Research at UCLA shows that while smoking marijuana damages cells in respiratory tissue but somehow it prevents the cells from becoming malignant. Something in Marijuana exerts an anti-cancer effect, reports UCLA Medical School professor Donald Tashkin. Tashkin’s team interviewed 1,210 cancer patients and found that increased marijuana use did not increase cancer, where as smoking tabacco clearly was related to cancer. Tashkin found that even the very heavy marijuana smokers showed no increased incidence of the three cancers studied. Although no association between marijuana and cancer was found, the study findings, presented to the American Thoracic Society International Conference this week, did find 20-fold increase in lung cancer among people who smoked two or more packs of cigarettes a day. Other important findings from this study are that THC has been shown to promote apoptosis and to counter angiogenesis.
Title: Smoking Marijuana Does Not Cause Lung Cancer
Author: Fred Gardner
Source: Alternet.org, Date; August 28, 2009
URL:Â www.alternet.org/story/142271
Student Researcher, Steven Rutherford
Community Evaluator: Sean Doherty
Sonoma State University:Â Sociology of Media, Fall 2009
Instructor: Peter Phillips, #26