Quick take
A social media post claims marijuana has 34 cures for cancer and is not Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved. We fact-checked and found the claim to be Mostly False.
The Claim
A social media post on Facebook and Instagram claims ‘Marijuana has 34 cures for cancer and is not FDA approved’.
Fact Check
Does Marijuana have 34 cures for cancer and is not FDA approved?
It does not seem so. The post does not provide details on which 34 types of cancers marijuana can cure. The Healthy Indian Project (THIP Media) has previously shown that cannabis, widely known as marijuana cannot cure cancer completely but has some therapeutic effects against cancer. Cannabis has shown some promising anti-Cancer properties in laboratory research, however, there is no concrete evidence of it being able to cure Cancer in clinical research.
The FDA website shows one cannabis-derived drug called Epidiolex (cannabidiol) and three synthetic cannabis-based drugs called Marinol (dronabinol), Syndros (dronabinol) and Cesamet (nabilone) have been approved for commercial use. These medications mostly target the cancer symptoms to improve the quality of life.
The process followed by the FDA to approve cannabis-based drugs is available on their website.
The available published data only suggest cannabis has a therapeutic effect against cancer but cannot kill or prevent the growth and spread of cancer cells within the body.
We checked with our expert Dr. Sarthak Moharir, Consultant Radiation Oncologist at HCG Cancer Centre, Vadodara, if marijuana-based medication is used by modern medicine in the Indian market, he said “Marijuana-based medication is not a part of any modern medicine regimen for any cancer treatment that I know of”. He further adds “We do not have proper research that prove whether marijuana cures cancer of any form. Scant evidence does show that marijuana products like Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) can help with cancer pain and chemotherapy induced nausea. But this should not make cancer patients consume cannabis without consulting a specialist.”
THIP MEDIA TAKE: No evidence confirms marijuana can cure cancer completely. We need more clinical trials to understand the underlying mechanism of marijuana that targets cancer if there is any.
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