Weed inhibiting cell growth?

[mrdevious]

I was just reading the latest cannabis news column about THC's potential for cancer therapy. While it may be good for killing cancer cells, it also sounded like it inhibits cell growth in general. To quote a passage from the article, "A biochemist with the Complutense University in Madrid, Guzman identified the process by which cannabinoids, found in many forms in marijuana, can inhibit cell growth and trigger cell death".
This sounds like smoking weed may be inhibiting the growth and causing the death of many types of cells, which makes me wonder about claims like pot inhibiting muscle growth and the such. Anybody (beachguy perhapse?) know something about this?

[beachguy in thongs]

Cannabinoids can inhibit growth, as well as promote it. It modulates the cells. If they are firing too fast, a neurotransmitter sent from the cannabinoid receptor (possibly, TMH-6), will slow it down, and, likewise, with sick (or slower) cells, it will heal them and get them firing up to par.

TMH is a transmembrane helix.

Within an integral membrane protein, a transmembrane helix is a segment that is alpha-helical in structure, roughly 20 amino acids in length and (though it may be presumed to lie within the protein, out of contact with the surrounding lipid bilayer) is said to "span" the membrane. Because membrane proteins are difficult to crystallize for structural determination by X-ray diffraction, protein segments only rarely are actually confirmed to be transmembrane helices, but are typically predicted on the basis of hydrophobicity. Because the interior of the bilayer and the interiors of most proteins of known structure are hydrophobic, it is presumed to be a requirement of the amino acids that span a membrane that they be hydrophobic as well. An alpha helix of about 20 amino acids long is the minimum required to span the width of the hydrophobic core of a lipid bilayer, although the exact thickness depends on the species of lipids. Using hydrophobicity analysis to predict transmembrane helices enables a prediction in turn of the "transmembrane topology" of a protein; i.e. prediction of what parts of it protrude into the cell, what parts protrude out, and how many times the protein chain crosses the membrane. This information can be invaluable for developing antibodies, drugs or other reagents that will bind and/or affect the function of the protein.

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Transmembrane+helix

[beachguy in thongs]

Well, wait a second. Weed allows cells to die off, yes. But, those are the dying cells that you want to die off.