Marijuana smoking —“even heavy longterm use”— does not cause cancer of the lung, upper airways, or esophagus, Donald Tashkin, MD, reported at the 2005 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, MD, examined the files of some 64,000 Kaiser patients and found that marijuana users did not develop lung cancer at a higher rate or die earlier than non-users.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 20:39:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015