Marijuana isn't as harmful as some misinformed people may think. A recent study has concluded that moderate smokers of the sticky green herb don't experience adverse pulmonary effects. This literally busts the myth that smoking cannabis has the same effect on your lungs as smoking tobacco products.
The study was conducted by ??UCSF among over 5,000 men and women, concluded that even frequent marijuana use only gives slight reactions to your lungs, and even then the effects are temporary. The lead expert in this study, Dr. Mark Pletcher, revealed that even he was surprised by the study's findings.
"That was a little surprising to me, honestly. I thought we were going to find a small decline in pulmonary function, similar to what we'd find with tobacco."
It's been long believed (falsely) by medical professionals that simply because smoking tobacco is dangerous, then therefore smoking any other plant material must be hazardous to one's lungs as well. This is just simply false, and this study's findings go down as a huge win for supporters of the decriminalization of marijuana.
So does that mean marijuana is safe?
Well, the experts in this study are "reluctant" to deem cannabis a safe substance for occasional or moderate recreational use. However, it seems that the proof is in the pudding. For several years people have been miseducated to believe that marijuana is addictive, harmful and even a "narcotic," which it isn't. There are even some people today who believe you can overdose on cannabis, and still believe that there are documented deaths that are attributed to its use. There aren't.
Hopefully more of these myth-busting studies come out to educate the masses that weed really isn't the drug menace taking over the nation. Ignorance is a menace, not a plant that actually is proven to have therapeutic and medicinal qualities with nearly zero side-effects.
So now there are plenty of studies that point out blatantly that cannabis is in no way near as harmful as alcohol or tobacco products. Yet these products are legal and even used on a daily basis by some of the same people who try to further perpetuate the myths that marijuana is harmful, addictive or lending to violence and other falsities.
Chelsea Hoffman is a prolific crime writer and fiction author with several works published. Her writing has been recognized by such entities as NBC Dateline and several others. Contact her directly by visiting ChelseaHoffman.Com.Or check out "Case to Case" on BlogTalkRadioevery Friday night at 9:00pm(PST)
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Comments: 19
The Bible says that in the latter days men would corrupt certain ones of the provisions nature has provided for us, and abuse the privileges of their substance. It also says they will be punished severely for it. And that is just what the US Federal "government" did, all for big underground profits, that is tax free. They created their great big "Drug War" which has been deceiving people for about a century now.n I say they need to be given the fight they keep begging for. They will lose. Not in a courtroom though, on the battle ground.
It just goes to show that all those "Christians" in DC aren't what they claim to be. But they have their day coming. And all the preachers that have been doing the same thing. The Bible also continuously emphasizes an importance of "firstfruits" and "firstborn" to "God" Such as: Jesus, His firstborn. The firstborn of the Israelites were spared, but the firstborn of their enemies, were killed. The firstfruits of the harvest were said to be Gods. And too, Jesus was the firstborn of the spirit beings. Adam, the first man, was created in the image of firstborn spirit, Jesus. And the first words to Adam was, "For behold, I give you every herb bearing seed which shall be to you as meat." Not I give you every cow, pig, and chicken to kill and cook and eat, and have heartburn, because it doesn't digest properly. It was after the ground was cursed that animal meat became so famous. Yeah it's true that in the Bible, still, "God" ruled over the eating of animal meat, but after all, he also had already told them they were cursed.
* ANTI-TUMOR EFFECTS
One study in mice and rats suggested that cannabinoids may have a protective effect against the development of certain types of tumors. During this 2-year study, groups of mice and rats were given various doses of THC by gavage. A dose-related decrease in the incidence of hepatic adenoma tumors and hepatocellular carcinoma was observed in the mice. Decreased incidences of benign tumors (polyps and adenomas) in other organs (mammary gland, uterus, pituitary, testis, and pancreas) were also noted in the rats. In another study, delta-9-THC, delta-8-THC, and cannabinol were found to inhibit the growth of Lewis lung adenocarcinoma cells in vitro and in vivo. In addition, other tumors have been shown to be sensitive to cannabinoid-induced growth inhibition.
Cannabinoids may cause antitumor effects by various mechanisms, including induction of cell death, inhibition of cell growth, and inhibition of tumor angiogenesis and metastasis. Cannabinoids appear to kill tumor cells but do not affect their nontransformed counterparts and may even protect them from cell death. These compounds have been shown to induce apoptosis in glioma cells in culture and induce regression of glioma tumors in mice and rats. Cannabinoids protect normal glial cells of astroglial and oligodendroglial lineages from apoptosis mediated by the CB1 receptor.
In an in vivo model using severe combined immunodeficient mice, subcutaneous tumors were generated by inoculating the animals with cells from human non-small cell lung carcinoma cell lines. Tumor growth was inhibited by 60% in THC-treated mice compared with vehicle-treated control mice. Tumor specimens revealed that THC had antiangiogenic and antiproliferative effects.
