don't just sprinkle herb on your food unless you have a high tolerance for food that tastes strongly of pot (yuck). Making olive oil (or corn oil, whatever oil you want really) is the easiest method for most people to have some good thc laced treats, and it makes some damn good enchiladas/pasta
If you're really experimental there are ways to infuse thc into alchohal for use at clubs and places where using "breath drops" would be acceptable. But that is even more of a headache than making butter. Search for "cannabis tincture" if you're so inclined. If you live in SoCal and are a MMJ patient you can buy cannabis oil, cannabis tincture, and other assorted ready made foods from your local MMJ dispensary. YMMV.
Re:we need socialized medicine - universal healthc (Score:4, Interesting)
And how is that different than the current system? You are already "playing the lotto" that your HMO won't declare your cancer "a pre-existing condition" or the treatment that you need is "experimental".
What good is a cure for cancer if your HMO won't pay for it and you can't afford it?
Re:I volunteer (Score:3, Interesting)
It was something along the lines of 51% of the vote=2 years before re-eval, 65% of the vote =4 years before re-eval, 80% of the vote = 8 years before re-eval, unanimous=permanent unless some new law overturns it.