Ebola And Cannabis?

I took two of my recent favorite topics and combined them for a ‘net search. Just to see what came up. And what came up was interesting. To say the least.

First off, in business news.

Ebola.com Purchased for $200K by Marijuana Company. And It Gets Stranger From There. Yes it does.

Ebola.com was sold to a marijuana-related company based in Russia that paid mostly in the stock of another marijuana company.

But the story’s not over yet. As recently as September of this year, Weed Growth Fund was known as Ovation Research, which according to this BusinessWeek profile was in the business of distributing “stainless steel cookware products for retail and wholesale customers in North America.”

Then, on Sept. 19, the company filed with the Nevada Secretary of State changing its name to Weed Growth Fund. (We tried to contact Weed Growth Fund by phone and email to ask about the deal and name change, but got no answer.)

Why would a marijuana company want to own the URL Ebola.com? Elliot Silver, DomainInvesting.com’s publisher, asked Blue String Ventures founder Jon Schultz this very question. And while Schultz replied that he did not know why Weed Growth Fund wanted the domain, he did send Silver to this Marijuana.com article in which Cannabis Sativa CEO Gary Johnson (the former two-term New Mexico governor and Libertarian Party presidential candidate!) claims that marijuana can be used to treat Ebola. (You can see him do it in this Fox Business interview.)

Here is the interview. I think Gary makes a point. What harm is there in trying to help with cannabis? Who knows? It might help. (We’ll get to that in a bit.)


Can Cannabinoids in Cannabis Paste fight off Ebola? Interesting question.

Brad Morehouse, founder of NewCure.org believes that it will greatly decrease the mortality rate and, quite possibly, be beneficial in clinical use.

“Enough research has already been done, and current evidence of cannabinoids killing other diseases, such as Lyme disease, is overwhelming,” says Morehouse. “Cannabis is currently being researched as a natural substance to fight HIV and build up the body’s immune system, since it’s one of nature’s best antiretrovirals.” U.S. federal and state laws, as well as research restrictions on drug companies, severely hamper the advancement and investigation of the healing properties of Cannabis. The worldwide research conducted so far indicates that Cannabis has significant medical potential and myriad therapeutic uses. Researchers in the natural-cures arena, however, are at a further disadvantage–they cannot work with the Ebola strain as the mandatory Level 4 Bio-Safety lab is way beyond the reach of such research. Regardless, Morehouse believes the time has come to tap into the anti-inflammatory properties of Cannabis (which is now being utilized in a cutting-edge paste form) and its benefits to the immune system.

Studies conclude that Ebola kills by cytokine storm, a potentially fatal immune system reaction. Besides Cannabis having antiretrovirals, cannabinoids are anti-inflammatory, which decreases the severity of cytokine storm. The study of cannabinoids has led to many important discoveries in immunology–not only the existence of a new physiological system (the endocannabinoid system), but also its role in the regulation of the immune system. Studies examining the effect of cannabinoids on immunity have shown that many cellular and cytokine mechanisms are suppressed by these agents. Klein&Cabral, 2006

The people at the link are selling Cannabis Paste. So they might be biased. OTOH they may be on to something if the research they point to is valid.

Here is some one I trust Dr. David B. Allen on the question.

There is good scientific evidence that cannabinoids, and in particular Cannabidiol (CBD), may offer control of the immune system and in turn provide protection from viral infections (4). Cannabis has already been recognized to inhibit fungus and bacteria and can be considered a new class of antimicrobial because of the different mechanism of action from other antimicrobials. (1)

Ebola is a complex RNA viral organism that causes the cell to engulf it by pinocytosis, and then the virus hijacks the cell to replicate itself. This replication can involve many mutations in the RNA code that make it difficult to impossible to create an effective vaccine. There are U.S. Patents showing evidence that Cannabinoids have significant anti-viral activity. (3) (4)

Normally any virus infected cells will produce surface proteins that are identified as foreign. The Immune system attacks these cells when the surface protein is identified as foreign. The Ebola virus infection causes the cell to produce proteins that hide the virus from the immune system. The viral proteins are sterically shielded, i.e. “hidden” from view, thereby hindering cellular (and thus viral) destruction by the immune system. This mechanism allows the RNA virus to hide the infected cell by shielding it from view from the immune system.

The cause of death by this virus is the body’s own immune response to the viral infection. This is what causes the mortality and morbidity of this infection. Subsequently, the virus triggers the immune killer cells to release the enzymes (cytokines) they hold. This release of enzymes causes other lymphocyte to release even more Cytokines in a Storm of release. This is properly termed a Cytokine Storm.

Causes small blood clots to form in all arterioles, called; DIC or Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation. Causes a massive Coagulopathy where the blood will not to clot properly simultaneously with the DIC (Bleeding and clotting occur at the same time.) Toxic Shock Syndrome occurs when the cytokines release causes the blood vessels to dilate to such an extent that a shock state exists.

Cannabinoids are proven to reduce and prevent Toxic Shock and DIC (2)

There is much more at the link. Dr. Allen knows cannabis and endocannabinoids so he may be on to something.

Update:

Smoking Marijuana Can Protect You From Ebola.

The video explains simply what Dr. Allen ran down in more medical terms.

The video was done by THC University.org


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5 responses to “Ebola And Cannabis?”

  1. Steve Avatar
    Steve

    http://www.fox8live.com/story/26694415/can-cannabinoids-in-cannabis-paste-fight-off-ebola

    That is the first story on it. NewCure.org was the first to brake that news,

  2. Randy Avatar
    Randy

    But using cannabis to cure or alleviate a person’s illness sends the wrong message to our children. Death is preferable to treatment if cannabis is the treatment.

    /sarcasm off

  3. Simon Avatar

    Randy,

    Med schools don’t teach the endocannabinoid system for the same reason. You have more endocannabinoid receptors in your body than any other type.

    See:

    http://classicalvalues.com/2014/10/they-know-it-all/

    for details.

  4. Simon Avatar

    Steve,

    Fox news? Reviled by lefties everywhere. And yet I see nothing in the lefty press.

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