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Cannabis five times a week can be harmful

unknown

Ananova

Monday 27 Nov 2000


Smoking cannabis five times a week does as much lung damage as smoking
20 cigarettes a day, according to a new study.

New Zealand's Asthma and Respiratory Foundation has issued a cannabis
"fact sheet" warning of the dangers of cannabis, and said its research
findings scotched claims that the drug was less harmful than tobacco..

The Otago University respiratory research group concluded that smoking
cannabis caused disease, phlegm and coughing fits after researchers
studied the lungs of 943 people aged 21. The researchers found that
36% of cannabis-dependent smokers had those symptoms, followed by
smokers of 21-plus cigarettes a day (29%), 10-20 cigarettes a day
(24%), and up to 10 cigarettes a day (17%). In addition, 20% of
non-smokers had the symptoms, some of them from asthma.

The head of the study, Associate Professor Robin Taylor, said the
results showed cannabis had a similar effect on the lungs to tobacco
and was, therefore, just as likely to cause chronic bronchitis,
emphysema and lung cancer.

The research team reported being struck by the fact that the effects
of smoking were noticeable at such a young age, 21, and that
two-thirds of the cannabis-dependent subjects had used the drug for
less than three years.

It said the report, to be published next month in the international
journal Addiction, was "ground-breaking" because of the great number
of people studied, reports the New Zealand Herald. But the National
Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws said the cannabis users
were obviously heavy smokers, and overseas studies had found fewer
health problems with the drug.

National co-ordinator Chris Fowlie said that taking any smoke into the
lungs was bad and he urged users to smoke through a good-quality water
pipe or vaporiser, or eat their weed.

 

 

 

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