Marijuana Damages DNA And May Cause Cancer, New Test Reveals

Budisti

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Marijuana Damages DNA And May Cause Cancer, New Test Reveals

ScienceDaily (June 15, 2009) — Using a highly sensitive new test, scientists in Europe are reporting "convincing evidence" that marijuana smoke damages the genetic material DNA in ways that could increase the risk of cancer.

“There have been many studies on the toxicity of tobacco smoke. It is known that tobacco smoke contains 4000 chemicals of which 60 are classed as carcinogens. Cannabis in contrast has not been so well studied. It is less combustible than tobacco and is often mixed with tobacco in use. Cannabis smoke contains 400 compounds including 60 cannabinoids. However, because of its lower combustibility it contains 50% more carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons including naphthalene, benzanthracene, and benzopyrene, than tobacco smoke.”

Heres the FULL article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090615095940.htm
 
This is what pisses me off about the article:

"In conclusion, these results provide evidence for the DNA damaging potential of cannabis [marijuana] smoke, implying that the consumption of cannabis cigarettes may be detrimental to human health with the possibility to initiate cancer development," the article states. "The data obtained from this study suggesting the DNA damaging potential of cannabis smoke highlight the need for stringent regulation of the consumption of cannabis cigarettes, thus limiting the development of adverse health effects such as cancer."

They come to the conclusion that cannabis MAY be harmful.
And therefore, it should be regulated.

Anyone else think that they have skipped several vital steps here?
 
And what are we to make of earlier studies that found no link between cannabis use and cancer, such as:

People who smoke marijuana--even heavy, long-term marijuana users--do not appear to be at increased risk of developing lung cancer, according to a study to be presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference on May 23rd.

Marijuana smoking also did not appear to increase the risk of head and neck cancers, such as cancer of the tongue, mouth, throat, or esophagus, the study found.

The findings were a surprise to the researchers...

The heaviest smokers in the study had smoked more than 22,000 marijuana cigarettes, or joints, while moderately heavy smokers had smoked between 11,000 to 22,000 joints. Even these smokers did not have an increased risk of developing cancer. People who smoked more marijuana were not at any increased risk compared with those who smoked less marijuana or none at all.
from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060526083353.htm
 
"convincing evidence"
Oh wow, that sure is convincing. Fucking scientists being paid to find negative effects and they still can't manage it.
People need to accept Mary isn't that bad.
And if you believe it is; relative to alcohol. (If you don't agree fair enough, keep in mind I don't lecture you on the dangers of drinking. Drugs are a personal thing, leave it at that.)
 
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what a load of pap.
id like to know the credentials of these so called "scientists", and how exactly they performed their experiments and tests.

til then, i say- BULLSHIT.
vape and there is absolutely no adverse affects or anything that will damage your health whatsoever.

why is it that the cancer rate in cannabis smokers is FAR less than that of tobacco smokers?
 
of course smoking anything can cause cancer. thats not what i said at all.
i said the number of cannabis smokers who just smoke cannabis and get cancer is far less than that of tobacco smokers who get cancer.
 
yea I dont see how this is anything new, basically burning something creates carsinogens; !YAY WE KNEW THAT DECADES GO!

@Sega420
of course smoking anything can cause cancer. thats not what I said at all.
i said the number of cannabis smokers who just smoke cannabis and get cancer is far less than that of tobacco smokers who get cancer.
Yea I think the reason less cannabis smokers get cancer is because ( in a controlled laboratory enviroment ) THC destroys cancer cells, so theres a battle(in lack of a better word) between the carsinogens and THC destroying the cancer cells.

PS. I think i should link this while were talking about cannabis&lungs&cancer, because this Donald Tashkin has studied the effects of THC in the lungs longer then anyone I know of , the study was sponsored by a pharmasutical company(even tough the site posting it might not have an objective perspective) : http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy/2009/jun/03/top_antidrug_researcher_changes
 
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I think i should link this while were talking about cannabis&lungs&cancer, because this Donald Tashkin has studied the effects of THC in the lungs longer then anyone I know of , the study was sponsored by a pharmasutical company(even tough the site posting it might not have an objective perspective) : http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy/2009/jun/03/top_antidrug_researcher_changes

Cool article. Too bad it is 18 months old, or I would post it in this forum.
Thanks for the link.
 
