There are strains of bacteria against which conventional antibiotics are ineffective and which cannot be combated adequately or not at all by other means. Infections such as MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) can cause severe symptoms and even death. Every year, many thousands of people worldwide die from this infectious disease. More people die from MRSA than from AIDS/HIV. Now scientists have found that medical marijuana has a unique anti-bacterial effect that is able to fight MRSA and other infectious diseases.
European researchers from Italy and the UK have tested five cannabinoids that the cannabis plant naturally produces: THC, CBN, CBD, CBG and CBC. As the researchers report in the Journal of Natural Products, all five cannabinoids have the potential to fight MRSA and other bacteria.
MRSA and numerous other bacteria have shown themselves to be resistant to most conventional pharmaceutical antibacterial drugs. This makes infection with them life-threatening and difficult to control.
In many cases, these resistant bacteria are transmitted from person to person within hospitals and medical facilities. MRSA and other dangerous strains of bacteria particularly like to attack people with weak immune systems.
While pharmaceutical antibiotics are often incapable of effectively treating the disease, marijuana turned out to be an effective form of treatment. Cannabis was found to fight the fast-growing and dangerous bacteria in a different way than conventional medicines do.
Before cannabis was banned worldwide in the 19th century, it was a much-used anti-bacterial medicine, used for lung, skin and eye diseases, for example.
Since medical marijuana has now been revived and legalised e.g. in California or Colorado, researchers keep making new and amazing discoveries regarding the medical use and benefits of cannabis.
Marijuana has always known how to keep its secrets. Giovanni Appendio and the other researchers who published this study on the anti-bacterial effects of cannabis explained that despite intensive testing, they cannot say and determine exactly how and why marijuana is so helpful in fighting MSRA and other resistant bacteria as opposed to standard medications.
The authors of the study state that the results highlight the need for more research to be done on these anti-bacterial effects of cannabinoids. The results show an interesting way to combat difficult-to-treat bacteria, which is of enormous clinical importance.
In the treatment of infectious diseases, many patients successfully use tinctures, cannabis concentrates and marijuana strains rich in the various cannabinoids.
