In light of all the marijuana threads...no link between lung cancer and marijuana

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

thought you guys might find this intresting

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...6052501729.html

Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection

By Marc Kaufman

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, May 26, 2006; Page 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, *** 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.

Discuss. please keep this civil?

Click to read more...

 

[22mountaineer 10+ year member]

I didnt read it but I saw the thing on lung cancer. A friend of mines dad is in Birmingham AL with some doctors b.c of cancer in his mouth from smoking weed. I know this isnt your lungs but he also said something about its the first time they have ever heard of this.

He was talking about it being cool he was the first but not cool it was cancer.

 

[Soler 10+ year member]

didnt read it but already know. i did a 20 page research paper on this topic

 

[then00b 10+ year member]

didnt read it but already know. i did a 20 page research paper on this topic

Actually interested in reading that. PM'd

 

[Soler 10+ year member]

here you go whats your email

 

[SethPhillips 5,000+ posts]

smokeing from a pice ( bong bowl ect..) shouldent give you cancer. now the blunts.. with that outter shell more then likely will..... im glad i cut back on blunts used to smoke at least 2 a day.... now i smoke goodie and i just need my bong and im set...

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

smokeing from a pice ( bong bowl ect..) shouldent give you cancer. now the blunts.. with that outter shell more then likely will..... im glad i cut back on blunts used to smoke at least 2 a day.... now i smoke goodie and i just need my bong and im set...

i hate blunts. nothing but pipes or spliffs here. but shit i smoke like 1/8th a month now. no money

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

Well duh.

nG

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

I didnt read it but I saw the thing on lung cancer. A friend of mines dad is in Birmingham AL with some doctors b.c of cancer in his mouth from smoking weed. I know this isnt your lungs but he also said something about its the first time they have ever heard of this.
He was talking about it being cool he was the first but not cool it was cancer.

no offense but i am really doubting that. not to say im doubting your dad got mouth cancer or anything (or any disrespect because that is a serious issue) but i am a little doubtful of the doctor who diagnosed it. it could very well be, and it would be the first one ive ever heard of, but all the research i have read from reputable sources has shown a DECREASE in cancerous tumors and their growth from using cannabonoids as a treatment in mice. now of course mice doesnt mean its the same in humans but it does give some idea as to what might be possible. sorry about your dad. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/blackeye.gif.66a1670f5aaf7f406e783a63e3387dc5.gif

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

Well duh.
nG

hey i still hate you //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif

j/p best buddy....

 

[HitManSE 10+ year member]

I didnt read it but I saw the thing on lung cancer. A friend of mines dad is in Birmingham AL with some doctors b.c of cancer in his mouth from smoking weed. I know this isnt your lungs but he also said something about its the first time they have ever heard of this.
He was talking about it being cool he was the first but not cool it was cancer.

Even if this is true, no one every said smoking is a safe thing to do. Did he ALSO smoke cigars?

Vaporizer FTW I guess.

 

[JonMR2turbo 10+ year member]

Man they took that article down and you can't even find it in a search. Looks like someone over there isn't too pro-drug.

Can you find another link?

 

[JonMR2turbo 10+ year member]

Found a webmd link http://www.webmd.com/news/20000508/marijuana-unlikely-to-cause-cancer

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

i'm a weed lover like alot of people, but people need to be realistic. air was meant for the lungs and only air. i consider the enjoyment a reasonable risk to health issues. some do not. people spend far too much time defending weed in a medical sense, when there really is no defense, medically, for anything other than air being breathed into your lungs. i enjoy a blunt now and then, but marijuana advocates need to start defending it in a different way.

 

[JonMR2turbo 10+ year member]

i'm a weed lover like alot of people, but people need to be realistic. air was meant for the lungs and only air. i consider the enjoyment a reasonable risk to health issues. some do not. people spend far too much time defending weed in a medical sense, when there really is no defense, medically, for anything other than air being breathed into your lungs. i enjoy a blunt now and then, but marijuana advocates need to start defending it in a different way.

I agree, of course any kind of smoke is going to be bad for your lungs.

But I think the main point is to show that a drug which is supposed to be so bad for you is actually better than something that is legal.