CANNABIS BURNS
OUT SPERM
Source: Evening
Standard, London
Pub Date:
Tuesday 14 October 2003
Subj: Cannabis burns out sperm
Author: Stephen
Hull, Metro
Cited: Alun
Buffry, Legalise Cannabis Alliance http://www.lca-uk.org/
CANNABIS BURNS
OUT SPERM
Men who
regularly smoke cannabis may suffer from sperm 'burn-out' - preventing them
fathering children, researchers claimed yesterday.
Scientists
discovered drug-users' sperm moved too fast, too early and in smaller numbers.
They also produced less seminal fluid.
The sperm counts
of 22 cannabis smokers and 59 fertile men were compared by researchers.
Sperm numbers
and ability to move were measured, together with a function called
hyperactivity.
'The sperm from
marijuana smokers were moving too fast, too early,' said Dr Lani Burkman, who
led the study.
'The timing was
all wrong. These sperm will experience burn-out before they reach the egg and
would not be capable of fertilisation.'
The volunteers were
all frequent users who had smoked an average of 14 times a week for five years.
Dr Burkman, from
the University of Buffalo School of Medicine, New York, pointed out that many
men who smoked cannabis had fathered children. But it was likely the drug could
push a man with naturally low fertility 'over the edge into infertility'.
He warned: 'I
definitely would advise anyone trying to conceive not to smoke marijuana and
that would include women as well as men.'
But Alun Buffry,
of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, said last night: 'If you look at the free
love of the 1960s, when many people were smoking, there was a real baby boom.
'In countries
where cannabis use is commonplace, they don't seem to have a population
problem.'