U.S. Government Stopped Research After Finding That Marijuana Slowed Cancer Growth

[DogPoundPup]

NORML's Paul Armentano has a disturbing account of the history of government research regarding the benefits of THC as a potential cancer treatment:

Not familiar with this scientific research? Your government is.

In fact, the first experiment documenting pot's potent anti-cancer effects
took place in 1974 at the Medical College of Virginia at the behest federal
bureaucrats. The results of that study, reported in an Aug. 18, 1974,
Washington Post newspaper feature, were that marijuana's primary
psychoactive component, THC, "slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast
cancers and a virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their
lives by as much as 36 percent."

Despite these favorable preliminary findings (eventually published the
following year in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute), U.S.
government officials refused to authorize any follow-up research until
conducting a similar - though secret - clinical trial in the mid-1990s. That
study, conducted by the U.S. National Toxicology Program to the tune of $2
million, concluded that mice and rats administered high doses of THC over
long periods had greater protection against malignant tumors than untreated
controls.

However, rather than publicize their findings, government researchers
shelved the results, which only became public after a draft copy of its
findings were leaked to the medical journal AIDS Treatment News, which in
turn forwarded the story to the national media.

They haven't studied the issue since. And because the U.S. government holds a monopoly on "legal" marijuana that could be used for research purposes, they've been able to prevent independent researchers from further investigating marijuana's promising anti-cancer properties. Armentano notes that research overseas continues to produce very encouraging results.

Unfortunately, our government's blockade against marijuana/cancer research is so mindless and vindictive that it's almost impossible to convince anyone that they do things like this. It's a terrible and frequent conundrum for reformers that if we accurately describe the behavior of our opposition, we end up sounding crazy.
http://stopthedrugwar.com/chronicle_blog/2008/jun/16/u_s_government_stopped_research_

[angstlessk]

1. three recommends and not a single kick...

here is a K & R from me...

[Jackpine Radical]

18. And me.

Here's a line to remember:

"It's a terrible and frequent conundrum for reformers that if we accurately describe the behavior of our opposition, we end up sounding crazy."

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Read this before and posted it long ago

so I'll give a kick and nom.

[AnnieBW]

3. What are these people smoking?

I mean, you'd have to be a real dope to stop this research after showing such promise!

[nashville_brook]

4. blahahha!

dood!

[Dr.Phool]

29. The fundies are afraid that someone might be enjoying themselves.

And politicians of both parties say, "You better not do anything that I used to do, before I became a pandering asshole".

[ooglymoogly]

75. The pot wars are a pot of power gold for the reich wingers

they are not going to allow any research showing the gentle goodness of something who's prohibition brings them so much power.

[yardwork]

77. That's correct. The drug war and the incarceration of millions spell huge profits

for the few recipients of military/government contracts. No-bid contracts, natch. We live in a fascist state pretending to be a democracy.

[defendandprotect]

105. Control -- and the profits that come from it -- are more important to these neo-cons . . .

The phony Drug War couldn't be going on without the cooperation of high officials and
high officials in drug enforcement --- police enforcement ---

It's all a crock -- but profitable for many --

Good as gold!

[truedelphi]

141. Way back in the Sixties, Ma-a-an! The Nixon appointed

Special committee and research team found out that about the worst thing about marijuana was how your life could be ruined if you were caught and busted for its use.

Like in the Great State of Texas, A few people went to jail for decades for a single seed being found in their car.

[Trillo]

5. But THINK of all the Cancer Treatment Dollars lost....

if m-a-r-i-j-u-a-n-a helps slow cancer.

Bye Bye 4th :(

[SammyWinstonJack]

49. Exactly!

[juajen]

6. K & R

Thanks so much for posting this. I'm hoping marijuana will be legalized soon, as it eases pain in joints and muscles associated with diabetes and chron's disease which I suffer from. I know, I know, I'm dreaming; but, dreaming never hurt, did it?

[yardwork]

81. Just as pharmaceutical companies have isolated the compounds in other plants

the beneficial ingredients in marijuana could be packaged in ways that nobody would consider harmful. We no longer chew willow bark to get the benefits of aspirin. The compound in willow bark that provides anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties was isolated long ago and marketed as aspirin. In the 1980s people discovered that a species of yew was beneficial against breast cancer. Nobody asks people with breast cancer to chew on yew leaves - the active ingredient is marketed as a drug. And nobody suggested that anybody should be denied this life-saving drug, even though it has many serious side effects that are far worse than those of marijuana.

Marijuana is kept illegal so that a few can profit, and the rest of the country is scared into submission. It's insane.

[L0oniX]

84. THC can't be stored for very long, however you can extract the resin which is like hash oil.

[yardwork]

89. Chemists could take it down to the molecular level and recreate the effects in the lab.

There's obviously no profit in it for them, though. If there were profit to be made from marijuana - something that could be patented and protected as intellectual property - the laws would be lifted in a flash.

I suspect that there's no profit to be made because the beneficial effects are readily obtained by anybody consuming the plant. That's why it's illegal.

I don't use marijuana myself. I'm a recovering alcoholic who stays away from all recreational drugs. But I do think that the active ingredients in marijuana that apparently help many diseases and conditions should be marketed legally to people who need them. The reason they're denied to us is to protect the profits of a few huge companies and their wealthy owners.

Very sad.

[defendandprotect]

107. Yep. . . but then where would the CANCER industry be . . . ???

Amerida profits from sickness ---

[Canuckistanian]

7. K&R

If anyone tells you "marijuana is harmful", tell them, "more study is needed".

[DUlover2909]

21. Marijuana should be legal

But I have to admit, as a former total stoner, today I am not very fond of present day THC users that I encounter ordinarily. It may not be harmful, but I tend not to be very interested in their company. They act like kids.

If the drug has medicinal uses, we should go for it. If you are a total pot-head, I'd rather find other company.

[Duncan]

33. That is not my experience.

It probably has less to do with the pot and more to do with personality.
I know daily smokers who are much more inclined to engage in interesting discourse than my average non pot smoking acquaintance. On the other hand, I enjoy the company of kids, so I probably don't recognize in others what you are referring to.

[sweetpotato]

45. you may not know.....

there are lots of folks out there that don't advertise to everyone what their relaxation methods may be. you may not know who all is doing what.

