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splifner180
Student


Registered: 03/24/06
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Study Finds No Marijuana Link to Lung Cancer
#5669089 - 05/24/06 03:11 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Study finds no marijuana link to lung cancer
Reuters
LOS ANGELES - Marijuana smoking does not increase a person's risk of developing lung cancer, according to the findings of a new study at the University of California Los Angeles that surprised even the researchers.
They had expected to find that a history of heavy marijuana use, like cigarette smoking, would increase the risk of cancer.
Instead, the study, which compared the lifestyles of 611 Los Angeles County lung cancer patients and 601 patients with head and neck cancers with those of 1,040 people without cancer, found no elevated cancer risk for even the heaviest pot smokers. It did find a 20-fold increased risk of lung cancer in people who smoked two or more packs of cigarettes a day.
The study results were presented in San Diego on Tuesday at a meeting of the American Thoracic Society.
The study was confined to people under age 60 since baby boomers were the most likely age group to have long-term exposure to marijuana, said Dr. Donald Tashkin, senior researcher and professor at the UCLA School of Medicine.
The results should not be taken as a blank check to smoke pot, which has been associated with problems like cognitive impairment and chronic bronchitis, said Dr. John Hansen-Flaschen, chief of pulmonary and critical care at the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia. He was not involved in the study.
Previous studies showed marijuana tar contained about 50 percent more of the chemicals linked to lung cancer, compared with tobacco tar, Tashkin said. In addition, smoking a marijuana joint deposits four times more tar in the lungs than smoking an equivalent amount of tobacco.
"Marijuana is packed more loosely than tobacco, so there's less filtration through the rod of the cigarette, so more particles will be inhaled," Tashkin said in a statement. "And marijuana smokers typically smoke differently than tobacco smokers -- they hold their breath about four times longer, allowing more time for extra fine particles to deposit in the lung."
He theorized that tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, a chemical in marijuana smoke that produces its psychotropic effect, may encourage aging, damaged cells to die off before they become cancerous.
Hansen-Flaschen also cautioned a cancer-marijuana link could emerge as baby boomers age and there may be smaller population groups, based on genetics or other factors, still at risk for marijuana-related cancers.
-------------------- First Grow: Ecuador -> LC -> HPoo/Straw -> Monotub Build a Do-It-Yourself Magnetic Stirrer in thirty minutes with no money.
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant

Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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Re: Study Finds No Marijuana Link to Lung Cancer [Re: splifner180]
#5669101 - 05/24/06 03:15 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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A "study" can manipulate data however to prove anything.
Example: chocolate helps fight tooth decay.
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Redstorm
Prince of Bugs



Registered: 10/08/02
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Re: Study Finds No Marijuana Link to Lung Cancer [Re: splifner180]
#5669116 - 05/24/06 03:18 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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I call shananigans. I thought smoking anything would pretty much increase the chance of cancer.
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jcdangerously
I'll Cut You

Registered: 04/08/06
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Re: Study Finds No Marijuana Link to Lung Cancer [Re: Redstorm]
#5669128 - 05/24/06 03:20 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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That was my understanding as well, but i'd like to be proven wrong.
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moosehead
poop deck


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Re: Study Finds No Marijuana Link to Lung Cancer [Re: Redstorm]
#5669139 - 05/24/06 03:22 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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haha, no shit.
I can just imagine the lungs being like, oh fuck! its smoke! No wait, hold up guys, its just pot smoke, no worries.
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Snaggletooth
Stranger in a Strange Land


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Re: Study Finds No Marijuana Link to Lung Cancer [Re: Redstorm]
#5669168 - 05/24/06 03:31 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Redstorm said: I call shenanigans. I thought smoking anything would pretty much increase the chance of cancer.
I second that
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Atheist Chat
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splifner180
Student


Registered: 03/24/06
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Loc: USA, East Coast
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Re: Study Finds No Marijuana Link to Lung Cancer [Re: splifner180]
#5669247 - 05/24/06 03:53 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Burke Dennings writes: "A "study" can manipulate data however to prove anything."
True to an extent. If the data is being manipulated, you can show how it's being warped.
Redstorm writes: "I call shananigans. I thought smoking anything would pretty much increase the chance of cancer. "
Snaggletooth writes: "I second that"
I'm not sure specifically what you mean when you say "anything."
If you mean to say that any activity, like breathing city air, causes cancer, then this would be filtered out by a control.
If you mean that anything smoked causes cancer, these results aren't exactly new and as the article points out (and has long been hypothesized), it's speculated that the THC protects the cell by some mechanism.
I understand and VERY much appreciate skepticism. I've been participating in skeptics forums online since 1991 (they were local nets then, but still...) and so I'm not about to argue that this is the first and last word on the matter. But just saying "shennanagins" isn't skepticism.
It is worth noting that researches have been trying for quite some time to link cannabis consumption to cancer and so far they've shown nothing.
Personally, I'm willing to concede that smoking cannabis causes cancer but evidence is piling up (from different researchers) that it is far, far safer than cigarettes. The argument against marijuana gets thinner every year. And that's my central point.
splif
-------------------- First Grow: Ecuador -> LC -> HPoo/Straw -> Monotub Build a Do-It-Yourself Magnetic Stirrer in thirty minutes with no money.
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moosehead
poop deck


