The Pot Protocol: Can Cannabis Curb Cancer

The first time I took CBD, I thought it was God texting me back—but it was just my inflammation going down.

I didn’t come to weed looking for God. I came looking for less diarrhea. This is how wellness begins for some of us: not with crystals or juice cleanses, but with an awkward waddle to the bathroom and the quiet horror of Googling “chronic bloating spiritual meaning.” I was a reluctant convert. I had already tried turmeric. I had tried kefir. I had tried optimism.

Then someone mentioned CBD in the tone usually reserved for whispering the name of a lover they’re not supposed to miss. I ordered some online. A sleek little bottle with a dropper that made me feel like a Victorian widow taking laudanum. I dropped it under my tongue, held it, waited. And when nothing happened, I knew something had changed—because when you live in a body that is constantly too much, “nothing” is a minor miracle.

That night I learned I have an endocannabinoid system. We all do. Nobody told me this in high school health class. They warned us about heroin and erections, but not that our bodies have tiny molecular locks waiting for keys hidden inside a misunderstood plant. That’s not just a gap in education—it’s strategic silence.

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) was discovered in the 1990s by Israeli chemist Raphael Mechoulam, who also isolated THC and CBD. One of the first endocannabinoids they discovered was anandamide—named after the Sanskrit word ananda, meaning bliss. This system regulates homeostasis: mood, appetite, pain, inflammation, sleep. The very things we think of as “just how we are” are often just how our ECS is functioning—or malfunctioning.

So I started reading clinical trials the way some people read horoscopes. I learned about CB1 receptors in the brain and CB2 receptors in the immune system. How cannabinoids like THC and CBD mimic the body’s natural compounds. How they help cancer cells die in peace, reduce gut inflammation, calm neurological storms. I learned that the plant wasn’t just giving me a high. It was speaking the same molecular language my body already knew, just louder.

And then, somewhere in my research, the tone shifted.

This stopped being about wellness. This became about erasure. Why didn’t I know this already? Why didn’t my doctor? Why isn’t the endocannabinoid system part of standard medical training, even now, thirty years after its discovery?

The more I read, the angrier I got.

Because medicine that grows in the dirt doesn’t make anyone rich. Because the pharmaceutical industry can’t patent a plant. Because the war on cannabis wasn’t born from public health concerns—it was born from politics, power, and profit.

In 1937, the Marihuana Tax Act effectively criminalized cannabis in the U.S., spurred by sensationalist propaganda and corporate interests. The law was pushed by Harry Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who testified that marijuana led to insanity, violence, and “degeneracy.” Behind closed doors, his motivations were economic and institutional—cannabis threatened timber, textile, and pharmaceutical monopolies. Cannabis was smeared, then buried, then turned into a joke. It was never about the plant. It was about who controlled the story.

And the story was rewritten.

So we forgot. Or were made to forget.

Meanwhile, the science was quietly piling up in dusty corners of PubMed and NIH grant abstracts. Papers showing how cannabinoids reduce tumor size in colorectal cancer patients. How CBD eases symptoms of Alzheimer’s in mouse models. How CB2 activation can reduce pain without the high of THC. How cannabinoids help regulate gut microbiota, ease PTSD flashbacks, and support immune modulation.

Here are just a few examples you probably haven’t seen in the headlines:

The Five Most Promising Cannabinoid Studies Nobody’s Talking About

1. Colon Cancer & Cannabinoids
   A 2019 study in Frontiers in Pharmacology showed cannabinoids reduce tumor viability, inhibit metastasis, and promote apoptosis (cell death) in colorectal cancer cells.
   Read the study

2. CBD Reduces Neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s
   In a 2021 Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease study, CBD reversed cognitive decline and reduced brain inflammation in mice.
   Read the study

3. Gut Health & Endocannabinoid Modulation
   A 2020 review in Nutrients outlined the ECS’s role in gut permeability and microbiota diversity—key factors in colitis, IBS, and autoimmune disease.
   Read the study

4. CB2 Receptors for Pain Relief Without Psychoactive Effects
   CB2 receptor activation shows promise in managing chronic pain, especially in inflammatory and neuropathic conditions, without producing a “high.”
   Read the study

5. Cannabinoids and PTSD
   A 2021 paper in Molecular Psychiatry explored how THC/CBD combinations modulate memory consolidation and reduce PTSD symptoms.
   Read the study

I’m not a doctor. I’m not even particularly brave. I still get nervous buying weed gummies from the dispensary, like I’m breaking a rule I didn’t know I agreed to. But I do know this: if your body is hurting, and the world tells you that the solution is illegal, there’s probably something bigger going on than your pain.

And if all we’re waiting for is permission—to feel better, to get curious, to disobey quietly—maybe it’s already here. Dripping slowly under the tongue. Nothing happening. Everything changing.

A blog post by Rachel Smak on grief, loss, and lessons from stage 3C rectal cancer