Your thoughts on Cannabis and its "Illegal" status?

[Dougella]

^ I don't think you can suggest that without significant evidence. Certainly for medicinal use I think people just want a safe legal way of using it.

[wez]

Cannabis should be legal, i use it and i dont class myself as a criminal, so.. what were we talking about again?.. mmm cereal.

[Lifeisagame]

Originally Posted by Legion

15 second googling. http://oehha.ca.gov/media/downloads/...mjsmokehid.pdf

Source - http://herb.co/2016/01/18/marijuana-...-cause-cancer/


Hal Morgenstern is an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan and said this in a recent study about marijuana vs tobacco,

“When you think about people smoking 20-40 cigarettes a day for 40 years, they’re smoking hundreds of thousands of cigarettes. The exposure that marijuana users get… is more than a magnitude of difference less.”

Exactly!

Other studies in the connections between marijuana and lung cancer have investigated an often overlooked difference between marijuana and tobacco. Special compounds in marijuana have been shown to have anti-cancer effects.This may be the reason why marijuana users are unlikely to develop lung cancer, says Donald P. Tashkin, a lung specialist from the University of California. “

The THC in marijuana has well-defined anti-tumoral effects that have been shown to inhibit the growth of a variety of cancers in animal models and tissue culture systems, thus counteracting the potentially tumorigenic effects of the procarcinogens in marijuana smoke.”

In fact, one of Dr. Tashkin’s original 2006 studies found that while heavy tobacco smokers experienced up to a 20-fold increase in lung cancer risk, the most frequent users of cannabis were no more likely to develop lung cancer than the average person. So with everything in today’s world that can cause cancer, it’s a big relief that marijuana isn’t among them.

So here, you can begin to see the difference between smoking weed and smoking tobacco. As far as my research found no one has contracted lung cancer from smoking weed alone.

[Lifeisagame]

Originally Posted by winter*

Cannabis should be illegal , if not anything , for the vile smell

Hehe Lovely smell :-P

[firemonkey]

CANNABIS USE AND RISK OF LUNG CANCER: A CASE-CONTROL STUDY
Sarah Aldington,1 Matire Harwood,1 Brian Cox,2 Mark Weatherall,3 Lutz Beckert,1 Anna Hansell,4 Alison Pritchard,1 Geoffrey Robinson,1 and Richard Beasley1,5, On behalf of the Cannabis and Respiratory Disease Research Group
Author information ***9658; Copyright and License information ***9658;
The publisher's final edited version of this article is available free at Eur Respir J
See other articles in PMC that cite the published article.
Go to:
Abstract
Aim:

To determine the risk of lung cancer associated with cannabis smoking.
Methods:

A case-control study of lung cancer in adults ***8804;55 years of age was conducted in eight district health boards in New Zealand. Cases were identified from the New Zealand Cancer Registry and hospital databases. Controls were randomly selected from the electoral roll, with frequency matching to cases in 5-year age groups and district health boards. Interviewer administered questionnaires were used to assess possible risk factors including cannabis use. The relative risk of lung cancer associated with cannabis smoking was estimated by logistic regression.
Results:

There were 79 cases of lung cancer and 324 controls. The risk of lung cancer increased 8% (95% CI 2% to 15%) for each joint-year of cannabis smoking, after adjustment for confounding variables including cigarette smoking, and 7% (95% CI 5% to 9%) for each pack-year of cigarette smoking, after adjustment for confounding variables including cannabis smoking. The highest tertile of cannabis use was associated with an increased risk of lung cancer RR=5.7 (95% CI 1.5 to 21.6), after adjustment for confounding variables including cigarette smoking.
Conclusions:

Long term cannabis use increases the risk of lung cancer in young adults.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2516340/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27573646

[Cannabis smoking and lung cancer].
[Article in French]
Underner M1, Urban T2, Perriot J3, de Chazeron I4, Meurice JC5.
Author information
Abstract

Cannabis is the most commonly smoked illicit substance in the world. It can be smoked alone in plant form (marijuana) but it is mainly smoked mixed with tobacco. The combined smoking of cannabis and tobacco is a common-place phenomenon in our society. However, its use is responsible for severe pulmonary consequences. The specific impact of smoking cannabis is difficult to assess precisely and to distinguish from the effect of tobacco. Marijuana smoke contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and carcinogens at higher concentration than tobacco smoke. Cellular, tissue, animal and human studies, and also epidemiological studies, show that marijuana smoke is a risk factor for lung cancer. Cannabis exposure doubles the risk of developing lung cancer. This should encourage clinicians to identify cannabis use and to offer patients support in quitting.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25012035


