10.Study: Marijuana prevents spread of cancer

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/23/study_marijuana_prevents_spread_of_cancer/

Kristen Gwynne writes for The Salon on September 23rd about a research made over a Marijuana compound and its effects against cells containing cancer causing genes. She starts the article by saying
how a non-toxic marijuana compoud might be able to stop mesastasis in aggressive cancer. Then, she talks about Pierre Desprez and Sean McAllister, who were the heads of this intense research, and gives an overview of their discovery process, how they mixed CBD (cannabidiol) with cells containing high levels of ID-1, the cancer-causing gene. They observed the ID-1 cells stopped spreading and concluded: "this cannabidiol could essentially ‘turn off’ the ID-1.” A little more information about their project is given, such as their start with breast-cancer research, and how their experiment is now gone to laboratory testing with animals, and will later run a clinical trial in humans. Gwynne closes the article by saying CBD has already been used for some other medical treatments and how Marijuana may not give the sufficient amount of CBD to positively affect the user.

Gwynne's purpose with this article is to inform the reader about some benefits found in Marijuana and its composition. Throughout the whole article, she exposes facts about Desprez and McAllister's research regarding CBD and its effect on cancer-causing cells, providing some biologic detail so that the reader may fully grasp how the experiment ended up with positive results and how Marijuana might, after all, have a positve effect. She is not, however, taking a stand on the Marijuana legalization issue, but is rather informing the reader about a new drug which might be useful for future cancer treatments.