Has anyone every studied the health effects of smoking marijuana on the lungs? Seems to me that smoking tobacco puts one at risk of roughly 1 in 11 of contracting lung cancer. But being a dried leaf like tobacco, isn’t marijuana smoking likely to present the same or similar cancer risks?
I think someone posted a study on fr showing that pot led to lower lung cancer rates or somesuch. Remember though, cancer comes from a combination of sources. Japan has one of they highest amount of smokers and the lowest occurance of lung cancer.
Outside of leading to other drug use and mixing of drugs, regular use does change the way your brain works on a chemical level.
The recreational drug users are big losers anyway, so who cares?
Your stats are wrong. Let’s see if anyone else repeats it before a nanny state ping is necesary.
The most useless heavy potheads I have ever met didn't smoke a tenth as much as even a moderate tobacco addict does. No kind of smoke is healthy but it would stand to reason that smoking pot a few times a day is not as destructive as getting a tobacco fix every 30 or 40 minutes.
I thought the accepted statistic in the medical community was that twice as many smokers contracted lung cancer as non-smokers. Since non-smokers contract it at a rate of 3.5 per 100 that means smokers contract lung cancer at 7 per 100.
Well, no, but as I understand it, the research on it’s effects are pretty mediocre at best.
Of course if America thinks it has an obesity problem now...;)
Marijuana Cuts Lung Cancer Tumor Growth In Half, Study Shows
Science Daily ^ | 4/17/07 | American Association for Cancer Research
Posted on 04/18/2007 4:20:10 PM EDT by Teflonic
The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.
They say this is the first set of experiments to show that the compound, Delta-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), inhibits EGF-induced growth and migration in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expressing non-small cell lung cancer cell lines. Lung cancers that over-express EGFR are usually highly aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy.
THC that targets cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 is similar in function to endocannabinoids, which are cannabinoids that are naturally produced in the body and activate these receptors. The researchers suggest that THC or other designer agents that activate these receptors might be used in a targeted fashion to treat lung cancer.
"The beauty of this study is that we are showing that a substance of abuse, if used prudently, may offer a new road to therapy against lung cancer," said Anju Preet, Ph.D., a researcher in the Division of Experimental Medicine.
Acting through cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2, endocannabinoids (as well as THC) are thought to play a role in variety of biological functions, including pain and anxiety control, and inflammation. Although a medical derivative of THC, known as Marinol, has been approved for use as an appetite stimulant for cancer patients, and a small number of U.S. states allow use of medical marijuana to treat the same side effect, few studies have shown that THC might have anti-tumor activity, Preet says. The only clinical trial testing THC as a treatment against cancer growth was a recently completed British pilot study in human glioblastoma.
In the present study, the researchers first demonstrated that two different lung cancer cell lines as well as patient lung tumor samples express CB1 and CB2, and that non-toxic doses of THC inhibited growth and spread in the cell lines. "When the cells are pretreated with THC, they have less EGFR stimulated invasion as measured by various in-vitro assays," Preet said.
Then, for three weeks, researchers injected standard doses of THC into mice that had been implanted with human lung cancer cells, and found that tumors were reduced in size and weight by about 50 percent in treated animals compared to a control group. There was also about a 60 percent reduction in cancer lesions on the lungs in these mice as well as a significant reduction in protein markers associated with cancer progression, Preet says.
Although the researchers do not know why THC inhibits tumor growth, they say the substance could be activating molecules that arrest the cell cycle. They speculate that THC may also interfere with angiogenesis and vascularization, which promotes cancer growth.
Preet says much work is needed to clarify the pathway by which THC functions, and cautions that some animal studies have shown that THC can stimulate some cancers. "THC offers some promise, but we have a long way to go before we know what its potential is," she said.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by American Association for Cancer Research.
That's an erroneous figure.
Tobacco use puts approximately 10% of tobacco users at risk for ANY type of life threatening illness, this includes cancer.
There have been numerous studies and they have concluded that pot smoking is not even in the same league as cigarettes. First, most pot smokers don’t smoke 20 joints a day. Second, the amount of tar is less and there is no nicotine. Additionally, the pot does not contain traces of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and over 100 other additives and byproducts that cigs do. But on the question of why pot is illegal, read “The Emperor Has No Clothes” by Jack Herer (available at Amazon). The real reason has to do with DuPont and Hearst wanting to force everyone to use timber to make paper. Until the late 1930s, paper was made from hemp (our Declaration of Independence is written on hemp paper). DuPont developed a way to make paper from trees and Randolph Hearst owned thousands of acres of trees, so they conspired to get Congress to ban hemp so trees would have to be used. It comes down to the old story of the rich wanting to get richer, so they got Congress to outlaw hemp and, whalah — paper is now made from wood.