It seems that every day a new state is legalizing marijuana, or a new study is coming out praising the medical benefits of marijuana. For those of you against the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, I’m sad to say but it has been shown time and time again to be therapeutically useful. Now you may ask; how is that something we have been told for years is along the same lines as other recreational drugs that are supposed to ruin your life actually do something beneficial for you?
First things first let’s clear the air about the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. The benefits of marijuana are due to the active chemical compound in marijuana known as THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). The reason THC can have therapeutic benefits is because it is in the class of chemicals known as cannabinoids and your body actually naturally produces its own cannabinoids for every day functioning of your cells, these are referred to as endocannabinoids. Endocannabinoids are naturally occurring cannabinoids found within (endo-) your body. The major functions of these endocannabinoids that are being targeted for the use of marijuana as a medical therapy are their ability to induce cell death and even protect cells from death. You are likely wondering; how on earth something can both protect cells from death but also induce cell death, this is because the receptors that endocannabinoids bind to are found all throughout your body on different types of cells and control a variety of cell functions. So, depending on the type of cell, as well as the type of receptor stimulated, cannabinoids can cause cell death as well as protect cells from death. This ability of cannabinoids to induce cell death is being looked at for a potential cancer treatment because some cancer cells, such as breast cancer cells, have been shown to react to the presence of extra cannabinoids though cell death. The ability of cannabinoids to protect cells is being looked at in medicine as a potential method of treatment for many neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and AL S because some of the causes of these diseases involve pathways that are activated by cannabinoid receptors of brain and nervous system cells, so if excess cannabinoids can protect these cells from being damaged, they could potentially be used to slow the progression of the disease or even prevent it.
Alright so this sounds great right? Marijuana kills cancer cells and protects cells being damaged by other diseases, it’s the perfect drug…..Not quite although cannabinoids have been shown to have some to these positive effects it, like any other drug, has its negative side effects. Along with its ability to cause death to cancer cells it also targets your immune cells and can cause death to them as well. As we all know as well marijuana has psychoactive effects on the brain such as paranoia and anxiety which are also negative side effects. So sadly, no marijuana is not a miracle drug and is not anywhere close to it, but some of its properties show signs of potentially useful medical treatments. There is a chemical compound that is supposed to have all of the benefits of cannabinoids without any of the “high” or other psychoactive side effects called cannabidiol. This drug is yet to be approved by the FDA or go through significant clinical trials but it has shown promise in early research. For more information on cannabidiol visit http://www.projectcbd.org/.
In the end a lot still has to be learned about cannabinoids and their benefits in medicine before they become a mainstream form of treatment.
Marijuana the Miracle Drug?
