Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / September 2004

"That $2 million study, conducted by the US National Toxicology Programme,
concluded that mice and rats administered high doses of THC over long
periods had greater protection against malignant tumours than untreated
controls."

That's a typical quote from a story being carried by many news services
this week, & television news today. THC is the component of marijuana that
gets rats (and other mammals, such as humans) stoned. Stoner rats don't
get brain tumors to the same degree as rats that were never stoned.

The research conclusions were done published in the year 2000, so this is
hardly "this wseek's news," but it is in the press because of the
difficulty of getting renewed funding for research of controlled
substances. Since the four-year-old study was completed, not one
additional piece of research has been funded to look further into the
potential for marijuana to lower the number of incidents of brain cancer.

Speculation is that people who stay stoned all the time would have the
same response as do rats, & would not get so many brain tumors.

So it's a trade-off, people can stay really stupid & spaced out all of the
time on pot could have a lowered chance of getting the brain tumor which
statistically speaking they weren't very likely to get in any case.

Ain't science groovy.

-paghat the ratgirl