Ying and Yang ?

Random Man says compare the following ...


Dear updaters

For those of us who didn't know, it appears that marijuana smoking may be bad for you.

The current Archives of Internal Medicine journal includes a free article describing a systematic review of the association of marijuana smoking withthe development of premalignant changes in the lung and lung cancer.

The resulting 19 studies included in the review found an association of marijuana smoking with increased tar exposure, alveolar macrophagetumoricidal dysfunction, increased oxidative stress, and bronchial mucosal histopathologic abnormalities compared with tobacco smokers or nonsmoking controls It can be accessed at:

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/

Dr Malcolm Dobbin
Senior Medical Adviser
Drugs Policy and Services



and the following



Dear Readers,

Thanks to Malcolm Dobbin for bringing Update readers' attention to this week's Archives of Internal Medicine. But the journal's brief, catchy, capitalized headline "The Association Between Marijuana Smoking and Lung Cancer" is contrary to their published article's findings for some reason.

In fact, the authors, after examining 19 rigorous studies, find that there was NO association between cannabis smoking and cancer.

So why would the journal imply in big letters that such an association exists?

The authors state: 'Therefore, we must conclude that no convincing evidence exists for an association between marijuana smoking and lung cancer based on existing data.' Many of us believe that there probably is an association between any smoked organic product and lung damage.

However, when 19 rigorous studies fail to show an association with cancer, we are entitled to conclude that the effect must be relatively small, and substantially less than the long accepted causation with tobacco.

The authors conclusions "is that physicians should advise patients regarding potential adverse health outcomes" of cannabis.

It would appear that politics even pervades peer reviewed journals.

Reefer madness is still with us! I note that the study and one of its authors were partially supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in America.

Further evidence of the disconnect between science and drug policy is that even the most serious scientists and clinicians in America still often use the slang term marijuana rather than the correct Latin cannabis or English Indian hemp.

Andrew Byrne ..

Mehra R, Moore BA, Crothers K, Tetrault J, Fiellin DA. The Association Between Marijuana Smoking and Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166:1359-1367