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Re: Study Finds No Marijuana Link to Lung Cancer [Re: splifner180]
#5669334 - 05/24/06 04:22 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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my brother died cus he smoked too much pot once.
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Burke Dennings
baby merchant

Registered: 11/29/04
Posts: 81,641
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Re: Study Finds No Marijuana Link to Lung Cancer [Re: splifner180]
#5669352 - 05/24/06 04:30 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Cool, I like to live in a state of denial too. That's why I'm smoking these healthy cigarettes.
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TheFakeSunRa
Bitch Splitter


Registered: 03/01/05
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Loc: Dirdy SOUF
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Re: Study Finds No Marijuana Link to Lung Cancer [Re: Burke Dennings]
#5669362 - 05/24/06 04:36 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Just because smoke may inherently be harmful to human lungs doesn't necessarily mean it's cancerous.
-------------------- [quote]Asante said: You constantly make posts thatr fling middle school insults at people you don't like mixed in with maladjusted psychopathic comments about wanting to beat up the other poster with a crowbar. You know how shit you are, you just don't give a fuck for precisely that reason. I disendorse you.[/quote]
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THE KRAT BARON
one-eyed willie
Registered: 07/08/03
Posts: 42,409
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Re: Study Finds No Marijuana Link to Lung Cancer [Re: Burke Dennings]
#5669363 - 05/24/06 04:36 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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I need to get me some of those healthy Canadian smokes.
-------------------- m00nshine is currently vacationing in Maui. Rumor has it he got rolled by drunken natives and is currently prostituting himself in order to pay for airfare back to the mainland but he's having trouble juggling a hairon addiction. He won't be back for a long while.
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Entropymancer

Registered: 07/16/05
Posts: 10,207
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Re: Study Finds No Marijuana Link to Lung Cancer [Re: THE KRAT BARON]
#5669412 - 05/24/06 04:54 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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No one is saying cannabis isn't harmful to the lungs (I don't figure that I could get away with claiming that considering how many thick black/gray chunks of phlegm I cough up each day), but there doesn't seem to be any evidence linking cannabis to cancer. I don't think it's too likely that these results are being skewed, since Tashkin (the guy running this study) has been one of DEA's favorite people to quote for their propaganda. He has been bound and determined for years to find a link between cannabis and cancer, so I don't imagine it's easy for him to have to say that the first conclusive results he's collected show no correlation. As I recall, the data actually showed that cannabis smokers get LESS cancer than non-smokers (though not by a statistically significant margin). On top of that, there was statistcally significant evidence that cigarette smokers who also smoke pot have lower cancer rates than cigarette smokers who do not smoke pot.
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shroomydan
exshroomerite


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Loc: In the woods
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Re: Study Finds No Marijuana Link to Lung Cancer [Re: splifner180]
#5670228 - 05/24/06 08:51 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
THC, a chemical in marijuana smoke that produces its psychotropic effect, may encourage aging, damaged cells to die off before they become cancerous.
This is Dr. Tashkin's hypothesis to explain the empirical data. It should be investigated.
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leery11
I Tell You What!

Registered: 06/24/05
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Re: Study Finds No Marijuana Link to Lung Cancer [Re: shroomydan]
#5670329 - 05/24/06 09:22 PM (17 years, 8 months ago) |
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well other studies have popped up showing THC helps fight tumors.
but the question i ask is if your lungs are constantly congested with phlegm, and you keep putting smoke and tar in, won't they not eventually malfunction and cause significant health impairments, possibly death, regardless?
The longer junk stays in your body the less healthy your body becomes, is that not one way cancer forms?
-------------------- I am the MacDaddy of Heimlich County, I play it Straight Up Yo! ....I embrace my desire to feel the rhythm, to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow, to feel inspired, to fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human...... Om Namah Shivaya, I tell you What!
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