Marijuana does not raise your risk of cancer
While a clear increase in cancer risk was seen among cigarette smokers in the study, no such association was seen for regular cannabis users.
Even very heavy, long-term marijuana users who had smoked more than 22,000 joints over a lifetime seemed to have no greater risk than infrequent marijuana users or nonusers.
The findings surprised the study’s researchers, who expected to see an increase in cancer among people who smoked marijuana regularly in their youth.
‘We know that there are as many or more carcinogens and co-carcinogens in marijuana smoke as in cigarettes,’ researcher Donald Tashkin, MD, of UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine tells WebMD. ‘But we did not find any evidence for an increase in cancer risk for even heavy marijuana smoking.’ Carcinogens are substances that cause cancer.
Tashkin presented the findings today at The American Thoracic Society’s 102nd International Conference, held in San Diego. The study population was limited to people who were younger than 60 because people older than that would probably not have used marijuana in their teens and early adult years.
‘People who may have smoked marijuana in their youth are just now getting to the age when cancers are being seen,’ Tashkin says.
A total of 611 lung cancer patients living in Los Angeles County, and 601 patients with other cancers of the head and neck were compared with 1,040 people without cancer matched for age, sex, and the neighborhood they lived in.
All the participants were asked about lifetime use of marijuana, tobacco, and alcohol, as well as other drugs, their diets, occupation, family history of lung cancer, and socioeconomic status. More.
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