Marijuana use and risk of lung cancer: a 40-year cohort study.
Callaghan RC1, Allebeck P, Sidorchuk A.
Author information
Abstract
PURPOSE:

Cannabis (marijuana) smoke and tobacco smoke contain many of the same potent carcinogens, but a critical-yet unresolved-medical and public-health issue is whether cannabis smoking might facilitate the development of lung cancer. The current study aimed to assess the risk of lung cancer among young marijuana users.
METHODS:

A population-based cohort study examined men (n = 49,321) aged 18-20 years old assessed for cannabis use and other relevant variables during military conscription in Sweden in 1969-1970. Participants were tracked until 2009 for incident lung cancer outcomes in nationwide linked medical registries. Cox regression modeling assessed relationships between cannabis smoking, measured at conscription, and the hazard of subsequently receiving a lung cancer diagnosis.
RESULTS:

At the baseline conscription assessment, 10.5 % (n = 5,156) reported lifetime use of marijuana and 1.7 % (n = 831) indicated lifetime use of more than 50 times, designated as "heavy" use. Cox regression analyses (n = 44,284) found that such "heavy" cannabis smoking was significantly associated with more than a twofold risk (hazard ratio 2.12, 95 % CI 1.08-4.14) of developing lung cancer over the 40-year follow-up period, even after statistical adjustment for baseline tobacco use, alcohol use, respiratory conditions, and socioeconomic status.
CONCLUSION:

Our primary finding provides initial longitudinal evidence that cannabis use might elevate the risk of lung cancer. In light of the widespread use of marijuana, especially among adolescents and young adults, our study provides important data for informing the risk-benefit calculus of marijuana smoking in medical, public-health, and drug-policy settings.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23846283


Then there are articles saying the link is inconclusive or non existent. Should health officials err on the side of caution or not?

[Rockysocks]

Originally Posted by Lifeisagame

Pretty much. If it we're really all that bad then you wouldn't have so many US states legalizing it. Or countries decriminilizing it etc. But that is it. It is the way some people like to unwind after work as a pose to partaking in binge drinking. That is me anyway.

I'd rather more people had a few joints at the weekend than go out and abuse booze and end up being taken to A&E unconscious. That happened to me once at 18 but I got taken home I was found on the street.

that is how easy it is to abuse booze I could have died. Of course my fault, but it just shows how anyone can near enough kill themselves with booze.

It's silly how much money is wasted at weekends on police and health just to sort people out because they've drank too much. That they put little portable medical centres in cities to sort out drunk people.

I'm in Sydney and while I have chosen to not drink more than the odd glass at home these days, the city has super strict drink rules, such as no shots after midnight. They have lock out laws that have just been relaxed a little, think it's 2am now. Alcohol isn't quite as readily available, only Aldi sells alcohol, other supermarkets don't.

I think most people who went out often have been that level of scary-drunk with blackouts, vomiting, complete loss of control. The stigma around weed is insane since you can smoke and smoke it and only feel dizzy momentarily ***55357;***56885;

[Lifeisagame]

Originally Posted by firemonkey

CANNABIS USE AND RISK OF LUNG CANCER: A CASE-CONTROL STUDY
Sarah Aldington,1 Matire Harwood,1 Brian Cox,2 Mark Weatherall,3 Lutz Beckert,1 Anna Hansell,4 Alison Pritchard,1 Geoffrey Robinson,1 and Richard Beasley1,5, On behalf of the Cannabis and Respiratory Disease Research Group
Author information ***9658; Copyright and License information ***9658;
The publisher's final edited version of this article is available free at Eur Respir J
See other articles in PMC that cite the published article.
Go to:
Abstract
Aim:

To determine the risk of lung cancer associated with cannabis smoking.
Methods:

A case-control study of lung cancer in adults ***8804;55 years of age was conducted in eight district health boards in New Zealand. Cases were identified from the New Zealand Cancer Registry and hospital databases. Controls were randomly selected from the electoral roll, with frequency matching to cases in 5-year age groups and district health boards. Interviewer administered questionnaires were used to assess possible risk factors including cannabis use. The relative risk of lung cancer associated with cannabis smoking was estimated by logistic regression.
Results:

