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 Dr. Donald Tashkin, a UCLA 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 lit 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 use in their youth, when it is most frequently tried.

Source: WorldPress.com
Website: http://sanityforsale.wordpress.com/

Good, I was starting to get worried cuz I had chest pains last night lol, but then I read this so... maybe I should smoke more lol

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I'm actually extremely surprised that this thread didn't get more action. This is a very important breakthrough in the legalization of cannabis! I swear, if weed were legal I'd be able to drop cigarettes like a bad habit ... wait they are a bad habit lol

yes, this is good news!

to really nail this issue down once and for all there needs to be some tar exposure testing in a lab setting. mutagenicity is easily established with some very solid and accepted test procedures. that would provide more good, solid data than a survey.

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"But even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on an equality with the white race."

- Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, Hero to the servants of big government, Racist War Monger

and yet when i tell people weed isnt cancerous they still say im wrong. HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

smoke smoke smmmmmmmmmmmmoooooke ur brains out

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"A friend with WEED is a friend INDEED"

The fertilizers used in cigarette tobacco farming have some radioactive substances in them. I read somewhere that these elements are what causes lung cancer.

Pot and cigar tobacco fertilizers don't have these radioactive ingredients. So, pass the joint and the Hoyo de Monterrey Robusto with the Maduro wrapper, please.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Vi you mistaken on about the Cigars and pipe tobacco.
We all know that Tobacco puts out tar when burned, so does cannabis, but the difference is that Tobacco tar (all of it) clings to the surface of the lung tissue. Where as tar from cannabis is absorbed through the tissue and motabilizes.

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The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. United State Constitution, Art. I Sec. 9 Par. 2

"Dissent is the Highest form of Patriotism" -- Howard Zinn

Well .... you might be right, Dankster ... but pass that Hoyo anyway.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.