Heavy pot smoking boosts lung cancer risk six-fold

[Alison Myrden]

Heavy pot smoking boosts lung cancer risk six-fold

 

Just found this on Reuters...

 

Here we go AGAIN.

 

 

Alison

xx

 

 

 

 

 

Heavy pot smoking boosts lung cancer risk six-fold

 

Last Updated: 2008-02-08 13:00:24 -0400 (Reuters Health)

 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Smoking a joint a day is just as bad for

you as

smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, a study from New Zealand indicates.

 

Smoking a joint a day for one year boosted the likelihood of

developing lung

cancer by 8 percent, Dr. Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute

of New Zealand in Wellington and colleagues found, while cigarette

smokers'

risk increased by 7 percent for every year that they smoked a pack a day.

The heaviest pot smokers were at nearly six-fold greater risk of lung

cancer

compared to people who didn't smoke marijuana.

 

"The balance of evidence would suggest a positive association between

cannabis and lung cancer," Beasley and his team conclude in the February

issue of the European Respiratory Journal.

 

Evidence on the lung cancer-pot smoking link has been mixed, while legal

issues as well as difficulty in quantifying marijuana use make studying

pot's health effects difficult, the researchers note. Since New

Zealand has

high rates of both pot smoking and lung cancer, and the nation's marijuana

users rarely mix weed with tobacco, it "represents an ideal country in

which

to study the association between cannabis and respiratory tract

cancer," the

researchers say.

 

To that end, the researchers matched 79 lung cancer patients with 324

healthy controls, all of whom were younger than 55 years. Study

participants' smoking habits were quantified using joint years (one for

every year during which a person smoked a joint every day) or pack years

(one per year during which a person smoked a pack daily).

 

Overall marijuana smoking, which the researchers defined as having

smoked at

least 20 joints in one's lifetime, didn't increase lung cancer risk.

However, people who had more than 10.5 joint years under their belts were

5.7 times more likely to be lung cancer patients. Based on the

findings, the

researchers say, about 5 percent of lung cancer cases among people 55 and

younger in New Zealand could be due to pot smoking.

 

The researchers think worldwide efforts to reduce tobacco smoking "may

need

to include greater initiatives to reduce cannabis smoking and should be

directed particularly at young people."

 

SOURCE: European Respiratory Journal, February 2008.

 

Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

Edited February 9, 2008 by Alison Myrden

[Reverend]

everyone put their hands up who participated in this in depth research, and I thought it was me who was totally pixilated.

[mullray]

Damn man and I was worried about gum disease.

 

How come all this stuff is coming out of NZ???? Someone needs to be looking at this research closely. (cough, cough, wheeze)

[GChronic]

Omg,why am i not dead yet.i smoke like 5gr or more a day,and that for 6y long.and i feel fine,i go every week to my good neighbours in holland,to get my suplie,and that old hippy that smoke's for god who knows howmany a day,like more then 40 years,and he has hes owne coffeeshop,he looks pretty healty to me.my conclusion,cannabis is bad,but whats not?alcochol???dont know what to believe.i think that the people are afraid to accept cannabis.grtz from belgium G Chronic.keep it high

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

oops, wrong thread

[jayoner]

yer, you cant say u didnt see it coming, .

 

im sure every smoke can feel the effects

[jayoner]

im sure that EVERY SMOKER can feel the effects

[slay8r]

Anyone use a vapouriser?

I got a Vapir One V5 today in the post from US.

Did some extensive testing and its pretty cool....no burning, coughing n stuff...

anybody ever open up one of these vapourisers to see how it could be sealed/modified??

Older versions of these did have issue with leakage...my one seems pretty ok but a bit of duct tape may work wonders!

[dslgrl1]

without critiquing the science hers some considerations...did the smokers of the joints also smoke cigarettes?...hmm i didn't see the details including the non tobacco smoking MJ smokers as compared to tobacco using mj users...only mention was that NZ'ers don't mix tobacco and mj together ...hmmm... i would think that the goal of this study wasn't to eliminate cancer....but to eliminate MJ.....so you all can derive what you like...science has to be for science sake...and the control conditions are essential to propagate theory to scientific fact....these conditions, although I haven't read the journal yet, don't seem to have been met....studies from US and Canada show non tobacco using MJ users are less likely to get cancer due to cannabis' ability to raise the cell's defence against free form radicals that cause cancer...so...anyway there is tons of research on MJ....check the details, the interest in the study, and always pick the control's apart to make sure this is the group who has true achievable results...if the control is faulty, the science is faulty

[brick]

without critiquing the science hers some considerations...did the smokers of the joints also smoke cigarettes?...hmm i didn't see the details including the non tobacco smoking MJ smokers as compared to tobacco using mj users...only mention was that NZ'ers don't mix tobacco and mj together ...hmmm... i would think that the goal of this study wasn't to eliminate cancer....but to eliminate MJ.....so you all can derive what you like...science has to be for science sake...and the control conditions are essential to propagate theory to scientific fact....these conditions, although I haven't read the journal yet, don't seem to have been met....studies from US and Canada show non tobacco using MJ users are less likely to get cancer due to cannabis' ability to raise the cell's defence against free form radicals that cause cancer...so...anyway there is tons of research on MJ....check the details, the interest in the study, and always pick the control's apart to make sure this is the group who has true achievable results...if the control is faulty, the science is faulty

 

Like I stated in another thread on research. The research is too selective. What do they blame lung cancer on, in a victim who never smoked anything?