Bombarding a system with smoke, or carbon smoke is very carcinogenic, if you combust cannabis, incense, or tobacco smoke is not designed to be inhaled by the human body period.
 
^ That is the placebo effect.
Tobacco smokers believe that they will get lung cancer, and weed smokers
believe that they will not. 8)

mind over matter :)


This article really pisses me off =\ MJ is proving in the lab over and over again to STOP and KILL cancers of all kinds. You can put hash oil on skin cancer and it DISAPPEARS! It's been proven scientifically by Americans to kill brain and lung tumors, published papers are out there, and more and more keep coming. Fuck these backwards assholes.

Check out Rick Simpsons site here. He didn't win High Times Freedom Fighter of the Year Award for nothing. The man deserves sainthood.
http://www.phoenixtears.ca/
 
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people seem to not be able to wrap their heads around the fact that cannabinoids have ant-cancer properties while cannabis smoke has acetaldehyde, which is a carcinogen

for good measure, alcohol consumption exposes the body to much much much more acetaldehyde than marijuana smoking does
 
for good measure, alcohol consumption exposes the body to much much much more acetaldehyde than marijuana smoking does
True, but your liver is much more resilient for developing cancer than your lungs are.
So it's a deceptive comparison...
Anyway, I copied the most important paragraph from the full article:
NSFW:
Cannabis is a drug that has been widely used for thousands of years throughout the world for both recreational and medicinal purposes (36). The adverse neurological effects of cannabis such as the onset or worsening of schizophrenia have been extensively studied; however, the potential for cannabis smoke to cause DNA damage and ultimately cancer is a relatively unknown entity (37, 38). We have shown that cannabis smoke can result in the formation of N2-ethyl-dG adducts in a dose-dependent manner following exposure of calf thymus DNA in vitro, thus also confirming the presence of the genotoxin, acetaldehyde, in the cannabis smoke. The levels of N2-ethyl-dG adducts detected were in a similar range to those detected following exposure to calf thymus DNA to smoke from tobacco cigarettes. It should be noted that the N2-ethyl-dG adduct is not the only adduct formed following exposure to DNA to acetaldehyde; other adducts formed include 1,N2-propanoguanine and N2-dimethyldioxaneguanine (12). The confirmation of the DNA damaging potential of cannabis smoke has serious human health implications since cannabis cigarettes are smoked in a way which increases puff volume and depth of inhalation, increasing the respiratory burden (39). The smoking of 3−4 cannabis cigarettes a day is associated with same degree of damage to bronchial mucus membranes as 20 or more tobacco cigarettes a day (39). Cannabis smoke condensates have been shown to be mutagenic in the Ames test, and the induction of cytogenetic changes in both in vivo and in vitro mammalian cells following exposure to cannabis has been observed (40, 41). However, only a weak tumorigenic response was observed when cannabis smoke condensate was tested in a mouse skin bioassay; 6% of mice developed benign skin tumor, and 25% of mice had lung adenomas (42). The epidemiological data available linking smoking cannabis with the development of oral, pharyngeal, head and neck, and respiratory carcinomas are limited, although evidence indicates that there is an increased risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck for cannabis smokers (43). Higher levels of DNA damage in the form of single strand breaks have been detected in human alveolar macrophages obtained from cannabis smokers as compared to nonsmokers (44). A case of metastatic lung cancer was reported in a 27 year old man who smoked 20 cannabis cigarettes per day for 16 years (45). In the United Kingdom, there are continual ongoing debates as to whether cannabis should be legalized, thus rendering it to be more readily available for public consumption (46, 47). The data obtained from this study suggesting the DNA damaging potential of cannabis smoke highlight the need for the stringent regulation of the consumption of cannabis cigarettes, thus limiting the development of adverse health consequences such as cancer.


The scientist that wrote this article were definitely biased, or they had to chop up their article to leave out the nuance.
Nothing about studies that do not find a significant association between cannabis and cancer.
 
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