Pot smoke causes cancer, regulators find

[steven johnson]

Just when you thought it was safe to self-medicate.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Marijuana smoke has joined tobacco smoke and hundreds of other chemicals on a list of substances California regulators say cause cancer.
The ruling Friday by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment likely will force pot shops with 10 or more employees to post warnings. Final guidelines are expected by the time warning requirements take effect in a year.

The listing only applies to marijuana smoke, not the plant itself.

Spokesman Sam Delson says the state agency found marijuana smoke contains 33 of the same harmful chemicals as tobacco smoke.

Pot smoke causes cancer, regulators find

[Drunken Irishman]

1. Everything causes cancer.

[babylonsister]

2. Feds' Top Pot Researcher Says Marijuana Should Be Legal

:shrug:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=5877153

snip//

In 2006, Tashkin led the largest population case-control study ever to assess the use of marijuana and lung cancer risk. The study, which included more than 2,200 subjects (1,212 cases and 1,040 controls), reported that marijuana smoking was not positively associated with cancers of the lung or upper aerodigestive tract – even among individuals who reported smoking more than 22,000 joints during their lifetime.

"What we found instead was no association and even a suggestion of some protective effect," Tashkin told the newspaper chain, noting that cannabinoids cause "cells die ... before they age enough to develop mutations that might lead to cancer."

[pscot]

11. That's a joint a day for 60 years

n/t

[babylonsister]

19. Sounds good to me. nt

[Hello_Kitty]

3. Cigarettes cause cancer, and are legal. So should pot be. Period. eom

[kestrel91316]

4. Duh. Smoke is nasty stuff. The quantity of tobacco smoke inhaled

by a moderate user is, IIRC, far higher than the quantity of marijuana smoke inhaled by a moderate MJ user. For a lightweight like me, today's MJ gets me high enough with a mere 3 or 4 tokes. And if I am not smoking it very often, that tiny bit is irrelevant.

Of course, as a veterinarian with a DEA certificate, I haven't smoked MJ since college. :smoke:

[realisticphish]

5. exactly

does this surprise anyone?

[shireen]

6. smoke is bad

no matter the source.

Fortunately, there are other ways to take in the benefits of pots. I don't think we could say the same of tobacco.

[dweller]

7. "applies to marijuana smoke, not the plant itself"

worry about other 'plants' first, please mr. regulator.
dp

[Turbineguy]

8. That can't be!

Pot is good for you!

Or as Michelle Bachmann would say: "It's natural!"

[Metta]

9. Well, isn't that convenient? Any more fears or lies forthcoming?

As soon as it becomes part of the national debate ....

[jaysunb]

10. Guess I oughta be dead by now...

after 50 years of toking. :evilgrin:

[mzmolly]

14. Don't laugh too hard JS

I had an aunt and a family friend die of lung cancer. Both smoked pot. :(

[nosmokes]

12. That's why i vaporize the stuff now, and man i wish i had known about

vaporization decades ago. I'm a med marijuana patient for migraines re: to brain cancer, but i also have COPD/emphysema. It wasn't until a neighbor turned me on to the vapor process that i'd ever heard about it. What a huge difference in quality of life for me! Not only have i been able to cut down dramatically on the amount of vicodin, percocet and dilaudid i take for the migraines, but i started mixing mint and sage in w/ the pot and my breathing is a bit better, my lungs feel clearer than before. And it takes less pot to get really small using vapor than smoke.

[TexasProgresive]

13. How did they test it

when the Feds won't allow any real testing?

[glitch]

15. Sounds like they simply extrapolated, since pot shares harmful chemicals with tobacco

IOW, shoddy "science".

[Why Syzygy]

21. But they had to put fire to it to get smoke!

Other poster is right. No testing allowed, so :wtf:

[HughMoran]

16. Kind of a big "duh"

Having smoked pot for 20 years, you'd have to be an idiot if you thought that only cigarette smoke causes cancer.

[Bjorn Against]

17. Medical marijuana is very useful in treating cancer.

They have long been trying to link pot to cancer, but while they have shown the smoke contains some harmful chemicals they have yet to show a single case of cancer caused by marijuana smoke. At least one government study that attempted to prove a link between cancer and marijuana use actually showed that marijuana caused tumors in lab rats to shrink, once that evidence emerged Nixon quickly killed the study before it could be completed and the full results published.

I have seen too much crap from the government in the past on this issue to believe them on this one.

On edit: I should make it clear that I am not arguing that there are not harmful elements in marijuana smoke, I am simply arguing that the government has been lying to us for years about the extent of the harm while denying there are medical benefits. When most of their previous "studies" have been based on lies I have a hard time believing any study they put out on this issue.

[Beam Me Up]

18. You don't have to smoke it to get high. Vaporize. Brownies are good to. ;-)

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

20. or brownies n/t

[jazzjunkysue]

22. Why not try living in the real world, as it really is?

Good and bad.

[Warpy]

23. Everything in sufficient quantity is dangerous, including water

The key phrase is "sufficient quantity." Were pot smokers able to smoke 40 joints a day, the average number of cigarettes that nicotine addicts smoke per day, then we'd see a lot of lung cancer in old 60s types.

Inhaling smoke from anything is not a healthful thing to do. However, the smoke from pot that even heavy users inhale doesn't contain anywhere near the quantities of those harmful substances that tobacco smokers inhale per day of use.

[salvorhardin]

25. The average number of cigarettes smoked per day is much lower than that

The numbers I found which were only good as of 2003 said that the average number of cigarettes smoked per day is about 15 for white males (about 9 for black males) over the age of 26. Slightly less than 20% smoke more than a pack a day.
Source: http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k3/cigs/cigs.htm

But the actual numbers in no way affect the rest of your argument which is quite true. Pot smokers smoke until they've reached the desired effect, then they stop. Even for overall heavy cannabis smokers, the overall effect is that they inhale far less smoke than even moderate cigarette smokers. Further, they're not inhaling the plethora of substances added to cigarettes. And, even though marijuana smoke contains many of the same carcinogens as cigarette smoke, marijuana smoke has also been found to have a slightly protective effect against lung cancer. Last but not least, the largest longitudinal study to date that looked at actual marijuana smokers concluded that even moderate to heavy use of cannabis does not lead to lung cancer.

Sources: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm & http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729_pf.html

[Name removed]

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