[ThePowerofWill]

54. Oh please, paint with a broad brush much?

You just did you part to buttress an age old stereotype. Thank you very much.

[AlbertCat]

65. If you are a total pot-head, I'd rather find other company.

Fine...do so.

I see no difference in smokers and non-smokers....except...uh....what was I talking about?


Seriously folks, what are people smoking these days? When I smoked, I got high for an hour or two...and usually continued working just fine during that period. Then it was down to normal. Even if someone came up with some Panama Red or Maui Wowie, we got zonked for maybe 30 or 40 minutes, and then....back to work. (I worked in the motion pictures then, all we did was work! And the pot heads beat the coke heads by a mile!)

[mahina]

78. OK, but I work with a couple of people who step out to smoke

on their breaks. They can't remember what the hell they are doing and everybody else has to compensate for their lack of competence.

[Bluenorthwest]

80. Gee...

Just so's you know, that probably has to do with your social circle. Among the daily pot smokers I know are multi millionaire business owners, winners of Oscars and Grammys and even the Pulitzer Prize. Not only do they smoke, many of them do so at work...now that is an inconvenient truth, wink wink. I guess we travel in different circles, eh?

[yardwork]

82. That's another example of the double standard in our country.

Low-level workers are subjected to drug tests in their workplace (I would think a total violation of constitutional rights but never mind, the Supreme Court decided long ago that certain classes of people don't deserve constitutional protection). A worker at WalMart would probably be instantly fired for smoking marijuana at work.

Other people - successful, professional, well-paid people - often use drugs at work and nobody ever considers making them provide a urine sample or firing them for using drugs. Poor people get life sentences for being drug mules, but nobody will ever put a Hollywood producer in jail for throwing a party at which illegal drugs are provided.

Nothing against your friends. I'm just pointing out how disgustingly unfair this entire country's judicial system is.

[Bluenorthwest]

94. well I agree

And that is why I and many of the people I mentioned are activists opposing the unjust laws. I would like to point out however that I said nothing about anyone providing illegal drugs to others, that is your own script. For one thing, in my States of residence, medical marijuana is not illegal. For another thing, when I talk about ganja, i'm not talking about any other drug use.
And let me tell you, many an artist has been jailed for pot over the years. Rich movie people as well. We can start in the late 40's with Robert Mitchm go through Sterling Hayden, John Lennon and the list goes on through today. Art Garfunkle last year in NY State, in a limo. Twice I think.

Part of the deal is that some folk work for themselves, not for an employer. And so no, they do not piss test themselves. But just this year, a major executive in Telvision did in fact delay his required Urine testing for two weeks, to be clean no doubt. But he was tested. Depends on your position and the company involved. Depends on the nature of the work as well.
Let me be fully open here. I have been required to smoke before work on occasion, by my employer, because I was better at what I had to do if stoned. They asked me to and schedualed the day accordingly. Because it has actual uses, properties that enhance some forms of work. Not for fun, for productivity and quality of results. So the talk about it as if it was drug abuse at a party, or smuggling powders through customs is just not at all correct. For many creative people it is a tool of great value. It helps make the money. It is the opposite of Party time...one does not fire a person for working better and delivering what is expected. We don't pilot jet planes.

But yes, the main reason to change the laws is for the benefit of those who most suffer under those laws, and that means the less affluent and minority groups of all sorts. African American people, transexual people, and other minorities get popped for ganja at far higher levels than other groups. Like everything else. Possesion laws are often unfairly enforced when they just want to arrest a person, and ignored when they have no axe to grind.
But as I said, most of the people I know are very active in trying to make the laws just, and they are fully aware that they have little need to do so for themselves, but that others do need that protection. On the West Coast, having a bit of weed is a misdemeanor of little impact. But these people know that others pay dearly for the same action, in other states especially. Let us not forget, the people I speak of, with one couple excepted, came up from nothing by power of talent, many of them were very poor and many of them are how you say, not white. So my friends you are kindly not knocking are for example, a son of petty criminals from Harlem, the daughter of Mexicanos who came arcoss paperless to work the fieds, son of carpenters and many many who were personally in poverty as adults for years. They are by no means unaware of the good fortune they have worked for and found. Nor have they forgotten what it was like for them, a few years back. What it is still like for others.
We are not talking about Jenna Bush types, but those who are where they are because of who they are as people. Talent and persistance got them what they have, it was not handed over by birth.

I do know exactly what you mean. And I do know you are not being snarky, and I'm trying not to be either. Just that 'drugs' is not what I was talking about at all. Most of my pot smoking pals will not even touch liquor. So, all imbalance in the law aside, there is a big diffrence between using a natural herb that is leagal under state law, in the privacy of one's own space, and the smugeling of drugs through inernational borders with intent to distribute. There just is. A kilo of coke at JFK is a whole different thing than 15 joints at a party among friends, under the law and also by logic. But listen, those 15 joints on uptown, at a party with the same everything, also get a whole different treatment. And that is a point worth making. When the same action is treated differently, this is an outrage. That is disgustingly unfair, and it is a fact.

[yardwork]

96. You raise a lot of good points and provide some very important info.

I was clumsy in my wording. You're right to point out that drug laws are used as weapons against evryone who threatens the power establishment.

I don't think that marijuana should be illegal at all. I don't use it myself, but others should be allowed to grow and use a plant as they see fit. It's as simple as that, really.

[Bluenorthwest]

121. And as I said

You and I are in agreement, fully.

[DUlover2909]

136. Yeah that's probably right, just my own experience I was talking about.

[Aragorn]

93. reply to several

I went to medical school with a lot of every-day pot-smokers who had no problem passing every class, and doing good medicine. But none of them would risk their career by smoking now because 1 bad drug screen could cost them the license to practice medicine. In this state the head of the medical board tried to use her position to get back at her previous partners, and in newsletters refers to licensed physicians as "the regulated".

[Webster Green]

106. You've lost your mind, but I doubt it was from the pot you smoked.

Lamest bullshit ever posted on DU! Congrats! :smoke:

[DUlover2909]

137. Lamest ever? wow. Sorry I honestly related my actual personal experience. Oops

[Webster Green]

159. It's just a stupid stereotype....your experience is obviously limited..

I'm a long time user, I have many friends who are long time users. We don't act like kids. We hold jobs, we get shit done, we don't sit around and giggle while eating twinkies.