* ANTI-INFLAMMATORY EFFECTS
In addition, both plant-derived and endogenous cannabinoids have been studied for anti- inflammatory effects. A mouse study demonstrated that endogenous cannabinoid system signaling is likely to provide intrinsic protection against colonic inflammation. As a result, a hypothesis that phytocannabinoids and endocannabinoids may be useful in the prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer has been developed.
* ANTIVIRAL PROPERTIES
Another study has shown delta-9-THC is a potent and selective antiviral agent against Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), also known as human herpesvirus 8. The researchers concluded that additional studies on cannabinoids and herpesviruses are warranted, as they may lead to the development of drugs that inhibit the reactivation of these oncogenic viruses. Subsequently, another group of investigators reported increased efficiency of KSHV infection of human dermal microvascular epithelial cells in the presence of low doses of delta-9-THC.
* APPETITE STIMULATOR
Many animal studies have previously demonstrated that delta-9-THC and other cannabinoids have a stimulatory effect on appetite and increase food intake. It is believed that the endogenous cannabinoid system may serve as a regulator of feeding behavior. The endogenous cannabinoid anandamide potently enhances appetite in mice. Moreover, CB1 receptors in the hypothalamus may be involved in the motivational or reward aspects of eating.
* AS A PAIN KILLER
Understanding the mechanism of cannabinoid-induced analgesia has been increased through the study of cannabinoid receptors, endocannabinoids, and synthetic agonists and antagonists. The CB1 receptor is found in both the central nervous system (CNS) and in peripheral nerve terminals. Similar to opioid receptors, increased levels of the CB1 receptor are found in sections of the brain that regulate nociceptive processing. CB2 receptors, located predominantly in peripheral tissue, exist at very low levels in the CNS. With the development of receptor-specific antagonists, additional information about the roles of the receptors and endogenous cannabinoids in the modulation of pain has been obtained.
Cannabinoids may also contribute to pain modulation through an anti-inflammatory mechanism; a CB2 effect with cannabinoids acting on mast cell receptors to attenuate the release of inflammatory agents, such as histamine and serotonin, and on keratinocytes to enhance the release of analgesic opioids has been described.
The American Public Health Association, American Nurses Association, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, National Academy of HIV Medicine, two former U.S. surgeon generals, and hundreds of other medical professional groups all say that marijuana should be available to patients whose doctors recommend it.
It may also help me to get charges brought against the "officials" "governing" this country, or at least many of them, when I put it together with the mountain of evidence I have at my discretion proving their involvement with trafficking and distribution of every kind of "drug" there is - against their own laws, and proclaimed civil moral obligations and principals.
Could you please post that web address again. The editor isn't loading the full parameters of your post and you didn't link it to click on.
Unless you're saying we'd buy weed in "packs" like cigarettes. That's not how it works. It's already legal for medicinal use and that's not even how it works ;)
Think about it. 20 joints would be like $200 worth of moderate to high grade marijuana. Nobody is going to spend $200.00 a pack of rolled smokes, and no manufacturer is going to put forth that kind of overhead. It makes no sense ;) lol
Not everyone can breastfeed either so being against baby formula is like being FOR baby starvation. Have fun with that. But I'm sure you knew that. ;)
And for your info, I recently went to my doctor and was given five pages of prescriptions, three on each page, except one had only two. I came home and looked up info on them and found a medical research report that was done to determine the number of deaths caused by those and many other "legal" drugs, since 1972. The report also listed the Medical prescription THC (tetra hyde cannibinal) pill. The deaths the report found for all the prescriptions listed had a number of deaths, most over 100, many over 200, except for the THC pill, which had a total of ZERO.
Get educated, then comment with actual knowledge.
It's TOO easy to grow for that to become a widespread issue, I think. I mean.. You can just toss the seeds out your window and in a couple of weeks you have sprouts. It's just THAT easy to grow. So unless the gov. starts pumping all of our soils with chemicals, I don't think that would be an issue.
I get what you're saying though.
http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/91/14/1194
2) Cannabis (marijuana) use is associated with a DECREASE in several types of cancer... potentially even providing a protective effect against tobacco and alcohol related cancer development.
Donald Tashkin, a UCLA researcher whose work is funded by NIDA, did a case-control study comparing 1,200 patients with lung, head and neck cancers to a matched group with no cancer. Even the heaviest marijuana smokers had no increased risk of cancer, and had somewhat lower cancer risk than non-smokers (tobacco smokers had a 20-fold increased lung cancer risk). Tashkin D. Marijuana Use and Lung Cancer: Results of a Case-Control Study. American Thoracic Society International Conference. May 23, 2006.
Researchers at the Kaiser-Permanente HMO, funded by NIDA, followed 65,000 patients for nearly a decade, comparing cancer rates among non-smokers, tobacco smokers, and marijuana smokers. Tobacco smokers had massively higher rates of lung cancer and other cancers. Marijuana smokers who didn't also use tobacco had no increase in risk of tobacco-related cancers or of cancer risk overall. In fact their rates of lung and most other cancers were slightly lower than non-smokers, though the difference did not reach statistical significance. Sidney, S. et al. Marijuana Use and Cancer Incidence (California, United States). Cancer Causes and Control. Vol. 8. Sept. 1997, p. 722-728.