cannabisnews.com: Medicinal Pot Smoke Dangerous, MDs Say










  Medicinal Pot Smoke Dangerous, MDs Say

Posted by FoM on January 24, 2002 at 08:14:16 PT
By Daniel Leblanc 
Source: Globe and Mail 

Marijuana smoke is dangerous, and the federal government should not allow the use of pipes, joints or bongs (a type of pipe) when it is taken for medicinal purposes, a doctors' group said yesterday.Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada said the government is being irresponsible in distributing marijuana without proving that the medical benefits outweigh the health risks.
The organization said it was raising the issue because the government was not only permitting marijuana use by patients with terminal illnesses but by those with chronic illnesses.Diseases for which the drug has been used range from AIDS to epilepsy to arthritis."Smoke is a very dirty drug-delivery system," PSC's Jim Walker said at a news conference.Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada said that marijuana contains numerous cancer-causing agents and more tar than tobacco does.The group added that marijuana is used differently than tobacco; more smoke is inhaled and held longer in the lungs.The group wants the new federal Health Minister, Anne McLellan, to change Health Canada's policy. It said that marijuana can be delivered through pills, patches, capsules and baked goods. The group sent a plate of brownies -- without marijuana -- to Ms. McLellan."I hope as you enjoy the brownies, you can reflect on the availability of safer forms of marijuana use," Atul Kapur, president of the group, said in a letter to the minister."I am confident that once you have reviewed this issue, you will share our view that providing marijuana [for smoking] to Canadian patients and subjects in experimental trials is inappropriate."Health Canada, which has been permitting marijuana to be grown in an abandoned mine in Manitoba for use by persons who obtain special permission on medical grounds, said it is looking for more information on the benefits and the risks associated with marijuana."The intention of this is a compassionate measure," Health Canada spokesman Andrew Swift said.He said that Health Canada is giving access to marijuana to sick people who feel that other drugs are not working."They and their doctors have both said that this is the avenue that they want to pursue."Glen Hillson of B.C.'s Persons with AIDS Society said that because of a liver condition, he cannot ingest marijuana. He said that's why he has fallen back on smoking it."It's not risk-free, but I don't know of any drug that is risk-free," he said. Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)Author: Daniel LeblancPublished: Thursday, January 24, 2002 – Print Edition, Page A10Copyright: 2002 The Globe and Mail CompanyContact: letters globeandmail.caWebsite: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Health Canadahttp://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmDoctors Cautioned When Prescribing Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11823.shtmlPot On Back Burner http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11797.shtml

