Free Republic

Generally, there are two types of marijuana users. First is the most commonly stereotyped “stoner,” depicted in the media of movies (e.g. Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and television (e.g. Shaggy from Scooby Doo). These are the dead-end job, ambitionless abusers who ingest marijuana to escape their already dismal lives. They represent the image which is most often associated with marijuana use. Certainly, the average American high school is teeming with similar directionless pot-smoking losers, further cementing this public perception.

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...