Your depiction sounds more like one of those bullshit anti-pot ads I suffer through on my TeeVee.

BTW, I highly recommend a good dose of LSD once in a while. Blows out the old tubes, so to speak.

:hippie:

[Mythsaje]

112. You're obviously meeting the wrong pot users.

I don't know ANY that "act like kids."

[crickets]

8. K&R

[riverdeep]

9. More proof your government is lying to you.

As if you needed it. I still remember when Jocelyn Elders, the best thing to come out of the Clinton administration, said MAYBE we should THINK about doing something else besides 'just say no'. That, and espousing the radical notion that people masturbate got her the heave-ho with zero support from her boss, a pattern that would be recurrent throughout his two terms.

[Ghost in the Machine]

10. Free the Weed! K&R!

[iamahaingttta]

32. Shouldn't that be "Whiteys for Obama?"

I'm a big fan of the weed myself.
This government's ongoing paranoia about it is just plain weird.
It's like the entire government, for the past 70 years, has been smoking way too much of that cheap Mexican dirt weed that gives you a headache and makes you paranoid. It needs to smoke some of that good B.C. hydro that makes you want to jam or, you know, do it!

(On edit: maybe that's not such a good idea. we're already getting fucked by our government!)

[awoke_in_2003]

62. No, that is a great idea

maybe if our politicians would start fucking people more, they would stop fucking the country.

[Ghost in the Machine]

134. LOL!

Yeah, the 'gubmint' would just screw weed up... all they need to do is legalize it, period.

[Bluenorthwest]

129. These are my two favorite graphics

Of at least the week, maybe the month...

[Ghost in the Machine]

133. Thanks, but the mods made me change the signature image..

they said it was "inflammatory language"....


PEACE!

Ghost

[Bluenorthwest]

138. Well I suppose they are right...

but inflammatory can be so good.

I saved it to my 'puter...is that allowed? I'll be inflamatory in the privacy of my own home, just as when I infame the medicine of the hour...my nephew, however, will want to print it up and stick it all over the Bay Area...

{Peace to you too)

[Ghost in the Machine]

140. Yes, please feel free to save it and use it... I made it myself and it's hosted on my server..

:hi:


Ghost

[devilgrrl]

11. But but but but but it's a gateway drug

but but but but but but it's more potent now

but but but but....

:eyes:

[spag68]

13. Potent pot

I will make a confession here, although I no longer smoke the weed, I smoked it first in 1960 when my ship docked in Columbia. IMHO it's more potent now is bullshit, Pot in the 1960 to 70 time frame was slowly ruined by commercialization and unless you smoked it then you don't know it. I did and I do.

[sourmilk]

51. There are some highly potent strains now available...

...but they are not ALL like that. It's currently a very nice climate for picking and choosing. Certain strains have been successfully bred for certain qualities.

When I want to get absolutely destroyed, I smoke some "Vincie" that I have grown from seeds given to me by my Lucian brother-in-law. When I want a nice, mellow, body high, I smoke some "Burmese X F'n Incredible" I grow from VISC seeds. When I have some work to do, I try some "Early Durban" I grew two years ago and when I want to think I smoke some "Blueberry X SAGE" I grew last year.

Med Pot has come a long way, as well, with the arrival about ten years ago of some of the more potent "white" Indica strains - does wonders for my father's arthritis...

On the whole, you are correct, however. I smoked some ganja in the early '70s that was certainly every bit as potent as any variety (other than the "Vincie," but that was probably available back then, too) available today. The difference is the wider availabilty of different strains, and the homogeneity of the quality bud available as a rule because of successful inbreeding, especially if you grow it yourself.

Most commercially grown ganja available in the US today is absolute shwag, however...

[AlbertCat]

69. unless you smoked it then you don't know it. I did and I do.

Yes! In High School back in the early 70's, we could score all kinds of different pot. And Hash and Hash oil and Thai Stick and....and... Some of it was amazing. And like I said before, after 30 or 40 minutes you were fine and off doing your homework. Stronger now. What a crock!

[beezlebum]

74. unfortunately,

i was not around then, but i have listened to many intriguing and enviable tales of adventure and experience with hash and hash oil and potency and the bunkness of the "more potent now" myth, said tales told by my dear inlaws. i was born after my time. better music, better drugs...

[Prophet 451]

22. So is tobacco

Seriously, the whole "gateway drug" bullshit collapses entirely when you realise that the first drugs most of us took were booze and tobacco. No-one's trying to outlaw booze and only health fascists are trying to outlaw tobacco.

[grannylib]

12. Drug policy in this country is so misguided. Pisses me off.

[Kajsa]

72. It pisses me off too, Granny.

IMHO, it rivals the waste of resources
used to "crack down" on prostitution!

Nevada doesn't seem to have any problems
in that area- Because they legalized it!!

btw, WHERE did you get that cool Obama sticker?
Love the " Ya sure" :rofl:

Do they have a Swedish-American version?
( I hope-I hope :) )

:hi:

[grannylib]

160. Glad you like it...I made it myself

:-)
I'll do a Swedish one for you if you want :hi:

[L0oniX]

14. KIcked and HIGHLY recommended.

:evilgrin:

[file83]

16. So highly!

}(

[eridani]

15. What really puzzles me is this

There are plenty of other countries in the world that do medical research. Just because our government is nutso doesn't mean that more research can't be done elsewhere.

[file83]

17. Things that make you go "Hmmmm....".

[Prophet 451]

23. No but you have more money...

Hate to say it but research these days isn't about the pursuit of truth, it's about the pursuit of funding (and I was told that by a nuclear physicist acquintance). Most of the serious money for research and most of the brain power was, until Bush's reign of error, in the US. Other nations can and have done research on a smaller scale (my own UK, for example) but only the US and a couple of other wealthy nations have the capacity to do it on a large enough scale.

Add in also, many other nations have to struggle against the same corporate interests which want pot to remain illegal.

[Asgaya Dihi]

25. Research has been done elsewhere

We've got a couple of problems here. First is that historically fewer nations have had both the finances/resources do do that type of work and the will to confront the US/UN on the subject. Technology is cheaper and more common these days so it's less 'elite' but until recently the few who had the resources tended to be much like the US and France, caught up in reefer madness and not looking for anything else. That aside it's a rather odd and counter intuitive thing to look for unless you've heard of the prior study which there wasn't much information out there about until recently.

