Media Marijuana Mania Part Duh (by Maia Szalavitz at HuffPost)

[marmar]

Maia Szalavitz
Media Marijuana Mania Part Duh
Posted July 31, 2007 | 08:20 PM (EST)



Ok, this is getting really tiresome. Earlier this week, I debunked media coverage that claimed that marijuana increases risk of schizophrenia by 40% -- but none of the media bothered to mention that despite massive increases in marijuana use, schizophrenia rates have not increased.

Comes now a new study claiming that one joint is as bad for your lungs as five cigarettes. Comes now another flood of "reporting " that fails, once again, to raise and answer the question readers are most likely to consider when they read the story.

Leave aside for a moment the fact that the vast majority of marijuana smokers don't even use one whole joint daily-- compared to an average 20-40 a day for cigarette smokers. Leave aside the fact that even most daily smokers of marijuana tend to do this for a few years-- not the 20-40 years seen with cigarette smokers.

Could the reporters at least mention that research looking explicitly for a conclusive link between marijuana and lung cancer HAS REPEATEDLY FAILED TO FIND ONE???

And that studies looking for an impact on mortality related to marijuana use also do not find that? Every time researchers have done studies using various forms of methodology looking for connections between tobacco smoking and lung cancer and tobacco smoking and death, the link has been there and been strong. The studies on this question on marijuana-- when it is smoked without tobacco-- do not find a positive correlation. In fact, one found a slight negative one-- suggesting that marijuana users could actually be *less likely* than non-users to get lung cancer. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maia-szalavitz/media-marijuana-mania-par_b_58645.html

[SteppingRazor]

1. Even if we assume the 1 joint = 5 cigarette math to be completely true...

it's still a stupid thing to say. The average smoker burns through a pack of cigarettes in a day. 20 cigarettes. But does the average pot smoker smoke 4 joints a day? No freakin' way! Only total stoners and people with medical needs smoke that much.

[jaysunb]

2. If you're smoking 4 joints a day

that's some lousy weed. :evilgrin: