Does Marijuana Cause Cancer?

Bomb Bay Black said:

Read, then next time use google for your stupid questions!!



Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection


[SIZE=-1]By Marc Kaufman[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Washington Post Staff Writer[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Friday, May 26, 2006; A03[/SIZE]

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.

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LoverOfTheFruit said:

no, its the not the weed that gives you cancer is the benzene and other chemicals in the ciggerette u put in the spliff dat does, if you smoke blunts all you really have to care bout is the paper your smoking it in. ive found no cases of regular blunt smokers havin forms of cancer

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poplars said:

yeah, what actually happens is with cigarettes you're exposing yourself to ionizing alpha radiation. contained in polonium-210 and lead-210..

so you're basically exposing your lungs to direct radiation with ciggs.

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MauiLover1 said:

Studies have time and time again failed to link marijuana or smoking marijuana to cancer. In fact, if you spend no more than five minutes on google you will be able to find a published study conducted at Harvard that strongly suggests that smoking marijuana SLOWS the growth of cancer in lung cancer patience. Smoke a lot...is what I have learned haha

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PUFF DADDY said:

I Wanna Know Does It? Cause Cancer Ive Hear It Does But I Dun No??
Yes Or No?

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DJBoxhouse said:

According to a recent study by the University of California Los Angeles, there is no increased lung cancer risk in smoking marijuana.
Some studies have stated that in contrast, while smoking tobacco, active chemicals in marijuana deteriorate the damaged lung cells typically experienced from smoking cigarettes allowing them to fully regenerate instead of becoming cancerous. Ergo, tobacco doesn't kill lung cells, it damages them and over time they become cancer prone, while said chemicals in weed simply destroy the damaged cells allowing for regrowth. implied that there may be positive pot smoking effects in regards to cancer while also smoking big tabac.

However,marijuana users face the same respiratory problems as regular smokers bronchitis, wheezing, asthma, all that jazz.

So, smoking a cig is a bigger negative then smoking a joint. However, if above holds any truth, while smoking cigs, the negative effects in regards to cancer are depreciated whilst partaking in the spice melange.~

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josh b said:

wtf r u on about m8 does weed cause cancer?

1st. even if it does wont stop me toking on

2nd. i think itl only cause cancer if u smoke with tobbaco SO NO but like 1 in 50,000,000 or somethink silly.

3rd. i have also heard it can help cure caner or slower down the rate that it grows.

4th. just smoke it m8 dnt start thinking about cancer im paranoid enuf as it is and now ive seen this thread its not helping

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

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Green Cross said:

"CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS & CANCERS

By radhikadevi
Recent concern has been brought to the attention of farmers, gardeners and the general public in the probable link between chemical fertilizers and cancer. Because cancer has become prevalent amongst our communities, we’ve seen a popular trend to return to organic living. But as the popularity of organic living soars, so too does the concern of what’s being used on the produce we find in our local supermarkets.
Over the years, the demand to grow, maintain and even sustain foods with longer shelf life has been taken to a new level. (The more research done, the more scientists realize that these farming techniques, emphasizing quantity rather than quality, means fewer nutrients found in the produce we buy from our local grocery stores.)
What has happened is that in order to keep up and compete in the economy, companies, farmers and even gardeners have resorted to using pesticides and chemical fertilizers to enhance their produce. Chemical fertilizers are used to assist a plant’s growth and then, once picked, used to make sure it will stay “fresh” through transportation, shelving and eventually to your kitchen.
Scientists have concluded that these chemical fertilizers and pesticides used to “assist” our fruits and vegetables are actually causing cancer. This shouldn’t shock you. Think about it. Our bodies are not designed to ingest loads and loads of chemical fertilizers. The thing is, in our attempts to eat “healthy” we are actually introducing unnatural, counterproductive, and cancer-causing chemicals to our body.
This warning should be especially given to farmers and gardeners because of their time and direct contact with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Research published in the journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in June of 2007 came to the conclusion that farmers and those who use pesticides and fertilizers (such as gardeners) have a greater risk of developing brain cancer.

It was found that all agricultural workers exposed to pesticides have a slightly greater risk of developing a brain tumor, and of course those exposed to the highest levels have more than twice the risk of developing fatal brain cancer.
Similarly, people who use pesticides on household plants were found to be at more than twice the increased risk of developing brain cancer. More research needs to be done to identify the types of garden chemicals that pose the greatest risk for triggering the development of cancer.
So whether you are a farmer, gardener, or just a consumer, it is important that you reduce if not eliminate the use and direct contact of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Continue to grow your own fruits and vegetables but do so with the best all natural fertilizer you can find, not only for your safety and health, but for your plants as well."

Link

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ViRedd said:

No. But smoking it might.

Vi

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