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NIDA Recognizes Medicinal Marijuana Use for Cancer Patients
April 23, 2015
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On their website, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) recently stated that marijuana may be useful medicinally, especially for cancer patients.
NIDA’s factsheet titled “How Might Cannabinoids Be Useful As Medicine” was amended to include additions stating that “marijuana extracts may help kill certain cancer cells and reduce the size of others” and that “treatment with purified extracts of THC and CBD, when used with radiation, increased the cancer-killing effects of radiation” (Lavitt, 2015).
This is significant coming from NIDA, an organization with a mission of combating drug abuse. However, NIDA Spokesperson Kathy Kaplan has stated that any changes to the factsheet are not indicators of a change in NIDA’s overall policy on marijuana.
References
Lavitt, J. (2015). NIDA acknowledges medial use of marijuana for cancer patients. Retrieved from http://www.thefix.com/content/nida-acknowledges-medical-uses-marijuana-cancer-patients
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