In spite of all of that it has been looked at. It was http://www.monitor.net/monitor/0104a/2000censored.html">listed as #22 for Project Censored top stories of 2000 when researchers in Madrid, Spain came to similar conclusions as our own researchers did in Virginia back in the 1970s. So we've got the 70s results, the Madrid study, and the more recent work done by Dr Donald Tashkin who it turns out has been our leading marijuana/lung researcher in the US for decades and was one of the strongest voices behind the cancer scare to start with. He disproved his own theory.

In spite of how hard they tried to bury it there's more solid research out there than most people think.

[Trillo]

108. If it destroys tumors

Then what's wrong with the Health Care picture?

If government is not monitoring these studies, then why have they declared it illegal?

What better way to increase the incidence of cancer, than to remove from legality, and increase social prohibition, of a natural plant whose consumption decreases it?

From your link:

In an e-mail interview for this story, the Madrid researcher said he had heard of the Virginia study, but had never been able to locate literature on it. "I am aware of the existence of that research. In fact I have attempted many times to obtain the journal article on the original investigation by theses people, but it has proven impossible," Guzman said. His response wasn't surprising, considering that in 1983 the Reagan/Bush administration tried to persuade American universities and researchers to destroy all 1966/76 cannabis research work, including compendiums in libraries, reports Jack Herer. "We know that large amounts of information have since disappeared," he says.

[Asgaya Dihi]

122. I'm not sure what you're asking here

The government is not only aware of them, they financed the first in hopes that pot did cause cancer then shut it down and buried the results when the results were the opposite of what they'd hoped. That was the Virginia medical college one back in about 1974 if I remember right. Last one I mentioned researched cause rather than cure and the gov might have had a hand in that, I'm not sure, but the guy who did the research has certainly done a lot of work for them and was the one of the main ones behind the cancer scare to start with. He just remained scientist enough to know the difference between he thinks it should and knows it does and the lack of proof disturbed him so he checked and disproved his own idea. The following is a bit more detail on the first two, the next is some detail on the third one.

http://www.alternet.org/story/9257/
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=large-study-finds-no-link

As to why, ask them, I'm not going to try to excuse it. I've no idea why they do a lot of the things they do. Iraq war make sense to you? Our current health care system in general? The way we dealt with south America over recent decades? Death for fun and profit doesn't seem to disturb some the way it does the rest of us, I've got no better explanation for a lot of things they do than that.

edit to add this: as far as cures or shrinks them I won't go as far as to say pot cures tumors, just that research in the only studies I'm aware of that have even looked at the question have both shown some potential that it might and it's criminal that for whatever reasons we've buried the idea rather than to pursue it and find out for sure. In lab conditions with strong doses it shows hope so far. If that translates to the real world we'd have to work on and see.

[sourmilk]

53. The USA has done some very good marijuana research.

Check out the study done by order of Fiorello LaGuardia in 1944. The FBI and NY State Attourney destroyed his career partly because of it, however.

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/lag/lagmenu.htm

Take a look at the study commissioned by Richard "What a DICK" Nixon in 1971-2...

http://www.csdp.org/news/news/nixon.htm

Just because the government ignores, hushes up and hides favourable studies, refuses to act on recommendations and then punishes those responsible for producing them (even those who commission them) is no reason to ignore the truths inherent in them...

[yardwork]

85. The big pharmaceutical companies are multinational.

In fact, we might say that they transcend national boundaries, and are a globe unto themselves.

Big pharma cares about only one thing - profit. There is no profitable market for a plant that is readily grown by anyone. From their point of view, the companies might put hundreds of millions into research and development, only to "prove" the worth of a plant anyone can get themselves. No patents. No intellectual property rights.

It's the same reason that oil and gas aren't developing solar energy. Where's the profit in developing technology that would allow the world's people to obtain energy at low cost?

Of course, if everyone got together and rejected the monopolies held by these few enormous corporations that fund our politicians' campaigns and own all the commercial media outlets, then we might use our technology and our knowledge to develop convenient products that could be sold at a reasonable profit - medicinal marijuana, solar energy, HIV vaccines, electric cars - and made available to everyone on the planet at a very reasonable cost.

Of course, there wouldn't be any multi-millionaires anymore. There wouldn't be anybody living on $1 a year, either. We'd all be making reasonble incomes and living comfortable lives. Socialism.

[Indenturedebtor]

19. K + R The truth will out eventually n/t

[rebel with a cause]

20. When I lived in NYC I had a lovely neighbor

whom I loved dearly. Her son smoked the weed, and although she hated what it was doing to him, she took parts of the plants she found of his and made a tea with it. She said that it helped the symptoms of her illnesses greatly.

Oh, her son was a Vietnam vet who came home addicted to all kinds of drugs. According to him, they had been supplied to the soldiers in Nam by the military. He was heavily into marijuana and whether it was the cause or what, his memory was almost destroyed by the time I left NYC. He was still in his twenties and he could not go very many places by himself because he would forget where he was going, where he lived and etc. Not passing judgement on what caused this memory loss because I just don't know what did it. Just sad to see someone so young so messed up by an unneccesary war.

Anyway, back to weed and the use of it. I don't know if I would want to smoke it, but if you could take it as a tea or something, I wouldn't mind taking it instead of some of the pills I now take. My breathing is too bad to even think about smoking anything.

[Prophet 451]

24. You can take it all kinds of ways

I don't smoke anymore myself but you can take pot in lots of different forms: You can make tea from it (which I think tastes foul but some people swear by it), bake it into all kinds of goods, use a vaporiser (although if your breathing is bad, that might be difficult). Somewhere, I have a recipe book for adding pot to all kinds of traditional dishes (i.e. corned beef hash with added pot).

If you want to make it as a tea, your best bet is probably to use an old-fashioned tea strainer or a caffetiere.

[glowing]

27. peanut butter Pot is the best. Its really quite yummy.. and no smoke involved.

[sarcasmo]

31. Do you just had the green to the Peanut Butter or is there a better formula?

[dysfunctional press]

36. you make canna-butter first- then cook with that.

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16278

[glowing]

154. I don't know.. I used to get it in South Carolina.. there was a girl who

made the stuff.. It was awesome... Regular business... with a nice glass jar and homemade label to boot.... Haven't lived or had it in years.. but it far surpassed pot brownies by far.

