One point in A.L. Bardach's anti-cannabis satire demands clarification lest people mistake it for a falsehood. Cannabis is medicine, and it does have powerful anti-tumor properties. This is not my belief: This is biochemistry. I don't blame you if you think this sounds like snake oil. I was also dubious just a year ago. But that was before cannabis stunned me and my oncologist by shrinking my ovarian cancer.
And it was before I meet Professor Raphael
Mechoulam of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who discovered the endocannabinoid system ,
the largest neuroreceptor system in the human body. Every person produces
internal cannabinoids, called anandamide and 2-AG (2-arachidonoyl glycerol).
These molecules regulate the endocannabinoid system, acting as a thermostat for
our physiology, modulating bodily functions and keeping homeostasis. The cannabinoid
compounds in medical cannabis act as supplements, working on the same receptors
(CB1, CB2, and two dozen others) as the naturally occurring internal
cannabinoids we produce. The fact that compounds in cannabis can modulate our
primary regulatory system hints at its potential to help a mindbogglingly
diverse list of diseases and conditions.
I
was skeptical before I spent six months intensively reading peer-reviewed
oncology articles in journals like Frontiers in Pharmacology and the International
Journal of Molecular Science, with titles like "Anti-Cancer mechanism
of cannabis" and "Endocannabinoids as guardians of metastasis."
I encourage everyone to read the science; a collection of a dozen recent
peer-reviewed articles and several medical conferences lectures are on my website,
schedule1movie.com .
I
was incredulous before I meet Dr. David Meiri, who directs 45 PhD researchers
at the Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Cannabinoid Research at Israel’s
Technion University where the groundbreaking science is unfolding. And before I
meet dozens of other cancer patients with extraordinary and unexplained
responses to cannabis. I was doubting before, but now I have learned, I understand,
and I know.
If
you haven't heard any of this from your doctor, don't blame them. Most
physicians were never trained on the endocannabinoid system. A 2013 survey
found only 13 percent of medical schools even mention it! The legacy and stigma
of cannabis as an illicit street drug, and its resulting Schedule 1 status
(which makes clinical research nearly impossible), is holding us back from
groundbreaking discoveries. Taxol, a staple in the chemotherapy toolkit, was
derived from a tree. Penicillin was derived from a fungus. Cannabis has over
500 compounds. Why is it so inconceivable that cannabis has molecules that can
be harnessed for health?
Cannabis
is not a magic cancer cure-all. The plant’s biochemistry is incredibly complex.
Cancer is also incredibly complex, driven by hundreds of different broken
pathways. Indeed, preclinical data shows that some cancers do not respond to cannabis
at all. Fortunately for me, my tumor responded dramatically. Cannabis shrank my
tumor, just as the pre-clinical data suggested it would. Under the supervision
of a physician who has successfully treated hundreds of cancer patients, I will
continue to use cannabis as medicine in my quest to stay alive.