Large Study Finds No Link between Marijuana and Lung Cancer: Scientific America, September 2010
see also Pot Smokers Just As Healthy - Study: National Post (Canada), 11 June 2001
"Several generations of high school students have grown up ignoring and disbelieving everything they've heard from government and police about drugs, including information that was factual and valid, because they discovered for themselves that most of what has been taught to them was simply not true." - Ann Shulgin, PhD, Therapist and Author, Lafayette, CA, at the DPF Conference, November 1996.
Cannabis smoke dilates the capillaries in the lungs whereas tobacco contracts them. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE TO LINK CANNABIS WITH CAUSING CANCER OR ANY OTHER DISEASE . Tests and experiments with THC alone are invalid in consideration of cannabis.
BUT SEE Radioactivity in Tobacco
The Jamaican Study 1970 said:
"... as a multipurpose plant, ganga is used medicinally, even by
non-smokers. ....There were no indications of organic brain damage or
chromosome damage among smokers and no significant clinical psychiatric,
psychological or medical) differences between smokers and controls"
The Costa Rican Study, 1971, carried out by the University of Florida
National Institute of healthy, said:
"No significant health consequences to chronic cannabis smokers."
In the Greek Study of 1975:
C.N.Stefanic and M.R.Issodorides presented microphotographs of damaged human
sperm; LATER it was revealed that the photographs had been doctored and they
were obliged to issue a correction of mis-information, in Science
magazine" The Greek Study had been sponsored by the US Governments
National Institute on Drug Abuse. (NIDA)
The UK Wootton Report of 1968 agreed with the Indian Hemp commission and
said:
"Having reviewed all the material available to us we find ourselves in
agreement with the conclusion reached by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission
appointed by the Government of India (1893-94) and the New York Mayor's
Committee (1944 - LaGuardia) that the long-term consumption of cannabis in
moderate doses has no harmful effects. "
Taken from the Sydney Morning Herald (an Australian newspaper), Tuesday 18
February. Written by Leonie Lamont
"One of the first studies of long-term marijuana use in Australia has
found the health of such users is on par with the general population. The
study - conducted in the subculture of North Coast of NSW. in which cannabis
use is an integral part of everyday life and social relationships - involved
interviews with 268 marijuana smokers and 31 non-using partners and family
members. It was funded through the Commonwealth Department of Health's National
Drug Strategy.
Mr David Reilly, chief investigator for the study, said the average
profile for the interviewees was of regular marijuana use from the age of 17,
lasting for 19 years. Some 94 per cent smoked it at least twice a week, and 60
per cent smoked it daily, with a typical quantity being two joints a day of the
potent flowering heads of female plants.
We have nothing startling. We don't see any evidence of high
psychological disturbance among the people, we see very little evidence of
health problems except for respiratory problems, said Mr Reilly, who is manager
of the drug and alcohol program with the Northern Rivers Health Service.
Schizophrenia has been linked with cannabis use but Mr Reilly said there
had been no evidence of the illness in the sample.
Cannabis doesn't cause schizophrenia, in a nutshell. Most of those
[generally younger people predisposed to schizophrenia] that would have had
those feelings wouldn't have continued to use cannabis for 20 years.
However, the rate of respiratory problems among the marijuana users was
higher than the general population. "
DEA Judge Young (USA), after careful
consideration of many testimonials and reports, concluded that cannabis is less
dangerous than most of the vegetables that we eat today. Everything can be
dangerous - in water one can drown, in air fires can spread rapidly, excessive
sunshine burns, excessive food bloats, sporting and leisure activities are
often dangerous. THE GREATEST DANGERS OF CANNABIS ARE THE DANGERS OF ARREST, OF
LACK OF QUALITY CONTROL, AND OF THE SUPPLY BEING MIXED WITH THAT OF DRUGS.
"Marijuana is one of the least toxic substances in the whole
pharmacopoeia"....Professor Lester Grinspoon, Harvard Medical School, USA
The Report of the Australian Government 1996 says : "The ... major
possible adverse effects of chronic, heavy cannabis use ... remain to be
confirmed
"The major health and psychological effects of chronic cannabis use,
especially daily use over many years, remain uncertain
"As has been stressed ... there is uncertainty. ......To varying degrees
....inferences from animal research, laboratory studies, and clinical
observations about probable ill effects. In some cases inferences depend upon
arguments from what is known about the adverse effects of other drugs, such as
tobacco and alcohol.
"flashback experiences ...have been rarely reported by cannabis users...
have typically used other hallucinogenic drugs" The probable and possible
adverse health and psychological effects of cannabis need to be placed in
comparative perspective to be fully appreciated. "
The report is full of words like "possible",
"probable", "uncertain". It is quite inconclusive, a huge
waste of Australian money.
The USA Shafer Commission of 1975 said:
"There is no evidence that experimental or intermittent use of marijuana
causes physical or psychological harm. The risk lies instead in heavy,
long-term use of the drug. "
The LaGuardia Committee 1944 said: "The practice of marijuana
smoking does not lead to addiction in the medical sense of the word"
The Shafer Commission of 1970 said:
Marijuana does not lead to physical dependency, although some evidence
indicates that the heavy, long-term users may develop a psychological
dependence on the drug
The USA Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy (1987) said:
"Cannabis can be used on an episodic but continual basis without evidence
of social or psychic dysfunction. In many users the term dependence with its
obvious connotations, probably is mis-applied... The chief opposition to the
drug rests on a moral and political, and not toxicologic, foundation".
see also:
Marijuana gateway risk overblown: study
UK: Study
Finds No Cannabis Link To Hard Drugs: Sunday Times, 16 December 2001
Cannabis and Driving
Potent Quotes
Cannabis and cancer
Cannabis studies
Does
Marijuana Use Cause Long-Term Cognitive Deficits?: Four letters in
the Journal of the American Medical Association, 22 May 2002