Posted on 10/10/2005 11:57:50 AM PDT by A CA Guy
Heavy cannabis use could be a cause of Maori having the world's highest lung cancer rate, groundbreaking research suggests.
Many Maori from children to kaumatua use cannabis in "epidemic proportions", says a study by Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington.
But cannabis might not be as safe as the proponents of its legalisation say. A paper by Professor Beasley on the health effects of cannabis was among the research that prompted Wellington coroner Garry Evans to urge last week that government policy on illicit drugs be changed from "harm minimisation" to campaigning against drug use.
The paper reviews the literature on cannabis and suggests it is more cancer-causing than tobacco, and, like tobacco, causes bronchitis.
Smoking three cannabis cigarettes a day is equal to smoking more than 20 tobacco cigarettes, it says.
Professor Beasley said last night that his institute was close to finishing what he believed was the world's first study on links between cannabis and lung cancer.
In his paper for the coroner, Professor Beasley said information was urgently needed on the potential role of marijuana in New Zealand's high lung cancer rate, particularly among Maori, who had the world's highest rate and were heavy cannabis users.
Research showed cannabis use had reached epidemic proportions and was generally accepted and tolerated among Maori. "Users range from children through to kaumatua."
Cannabis use was rising. The proportion of the population to have tried it rose from 43 per cent in 1990 to 52 per cent by 1998 and the proportion of regular users from 18 per cent to 21 per cent.
Studies showed regular smokers of three to four cannabis joints a day had chronic bronchitis and other symptoms similar to those of smokers of 20 or more tobacco cigarettes a day.
(Excerpt) Read more at stuff.co.nz ...
Article says cannabis 7 times worse tham smoking regular stuff, not counting the effects cannabis has on the brain and the gateway drug stuff though.
You could be right, the cancer from cannabis could be killing everyone andyk. Good point!
This is probably why NZ's All Black Rugby teams continue to be throttled by the clean-living, er, Chinese, etc.
Right, Kool-Aid Guy?
WHOA! We finally found something we can agree on! Cannabis CAUSES CANCER! Just as alcohol causes Cirroses, red meat causes cancer and heart disease, sexual activity can cause about 1,000 diseases, etc...
The Asians seem to like to smoke 80 cigarettes a day, so both would be messed up people IMO.
The Chinese are such obsessive smokers when they do smoke that they could be doing it enough to maybe be in competition for the lung cancer as well.
You made a good point.
Remember kids, Marijuana is the fuse, LSD is the bomb! Cigarettes are OK, however.
Why would anyone want to do any recreational drug? They'd have to be idiots or get that from approval of their parents I would think.
hahaha...well, there's a thousand diseases I safe from...
Mashed Cassava with marijuana? Yam and marijuana pie?
I was just going to ping you to this!
Mashed brains for sure!
LOL, somehow I knew!
"before smoking took off, the only know cases of lung cancer were pretty much limited to coal miners."
Really??
"Oldest Descriptions of Cancer
Cancer has afflicted humans throughout recorded history. It is no surprise that from the dawn of history doctors have written about cancer. Some of the earliest evidence of cancer is found among fossilized bone tumors, human mummies in ancient Egypt, and ancient manuscripts. Bone remains of mummies have revealed growths suggestive of the bone cancer, osteosarcoma. In other cases, bony skull destruction as seen in cancer of the head and neck has been found.
Our oldest description of cancer (although the term cancer was not used) was discovered in Egypt and dates back to approximately 1600 B.C. The Edwin Smith Papyrus, or writing, describes 8 cases of tumors or ulcers of the breast that were treated by cauterization, with a tool called "the fire drill." The writing says about the disease, "There is no treatment."
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_6x_the_history_of_cancer_72.asp?sitearea=CRI
Yeah really, I was talking lung cancer as your own quote of me shows and you posted back something totally different.
Yeah really!!!! There is no **historic reference** to lung cancer in that article at all you linked. The ONLY reference is to how a lung cancer is different from another cancer, which has nothing to do with what I said.
Thanks for trying, but consider reading what I post first and then go so far as to even read the article you are linking to me.
In a way, your post may have just made a major statement about cannabis though, thanks.
That's for suer. I don't care either way what the Maoris' do, but if inhaling smoke is proving to be bad for their health, perhaps, they should ingest it with one of their dietary staples.
You would think they would have used it to save the trees by not smoking it but only making clothes and rope with it. :-)
Perhaps they did.
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