There were 79 cases of lung cancer and 324 controls. The risk of lung cancer increased 8% (95% CI 2% to 15%) for each joint-year of cannabis smoking, after adjustment for confounding variables including cigarette smoking, and 7% (95% CI 5% to 9%) for each pack-year of cigarette smoking, after adjustment for confounding variables including cannabis smoking. The highest tertile of cannabis use was associated with an increased risk of lung cancer RR=5.7 (95% CI 1.5 to 21.6), after adjustment for confounding variables including cigarette smoking.
Conclusions:

Long term cannabis use increases the risk of lung cancer in young adults.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2516340/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27573646

[Cannabis smoking and lung cancer].
[Article in French]
Underner M1, Urban T2, Perriot J3, de Chazeron I4, Meurice JC5.
Author information
Abstract

Cannabis is the most commonly smoked illicit substance in the world. It can be smoked alone in plant form (marijuana) but it is mainly smoked mixed with tobacco. The combined smoking of cannabis and tobacco is a common-place phenomenon in our society. However, its use is responsible for severe pulmonary consequences. The specific impact of smoking cannabis is difficult to assess precisely and to distinguish from the effect of tobacco. Marijuana smoke contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and carcinogens at higher concentration than tobacco smoke. Cellular, tissue, animal and human studies, and also epidemiological studies, show that marijuana smoke is a risk factor for lung cancer. Cannabis exposure doubles the risk of developing lung cancer. This should encourage clinicians to identify cannabis use and to offer patients support in quitting.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25012035


Marijuana use and risk of lung cancer: a 40-year cohort study.
Callaghan RC1, Allebeck P, Sidorchuk A.
Author information
Abstract
PURPOSE:

Cannabis (marijuana) smoke and tobacco smoke contain many of the same potent carcinogens, but a critical-yet unresolved-medical and public-health issue is whether cannabis smoking might facilitate the development of lung cancer. The current study aimed to assess the risk of lung cancer among young marijuana users.
METHODS:

A population-based cohort study examined men (n = 49,321) aged 18-20 years old assessed for cannabis use and other relevant variables during military conscription in Sweden in 1969-1970. Participants were tracked until 2009 for incident lung cancer outcomes in nationwide linked medical registries. Cox regression modeling assessed relationships between cannabis smoking, measured at conscription, and the hazard of subsequently receiving a lung cancer diagnosis.
RESULTS:

At the baseline conscription assessment, 10.5 % (n = 5,156) reported lifetime use of marijuana and 1.7 % (n = 831) indicated lifetime use of more than 50 times, designated as "heavy" use. Cox regression analyses (n = 44,284) found that such "heavy" cannabis smoking was significantly associated with more than a twofold risk (hazard ratio 2.12, 95 % CI 1.08-4.14) of developing lung cancer over the 40-year follow-up period, even after statistical adjustment for baseline tobacco use, alcohol use, respiratory conditions, and socioeconomic status.
CONCLUSION:

Our primary finding provides initial longitudinal evidence that cannabis use might elevate the risk of lung cancer. In light of the widespread use of marijuana, especially among adolescents and young adults, our study provides important data for informing the risk-benefit calculus of marijuana smoking in medical, public-health, and drug-policy settings.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23846283


Then there are articles saying the link is inconclusive or non existent. Should health officials err on the side of caution or not?

So all that and all they can conclude is might? It doesn't sound too likely to me, just from smoking cannabis alone with no tobacco. The overwhelming evidence I have seen suggests the opposite.

I definitely think there are thorough risk assessments before legalizing weed. Look at Tobacco companies, they put brazen warnings on their cigarette packets - more or less stating you will die if you smoke this stuff - but people still do it. As long as they have the warnings they don't care after that. They know their products is addictive and most people can't stop...

Again, it is looking at the data we have currently. If we legalize weed, my view is that edibles will become very popular as people can then get high discretely, without having to blaze up... this is because of other people's perceptions of weed and the fact it is only recently made legal. So the public are still tentative about smoking in public, which makes sense, as previously you could have been stopped by police just for smoking a plant.

So let us look at edibles, they seem less harmful as you don't have to smoke the plant, you ingest it. I would prefer this method but it is not easily accessible and proves more expensive I think than smoking.

[Lifeisagame]

Originally Posted by pink_wafer

It's silly how much money is wasted at weekends on police and health just to sort people out because they've drank too much. That they put little portable medical centres in cities to sort out drunk people.