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Comment #12 posted by Ethan Russo MD on January 24, 2002 at 13:09:28 PT:
Here is a Bigger Target
These folks have a PDF at their WWW site:http://www.smoke-free.ca/pdf_1/psc-position-on-marijuana.PDFIt suffers the usual problems of inadequate review, and selective application thereof. I suspect CNews readers will wish to set the authors straight on various points.
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Comment #11 posted by E_Johnson on January 24, 2002 at 12:18:45 PT
Sue NIDA! THC inhibition of lung cancer
By the way, Tashkin's research means that NIDA actually has proof now that higher ptency pot is less dangerous to the lungs. They have proof that they are forcing the more dangerous option on medical marijuana participants.Tashkin's research shows that the carcinogen-inhibiting effects of THC are dose dependent and that means the more THC in the tar, the less carcinogenic the tar will be, because there are more THC molecules available to block the aryl hydrocarbin receptors in the lung tissue.So perhaps NIDA could be suded by the patients in the UCSD trial who are being forced by them to smoke low potency marijuana when NIDA easily could have grown them high potency marijuana that would provably be less dangerous for the lungs.This agency is abusing sick people. Why should they be allowed to get away with doing something like that? Sue them. The facts are not on their side at all.
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Comment #10 posted by Sam Adams on January 24, 2002 at 12:13:58 PT
Prehistoric Man
All of the semi-fossilized people they've dug up from glaciers & permafrost have had significant deposits of tar & resins in their lungs, presumably from huddling near campfires for warmth & cooking.Too bad the Canadian Doctors, Government, Police, and Prosecutors weren't around then to help them realize the error of their ways! In 2002, you must die only of government-approved diseases and bad living habits. Repeat after me: OD on McDonald's beef & oil-soaked fries: Good! Smoke cannabis for your cancer or AIDS: BAD!
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Comment #9 posted by E_Johnson on January 24, 2002 at 11:55:28 PT
Their ignorance ignores very interesting science
I don't know why people aren't more interested in this research by Tashkin that showed that THC blocks the activity of the carcinogen-metabolizing enzyme in lung cells:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11245634&dopt=AbstractThis is pretty damned interesting science on its own merits I think.How does THC know how to do all of these different things? Pretty damned interesting science. With some amazing implications I think for the general role of THC in cancer suppression.Well this really shows how lazy, corrupt and amoral the entire American science establishment has become, when there is really interesting science being done that NOBODY knows about because it doesn't get reported because it isn't politically correct.Whatever happened to curiousity? Whatever happened to standards? Whatever happened to caring about the diffrence between what is true and what is not?
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Comment #8 posted by DdC on January 24, 2002 at 11:51:22 PT
Cannabis Less Fattening Taste Great
Cannabis has been discovered to help in obesity cases which is more of a processing dysfunction than "fattening", sugar isn't good so I toke more than I eat. Seniors I treat, love the hempseed peanut butter chocolate chip ganja cookies, but I usually give it in teaspoon dosages of 100 ML milk, tad butter, simmer a while, don't boil. I found by mistake it also preserves the milk, probably with its anti-oxident properties that also help in brain damage treatment caused by trauma from glutimates swelling, also found in Glaucoma. Also as an anthrax anti-biotic and as Israel is using it for serin nerve gas protection. MS, Parkinson, Asthma or Cancer symptoms and Pharm treatment side effects, but no profits in preventing them. The nutrition comes from the seed. That is in competition with the Bushit meat and frankenfoods and the seed is 25-30% oil so that bothers the ViPDick's Crude people or is it the crude dick people? Justy too damn versatile and too many profits on the war itself...If it was only about me toking a fatty, which I am going to do regardless of any stinking badges as I have since the past fascist uprising under Nexxon thru Rayguns Bushit. Its only the poor and sick that get shafted while the Monsanto Enronmentalist kill the planet for profits, creating disease to sell fixes and treatment for, and crude oil plastic technology to monitor the preserved bodies outliving their minds but still supplying the greed of the Bayer UpJohn Lillies. Prisons $trillion dollar sales manufacturing laws to keep up with production. Pharm aids made from FARM aids, converted pestoherbofertolizers and instead of HAZMAT, sell it as dentrafice. While the heathern weed is outlawed because its a natural expectorant. Pharms make killings, FARMs get killed, while children starve the seed's made illegal, while wars are fought protecting crude and nukes the hemp car travels un-noticed. When all we worry about is what the Bushit media tells us, then blame our ills on the potheads or fill in the blanks as History is a Lie agreed upon, no one will care or think. The BoR has gone away and everyone thinks its about my jay, or my right to toke it as a healthy person I must be joking. Not impotent or related who cares if someone's blazing? Hampsters fighting the sicksters and the healthy stoners while the sick fight back with the same stigma used by WoD Junkie cross burners. Farmworkers poisoned on cottons 1/4 million tons of rotton chemicals shunning involvement like the so-called anti- fascist, the Horowitz Headwaters profits clearcutting old growth hemp could replace, more bankster scamming devistation like before with Kneil Bush, Keating and McCain, Compassionate Conservatives, Long haired red neck, Military Intelligence, Sense of Congress or President Bushit, all oxy morons needing air. Before the church signed a concordence, today its WoD business as usual, denying all the major religions billowing clouds of smoke from incense made with hashish I guess they all pulled Klintoons, hours at a time. The majority of cannabis eradicated with Monsanto poisons in the midwest and Appalachian states is non-psychoactive wild ditchweed, while cannabis, the Keystone of WoD and WoD the main coarse of today's fascism gets shelved for another Oprah soap opera news or advertizments inbetween dead tree filler. Costa Rica or Jamaican test say its not the same as tobacco, with its 650 chemicals added, as well the pollution caused by the nonrenewables does more harm than toking ganja. Well I see by the time machine its just about 4:20...someplace! ¶8)
Peace, Love and Liberty
DdCMaintaining Dysfunction
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionstuff.showMessage?topicID=142.topicThe Elkhorn Manifesto
http://www.sumeria.net/politics/shadv3.html
Cannabis Hemp: The Invisible Prohibition Revealed
http://www.sumeria.net/politics/invpro.htmlProhibitionist Deceptions
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionprohibitionistwodjunkies.showMessage?topicID=43.topic          
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Comment #7 posted by goneposthole on January 24, 2002 at 10:15:44 PT

