Cannabinoid Research Organization Hosts Conference
July 2nd, 2009 by Rick
The three-day conference known as the 19th Annual Symposium of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) is scheduled to have 250 researchers worldwide attend from July 8 to July 11 at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, Illinois.
Topics discussed (warning: PDF) will be scientific based analysis of the therapeutic use of cannabinoids to treat numerous conditions:
- Cancer
- Social anxiety disorder
- Alcoholism
- Acne
- Stroke
Aside from trying to prove there are more ways of fighting cancer and trying to put ProActive out of business, the ICRS is 400+ members strong, all who are researchers in the field of “endogenous, plant-derived and synthetic cannabinoids”.
Canada to Conduct Research for Heroin Replacement
June 4th, 2009 by Rick
Free heroin is planned to be given to over 300 addicts in the Canadian cities of Vancouver and Montreal, as part of a three year project called Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness, research designed to find drug replacements to the highly addictive opiate.
In the first stage of the study, researchers plan on injecting some addicts with Dilaudid — a prescribed painkiller that derives from the same opioid family while a control group receives heroin. In the second stage they plan to give the addicts a pill form of Dilaudid and heroin — eliminating the need for nursing assistance.
Trish Walsh, executive director of the InnerChange Foundation, an advocacy group for addicts that funds drug research, said:
We have the potential to revolutionize treatment on an international basis. [...] It gives addicts the opportunity to move from a very unsafe, back-alley drug to taking an oral tablet.
Dr. Martin Schechter, who works at the the School of Population and Public Health at the University of B.C. said the Canadian Institute of Health Research is going to fund the research costs for the study, while the Vancouver Coastal Health and the Quebec Ministry of Health are to fund the clinical costs of the study.
Pot vs. Your Testicles
February 10th, 2009 by Alex
MSNBC has detailed a study recently published in The Cancer Journal (sorry, subscription only). Researchers claim to have found a link between long-term marijuana usage and nonseminoma testicular cancer, which can be a particularly aggressive form of the disease.
The biggest problem with this study is that it only studied around 1,400 men in the Seattle area, 979 men without the disease and 369 with it. It’s not exactly a big enough sampling to conclusively prove anything.
Then again, there are some concerning aspects to this report. Researches saw an increase as high as 70% in developing testicular cancer among heavy, chronic pot users compared to those who don’t smoke marijuana.
Stephen Schwartz, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said:
This is the first study to look at this question, and by itself is not definitive. And there’s a lot more research that would have to be done in order to be more confident that marijuana use really is important in a man’s risk of developing testicular cancer.
However, as the article also explains, scientists have found little explanation for the cause of the disease, which I think would be a better use of taxpayer dollars in regards to cancer research.
Either way, the whole staff here at tFS are praying this is a giant hoax by the scientific community to make us feel uneasy in our boxer-briefs.
Pill Might Limit Smoking Damage
January 15th, 2009 by Perry
This is an exciting step. Biochemists at Boston University are getting close to creating a pill that might help people fight the damage caused from smoking cigarettes.
By identifying microRNAs which help rebuild cells damaged by smoking, scientists hope to stimulate the growth of these cells.
Avum Spira, the spearhead of this research, summed up the projects potential:
We might be able to alter the host’s response to tobacco smoke so that it is a protective one.
Bouyed by the discovery of mir-218, a microRNA which helps control cell growth in the area, scientists are confident there will soon be a pill which will help smokers regrow lost cells. It could also lead to a test that tells smokers exactly how much damage they’ve inflicted on their own lungs. Either way, more knowledge in this area is much needed, and could positively affect the lives of millions of Americans.
We’ll keep you posted.
[Photo via Oliver Weiken/European Pressphoto Agency]
New Progress in THC / Brain Mapping
December 3rd, 2008 by Perry
Some parts of marijuana talk tend to get a bit dry and “science-y” for my tastes, but this Science Daily article talks about exciting chemical progress in marijuana’s active ingredients which could one day lead to a new type of smoke-less medication.
