Smoking marijuana, does not lead to lung cancer!

keyser Soeze

Where'd That 6th Toe Come From?
http://www.shoutwire.com/viewstory/16732/Study_Finds_No_Cancer_Marijuana_Connection

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 26, 2006; A03

The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer.

The new findings "were against our expectations," said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.

"We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use," he said. "What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect."

Federal health and drug enforcement officials have widely used Tashkin's previous work on marijuana to make the case that the drug is dangerous. Tashkin said that while he still believes marijuana is potentially harmful, its cancer-causing effects appear to be of less concern than previously thought.

Earlier work established that marijuana does contain cancer-causing chemicals as potentially harmful as those in tobacco, he said. However, marijuana also contains the chemical THC, which he said may kill aging cells and keep them from becoming cancerous.

Tashkin's study, funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Drug Abuse, involved 1,200 people in Los Angeles who had lung, neck or head cancer and an additional 1,040 people without cancer matched by age, sex and neighborhood.

They were all asked about their lifetime use of marijuana, tobacco and alcohol. The heaviest marijuana smokers had lighted up more than 22,000 times, while moderately heavy usage was defined as smoking 11,000 to 22,000 marijuana cigarettes. Tashkin found that even the very heavy marijuana smokers showed no increased incidence of the three cancers studied.

"This is the largest case-control study ever done, and everyone had to fill out a very extensive questionnaire about marijuana use," he said. "Bias can creep into any research, but we controlled for as many confounding factors as we could, and so I believe these results have real meaning."

Tashkin's group at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA had hypothesized that marijuana would raise the risk of cancer on the basis of earlier small human studies, lab studies of animals, and the fact that marijuana users inhale more deeply and generally hold smoke in their lungs longer than tobacco smokers -- exposing them to the dangerous chemicals for a longer time. In addition, Tashkin said, previous studies found that marijuana tar has 50 percent higher concentrations of chemicals linked to cancer than tobacco cigarette tar.

While no association between marijuana smoking and cancer was found, the study findings, presented to the American Thoracic Society International Conference this week, did find a 20-fold increase in lung cancer among people who smoked two or more packs of cigarettes a day.

The study was limited to people younger than 60 because those older than that were generally not exposed to marijuana in their youth, when it is most often tried.

I have always had this as one of the biggest arguments against smoking marijuana. So now i don't have many left ;)
 
Wohoo!
Hydrogen said:
Still makes you stupid.
It doesn't make you stupid, it makes you to laught at anything or anyone. Average 1 hit makes you high for 30 mins if you are 12-14 years. Don't ask me how do I know that. You don't want to know. :D

Now there's no one to stop me from smoking it. =D At last my dream came true. :D Oops, there is someone to stop me, Finlands law. Damn. I've gotta move to Holland or something.
 
...
So? Is this news or something? Marijuana never caused lung cancer, it's the tobacco you smoke with the marijuana to make it easier to smoke.
However, generally there is a higher concentration of tar in a marijuana-cigarette (and, depending on the person, possibly no filter). So that is more harmful.

Also, there really aren't that many reasons not to smoke weed, Phredbean. It isn't physically addictive, it doesn't have any lasting effect (there are minor indications that there is some small correlation between psychosis and long-term, very heavy use of marijuana, though), it doesn't make you violent. Heh, basically nothing said in those old 1930s anti-marijuana commercials is true.

Interestingly, the same goes for Crystal Meth, only to a lesser extent. That isn't as all-destructive and addictive as everyone claims. The problem lies with the people who get heavily addicted to it and do it constantly. Then it becomes a health-risk.
 
PhredBean said:
Wow, gee, that's great! Now there's only 100 reasons not to smoke weed rather than 101.
there are still 200 more reasons not to drink any alcohol, but i dont see that stoppin' ye...
 
Welcome to pretty much every episode of Loveline ever. If you listened to that show you'd know every single reason why the Ganja isn't harmful at all and actually makes you a much better person.

That said, it will make you stupid and fat, in addition to the obvious respiratory effects, which are crappy even if it doesn't cause lung cancer.
 