It is absolutely ridiculous, it's like a creche for adults, silly adults. By silly adults, I mean people who go out and deliberately get wasted with no consideration for their own health and others, I was one. Yes some people have an actual problem with alcohol and I appreciate they should be given help.

Originally Posted by pink_wafer

I'm in Sydney and while I have chosen to not drink more than the odd glass at home these days, the city has super strict drink rules, such as no shots after midnight. They have lock out laws that have just been relaxed a little, think it's 2am now. Alcohol isn't quite as readily available, only Aldi sells alcohol, other supermarkets don't.

Ah, that sounds like a great approach, it will also help young people see that the state is being responsible by implementing these laws. Or is it just the shops themselves making this decision off their own back?

Originally Posted by pink_wafer

I think most people who went out often have been that level of scary-drunk with blackouts, vomiting, complete loss of control. The stigma around weed is insane since you can smoke and smoke it and only feel dizzy momentarily ***65533;***65533;

It is ingrained deep within our culture. Look at adverts, football, movies, soap operas etc. They are all PRO booze, drink it when you're sad, drink it when you're mad, associate it with football, gambling etc. It is social conditioning at it's finest. But weed, oh no, imagine what would happen? People would be fighting more, crime would go through the roof, murders would go up 10 fold etc, so it's just not worth it.

Just look at the UK and US police shows, they are nearly always about buying weed grows lol. Making out that these plants are something bad, like tobacco maybe...

[Rockysocks]

^ unsure why 90% of alcohol to take home is sold in specific liquor shops, I'm guessing it's too much of a faff to get the necessary license to sell it but that's a guess. Australians always think they're big drinkers but I don't think they are at all compared to the British.

I used to get very drunk too, but usually would reach a point and start drinking water. Sometimes it is hard to know that point if you're having lots of fun or drinking very fast.

Considering for hundreds of years Brits have been into booze I can't see that changing too much but I hope in my lifetime I see the sale of weed.

[hollowone]

Cannabis certainly doesn't cause as many problems as alcohol,

Why can't there be smart shops in this country? Selling weed legitimately to young people might stem their curiosity from more hard and dangerous drugs (such as heroine, ecstacy and coke) and might help to keep black market dealers out of business. If they have to compete with big daddy state regulated market, they will not win, will not have ant status, have nothing.

Why is it that north Europeans (not just brits, but Scandinavians, Germans, Poles etc,) are so alcohol-centric?

RE the OP, marijuana should not be criminalized. People that get stoned are simply not as threatening and horrid as pissheads. I don't know the reason why this debate rages. Too many of us are too afraid to be assertive to the status-quo.

Regarding all substances, people should look at the root cause of what drives addictions and have an understanding thereof, not the symptoms. I think most authorities are either too ******** or scared to do just that, or too concerned about their silly little ego.

[Blandy-]

Ive never tried weed, have been tempted to (mainly because I know it can help with anxiety). I feel it should be legal but it will probably never happen. Not sure if this video has been posted already but its a 5 minute video that basically sums up the facts about weed and why it's illegal in the first place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXPOw2unxy0

[Angelina]

I don't like the smell of it but My thoughts on cannibis are that parts and strains of the plant have massive health benefits for cancer sufferers and Parkinson's disease and other conditions but the big pharmaceutical companies don't want us to know this because then they would lose billions or trillions of pounds through not selling their poisons like chemotherapy and radiotherapy which kills you anyway so the governments and elite did a deal to outlaw the bad plant thus preserving their riches. My thoughts on that

[Mr. Nobody]

as this is more or less a mental health forum, I'd have thought ideas of cannabis use would be few and far between,
actual personal experience counts for a lot I always feel, and I've been very close to the drug community for most of my teenage and young adult years,
I've seen what cannabis use does to people, the paranoia it causes, the bi-polar it causes, the general lack of interest in life it causes, the gradual mental deterioration it causes,
how people on a mental health forum can be seriously advocating it's use almost beggars belief.

[Angelina]

I'm not talking about the htc part that gets you high and causes other problems, I'm talking about other parts of the plant which can actually benefit and some say cure certain cancers and auto immune diseases which if true would be a lot better than being pumped full of radiation which is toxic to the body. Most medicine is derived from some kind of plant material, it's just that if cannibis was actually proven to cure these diseases it would be financially catastrophic for the big pharmaceutical companies and they certainly wouldn't want that would they?

