hey guys did you actually read the article? some interesting things to point out:
--the article mentions that study from a few months back that claimed higher risk of testicular cancer for cannabis smokers (i'm sure you remember it) and reminds us that this type of cancer, called nonseminoma, occurs in
fewer than half of one percent (< 0.5%) of all cancer cases among men!!!
--the study showed not only that cannabis smokers aren't more prone to cancer, smokers of cannabis
and tobacco are at a lower risk than those who only smoke tobacco!!!
--UCLA professor Donald Tashking, the guy behind the studies, was the lead investigator behind these other studies done in the 70's that identified toxins in cannabis smoke and showed how the smoke damages cells in the upper airways of the respiratory system. the studies also found that cannabis has high levels of
benzpyrene, a highly carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon that's held as a key player in most lung cancers -- that's why it says "something in pot that actually undermines cancer"!!! the cancer causing agents
are in the smoke of cannabis too but somehow they are held back (does this answer your musings, Twilight?)
--these studies i mentioned (and others) were founded by
NIDA, and since they liked what was coming they gave more money to Tashkin in 2002 to conduct a
large, population-based, case-controlled study, to prove once and for all that cannabis is the most evil thing ever and -you guessed it- it totally backfired!!! Tashkin’s team interviewed
1,212 cancer patients from the Los Angeles County Cancer Surveillance program, matched for age, gender, and neighborhood with
1,040 cancer-free controls.
--the resulting article is called "
Marijuana Use and the Risk of Lung and Upper Aerodigestive Tract Cancers: Results of a Population-Based Case-Control Study" and it remained rather unknown because NIDA refused to publish it!!!
--they were busy publishing another study instead, one made in New Zealand, that totally contradicted Tashkin's and that did get widespread media attention!
--well, i hear you asking, how many cancer patients or something did this New Zealand study have then???
79 smokers took part, 21 of whom smoked cannabis only. only
4.4% of the total individuals involved in Tashkin's!!!
--Tashking said that the New Zealand study mimicked the design that he and his group used for looking at lung function!!! the man himself: "For tobacco they found what you’d expect: a higher risk for lung cancer and a clear dose-response relationship. A 24-fold increase in the people who smoked the most… What about marijuana? If they smoked a small or moderate amount there was no increased risk, in fact slightly less than one. But if they were in the upper third of the group, then their risk was six-fold… A rather surprising finding, and one has to be cautious about interpreting the results because of the very small number of cases --
fourteen— and controls --
four."
4 controls??
4!?!?
--Tashkin also said the New Zealanders employed
"statistical sleight of hand." he deemed it "completely implausible that smokers of only 365 joints of marijuana have a risk for developing lung cancer similar to that of smokers of 7,000 tobacco cigarettes… Their small sample size led to vastly inflated estimates… They had said 'it's ideal to do the study in New Zealand because we have a much higher prevalence of marijuana smoking.' But 88% of their controls had never smoked marijuana, whereas 36% of our controls (in Los Angeles) had never smoked marijuana. Why did so few of the controls smoke marijuana? Something fishy about that!"
fishy??? it stinks!!!!!!
