Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?

[tridim]

by Paul Armentano

Recently by Paul Armentano: Why Condemn Phelps, When We Ought to Condemn the Laws That Brand Him a Criminal

For 35 years the federal government has been well aware – yet publicly denied – that cannabis possesses potent anti-cancer and anti-tumor properties. Even under the Obama administration, which promised to "base public policies on the soundest of science," the myth that pot promotes cancer persists. In fact, the White House’s website, whitehousedrugpolicy.gov, presently warns, "Marijuana has the potential to promote cancer of the lungs and other parts of the respiratory tract."

Or not.

In a clinical abstract published online on journal of Cancer Prevention Research website in July, a team of U.S. investigators reported – with absolutely no mainstream media fanfare – that lifetime marijuana use is associated with a "significantly reduced risk" of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Investigators at Rhode Island’s Brown University, along with researchers at Boston University, Louisiana State University, and the University of Minnesota assessed the lifetime marijuana use habits of 434 cases (patients diagnosed with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma from nine medical facilities) compared to 547 matched controls.

Authors reported, "After adjusting for potential confounders (including smoking and alcohol drinking), 10 to 20 years of marijuana use was associated with a significantly reduced risk of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNDCC)."

Perhaps even more notably, subjects who smoked marijuana and consumed alcohol and tobacco (two known high-risk factors for head and neck cancers) also experienced a reduced risk of cancer, the study found.

"Our study suggests that moderate marijuana use is associated with reduced risk of HNSCC," investigators concluded. "This association was consistent across different measures of marijuana use (marijuana use status, duration, and frequency of use). ... Further, we observed that marijuana use modified the interaction between alcohol and cigarette smoking, resulting in a decreased HNSCC risk among moderate smokers and light drinkers, and attenuated risk among the heaviest smokers and drinkers."

Of course, this isn’t the first time that U.S. investigators have documented an inverse association between pot use and cancer. A separate 2006 population case-control study, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and conducted by the University of California at Los Angeles, also reported that lifetime use of cannabis was not positively associated with cancers of the lung or aerodigestive tract, and further noted that certain moderate users of the drug experienced a reduced cancer risk compared to non-using controls.

Much More: http://www.lewrockwell.com/armentano-p/armentano-p42.1.html

[Laura902]

1. Scientific American

scientific american. com, pot, in users over a certain age decreases the risk for other diseases

[bamacrat]

2. People are scared to be the first to seriously push for legalization.

If any random person can brew beer in their home why cant I grow a little pot? If large companies and microbrewers can make beer on a massive scale and promote it on TV why cant we have legal regulate weed with no advertising. Its safe, cleaner, better and more useful.

[Beeping Eyes]

3. More people (well, specifically teenagers) die from drinking than using pot.

And I too have always wondered why pot, which is less harmful than alcohol (statistically speaking) is illegal. That really, really doesn't make much sense. Maybe the only reason alcohol is legal is because the government's afraid of a repeat of the black market during the Prohibition? The whole thing's gotten ridiculous, I sincerely think it would benefit all if it was just made legal, both for the medical reasons and in general. On a recreational note, I am not a user of marijuana, but I do firmly believe that the smarter ones would either learn how to use marijuana responsibly, or simply destroy their lives with it (same thing with alcohol and cigarettes). Survival of the fittest. (I'm not trying to make a blanket statement, by the way, I actually am friends with some very responsible marijuana users). People learn better when they discover their own punishments and consequences than if a government distributes those for them. And they're less ashamed to get help with addiction if everything's out in the open, too.

Plus, it would bring in taxes.

So, again, no clue why they don't just make it legal.

But such is the strange agenda of our government.

[bamacrat]

4. The stupid thing is is there is a black market like there was during prohibition.

The government probably makes more off of arresting and imprisoning pot smokers than they would legalizing. It will happen Im sure I just hope it happens while Im still young enough to enjoy it.

[discocrisco01]

5. Alcohol Is More Dangerous Than Weed

DUIs kill a ton of people each year. Lands a bunch of drunks in the rooms that need to hear that they have no solution to life and they need a solution to life. Alcoholics are a scary bunch to be around. I used to be one and I am scared of doing that crap again.

Potheads are different things. Pot might make you little bit slow-minded but it does not kill people like alcohol especially with cars. And pot does not make people violent like alcohol does.

[BlueInMass]

6. nope

The government would make a LOT more if they were to legalize it. How much in the way of taxes do they make on Alhohol and Tobacco? Those are big winners for taxes.

Part of the reason that it is NOT moving toward legalization is BECAUSE of the Alcohol and Tobacco industries.

[Mike K]

8. There is no record in the annals of medical science -

- of anyone ever dying or being made sick from using unadulterated marijuana.

There are a few suspected cases of poisoning from marijuana use, but these are junk science findings based on federal records which fail to disclose the source of the suspect samples. One of the problems resulting from marijuana prohibition is that a substantial amount of bootleg "ditchweed" is contaminated by the growers with toxic pesticides and carcinogenic growth-inducing chemicals. One batch of seized bootleg marijuana had been grown in a toxic waste dump and was radioactive as well as contaminated with a number of deadly poisons.

And that is one very good reason to legalize it.

[Mike K]

7. Because if marijuana were legal -

- it would soon impact very significantly on the profits of a number of very influential lobbying entities, such as the liquor industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the paper industry, the cotton industry and the oil industry.

Consider:

Marijuana induces a much more satisfying effect than alcohol. It is not addictive. No one has ever died or been made sick from using it. It produces no hangover, nor can it be overdosed. And, as any experienced police officer will attest, it does not engender violent behavior. It would take a while for the public to realize all that and to discard the inhibition imparted by government propaganda over the past 75 years, but once the facts were known those industries would suffer substantial losses.

One of the most common and profitable prescription medications is Valium (generic diazapam), which is an addictive tranquilizer that manifests a number of negative side-effects. Marijuana is a far more effective tranquilizer than Valium, it is not addictive and the vast majority of users experience absolutely no side effects.

Legalized marijuana would promote the resumption of large scale hemp growth, which would pose a significant threat to the paper, cotton and oil industries. In fact, William Randolph Hearst was largely responsible for having the anti-marijuana Harrison Act passed in 1937 right after a process was invented for making paper from hemp -- because Hearst had just invested heavily in timber fields to supply his paper-making mills. Hearst used his newspaper empire as the initial source of the lies we continue to hear about marijuana today. He was the arch purveyor of Reefer Madness propaganda.

Add to above that hemp is a excellent source of an oil which converts to a highly efficient bio-fuel.

[MarshalltheIrish]

9. Bravo! Nailed all of it

A huge component of the so-called War on Drugs is the enormous amount of corporate complicity that's fueled it, such as the prison industry and pharmaceutical companies. They're really the only ones that benefit, while drug supplies soar and thousands of people are punished rather than effectively treated.

If needed, here are some damning statistics:

http://www.saferchoice.org/content/view/24/53/