06-18-2009, 05:00 AM
Marijuana is obviously an important topic to many Punawebbers and we have an upcoming issue in Hawaii as there is a proposal that medical marijuana laws regarding distribution need to be updated. However if we are ever going to close to rational on the medical effects we need to always look at the bigger picture. There's sometimes a problem that non-science people take a single study as defining the reality of a topic. In fact, many studies are required to form useful and replicable hypotheses about any subject of study. It is simply not true that "anything" will cause cancer. Here's a study that actually looked at lung damage, hypothesized that damage would be found and in fact not only found little or none, but found positive effects on the lungs from inhaling marijuana. Additionally, in its survey the study did find significant correlation between tobacco and cancer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...01729.html
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."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...01729.html
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."