The Medical Advisor

The largest ever study investigating medical cannabis as a treatment for cancer, published  in April 2025 in Frontiers in Oncology , found overwhelming scientific support for cannabis’s potential to treat cancer symptoms and potentially fight the course of the disease itself. The intention of the analysis was to solidify agreement on cannabis’s potential as a cancer treatment, said Ryan Castle, research director at the Whole Health Oncology Institute and lead author of the study. Castle noted that it has been historically difficult to do so because marijuana is still federally considered an illegal Schedule I narcotic. “Our goal was to determine the scientific consensus on the topic of medical cannabis, a field that has long been dominated by a war between cherrypicked studies,” Castle said. The study was funded by Cancer Playbook, which works with the Whole House Oncology Institute to collect, analyze and share  data on patient-reported outcomes. While research restrictions o...

Production of cannabis is booming as the medical benefits of CBD (cannabidiol) are increasingly recognized. According to Project CBD , at least 50 conditions are believed to be improved by CBD, including pain, seizures, muscle spasms, nausea associated with chemotherapy, digestive disorders such as colitis and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), degenerative neurological disorders such as dystonia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, mood disorders, anxiety, PTSD and high blood pressure. Yet, despite the legalization of cannabis for adult use in 19 states (2) in the past few years and the inclusion in the 2018 Farm Bill of industrial hemp as a crop (3), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration up until recently listed CBD as a Schedule I drug, the most dangerous drug category reserved for drugs like heroin and LSD. The classification made no sense because CBD is nonpsychoactive — it is not addictive, does not produce a "high" and there are few to no dangerous side effe...

Cannabis has a long history of traditional use as a botanical medicine. The term medical marijuana refers to the use of whole, unprocessed plant and pure extract to treat disease or improve a symptom. 1   To qualify, the product must be sourced from a medicinal grade cannabis plant meticulously grown without the use of toxic pesticides and fertilizers. The cannabis plant has over 400 chemicals and at least 60 different cannabinoids 2  — chemical compounds the human body is uniquely equipped to respond to. The two primary ones are cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the latter of which is the psychoactive component in marijuana. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, notable scientific study results led to the creation of two U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved medications containing cannabinoid chemicals in pill form, but not the use of the whole plant as opposed to single ingredients. 3 Movement of ...