What is inappropriate 
is that they have not done their homework.They've been on their jobs too long.
http://www.thecompassionclub.org/library/tumors.html
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on January 24, 2002 at 09:38:39 PT

Smoke
Our society has been conditioned to be offended by smoking. I know smoking can cause harm to a person's lungs but so can living in cities that spew out ick in the air from factories. I couldn't believe the air quality when we drove cross country over Route 10. Those refineries made me sick. What about pollution being dangerous? Gary, Indiana is unbelievable when they are doing something in the steel mills. You can visibly see the smoke as you drive. They pick on what they want and do nothing about what could be causing cancer and other respiratory diseases around big industrial cities.
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Comment #5 posted by Clint Werner on January 24, 2002 at 09:34:51 PT:

cannabis benefits lung function
The "Smoke Free" association is profoundly ignorant of the clinical data which completely refutes any suggestion that cannabis is harmful to lung function.
Tashkin, NIDA's paid cannabis/lung function researcher, discovered that tobacco smokers who use cannabis develope less emphysema than tobacco smokers alone. I asked him about that and he could not claim that it was by displacement, the tobacco and cannabis smokers did not smoke less tobacco than the tobacco only smokers. Thus ther seems to be a very clear prophylaxis quality for cannabinoids against obstructive lung disease.(Am. Journal of Respatory Care Medicine, 155: p.141, 1997.)
Steve Sidney, M.D. in an enormous survey of cannabis, and tobacco smokers and nonsmokers, found that the cannabis only smokers developed NO lung cancer over a ten year period! None, less than the control group who never smoked anything!! Sorry, the citation for that is not right at hand but it's a rcent huge cohort survey, thousands of subjects.
Tashkin also found that cannabis smoke is beneficial for asthmatics, early or mid 70s.
The B.S. about lung function is a ruse. Inhaled pentamadine is a viable medicine for AIDS patients, inhalation is by far the most efficient route of administration for cannabinoids. The feds tried to get an inhaled version, by aerosol, didn't work, THC is too tacky, sticky, like glue. They would have had to suspend it in alcohol, can you imagine inhaling alcohol mist into your lungs? It's certain to be far more dangerous than cannabis smoke. And off limits to anyone in alcohol recovery.
for years NIDA has produced the most irritating and impotent cannabis they can for research, in hopes of turning up some solid, frihtening risk that will turn all users away from it. They never have. Despite sending out cannabis that ranges in potency from 1.5% to 3.95% and is overly desicated and heavy on the harsh cholorophyll, the only real damage they can point to is bronchitis, from the irritation of the harsh smoke. That is the reason that the sole subject in a San Mateo study using NIDA joints, withdrew. He said it was worse for him to smoke that bunk than what he could easily get at a Buyer's Club.
Clint
 
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Comment #4 posted by p4me on January 24, 2002 at 09:24:42 PT

question
How much stock do these doctors have in the pill companies and what is their position on making it a law that people that prescribe medicine should not be allowed to own stock in a company that could create a conflict of interest?Free the weed and vote against all incumbents.
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Comment #3 posted by Ethan Russo MD on January 24, 2002 at 09:10:43 PT:

Alternative Delivery Systems
This article is highly recommended:Whittle, B.A., G.W. Guy, and P.J. Robson. 2001. Prospects for new cannabis-based prescription medicines. Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics 2(3-4): 183-205.

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Comment #2 posted by null on January 24, 2002 at 08:29:48 PT

one word
vaporizer.
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Comment #1 posted by Jose Melendez on January 24, 2002 at 08:24:34 PT:

kneejerk reactionaries
Sometimes people that have a vested interest in the status quo attempt to use hysterical and anecdotal info. Here is an example of how those in power abuse their discretion, in this case refusing to allow tests that might exonerate an individual.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAX7HTQUWC.html
arrest prohibition
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