That alcohol causes cancer isn’t really news, but how it does so hasn’t been fully understood. A new study, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, adds an important new piece of information. Alcohol, it turns out, stimulates a type of cell transformation that turns cancer cells more aggressive and thus more likely to spread throughout the body.

As we’ve noted before, research shows that cannabinoids (marijuana’s unique, active components) interfere with tumor growth and may actually prevent cancer.

One thing that drives me crazy is the tendency of the media and others to refer to THC as “the active ingredient” in marijuana. While THC is indeed responsible for marijuana’s “high,” it is one of about 80 unique compounds, called cannabinoids, that are not seen in any other plant. Many of these have interesting, potentially significant, medical applications, and are not psychoactive.

Anyone who wants to learn about these other cannabinoids should check out this recent review published in the journal Trends in Pharmacological Sciences. [Read more →]

Okay, let me say right up front that a) I know that headline is provocative, and b) neither I nor anyone can answer the question with any certainty given what we know and don’t know so far about Michael Jackson’s death. But the question needs to be asked.

It needs to be asked because suspicions that prescription painkillers may have been involved in Jackson’s death are strong enough that the federal Drug Enforcement Administration has been brought into the investigation. And we know that he had a documented history of battling pain and at least some acknowledged problems with prescription painkillers.

We don’t know yet what pain drugs Jackson was on or what they were prescribed for. But if he was addicted to prescription painkillers, that addiction almost certainly started with legitimate and needed treatment for real pain. And that’s where medical marijuana might have helped. [Read more →]

The surprising finding that THC might help at least a small percentage of schizophrenia patients for whom conventional treatments have failed was reported in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology. 

This is surprising because, as the British government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs reported last year, “there is clear evidence that the use of cannabis may worsen the symptoms of schizophrenia and lead to relapse.” [Read more →]

The evidence continues to mount that cannabinoids — the unique, active components in marijuana — fight cancer. The latest such study , just published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, shows that THC can kill glioma cells through a process known as autophagy. Gioma is a particularly deadly form of brain cancer that afflicts, among others, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

The good news is that this study got a decent amount of media attention. The bad news is that much of the coverage lacked context or presented information in a confusing or misleading way. Case in point: the April 1 story from the Reuters wire service.

Reuters reporter Michael Kahn presents the finding as if it were something brand new, failing to note the extensive evidence accumulated since the 1970s that cannabinoids fight various types of tumors. It reports that “studies have suggested” that marijuana may cause cancer, omitting the fact that the largest, most well-controlled studies have found precisely the opposite.

And finally, in a warning of possible risks of cannabinoid drugs, the article hopelessly jumbles cannabinoids — drugs like THC and its plant and synthetic cousins — with drugs designed to block the CB1 receptor through which these substances operate, mistakenly referring to these CB1-blocking drugs as cannabinoids. In fact, they’re more like anti-cannabinoids, and if anything the harmful effects of these CB1 blockers (increased rates of depression and anxiety, for example) reaffirm that cannabinoids often have good and helpful effects.

The journal Clinical EEG and Neuroscience has just published a review of the data on the effects of substance use on the developing brains of adolescents. The unmistakable conclusion: While heavy substance use of any kind is a really bad idea for teens, the damaging effects of alcohol are clearly worse than marijuana. The researchers write:

Abnormalities have been seen in brain structure volume, white matter quality, and activation to cognitive tasks, even in youth with as little as 1-2 years of heavy drinking and consumption levels of 20 drinks per month, especially if >4-5 drinks are consumed on a single occasion. Heavy marijuana users show some subtle anomalies too, but generally not the same degree of divergence from demographically similar non-using adolescents.

Strikingly, in a couple of studies, the damaging effects of binge drinking were less if the drinker also used marijuana, suggesting — though not proving — a possible protective effect in some circumstances. That’s actually no shock, as the U.S. government holds a patent  on cannabinoids — marijuana’s unique, active components — as neuroprotectants (substances that protect nerve and brain cells from damage).

People suffering from Parkinson’s disease have a high rate of psychosis, which may be induced or worsened by drugs used to treat the illness. A recently published study in the Journal of Psychopharmacology suggests that a marijuana component called cannabidiol (CBD) may be a helpful treatment for this condition.

This was a small, uncontrolled pilot study, but CBD produced rapid and fairly dramatic reductions in psychotic symptoms. And the growing body of evidence regarding CBD’s anti-psychotic properties has important implications beyond Parkinson’s patients. For example, there is some evidence that THC can worsen psychotic symptoms, but at least one study has implied that CBD, if present in sufficient quantities, can counter this effect. 

It’s been known for a while that some cannabinoids, the active components in marijuana, have antibacterial properties (one of many useful facts you won’t find on ONDCP’s Web site). Now, as noted by stories in the New York Times and Web MD, five cannabinoids, including THC, have been shown to be active against a particularly worrisome form of staph infection that’s resistant to conventional antibiotics. It took these major media outlets a while to catch up with the study, published August 6 in the Journal of Natural Products, but at least they covered it.