STUDY FINDS NO LINK BETWEEN POT, CANCER The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even heavily and regularly, does not lead to lung cancer. The new findings "were against our expectations," said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years. "We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use," he said. "What we found instead was no association and a suggestion of some protective effect." Federal officials have widely used Tashkin's previous work on marijuana to make the case that the drug is dangerous. Tashkin said he still believes marijuana is potentially harmful, but its cancer-causing effects appear to be of less concern than previously thought. Marijuana contains the chemical THC, which may keep cells from becoming cancerous.

Pubdate: Fri, 26 May 2006 Source: Register-Guard, The (OR) Copyright: 2006 The Washington Post Contact: rgletters@guardnet.com Website: http://www.registerguard.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Donald+Tashkin Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana) __________________________________________________________________________ Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake