Marijuana Derivative
Blocks Irreversible Brain Damage After Accidents;
Another Way Marijuana Prohibition Kills
From The London Financial Times
letters.editor@FT.comhttp://www.ft.com/
May 28, 1998
(Ed. note: The FT is the London equivalent of the Wall Street
Journal. This drug could be patented, so it is of interest to the financial community.
From time to time, I say that the suppression of medical marijuana is murder. This is not
quite correct. It is actually mass murder. It has caused the deaths of countless thousands
of people. This article is another bit of evidence of the magnitude of the crime.
I have no idea whether this particular marijuana "derivative" could be
obtained by using whole cannabis, but it seems obvious that it would have been discovered
much sooner if the use of whole cannabis were as widely used in medicine as it should be.
This report is just one more instance of medical science providing evidence of its
complicity in the crime of suppressing medical marijuana.
See
London
Times Column Asks Are There Real Uses For Cannabis? I Wonder, Are There Real Uses For
Newspapers?
and links; also
British
Medical Association and Government Graciously Allow Sick and Dying Synthetic
Cannabis In 2 Years, Maybe
In a few years, when they proudly show off all the new pharmaceuticals they have derived
from the plant, will no one ask them about those who suffered and/or died needlessly
before they found their "derivatives?" Certainly, the FT shows no awareness of
this.)
MEDICAL SCIENCE: HALTING THE IRREVERSIBLE
Judy Dempsey on the marijuana-derived drugs countering the effect of head injury.
Israeli neurologists need go no further than their own country to recognise the need
for a drug to prevent the contamination of healthy brain cells caused by serious head
injuries.
Some 528 people in Israel were killed in road accidents last year and about 3,430 were
seriously injured. Most deaths and injuries were caused by damage to the head. Now, using substances derived from marijuana, scientists may have found a
solution.
When the brain is injured, trauma, strokes or even death do not occur immediately.
Brain cell molecules, tightly under control in a normally functioning brain, start
reacting wildly. Over a period of a few hours, they rush from the damaged cells through
narrow channels to other cells, causing confusion and excitement. This process, known as
neuronal cell death, causes severe brain trauma.
There is also the danger of swelling. Under normal circumstances, water is tightly
controlled in the brain, operating like small blood vessels. But following an injury,
water enters the brain from outside. The cells cannot cope; swelling occurs, often leading
to strokes or death.
Finding a way to contain damaged cells - which would limit brain injury by preventing
neuronal cell death - is one project being undertaken by Pharmos, a small biotechnology
company based at the Kiryat Weizmann scientific park close to Tel Aviv.
Haim Aviv, chairman of Pharmos as well as the Israel National Committee for
Biotechnology, says the company is developing a chemical compound, Dexanabinol,
which can protect healthy brain cells by blocking glutamate, the
neurotransmitter. Head trauma and strokes cause the release of excessive glutamate, often
resulting in irreversible damage to brain cells.
Pharmos has separated from marijuana properties for medical use
that do not induce psychotropic side affects associated with the drug. "With
Dexanabinol, we want to plug the receptor which sits at the entrance to the channel of the
cells,"
says Anat Biegon, a physiologist and vice-president of research and
development at Pharmos.
By blocking the channel, Dexanabinol, which has potent anti-oxidant and
anti-inflamatory properties, inhibits calcium influx in the primary neural cells. This
means it interferes with, or blocks, the cascade of biochemical processes unleashed
through an injury on the brain.
Pharmos started phase II trials for Dexanabinol in October 1996, involving 67 patients
in six of Israel’s neurotrauma centres. About 1,000 patients will be involved in
phase III, at a cost of $15m (£8.9m). According to Sturza, the US
medical investment analysts, Dexanabinol showed no serious side effects when administered
to healthy volunteers in a phase I trial. The drug is administered through injection.
The market for such a drug is large, according to Jesup Lamont Securities, US analysts.
An estimated 500,000 strokes occur in the US each year while
worldwide more than 5m people suffer each year from stroke, head trauma or other
conditions associated with neuronal cell death.
Pharmos says it should soon be in a position when phase II trials are complete to
assess the level of neurological recovery.
Copyright the Financial Times Limited, 1998.
Supported