There is growing interest among medical scientists in the gene-regulating properties of cannabidiol (CBD), the non-psychoactive plant cannabinoid. CBD reduces brain cancer and breast cancer cell proliferation and metastasis by inhibiting the expression of the ID-1 gene.

Despite the growing investigation on cannabis medicine for a wide variety of conditions, the actual healing power of the plant has barely been tapped. Learn more about the potential implications of cannabinoids for Alzheimer’s disease, neurodegeneration, and more.

The Massachusetts-based company Medicinal Genomics has sequenced the entire genome of Cannabis sativa L. The announcement received much attention. But how will it impact research and public health?

You’d think it would have been very big news in the spring of 2005 when Donald Tashkin, a professor of pulmonology at UCLA, revealed that cannabis smoke doesn’t cause lung cancer and may prevent respiratory tissue cells from becoming malignant.

Mounting evidence shows cannabinoids in marijuana slow cancer growth, inhibit formation of new blood cells that feed a tumor, and help manage pain, fatigue, nausea, and other side effects. Cannabinoids “represent a new class of anticancer drugs.”

The misnamed Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) recently produced a “fact sheet” entitled, Everything You Need to Know About CBD, that seeks to justify the continued prohibition of cannabis by misinforming the public about cannabidiol and THC.