[sarcasmo]

161. I would be a regular customer, that sounds good.

[dysfunctional press]

35. smoking marijuana can make you breathe easier...it's a bronchial dilator...

it used to be diagnosed for people with asthma.

tobacco on the other hand is a vascular constrictor- almost just the opposite effect from pot.

[Vilis Veritas]

55. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things in the

smoke that are not healthy (BAD) for people with breathing problems stemming from chronic bronchitis or allergies. It is a very potent allergen and weed plant allergies are severely exacerbated when smoking marijuana using traditional methods.

Vaporization is the preferred method for delivering a clean vapor of the mostly active elements. However, for a person suffering from weed pollen allergies (such as myself) it can produce allergic reactions just being near some extremely good buddage.

I truly enjoyed the kind bud...but at 42, I had to find alternatives or suffer dire health consequences.

Now if I can just perfect my extract...;-)

saddlesore

[sourmilk]

56. Apparently awesome for those with COPD.

There are doctors who are starting to prescribe Sativex and/or Marinol (synthetic cannabinoid medications). I wish that my mother had tried those or actual marijuana it to see if it could have helped her - it might've very possibly have saved her life.

She succumbed to COPD on December 27th, 2007 and she was 67 years young - My father and I are scattering her ashes this Wednesday.

I'm going to cry like a little bitch all day long.

Even big boys miss their mommies, ya know.

[Vilis Veritas]

58. Hugs to you...

Extracts are wonderful at pain reduction...and do not put any stress on the lung tissues while gaining all the benefits.

These new extracts are going to be a god-send if they get approval...IF.

saddlesore

[yardwork]

86. I'm so sorry.

[Vilis Veritas]

52. If you like teas...There is a great Yogi Tea...

Breathe Deep...read the reviews...

http://www.amazon.com/Yogi-Relieve-Organic-Breathe-16-Count/dp/B000CMIYWC

This is the most cost effective way to buy it...I use it for allergies, my son uses it as well...it is one of the best tasting organic teas I have ever had.

saddlesore

[rucognizant]

26. My Father wasdiagnosed with lung cancer............

in 1980. He went to a hospital for radiation & chemo and THEY GAVE HIM Marijuana cigarettes to smoke. He DID NOT LOSE HIS HAIR!
A year later he died of heart problems ( which he had had for several years. and were caused by disappointment/stress in his life.)BUT THE CANCER WAS IN REMISSION!
My ex-sister-in-law's assesment (delivered just last month, is that He died of a broken heart. I have to agree with her!

[yardwork]

87. 1980 was the year that Reagan was first elected and the beginning of the drug war.

The insane drug war began in Reagan's first term. As many of us have said upthread, the motive was profit for a few Republican cronies. Reagan cracked down on medicinal marijuana, all the states were forced to go along by threats of losing their federal funding, there was a highly-funded public relations campaign about the dangers of marijuana, and people started filling the prisons. Privately owned and operated prisons that get paid big bucks to incarcerate and practice abusive techniques on prisoners - practices that were put to work in Central and South America in the 1980s and that we're seeing now in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and who knows where else.

[Uncle Joe]

90. I don't believe it was coincidence that Reagen also worked to turn journalism into

monopolized propaganda.

This made it was easier to brain wash the American People in to believing that turning a medical, educational and right of privacy issue in to a criminal one would be a wise and or moral decision.

I believe the un-winnable Orwellian "War Against Drugs"; is actually a long term national security threat. By serving to disenfranchise the American People from their government, thereby weakening the government and aiding the cause of corporate supremacy over the people and by extension corporate supremacy over the government; itself.

The effect is to continually diminish the government's true moral power that of "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" by giving veto power to the corporations via their lobbyists and as the pool of consent is shrunk, the government is weakened.

[yardwork]

95. I agree completely. I think that the coup began in 1980.

The fact that Poppy Bush was vice president is not irrelevant. Bush planned to win that election. He got second fiddle instead, but he made the most of it. Bush didn't plan to allow Clinton to win in 1992 either. That's when the media takeover accelerated and the rigging of electronic voting machines began. The Bushes made sure that they never lost another election after 1996, and that the Clinton years were muzzled as far as possible.

[Bluenorthwest]

123. And those were the early days...

of the AIDs crisis, and that was a big part of what gave energy to the Medical Marijuana movement. When you see a walking skeleton that was your friend take a sigle hit and smile and then eat a full meal, and thus be able to take more meds, and in fact to live, the message is clear and strong and right is unconfused with wrong. And to achieve this life saving miracle, a set of crimes was required. Buying selling, possesing, trading, trasporting. Just to save our pals from suffering. many people I knew who never smoked at all and who were square in every way wound up 'scoring' for those in need. That is when we started to call it medicine. Good medicine.

It should never be a crime to treat your family for illness, with that which is here to be used, that which is not made by the hands of men.

[yardwork]

128. Terribly sad. But if AIDS patients benefited from marijuana, then...

they wouldn't have been able to blame the victims.

[Bluenorthwest]

130. Exactly

yes.

[eShirl]

97. it's part of the overall Republican strategy to supress the black vote

and other likely-Democratic-leaning vote

edit: oops, this was supposed to be a reply to #87

[yardwork]

155. That's a very good point. Put black people in prison, take away their votes.

As you say, it's part of the post-Civil Rights plan to suppress the black vote, along with the "radical" vote.

Republicans know that if people in the U.S. were able to cast informed votes, Republicans would never, ever win. The Republican Party benefits only a tiny few. If the rest of the country knew this and were able to vote, the Republican Party as we know it would not exist, and the Democrats would be getting a lot of compeition from Socialists and Greens.

So, the Republican plan is to keep the U.S. population sick, scared, and if possible in jail.

[defendandprotect]

109. I think it began seriously with the Nixon administration . . .

among other things, they seemed to look at it as a way to criminalize the African-American
population ---

and our jails seem to say it worked ---

but it obviously goes way back to "controllers" trying to prohibit it for no good reason.

[searchingforlight]

28. Good news

I don't like the stronger pot available today but the pot I first smoked was a sneaky velvet high. My brother-in-law used to grow it and it was not harsh to smoke and suddenly the world would slow down just enough and the senses would soar. All of the senses were heightened and intimacy was amazing. I could smoke for relaxation and still take care of six kids, manage the house, job and home baked bread, store food from the garden, make appts on time etc.