Separate from the already available Dronabinol, Marinol (THC pill) or edible marijuana products, the findings from Scripps Research Kellogg School of Science & Technology uses a chemical reaction which naturally occurs in our body’s cannabinoid receptors, also regulating appetite, inflammation and memory loss.
Basically, they’ve identified and mapped a chemical pathway, at least in mice, that can imitate the effects of THC.
The research uses the body’s naturally producing endocannabinoids, N-arachidonoyl ethanolamine (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) which react with THC, to see if they can chemically stimulate the receptors without THC.
While these reactions have been well documented for years, efforts to specifically study the relationship in a useful manner has been lacking until recently. The breakthrough that made this current step possible is Activity-Based Protein Profiling, a proprietary chemical technique that has been used successfully on other inhibitor hunts.
The benefits? One day the fruits of all these in-depth efforts could lead to the deveopment of treatments for chronic pain, anxiety, depression and even obesity.
LSD Tested on Cancer Patients in Maryland
November 14th, 2008 by PerryDr. Roland Griffiths, a Maryland area doctor, got rare government permission to test whether psychedelic drugs could aid cancer patients.
He conducts research at John Hopkins not with the goal of making patients physically better, but mentally better.
This is not a cure for cancer, but it is an intervention that back in the 60s people found very helpful for terminal cancer patients. [...] These are not drugs that can be used lightly.
In this video, Dr. Derek Valcourt examines whether drugs that cause hallucinations could actually make a difference.
If unsupervised, hallucinations can be an obvious danger. To some, they may induce acute flashbacks, intense fear and panic that in the worst case lead to suicide. On the flip side, 60% of Dr. Griffiths patients reported an almost spiritual feeling and said these mental trips brought on long-lasting positive changes.
The second part of “LSD Medical Research Used For Terminal Cancer,” after the jump.
Toxicity of Illicit Substances
March 30th, 2007 by Alex
An interesting article from the American Scientist was published that discusses the ratio of a fatal does to effective dose of almost all the illicit drugs on the market today.
It’s a thought-provoking concept that gives you a visual understanding of the toxicity of many of the drugs we consume today.
As you can see, alcohol is a lot more toxic than most people realize, while marijuana is as non-toxic a substance as you’ll ever come across.
Let’s see what the article has to say on this subject:
The least physiologically toxic substances, those requiring 100 to 1,000 times the effective dose to cause death, include psilocybin mushrooms and marijuana, when ingested. I’ve found no published cases in the English language that document deaths from smoked marijuana, so the actual lethal dose is a mystery. My surmise is that smoking marijuana is more risky than eating it but still safer than getting drunk.
A simple ratio such as this exposes a large problem in the United States, the least toxic substance know to man is now illegal, and the major cause behind the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
I wonder how long simple, scientific evidence such as this is going to be ignored?
[via The Daily Dish]
New Frightening Findings
January 2nd, 2007 by Alex
First reported by a woman with no sense of satire Benita, this scientific report should definitely put an end to pot consumption nation-wide.
Here’s an excerpt:
According to researchers at the, Shingle Hollar Institute Of Technology; POT SMOKING PERMANENTLY DECREASES YOUR INTELLIGENCE!In one, notable study; two female roommates, who had never smoked or consumed marijuana, were the focal subjects, for this ground breaking report.
The two women,(Mary and Jane) both in their twenties; were followed closely, during the 20 year study.
Both, orginally were given pot to smoke in a clinical situation; 5 times a day, for 6 months.
Mary never smoked again and Jane turned into a habitual smoker.Results of IQ tests, given initially to both, before the study and subsequently once a year, for the following 20 years; shows markedly lower results for both women.
As you can tell, this is some pretty amazing stuff. I can’t wait to see the full report, detailing the scientific data on Mary/Jane. I might even do my own research on the subject tonight.
