Cannabis For Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

Cannabis For Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

Marijuana For Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

These days, it’s so common for doctors to prescribe antibiotics for everything from the common cold to bacterial infections.

It’s probably saved you a few times from getting really sick, and countless lives all over the world from more serious diseases.

We owe this to Alexander Fleming, who, in 1928 discovered Penicillin and believed in its antibacterial properties for helping chemotherapy patients. In 1942, a pure form of Penicillin was developed and later on scientists thought that antibiotics were the answer to all kinds of bacterial infections.

However, something terrible has been on the rise over the last few years. Scientists learned that bacteria have grown immune to antibiotics, which means that certain bacterial infections are much more difficult to treat. This could be a dangerous development, as doctors may ignorantly prescribe higher doses of antibiotics and medications to kill them, at doses that may prove fatal to humans.

In the WHO’s first global report on antibiotic resistance, which was released in 2014 in Geneva, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director for the WHO Health Security Department said: “Without urgent, coordinated action by many stakeholders, the world is headed for a post-antibiotic era.” He went on to explain how antibiotic resistant bacteria is now one of the biggest health concerns of our time. “Common infections and minor injuries, which have been treatable for decades, can once again kill,” he added.

Antibiotic resistant bacteria is now a worldwide emergency.

And do you know what drove bacteria to evolve into superbugs that are immune to antibiotics? The very antibiotics that were created to kill them.

Take a look at Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is responsible for at least 23,000 deaths annually. This bacterium is the result of using excessive antibiotics, which in turn breed into a much deadlier and stronger version of the common staph bacteria. MRSA infects open wounds and can hasten death in patients by as much as 60%. It was initially tied to people who already have a weakened immune system, but what’s worrisome is that there have been epidemics even in healthy populations. Take a look at the New York State high school case.

Back in 2014, MRSA outbreaks prompted President Obama to issue an executive order specially committed to battling antibiotic resistant bacteria, which he referred to as “a serious threat to public health and the economy.” He then went on to allot $1.2 billion of the annual budget to establish a special task force for the issue, so that a plan could be developed that would stop the spread of MRSA and other antibiotic resistant bacteria.

How Cannabis Can Help Fight Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

In 2008, scientists from the United Kingdom and Italy published the results of their findings in the Journal Of Natural Products. They looked at how cannabinoids can help treat drug-resistant bacteria, including MRSA, which no longer respond to conventional antibiotics. The scientists found that cannabinoids in cannabis are unaffected by the same mechanisms that bacteria use to evade other antibiotics. They also add that cannabis-based topicals may be developed to help treat stubborn skin infections.

A more recent study conducted by Giovanni Appendino of Italy’s Piemonte Orientale University, together with Simon Gibbons of the School of Pharmacy at the University of London in the UK, revealed that cannabis has powerful antibiotic properties that can even kill MRSA. When Appendino and Gibbons, together with their research team, administered extracts from five major cannabinoids to bacteria cultures with 6 strains of MRSA, what they found was astonishing: the cannabinoids were just as beneficial in killing them as vancomycin, a very strong antibiotic that is only used as a last resort when others no longer suffice.

“The cannabinoids even showed exceptional activity against the MRSA strain that makes extra amounts of the proteins that give the bugs resistance against many antibiotics,” Gibbons explained. He said that these proteins enable the bacteria to “hoover up unwanted things from inside the cell and spit them out again.”

They also found that the two most effective cannabinoids in treating the bacteria were not psychoactive. “What this means is, we could use fiber hemp plants that have no use as recreational drugs to cheaply and easily produce potent antibiotics,” Appendino said.

They both add that cannabinoids could be used to treat skin infections, as long as the non-psychoactive ones are used. “The most practical application of cannabinoids would be as topical agents to treat ulcers and wounds in a hospital environment, decreasing the burden of antibiotics,” Appendino said.

Interestingly, the cannabinoids were also found to show “exceptional activity” against an MRSA strain that developed additional proteins for increased resistance to antibiotics, which shows that cannabis is superior in killing it no matter how the bacteria had adapted.

Cannabis: A Safe Antibiotic With No Side Effects

Antibiotics actually have a lot of serious side effects. The most common side effects of antibiotics include vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, cramps, fever, and blood or mucus in the stool. These occur because the antibiotics, ironically, result in the growth of harmful bacteria within the body while it tries to kill a specific bacteria.

On the other hand, we can use cannabis to kill bacteria and not have to worry about any of its side effects. To date, there hasn’t been a single case reported of cannabis side effects or even an overdose (which is also possible with antibiotics).

Marijuana For Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria from CannabisNet on Vimeo.