Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection

[pipeman]

thanks to chato for finding this one. Sorry if its old news, but its the first time I've seen it.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2501729_pf.html

 

Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection

 

By Marc Kaufman

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, May 26, 2006; 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, sex 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.

[67Special]

Thanks for the good news pipe

 

Just at a personal level, nearly all of the people I've known or met with cancer have been non-stoners, most are worriers by nature and many heavy drinkers or smokers

 

I firmly believe that worry and stress are big contributors to cancer and general ill health, but that'd be a bit harder to study accurately I suppose.

 

Toke on and live long

[Nooby]

67special,

 

I support that observation 100% ;-)

[Pa-uul]

Thanks for posting that. I was looking for that the other day using Google but I strangely couldn't find it.

...many are... drinkers or smokers ...

I heard that 95% of lung cancer cases are of tobacco smokers, so it's weird that the scare mongers could get away with claiming that cannabis was the same or worse than tobacco.

[Luke Skywalker]

Geez, that's some amazingly unbiased reporting... This is good news in the fight.

 

Next time someone uses that line that weed causes cancer, point em to that guy. He doesn't like weed, but at least he'll tell them hand on heart that you don't get lung cancer from it.

 

btw pa-uul, did you mean 95% of lung cancer or cancer in general?

[Radic]

there is more

the research went deeper to find that

thc actually blocks cancer from growing by restricting blood supply to cancerous cells thus restricitng growth

and causing the body to release an enzyme<--- they think. Dat part is unclear, but it is established thc somehow helps the body block carcinogenes from attachment sites.

the local doctors round Nimbin, after reading the study are all sayin if you only smoke tobacco mixed with ganga there is a good chance you will not develop Lung Cancer.

from what I can gather the research seems to be leaning towards Cannabis being a cure for many cancers

 

Saint Bob Marley died of Cancer

he was first treating it with Herbs from Rasta Herbalists quite effectively for considerable time till he collapsed exercising after a gig in USA.

They took him to a local hospitable and from there he went to a specialist in Europe Who told him to give up Cannabis, he did, and 3mths later, died.

I believe Cannabis was keeping the Cancer under control all the time till he gave it up.

 

I was chatting to a local nurse from Nimbin Hospital bout dat, and she told me dat there seemed to be a similar pattern round here too,

with cancer patients, who are advised to give up smoking Cannabis, then dying 3mnth later.

 

Another well informed male nurse I know had Stomach Cancer and under went Chemotherapy in Sydney for 3 mths. He used a lb of Cannabis Leaf to help him through and his survival he attributes to Cannabis.

.

Now closer to home

my Mother is in her seventies;

 

Last year she told me she was booked in to have a Biop to see if a lump she had in her breast was Cancer in 2 weeks

I gave her a 30g bottle of my homemade Cannabis Ointment and told her to rub it in 4 times per day.

she did.

1 week later she came back and said I can't find the lump give me 1 more bottle,the next week she went to the hospital and the biop was not necessary.

They wanted to know how she got rid of Breast Cancer.

she wouldn't tell them, "thats your job, Radic" she told me.

 

in Italy recently a study was undertaken for Cannabis and Breast Cancer with strictly positive results

and in conclusion they found;

Cannabis is more effective and safer than any of the currently available treatments for Breast Cancer

Yes yes yes

Forward cannabis

Heal de People

Heal de Land

 

Guidance

Radic

Hash Oil Rulez

Edited July 9, 2007 by Radic