[Angelina]

I was going to reply but looking at your other posts I can see it's totally pointless as nobody has a valid opinion only you. I think you just come on here to argue with people as you come across as very aggressive. My opinion

[umm]

Why is the legalisation of cannabis, or the use of it in medicine, such a divisive topic? It should surely go: we have medical problem X or societal conundrum Y. Can marijuana add anything? If no then fine. If yes then address A, B and C budgetary/political/health/personal/whatever else issues that are standing in the way, and move forward. It's curious that the debate is always conducted as if people's most treasured possessions are hanging on the outcome.

[umm]

Originally Posted by Legion

I have no tolerance for legalisation activists, drug addicts and stoners implying that, if only we were all like them, our dearest childhood friends and relatives who have succumbed to cancer would still be here.

I understand. But isn't this to do with smoking, rather than cannabis? Even so, is this really the worst of the worst of humanity? I mean, surely there are people more deserving of intolerance - assuming they are in fact implying what you say, rather than having it inferred.

[David K]

Originally Posted by Angelina

I'm not talking about the htc part that gets you high and causes other problems, I'm talking about other parts of the plant which can actually benefit and some say cure certain cancers and auto immune diseases which if true would be a lot better than being pumped full of radiation which is toxic to the body. Most medicine is derived from some kind of plant material, it's just that if cannibis was actually proven to cure these diseases it would be financially catastrophic for the big pharmaceutical companies and they certainly wouldn't want that would they?

Chemotherapy saved my mum's life recently. A friend of mine would have died in his mid-thirties if he hadn't had chemotherapy. Yes, it's toxic to the body. It's supposed to be. When you have cancer you are being killed by your own mutating cells. The only cure is to eliminate those cells, and if they can't be cut out they have to be nuked.

People die when they believe what 'some say' instead of what is proven to work. Yes, big pharmaceutical companies often behave in highly immoral ways, but the primary concern of doctors is saving lives and they will use whatever is proven to be effective.

Originally Posted by umm

I understand. But isn't this to do with smoking, rather than cannabis? Even so, is this really the worst of the worst of humanity? I mean, surely there are people more deserving of intolerance - assuming they are in fact implying what you say, rather than having it inferred.

He's referring to the claim that cannabis cures cancer, which is absolute honking baloney, and puts people's lives at risk.

[umm]

Originally Posted by David K

He's referring to the claim that cannabis cures cancer, which is absolute honking baloney, and puts people's lives at risk.

Ah right gotcha. That'll teach me to jump in.

[firemonkey]

Originally Posted by Carbon(cycle)Fodder

as this is more or less a mental health forum, I'd have thought ideas of cannabis use would be few and far between,
actual personal experience counts for a lot I always feel, and I've been very close to the drug community for most of my teenage and young adult years,
I've seen what cannabis use does to people, the paranoia it causes, the bi-polar it causes, the general lack of interest in life it causes, the gradual mental deterioration it causes,
how people on a mental health forum can be seriously advocating it's use almost beggars belief.

I think to some degree that is because not many people here have experienced psychosis or drug induced psychosis.

[David K]

Originally Posted by Legion

My greatest intolerance is reserved for everyone involved in the sale of alternative medicine which claims to cure cancer.

Oh and those lefties. Just look at Corbo's beard! Dreadful!

Beards cure cancer.

[Mr. Nobody]

Originally Posted by firemonkey

I think to some degree that is because not many people here have experienced psychosis or drug induced psychosis.

it's pretty common amongst people who actually use cannabis,
of the few dozen people I knew taking it, several now have mental health issues which have basically ruined their lives,

just seemed a bit frivolous to have so much chat about something people have no experience of though?

as people (on here) with mental health issues, I'd say that we really need to nurture and cherish what little sanity and mental fortitude we have left,
taking (non-medicinal) cannabis seems to be being unnecessarily reckless with your sanity,...
our brains are incredibly sensitive, intricate, fragile things,.. we need to care for, nurture, and look after them.

[Lifeisagame]

By the way I've never said weed cures cancer...

[firemonkey]

"Synthetic marijuana" may cause serious harm to heath.


http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/315634.php

[firemonkey]

"Access to Cannabis Should Not Occur Prior to Age 21, according to a position statement by the Canadian Consortium for Early Intervention in Psychosis "

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/access...183401914.html