REEFER MADNESS

Study Shows Marijuana Smoke Does Not Raise Cancer Risk

A study presented at a meeting of the American Thoracic Society found that smoking marijuana, even heavily, does not increase the risk of cancer.

Dr. Donald Tashkin, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has studied the effects of marijuana on the lungs for years and had expected the study to reveal that heavy marijuana use results in elevated cancer risk.
Past studies have yielded varied results on this question, but most were conducted on a small scale and possibly affected by bias. The large-scale UCLA study focused on 2,200 people, about 1,200 of whom had lung, oral, laryngeal or esophageal cancer.
The findings of the study now have researchers considering the possibility that marijuana may have a protective effect against cancer, perhaps deterring tumor growth.

[Past studies have shown marijuana smoke to contain many of the same carcinogenic chemicals found in cigarette smoke.]