marijuana vs. tobacco *cough* (also some polonium 210)

[Cevain]

I was looking up some stuff about marijuana and what really are the long term usage side-effects. Then suddenly I stumbled upon this article about why marijuana does not induce cancer but tobacco does because it has polonium 210 and lead 210 in it which are carcinogenic. So the problem is I found that article on erowid (http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_health2.shtml), it was written from a pro-marijuana-relegalization perspective as stated so I was a bit skeptical.
Then I read the same thing on wikipedia about the polonium 210 stuff and I saw some articles.Then again those articles were quite old so I was wondering if there is more research done in this area and if anybodys know anything about it.

I also wonder why they don't change the growth process of tobacco if this is true, because it seems to be about the phosphates in the soil ??? Anybody?

 

[double ewe]

from what i've read, the theory on why marijuana doesn't cause cancer centers on the fact that cells damaged by marijuana smoke tend to die and slough off, whereas those damaged by tobacco tend to stay alive (but damaged) and continue reproducing. it's the reproduction of those damaged cells that's so dangerous, as that's where you're going to have mutated cells with a chance of turning cancerous.