phil stovell

More sources for this will be welcome.

http://www.counterpunch.org/gardner07022005.html

Study: Smoking Marijuana Does Not Cause Lung Cancer

By FRED GARDNER

Marijuana smoking -"even heavy longterm use"- does not cause cancer of the
lung, upper airwaves, or esophagus, Donald Tashkin reported at this year's
meeting of the International Cannabinoid Research Society. Coming from
Tashkin, this conclusion had extra significance for the assembled
drug-company and university-based scientists (most of whom get funding
from the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse). Over the years, Tashkin's
lab at UCLA has produced irrefutable evidence of the damage that marijuana
smoke wreaks on bronchial tissue. With NIDA's support, Tashkin and
colleagues have identified the potent carcinogens in marijuana smoke,
biopsied and made photomicrographs of pre-malignant cells, and studied the
molecular changes occurring within them. It is Tashkin's research that the
Drug Czar's office cites in ads linking marijuana to lung cancer. Tashkin
himself has long believed in a causal relationship, despite a study in
which Stephen Sidney examined the files of 64,000 Kaiser patients and
found that marijuana users didn't develop lung cancer at a higher rate or
die earlier than non-users. Of five smaller studies on the question, only
two -involving a total of about 300 patients- concluded that marijuana
smoking causes lung cancer. Tashkin decided to settle the question by
conducting a large, prospectively designed, population-based,
case-controlled study. "Our major hypothesis," he told the ICRS, "was that
heavy, longterm use of marijuana will increase the risk of lung and
upper-airwaves cancers."

The Los Angeles County Cancer Surveillance program provided Tashkin's team
with the names of 1,209 L.A. residents aged 59 or younger with cancer (611
lung, 403 oral/pharyngeal, 90 laryngeal, 108 esophageal). Interviewers
collected extensive lifetime histories of marijuana, tobacco, alcohol and
other drug use, and data on diet, occupational exposures, family history
of cancer, and various "socio-demographic factors." Exposure to marijuana
was measured in joint years (joints per day x 365). Controls were found
based on age, gender and neighborhood. Among them, 46% had never used
marijuana, 31% had used less than one joint year, 12% had used 10-30
j-yrs, 2% had used 30-60 j-yrs, and 3% had used for more than 60 j-yrs.
Tashkin controlled for tobacco use and calculated the relative risk of
marijuana use resulting in lung and upper airwaves cancers. All the odds
ratios turned out to be less than one (one being equal to the control
group's chances)! Compared with subjects who had used less than one joint
year, the estimated odds ratios for lung cancer were .78; for 1-10 j-yrs,
..74; for 10-30 j-yrs, .85 for 30-60 j-yrs; and 0.81 for more than 60
j-yrs. The estimated odds ratios for oral/pharyngeal cancers were 0.92 for
1-10 j-yrs; 0.89 for 10-30 j-yrs; 0.81 for 30-60 j-yrs; and 1.0 for more
than 60 j-yrs. "Similar, though less precise results were obtained for the
other cancer sites," Tashkin reported. "We found absolutely no suggestion
of a dose response." The data on tobacco use, as expected, revealed "a
very potent effect and a clear dose-response relationship -a 21-fold
greater risk of developing lung cancer if you smoke more than two packs a
day." Similarly high odds obtained for oral/pharyngeal cancer, laryngeal
cancer and esophageal cancer. "So, in summary" Tashkin concluded, "we
failed to observe a positive association of marijuana use and other
potential confounders."

There was time for only one question, said the moderator, and San
Francisco oncologist Donald Abrams, M.D., was already at the microphone:
"You don't see any positive correlation, but in at least one category
[marijuana-only smokers and lung cancer], it almost looked like there was
a negative correlation, i.e., a protective effect. Could you comment on
that?"

"Yes," said Tashkin. "The odds ratios are less than one almost
consistently, and in one category that relationship was significant, but I
think that it would be difficult to extract from these data the conclusion
that marijuana is protective against lung cancer. But that is not an
unreasonable hypothesis."

Abrams had results of his own to report at the ICRS meeting. He and his
colleagues at San Francisco General Hospital had conducted a randomized,
placebo-controlled study involving 50 patients with HIV-related peripheral
neuropathy. Over the course of five days, patients recorded their pain
levels in a diary after smoking either NIDA-supplied marijuana cigarettes
or cigarettes from which the THC had been extracted. About 25% didn't know
or guessed wrong as to whether they were smoking the placebos, which
suggests that the blinding worked. Abrams requested that his results not
be described in detail prior to publication in a peer-reviewed medical
journal, but we can generalize: they exceeded expectations, and show
marijuana providing pain relief comparable to Gabapentin, the most widely
used treatment for a condition that afflicts some 30% of patients with
HIV.

To a questioner who bemoaned the difficulty of "separating the high from
the clinical benefits," Abrams replied: "I'm an oncologist as well as an
AIDS doctor and I don't think that a drug that creates euphoria in
patients with terminal diseases is having an adverse effect." His study
was funded by the University of California's Center for Medicinal Cannabis
Research.
--
Phil Stovell, South Hampshire, UK

dwildstr

The Prophet Phil Stovell known to the wise as phil@stovell.org.uk, opened the Book of Words, and read unto the people:


Well, a bit of digging reveals that Tashkin has coauthor credit for
three studies presented at the recent ICRS symposium, including
"Marijuana Use and Cancers of the Lung and Upper Aerodigestive Tract:
Results of a Case-Control Study". Unfortunately, ICRS does not seem to
put up abstracts for this symposium yet, and even abstracts for
earlier symposia require member login, so we'll just have to wait for
Morgenstern et al. to publish to know what their actual findings were.

--
D. Jacob (Jake) Wildstrom, Math monkey and freelance thinker

"A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems."
-Alfred Renyi

The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily endorsed by the
University of California or math department thereof.

h

If you sit outside your local urology clinic (used to be called STD clinic
and before that was simply known as the VD clinic)
you might be amazed to see young black men going into the clinic looking for
treatment for ED(erectile dysfunction)
It might not cause lung cancer but it sure causes brewers droop.

phil stovell

<ignoring racist innuendo>

And brewers fare causes lung cancer?
--
Phil Stovell, South Hampshire, UK

alan holmes

That could be an advantage, it means the druggies won't father any more
druggies!

--
Alan

Reply to alan (dot) holmes27 (at) virgin (dot) net

alan holmes

He may be right, but it most certainly mucks up the brain!

--
Alan

Reply to alan (dot) holmes27 (at) virgin (dot) net

cynic

ITYF that's an urban legend.

--
Cynic

cynic

ITYF that's an urban legend.

--
Cynic

r d s

So if I put it in all my fags will I be OK?

What does?

Ale causes brewers droop, it mucks up the brain no end as well. Do you
mean that cannabis does the same?

Clough