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UK: Cannabis users 'need health alert'

Nigel Hawkes

The Times

Friday 02 May 2003

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CANNABIS users should be given clear health warnings about the dangers of
their habit, say specialists.
The risk of a heart attack rises by more than four times within an hour of
smoking cannabis. Regular use is linked to schizophrenia and depression,
and probably also to diseases of the heart and lung, say Professor John
Henry of Imperial College School of Medicine and two colleagues who are
respiratory specialists, in an editorial in the British Medical Journal.

Smoked cannabis causes bronchitis, emphysema, and other lung diseases
similar to those suffered by cigarette smokers. No link has been
established to lung cancer because cannabis has not been smoked for as
long, and because cannabis smokers are usually also cigarette smokers.

There are 13 million cigarette smokers and 3.2 million cannabis smokers in
Britain. The specialists write: "Prevention and cessation are the two
principal strategies in the battle against tobacco. At present, there is no
battle against cannabis and no clear public health message."

 

 

 

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