davidle@microsoft.UUCP (David LEVINE) (01/17/90)
Does anybody know what studies have been done in the last five years or so on the health risks of chronic marijuana smoking? Back in the seventies, much of the literature was pretty bogus. The most popular accusation was "smoking pot causes cerebral atrophy". This was "proven" by the Cambell study published in the British medical journal "The Lancet". It had twenty study subjects with no control group. They were all mental patients with a history of poly-drug use. Several had significant head injuries. I'm wondering if there is some more recent (and hopefully more accurate) information. I don't want to justify current laws, just to be a bit better informed of the dangers from a practice that is very widespread. Anybody? David Levine ===================================================== === The opinions expressed above are entirely mine == =====================================================
honig@ics.uci.edu (David A. Honig) (01/17/90)
In article <10296@microsoft.UUCP> davidle@microsoft.UUCP (David LEVINE) writes: >Does anybody know what studies have been done in the last five years or >so on the health risks of chronic marijuana smoking? There have been serious studies of chronic mj smoking populations in Jamaica and Costa Rica (likely elsewhere to, but I can only recall these places). They found no difference with control popuulations in terms of health, family life, productivity, mental acuity, apathy, etc. You might want to look up Andrew Weil's studies (among the first) which found *no* reliable symptom, psychic or somatic, of cannibis intoxication except for red eyes and slight bp changes. This is outlined in either "The marriage of sun and moon" or "the natural mind" --I think the latter. There is an obvious hazard in smoking anything and there may be a tendancy towards bronchitis and other respitory problems. Water pipes and more potent combustables help. -- David A. Honig "Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin." ---John Von Neumann
MCBRIDE@AUVM.BITNET (John D. L. McBride) (01/17/90)
I remember reading about a couple of studies that were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, mid-to-late eighties (I think). According to the studies, memory loss and "cerebral atrophy" did not occur. Chromosomal breakage did not occur. Lowered sperm count and lessened sex drive (in males) did occur *while* under the influence, but returned to normal shortly after. The major dangers, of course, were lung cancer and other cardio-pulmonary disease. Of course, that's the same as smoking tobacco, and is probably the result of inhaling the non-THC components of the smoke. I will look up the cites when I get home and will post them later... -J
anoop@svax.cs.cornell.edu (Anoop Kumar Mangalick) (01/19/90)
In article <90017.090841MCBRIDE@AUVM.BITNET> MCBRIDE@AUVM.BITNET (John D. L. McBride) writes: >I remember reading about a couple of studies that were published in >the New England Journal of Medicine, mid-to-late eighties (I think). >According to the studies, memory loss and "cerebral atrophy" did not >occur. Chromosomal breakage did not occur. Lowered sperm count and >lessened sex drive (in males) did occur *while* under the influence, >but returned to normal shortly after. The major dangers, of course, >were lung cancer and other cardio-pulmonary disease. Of course, that's >the same as smoking tobacco, and is probably the result of inhaling >the non-THC components of the smoke. I will look up the cites when >I get home and will post them later... > >-J Are postings like these meant to reassure people or just to be informative? I personally am not too concerned with hazards which are comparable to those found in everyday life, like eating, breathing, sleeping, living, etc. As for lowered sperm count, it's nice to know that marijuana probably does not have such an effect, but I probably would go on smoking anyway if I knew that it did have such an effect. I'm interested to know how people feel about these hazards and how they rate the undesirability of hazards versus the desirability of smoking marijuana. anoop