It’s been a subject that’s as old as time – let us smoke our weed, because it has medicinal properties. Scientists at a US medical center in California have provided new credence to this claim, discovering a compound derived from the plant which stops the metastases of many kinds of aggressive cancer.

After 20 years of research, two scientists at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco came across this new mariculous discovery. One scientist has been studying the effects of ID-1, the gene that’s responsible for the spread of cancer. The other took to studying a compound known as CBD, a non-toxic derivative of the cannabis plant. It won’t get you high though, as it doesn’t have any of the psychoactive properties you’d normally find in a joint.

What they found was that the compound essentially “turned-off” the gene, and would stop the metastasis of the cancer. The cells returned to normal.

Metastasis is the process by which cancer spreads through the body, wreaking havoc as cells begin to erratically and uncontrollably divide and reproduce. By stopping this process, the course of the disease could take a very dramatic turn, and this new discovery could mean a much higher survival rate for sufferers of the disease.

Animal trials have shown no ill effects, and scientists are hoping that clinical trials on humans will be approved as soon as possible. Could this be the hope that we’ve been searching for all these years?

[Source: HuffPo]