[NEWS] Cannabis offers hope for cancer sufferers, says new study from University

[poledriver]

CANNABIS can help desperately ill cancer patients by boosting their appetite and making food taste better, a new study reveals.

University of Alberta professor Dr Wendy Wismer said the study was the first to show cannabis could help advanced cancer patients cope with their loss of appetite, sense of taste and smell, reported the Herald Sun.

This can lead to anorexia and make them too weak for treatment.
Dr Wismer said doctors could consider giving patients tablets containing the active ingredient in cannabis, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

"It could be investigated for any stage of cancer where taste and smell dysfunction and appetite loss have been indicated by the patient," she said.
The study, published online in the Annals of Oncology, showed almost three-quarters of patients given tablets with 2.5mg of THC had increased appetites.

More than half said it "made food taste better" compared with just 30 per cent of the patients who received a placebo tablet.
Australian National Council on Drugs Executive director Gino Vumbaca said taking THC tablets, rather than smoking the cannabis, could alleviate some health concerns.

"Most of the opposition to cannabis use for medicinal purposes has been based on it being smoked, and then accessibly extended to people who don't need it."
Cancer Council Victoria CEO Professor Ian Olver said marijuana has its own side-effects and there were far more effective drugs to treat these symptoms.
"The current study shows an increase in appetite, but without increasing the calorie intake, which would be the ideal endpoint of such a therapy.
"Such studies do not currently provide a rationale for the use of marijuana in any form."

News.com.au

 

[lagger]

I'm all for real studies and information being passed onto the media and government.

But I think we've known for centuries weed gives you the munchies

 

[Mr Blonde]

^ Ha ha, that's what I was thinking.

I don't like the end comments by Prof. Ian Olver... sounds like he is another academic who has been bent into accepting the government's line on currently illicit substances. The government won't allow the proper studies to show that these drugs can be extremely useful in medicine, on the pretense that they are not 'safe', but you can never completely prove safety in any medication. It's a cycle of twisted logic that they use to suppress information, and allows them to continue their rights seizing, power grabbing 'War'.