Could Cannabis Be the Super-Antibiotic of the Future?

A year ago, Dr Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director-General of the Department of Health Security of the World Health Organisation (WHO), warned that infections and injuries that are not very common at the moment and which have been treated for decades “could kill again”. He added that there are now bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, a real concern for those who know the problems that this could cause.

This strength is partly caused by the antibiotics themselves that were designed to get rid of the bacteria. Some, such as Staphylococcus aureus that causes close to 10,000 deaths per year, are a result of the excessive use of those medications. As such, for a few years, research teams have been working to try to find a solution to the mutations that microorganisms undergo.

In 2008, a team of researchers from Italy and Britain discovered that some bacteria are weakened by the effects of marijuana. The team used five kinds of very common types of cannabinoids in order to alter several of them and they showed that the potency was very effective. The experts concluded that, apart from helping to overcome certain illnesses, could become one of the most powerful antibiotics (natural in this case) on earth.

Simon Gibbons, one of the authors of the study and head of the department of Pharmaceutical and Biological Chemistry at University College London’s School of Pharmacy, explained that cannabinoids seemed to have developed over time as a defence mechanism of the plants against microbes. At the moment, the mechanism they use to kill bacteria remains a mystery; however experts believe that it must be a very specific response in order to act as effectively as it does.