I find todays pot to have more negative effects. It is harsh on the lungs and I have experienced more paranoia. I have only smoked it a few times but I don't think I will again.

[ThePowerofWill]

57. That largely due to the large amounts of indica in many of todays hybids.

Plenty of good sativas out there that give you that old time feeling, Sativas, and sat dom varitirs are often not considered commercially viable due to longer maturation times. It has nothing to do with herb being any stronger, which is a complete myth.

[reggie the dog]

114. sativa

is still grown by many hobby growers

[leftyladyfrommo]

64. I think the old pot was better, too.

We always had a really good time - just sat around and laughed until we hurt. And were sensitive to all kinds of pretty and intersting stuff.

This stuff that is out now is too strong or something. Makes you almost comatose and that isn't fun anymore.

Anybody know what the difference is?

[reggie the dog]

115. sativa vs indica????

[juno jones]

142. My guess too.

I could work while smoking sativa. Indica blisses me out too much, and I must be able to relax to smoke it.

Could be a function of age as well. I smoked lots of california indica in college (early '80's,manzanita 101) and got decent grades. From a perspective of 24 years later, I don't think I could do that anymore.

But I do miss sativa. From what I remember, It is a milder and more 'social' high.

[sarcasmo]

30. Puff, Puff, Pass.

[shadowknows69]

34. I think its possible that I DON'T have lung cancer because I smoked herb

for the twenty years I also smoked cigarettes. I have COPD but apparently I avoided the big C. Knock wood.

[Vilis Veritas]

61. A good tea...

There is a great tea called Breathe Right...

It helped me...I breathe the vapors while the tea is steeping and then drink the tea...2 to 3 per day.

http://www.amazon.com/Yogi-Relieve-Organic-Breathe-16-Count/dp/B000CMIYWC

This is the most cost effective price...

saddlesore

[proReality]

37. K&R n/t

[pleah]

38. K&R!

:smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke:










"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot

[nradisic]

39. Giddy up!

Smoke 'em if you've got 'em.

[Echo In Light]

40. Get that?...they STOPPED once they knew it can HELP people. THAT is your govt

[sourmilk]

68. Ever hear of Phoenix Tears?

I used to smoke pot in the 1970s and early 80's, but when I went to University, I stopped completely - because none of my friends smoked it.

In 2001, I was diagnosed with Bladder Cancer. Type 0 papillary tumours - the type of cancer that if you have to get ANY cancer, it's the type you want to have. I was operated upon (TURB = trans-urethral resection of bladder) in 2001, 2002 and 2004. The stupid things just kept coming BACK!

In 2004, I began to read about studies done by Tod Mikuriya in California, and some of his his successes in treating cancer and AIDS patients. I figured that since my cancer was so low-grade, I might as well try the "ganja-cure." Certainly nothing else was working for me and I was just sooo sick of going under the knife every f'n year and having cystoscopies every three f'n months...

I have been cancer-free since February, 2004, and now only have to endure the cyctoscope once a year. I understand that this is merely anecdotal, but I am reading more and more stories like my own on-line, and I am now a true-believer."

Check ot more anecdotal evidence like mine:

http://www.phoenixtears.ca/news.html

[Echo In Light]

70. Thanks for the info, and glad you've found solace

I've been smoking since the age of ten or so, and hope I never have to use it on a strictly self-medicating level for disease...although, yes, it obviously does have medicating properties on different levels.

[defendandprotect]

110. Cripes . . . tell me all together we have the power to knock out the Drug War?????

P L E A S E . . .

Why aren't we doing it?

[Stump]

41. K&R

When will the ignorance cease?

[juno jones]

42. I'll smoke to that.... n/t

[ms liberty]

43. K&R. Not new news, but important nonetheless. n/t

[Broadslidin]

44. More than a Pleasurable Puff, tis poking a sharp stick in the eye of this insidious imperial empire.

:nuke: :hide: :nuke:

[yellerpup]

46. If it could have been patented by a drug manufacturer

the product would be on the market now. (And the price would be about $100K an oz.)

[Vilis Veritas]

63. There is an extract...

http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/2005/04/pharmapolicy_an.html

It has great promise...

[yellerpup]

79. Thank you for the link.

There is a Tsalagi (Cherokee) story about the origin of disease and medicine that says that no matter what disease a human can get, there will be a plant to cure it. It also says that the plant can't tell people what it is capable of and that people must find these cures for themselves. There is great promise in the research cited. We can still hope...

[Bluenorthwest]

119. Wow. Tsalagi

This bit of information just knocked me out. This is what I was taught by my mother, and her grandmother was in fact Tsalagi. I had no idea where that came from. We lose track of our roots. All I knew of her was that she existed and was Cheokee. But this story is exactly what my mother told me. And she said this is why we must preserve nature.
Thanks for posting that.

[yellerpup]

125. So much has been lost.

But I am so happy that your mother honored her mother by passing on the wisdom of the tribe and of the ages. I get the weekly newsletter from the Cherokee Nation and picked up these two links thinking you may like to explore them at your leisure. They offer free language lessons online and their website is quite excellent.


http://www.meetthecherokee.org
http://www.cherokeenationfacts.org


The response to "thank you" in Tsalagi is "gadugi", literally "Everybody paddles." I love it! No big deal, you're welcome, just doing my part... :hi:

[Bluenorthwest]

131. Ah...my mother honored always, and I her i hope

But what she did not know or say was that this thinking was wisdom of the tribe. I had no idea it was anything other than my Mom's idea of God...she also extended the same principle to the equal standing of all people. She'd say 'the child in the most horrible poverty, from the least of peoples, that child may hold the midn that will find the plant that will make us all live without sickness, or at least cure the cold. And so the road must be equal for all. What if we let Salk slip by for being born Zulu?"
For the links gadugi. And we all do paddle, certainly.