It doesn't make you fat. Everyone I know that smokes is either skinny or fat to begin with. I used to smoke, still do every now and then, and I'm in perfect physical condition (also pretty good mentally).
 
zioburosky13 said:
Everything has the potential to kill you if you are overdose. Be it meat-loaf or cabbage juice.
Too much water will cause an electrolyte imbalance and make the fluids of your organs diluted, causing them to shut down.
 
there are still 200 more reasons not to drink any alcohol, but i dont see that stoppin' ye...
200? Somebody had way too much free time on their hands... the average rational person would come up with something more like 10-20 max, not 200.
Everything has the potential to kill you if you are overdose. Be it meat-loaf or cabbage juice.
Ok, what do you call an air overdose? :P
 
Fuck, I really dislike some people that have to use these drugs for fun/or due to addiction. I mean, there is always something else that people can turn to when stuff gets fucked up. Blatantly using MJ or any other drug, to escape the world, definitely need to be arse raped.

Sure, one off use to see the effect, I can live with, but constant use due to boredom/fun/whatever is just fucked.

My thoughts anyways.
 
duckman said:
Fuck, I really dislike some people that have to use these drugs for fun/or due to addiction. I mean, there is always something else that people can turn to when stuff gets fucked up. Blatantly using MJ or any other drug, to escape the world, definitely need to be arse raped.

Sure, one off use to see the effect, I can live with, but constant use due to boredom/fun/whatever is just fucked.

My thoughts anyways.
Why?
No, really. Do you also dislike people who play videogames for fun? Or people who read books for fun?

Pajari, it will not make you stupid and fat. Marijuana doesn't kill any brain-cells, and the only way it can make you fat is through the munchies.
Anyway, there's no problem with marijuana as long as you don't start living like a full-time addict.


Also, why am I lucky?
 
Wow! That was... unexpected... Might I ask why did you have this strong adverse reaction to the topic?

Fuck, I really dislike some people that have to use these drugs for fun/or due to addiction.

Can you name any other reason for using drugs?
I mean, there is always something else that people can turn to when stuff gets fucked up.

Usually when stuff gets fucked up as you put it there is little left to turn to; if there were enough "good" things left that one could turn to then things wouldn't technically be fucked up.

Blatantly using MJ or any other drug, to escape the world, definitely need to be arse raped.

Have you ever been in such a situation? Did someone close to you find himself/herself in such a situation? Did you walk the proverbial mile in such a person's shoes? If not I would advise you to judge not less you be judged...

Sure, one off use to see the effect, I can live with, but constant use due to boredom/fun/whatever is just fucked.

Quite possible... but then again one is free to do whatever one wants with his/her own life; even fuck it up or flush it down the drain...
 
Wow! That was... unexpected... Might I ask why did you have this strong adverse reaction to the topic?

A friend of mine died under tragic circumstances after prolonged use of marijuana, and since then, I really felt strongly about it.

Can you name any other reason for using drugs?

No, but excessive use is what I'm more leaning towards. Sure, have one hit to try it and see what effects it has, but prolonged use to just escape, I mean shit, is life that fucked up?

Usually when stuff gets fucked up as you put it there is little left to turn to; if there were enough "good" things left that one could turn to then things wouldn't technically be fucked up.

Yeah, I realise that, but getting yourself on and maybe addicted to these drugs isn't going to make anything any easier.

Have you ever been in such a situation? Did someone close to you find himself/herself in such a situation? Did you walk the proverbial mile in such a person's shoes? If not I would advise you to judge not less you be judged...

Well, like I said before, a friend died, and a cousin of mine was a heroin addicted (and I say was as she cleaned her act up). No, I personally have not been in a situation where I need to turn to drugs, but I have definitely had my time where things just seem they are going to crush me, emotionally.

Quite possible... but then again one is free to do whatever one wants with his/her own life; even fuck it up or flush it down the drain...

Yes, I realise this also, and I am definitely not advocating that drug users/abusers should all be shunned by non-recreational drug users, but I had to get it out, and I thank you for not ripping into me :wink:

Why?
No, really. Do you also dislike people who play videogames for fun? Or people who read books for fun?

No, but sure they may use these things to escape from reality, but they can't make people believe something they are not and can't destroy their lives.

EDIT: that cousin of mine had a huge heroin problem, and she just seriously messed herself up. I know its not MJ, but I mean it is still a drug used for the same purpose.
 
Back
Top