[yellerpup]

135. I would have loved your mom.

I can tell that she reasoned and spoke from her heart. When the first Europeans arrived here the natives on this continent were amazed at how coldly they treated their children. In the 17th century, children of lower class (almost everyone) from the British Isles specifically, were put out to make a living (quaintly called "apprenticed") by the time they were seven years old. The Pilgrims were amazed to see how affectionately and lovingly raised and nurtured the native children were. Of course, they were also shocked to find the population drinking out of streams when the Thames had been polluted for about 500 years. Thanks is "Wado". Gadugi is 'you're welcome'. :hug:

[Vilis Veritas]

139. There is great hope

I had an uncle that was Tsalgi, he was not a blood uncle, but he was more than blood to me...

I miss him dearly...

saddlesore

[yellerpup]

153. I understand completely.

I rejoice that you were loved by him and I am sorry for your loss. Peace. :hug:

[insanity]

47. Wow

+1 for letting people die because people just can't be allowed to get high.

[SammyWinstonJack]

50. !

:thumbsup:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

48. Yes, I knew someone who was dying of cancer and used marijuana

to ease nausea. Her "dealer" was an RN of her acquaintance.

The other silly side-effect of the drug war is the banning of industrial hemp production. This is a totally renewable source of PAPER that could replace a lot of the low end of the wood products industry.

[Vilis Veritas]

66. oil, bio-degradable plastics...etc...

That is the shame...you can't patent a plant, but you can patent a proprietary process to produce some new plastic using crude...

saddlesore

[Phred42]

59. So If it slows growth - maybe it will prevent......? Only more reseach will tell

[OwnedByFerrets]

60. K and R

[ensho]

67. kick

nt

[AlbertCat]

71. I smoke two joints....

.... in the morning.
I smoke two joints at night.
I smoke two joints in the afternoon, it makes me feel alright
I smoke two joints in time of peace, and two in time of war
I smoke two joints before I smoke two joints,
And then I smoke two more


*************


Y'know....Marijuana (like drinking) is a whole social thing. The sharing and interaction. I don't know many smokers who just smoke alone. And who knows a mean pot head? Y'know like a mean drunk? A stoner who beats the kids when high? Any auto accidents out there actually caused by the driver being high? (I'm sure there are, but I wonder what the statistics are compared to drunk drivers.....or sober drivers for that matter.) Anyone ever OD on weed?

We saw what Prohibition did. Didn't stop and maybe even encouraged drinking, and built up organized crime. Hellloooooo! What ill effects are we seeing in Amsterdam?

[dysfunctional press]

100. i generally smoke alone...

none of my friends, nor my wife partake. and i can't have ANY alcohol due to the meds i take for chronic pain.

on my own, i burn through about an ounce/week of some very good herb.

[Bluenorthwest]

124. Interesting OD question

And the answer is of course no. I have a story though. Once years ago I went to hear Timothy Leary speak about technology. He demonstarted this new and wonderous thing that night, called the internet. He had this computer hooked up to this 'internet' and while he talked he searched the Library of Congress and many other places for deaths caused by pot in history. He claimed this 'internet' was really going to be big, biggest thing since LSD he said. And here we are, talking about pot on the internet like it was no thing but a chicken wing....
Oh, Tim's results that night did find two or three deaths recorded with hemp as the cause. Great bails of hemp crushed them during loading of ships apparently. So there you go.

[Blue_Tires]

73. ttt n/t

[ooglymoogly]

76. kr nt

[downindixie]

83. K & R,I have COPD

and I find I can breathe a lot better after smoking weed with a vaporiser.My problem is finding a source.

[dixiegrrrrl]

117. I also have COPD, mild form, what really helps me

is Brigham Tea.
Comes in capsules.
cheap.
1 50 ml.capsule works for 4 hours. Mild energy boost.
Will increase heart rate/metabolism slightly.
It's a milder American form of Chinese ephedra, the herb the gov. banned because some folks were abusing it.
Shit, some folks have died from drinking too much water...should we ban that?
I have been doing herbs and natural medicine for almost 40 years,
they work for me, costs pennies.
Best and cheapest source is iherb.com.
Site also has access to German Monograph E. handbook of studies of herbs that work for various conditions, which is what the Europeans use for herbal healing ( they are sooo ahead of us ). Site has several other herbal reference links.

back to cannabis.
It is great pain reliever, esp/ for muscle spasms and joint pain.
Most mild types are excellent for ADD.helps focus and concentration if used lightly.
Note to those who are eavesdropping on internet communications:
I know nothing from first hand experience...nada...Nuzzzzzing.

[Bluenorthwest]

126. geographically difficult

Get out o' dixie and go west...where things are not so difficult at all. In fact in any of the WC states, you'd qualify for a medical card, which in Oregon would allow you to grow for yourself or have another grow for you, legally statewise. In California you can go to the store and buy eadible and smokeable medicines with very little problem. Peanut butters, cookies, hummus...candy bars, pasta sauce...

[schrodinger_I]

88. From Me

K&R

[KelleyKramer]

91. Oil and chemical industry would lose billions if hemp were legal

Hemp grows like a weed, so it needs little if any fertilizer/chemicals to grow it.

As opposed to cotton, which requires tons of chemicals.

And imagine what Levis Corp would think if someone came out with hemp blue jean pants that last 100 years or more.

To convert wood pulp to make paper requires tons of chemicals compared to hemp.

I could go on forever, but you get the idea...

The oil and chemical industries would lose billions of dollars if hemp were legal... they are terrified of it.

[dysfunctional press]

101. just like the auto and oil industries would lose big-time if electric cars were available...

not many actual "parts" to fail and need replacing and/or constant maintenance.

[debbierlus]

92. The words 'conspiracy theory' are enough to make people just stop listening

[windoe]

98. Public health cannot be maintained on astronomical medical prices,

hopefully the present situation will open opportunities for cheaper methods of maintaining health, namely use of herbs.

[happygoluckytoyou]

99. and none of that goddamn stem cell stuff either...

and when that ocean rises it isnt global warming.... it is the giant turtle the earth sits on getting angry at the whale upon which the other galaxy rides upon.... its really very complicated but starts with a burning BUSH that keeps on talking... a giant fighting a little guy with a stone... and some guy that plants beans to climb up and fight the giant.... all very complicated and scientific...

[meowomon]

102. K&R Pass the Oreos

I'll smoke to that!

[defendandprotect]

103. Isn't marijuana legal in a number of states . . . Oregon --- ?

[defendandprotect]

104. I hadn't seen this before --- thanks!

[Blue_In_AK]

145. Also Alaska

and has been since 1975. See Ravin v. State of Alaska, 537 P.2d 494 (Alaska 1975) http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/ravin.html

I believe as the law currently stands, we can have four ounces for personal use or up to 25 growing plants. It's still illegal to sell it or have it near schools.



ed. According to NORML, less than one ounce, no penalty; one to four is now a misdemeanor; over four is a felony. Former gov. Murkowski attempted to recriminalize possession of small amounts, ACLU brought suit, and it's now before our Alaska Supreme Court which is usually quite liberal. I imagine things will stay as they are. We also have legalized medical marijuana, just in case the legal ounce you have isn't enough. :) http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?wtm_view=&Group_ID=4522

[Pastiche423]

147. Marijuana is legal in Oregon

As long as you have a Medical Marijuana card. The card cost around $300, but you don't have to pay for the pot. A caretaker grows it and the patient smokes it.

As an insomniac w/paralytic spasticity , it has saved my life.

[defendandprotect]

149. OK -- not "LEGAL" . . . only medical . . . thank you . . . sad. . . !!

[defendandprotect]

111. RECCO

[leftofthedial]

148. dude. like don't bogart the thread.

[Fovea]

113. Marijuana, the bellwether for Social Control.

If, for no other reason that it pleases the government to do so, it can criminalize the use of a manifestly beneficial substance that is not only fundamentally benign, but a cultural byproduct of a racial group or two you want to suppress as well as undesirable political activists-- you make marijuana illegal, and jail its users by the millions, you are doing so to thwart the liberties of millions.

And if you can sustain this, you can sustain other things against the best interest of the American people.

The war on drugs started out as the war on *some* drugs, and by extension, *some* people.

Turn drug usage into a medical problem, and you threaten all other irrational policies our government, and the industries that control it have foisted upon us. You know, medicare *reform*, Bankruptcy laws, Credit card laws, bailing out Bears Stearns mess.

The usual goes on unopposed because hey, we can't even smoke pot, how we gonna stop Cheney?

[Metta]

116. My country, tis of thy people, you're dying.

Happy karma.

[mcg]

118. "better dead than having an unapproved high" is their attitude

It's a power trip, they are dictating the type of experiences that people can have, even if it means illness or death. It's totalitarianism.

Anything other than blind obedience invokes that words "hippy", "communist", etc.

[tabasco]

120. Pot plants in your closet = go to jail & have felony record.

Absolutely irrational.

A miscarriage of justice.

Dare we hope that Obama leads the way to justice for pot users at the federal level?

[Bluenorthwest]

127. Obama has said

That he will stop Federal interference with state sanctioned medical marijuana patients. When he was in Oregon, he got asked more than once. His anwers were very encouraging, and also logic based. It is medicine a doctor has approved, and the feds have many more pressing things to attend to. Both things are true.
If he does that it will be very good indeed. It is a start. It was one of a very few factors that won my support for Obama.

[Grinchie]

132. Now that they can Patent Life, they will expound the miracle of Marijuana

But only if they make it Roundup Ready, or "Enhance" it's properties. For example, by scrambling random parts of the DNA and adding Antibiotic resitance genes for E. Coli to the plant.

They've suppressed more than this. Tesla, Resonance, Royal Rife Cancer Cure, Water Fuel Cell Electrolyzers etc.

All of these things would reduce the payola for the wealthy that want to enslave us in perpeptual debt, illness or ignorance.

I'm interested to see what they do with Kanzius and his Rife type Radio frequency Cancer Cure, and it's ability to couse Salt Water to burn with an open flame.

[Hekate]

143. Kick for all the women I know who have suffered through breast cancer chemo

"Mindless and vindictive" is right.

Hekate

[NinetySix]

144. Kicked.

[pleah]

146. I want to start a POT FOR PEACE campaign.

If everyone smoked pot, there would be no wars. Everyone would be too mellow and happy.

:rofl:

[hokies4ever]

150. Speaking from a scientific perspective

and working in this field, smoking marijuana wouldn't work as a cancer cure, no matter what any studies say. The reasons are numerous, but I'll just present one reason:

The problem isn't that we can't kill cancer cells. Radiation and chemotherapy do that just fine. The problem is killing cancer cells and not killing other cells. Also, when designing a drug to target a disease, you want the drug to SELECTIVELY target the disease cells in question. The problem with smoking marijuana to cure cancer is that you expose a whole host of cells not involved with cancer to exposure to the drug.

Novel cancer cures must be able to selectively target the region of the body where the cancer is if you want the 'cure' to be accepted into the scientific community.

[uponit7771]

156. What about the ability to kill other cells LESS though? I can see MJ doing that, the net GAIN out of

...using the drug would be better than what's on the market now.

I don't trust pharma in this country, they've given us little reason to do so in the last 2 decades and that's why I would give credence to something like using MJ.

[hokies4ever]

157. It's about selectively targeting cancer cells

The best novel treatments find specific receptors on cancer cells and use them to attack those cells. When designing new drugs, you want them to target specific cells, not all cells in the body. Research in this field is actually very advanced. If you can target a specific receptor of a cell, then a drug will selectively target that cell many orders of magnitude more than other cells.

Think of the analogy of using a smart bomb to attack a target and minimize civilian casualties. You want the bomb to be specifically guided toward the intended target. You don't want to just carpet bomb everything to kill the target. Designing a new carpet bomb that doesn't kill as many civilians just wouldn't make sense, because you should be designing a smart bomb.

Marijuana killing other cells less doesn't make it that attractive of a cancer drug, because the 'less' really won't make much of a difference unless the drug specifically targets cancer cells and avoids exposure to other cells. If marijuana was found to bind receptors on cancer cells, then that would be a completely different story and every major drug company would find a way to market it. Often you can take a chemical compound, modify it slightly, and still get the same result without the hurdles that the original compound might have. Also, you should keep in mind that much of drug research is funded by private companies, so I think that the concept of the government preventing the pharmaceutical industry from finding ways to use marijuana to cure cancer is scientific low-information hysteria.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

151. excuse me. How does one spell " B A S T A R D S" ? just asking.

[NM Independent]

152. Not the least bit surprised.

All that the people in power can do when it comes to pot is lie, lie, lie.

It's more about keeping a segment of the population in line, and out of the decent paying jobs.

[earth mom]

158. There is WAY WAY WAY more profit in NOT curing cancer.

:grr: