cannabisnews.com: Is Pot Harmless or Hazardous?










  Is Pot Harmless or Hazardous?

Posted by CN Staff on February 22, 2008 at 05:48:06 PT
By Alexandra Hazlett, Athens News Campus Reporter 
Source: Athens News 

Ohio -- A lack of scientific consensus on the possible medical benefits and health risks of marijuana may contribute to the public’s wildly different perspectives on the drug. Nearly a third of students at Ohio University report using marijuana at some level, and many see it as less harmful than other recreational drugs, despite contradictory medical evidence, according to the OU Department of Health Promotion.
Terry Koons, associate director of Health Promotion, said that marijuana, like alcohol (and increasingly unlike tobacco), is viewed by many as socially acceptable, despite its health risks. Despite popular opinion, however, smoking marijuana is more physically harmful than smoking cigarettes, he said. Marijuana smokers tend to hold the smoke in their lungs longer, exposing them to more carcinogens, and marijuana is also generally unfiltered when smoked, again increasing the carcinogen exposure.On the other hand, pot smokers these days often only take a few puffs or “hits,” unlike cigarette smokers, who puff away until the cigarette is burned down to the filter.Part of the reason marijuana gets a free pass with regard to lung cancer, emphysema and other ailments related to smoking, is that people don’t believe marijuana is comparably harmful, and there is a lack of scientific research, compared to tobacco, to conclusively show that it is.“No one knows anyone who has died of cancer (from smoking marijuana),” Koons said.Health Promotion conducted its most recent biennial survey on student drug and alcohol use last spring, in compliance with the Drug Free Schools and Campuses Act, which affects federal financial assistance. More than 1,500 OU students were polled and the 30 percent figure was down 5 points from the 2005 study. In his class, Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs, Koons said he tries to get his students to evaluate their opinions on marijuana and drug use. Many students do not consider pot to be in the same category as harder drugs such as cocaine, crystal meth or heroine.“I want the students to think about use in a different way,” he said. “Any drug you’re using can become addictive.”According to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration classification, marijuana is considered a Schedule I drug, meaning that it is considered to have no medical benefits and a high potential for abuse. Other Schedule I drugs are heroin, ecstasy, LSD and GHB. Schedule II drugs include cocaine, opium, morphine and amphetamines, among others, and while they are considered to have a high potential for abuse, some of them may also have an accepted medical use.Many health professionals, including most recently the American College of Physicians, have recommended that marijuana be changed to a Schedule II drug so that research into possible medical benefits may be conducted. While some states have passed laws allowing the use and prescription of marijuana for medicinal purposes, patients and health professionals may still be prosecuted under federal statues. In 2005, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., introduced the States’ Rights to Medical Marijuana Act, which would give marijuana Schedule II status and allow states to determine their own guidelines for medical usage of the substance. The bill is still in committee, according to GovTrack, a non-commercial Web site that tracks bills and roll call votes.Marijuana has been prescribed for relief of chronic pain and nausea related to chemotherapy and other antiretroviral therapies such as those used in HIV treatment. Patients with chronic pain, insomnia and anorexia have also shown benefits with marijuana treatment, according to a report issued by the American Medical Association. The FDA has approved Marinol, a drug that contains a synthetic version of THC, the intoxicating ingredient in marijuana. According to the DEA Web site, Marinol is considered effective at alleviating the same symptoms as smoking marijuana.The Journal of the American Medical Association documented the cognitive effects of marijuana use. Heavy users (defined as using marijuana 29 out of the last 30 days) showed decreased cognitive function and ability to focus even after not using the drug for 24 hours. And on an anecdotal level, many pot smokers freely acknowledge that their motivation and productivity tends to decline when they’re high. Longstanding stereotypes about pot-smokers, after all, didn’t just come out of nowhere.On the other hand, Koons noted that many heavy users become so used to functioning at high levels of marijuana intoxication that “it’s not until they stop using that they feel unusual or strange.” Also, because THC is stored in fat cells and takes longer to vacate the body, effects of withdrawal like those related to alcoholism or other drug addictions may not be experienced, he said.Relatively mild consequences in Ohio for marijuana possession also contribute to its widespread abuse as a recreational drug. However, work places across the country are increasingly requiring drug tests, or mandating random tests for employees they suspect are smoking pot.At OU, marijuana prevention and education programs tend to take a backseat to anti-alcohol initiatives, because high-risk drinking is more prevalent, Koons said.In the same survey on marijuana use, 78 percent of the student respondents reported high-risk drinking activity in the preceding two weeks. Complete Title: Depending On Whom You Ask, Pot’s Harmless or HazardousSource: Athens News, The (OH)Author: Alexandra Hazlett, Athens NEWS Campus ReporterPublished: February 21, 2008Copyright: 2008 Athens NewsContact: news athensnews.comWebsite: http://www.athensnews.com/ CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml

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Comment #18 posted by BGreen on February 24, 2008 at 14:28:58 PT
What's really hazardous?
In 2006, a motorcycle officer was killed in Hawaii in a Bush motorcade.In 2007, a motorcycle officer was killed in Albuquerque, N.M. in a Bush motorcade.In 2008, a motorcycle officer was killed in Dallas, TX in an H. Clinton motorcade.Three deaths in three years, all of whom were killed just so these gung ho politicians can travel through crowded cities at 90 MPH to further their own political careers.How many motorcycle cops ever actually participate in one of these dangerous motorcades? Certainly it can be counted in the hundreds, NOT the millions, and yet three of them are dead, in just three years, solely because of two politicians.Three dead cops is three more dead than have EVER died from cannabis in the entire history of this country, despite tens of millions of users, and yet some have the audacity to claim that cannabis is hazardous?What a bunch of lying fools.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #17 posted by Had Enough on February 24, 2008 at 07:51:36 PT
Twist & Shout
"Nearly a third of students at Ohio University report using marijuana at some level, and many see it as less harmful than other recreational drugs, despite contradictory medical evidence, according to the OU Department of Health Promotion.""Part of the reason marijuana gets a free pass with regard to lung cancer, emphysema and other ailments related to smoking, is that people don’t believe marijuana is comparably harmful, and there is a lack of scientific research, compared to tobacco, to conclusively show that it is."“No one knows anyone who has died of cancer (from smoking marijuana),” Koons said.Well what’s it gonna be Mr. Koons…???I like this version of Twist and Shout better than Mr. KoonsBeatles - Twist & Shout (live in 65) Shea Stadium http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6TIEkB4_F8Note the cops chasing the girls and Paul is wearing a cops badge..I just love YouTube…
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Comment #16 posted by Hope on February 23, 2008 at 19:14:41 PT
So, why doesn’t Terry Koons, speak the truth?
Obviously... he's part of a Baldric, of Black Adder fame, type "Cunning Plan", on the part of prohibitionist/preventionists. Or he's a shill in the plan and doesn't have enough sense or knowledge to know that he's not even telling the truth.
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Comment #15 posted by The GCW on February 23, 2008 at 17:18:56 PT
cigarettes kill over 1,000 Americans DAILY.
smoking marijuana is more physically harmful than smoking cigarettes??????Oh really?-0-In over 5,000 years of documented use cannabis hasn't one single dead body to show harm...compared to...cigarettes which kill over 1,000 Americans DAILY.So, why doesn’t Terry Koons, speak the truth?
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Comment #14 posted by Hope on February 23, 2008 at 00:07:38 PT
Right on, DCP...Comment 13
You're right. Of course it's not "THC" stored in the fat cells. More prohibitionist prevarication? Apparently so. This appears to be one of those "dumbing down" things being called "education" you hear about. It's disgraceful really. These students are paying to be taught lies, it looks like. They're being cheated.
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Comment #13 posted by DCP on February 22, 2008 at 21:53:58 PT
New Inventions?
Terry Koons, associate director of Health Promotion, was quoted as saying, "Also, because THC is stored in fat cells and takes longer to vacate the body, effects of withdrawal like those related to alcoholism or other drug addictions may not be experienced."First of all, it is not THC that is stored in fat cells, it is the metabolic produce of THC, produced by the liver, that is in the fat cells. The associate director of Health Pormotion seems to think that this metabolite, which he calls THC, somehow makes up for lack of withdrawl symptoms, which accounts for the lack of evidence of marijuana addiction. Did the good associate director make this up all by himself, or is this a new DEA invention, showing that marijuana really is addictive? 
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Comment #12 posted by DCP on February 22, 2008 at 20:35:44 PT
GovTrack
GovTrack, eh?  Try it, you'll like it. DCP
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Comment #11 posted by Runruff on February 22, 2008 at 15:58:39 PT:
The industrial mindset.
Societies addiction to caffeine, television, automobiles, money, power, religion. All of these things basically support a formula we call capitalism.
Bill Maher said that Phitzer could put their brand name on every marijuana leaf marijuana would be legalized tomorrow.
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Comment #10 posted by rchandar on February 22, 2008 at 14:38:03 PT:
PS--A Little More
use your search engine.use your imagination.there are bunches of websites that freely advertise racism, genocide, murder of those who are colored or don't live the "right" lifestyle.They've made a canvasing nightmare of suppressing us. But they do nothing to stop them. The Internet is like an engine of rampant, unrestrained racism. Read.rchandar
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Comment #9 posted by rchandar on February 22, 2008 at 14:30:35 PT:
Schedule I and other things
I keep hearing this petition, it's been tried several times. I'm starting to feel that Schedule I is like the Electoral College. Nobody believes in it, and everybody wants it to change, but nobody is able to muster the voice needed to make it change when the question comes up.Now, how many of you out there think the DEA should be abolished? Maybe, even brought up on human rights violation charges, like war criminals? It is OBVIOUS that these commissioned federal bureaucrats have way too much power in the government and their wings need to be clipped. So many people have been screwed by these f #kers, it is time they go. Oftentimes, when I read these posts, I feel that MJ users are facing the same cataclysm as the victims of the Salem Witch Trials in the 17th century. Or the Jews and the Moslems, in the 16th century, at the hands of the Inquisition. When pressed to give an answer, no one would dare state the obvious: that these were injustices and should not be continued. Outcome: unknown. For how long?: unknown. And that's how we feel: like we don't know when or if justice will really be served. People are thoroughly brainwashed today: that means when push comes to shove, they give us no indication of understanding or support. Posterity will judge us poorly for having refused to even consider MJ law reform. Guaranteed. Assuming of course there isn't a senseless massacre of millions of us. But Rome did not last for a thousand years, nor did Hitler's Third Reich. And my answer to Harry Anslinger, the old prohibitionist who shared morphine with Senator McCarthy: how many fathers must be separated from their wives and children? How many sons must be denied entry into college? For that matter, how many girls need to be locked up, beaten, raped......before the "truth" of our abstract, functionless, and racist law be upheld?--rchandar
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Comment #8 posted by RevRayGreen on February 22, 2008 at 11:04:38 PT
"A lack of scientific consensus on the possible 
medical benefits and health risks of marijuana may contribute to the public’s wildly different perspectives on the drug. "author of this piece obviously is suffering from 'reefer blindness' from the jump.
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Comment #7 posted by museman on February 22, 2008 at 09:35:08 PT

#5 josephlacerenza 
Excellent point. To that I'd add such harmful addictions such as; TV, religion, and law enforcement, not to mention POWER ADDICTION, MONEY ADDICTION, and all the mentally tweaked attitudes of the social elite.There are lots more destructive, addictive behaviors not even recognized by the medical community because THEY are all addicted and in denial.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on February 22, 2008 at 09:34:12 PT

Just a Thought
Which is more dangerous? Is it jail from getting caught with cannabis or the plant itself? We know the answer but I wish more articles tried to explain the difference more often.
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Comment #5 posted by josephlacerenza on February 22, 2008 at 09:26:59 PT:

Just the Fat
I was wondering, in DARE education classes, my step son is taught that sugar is a drug by the definition it alters ones mind/body. Why is the epidemic of over weight americans not directed at the true demon? If the health implications of cannabis use was as dangerous as the health implications of over indulgence of sugar, then I would put down the vaporizer and quit. I use this example because I see the over use of the "drug", high fructose corn surrup, as dangerous as alcohol or tabacco abuse. You see no politician lobbying to outlaw sugar while we see an ever increasing rise in deaths related to its abuse/misuse. I can say with a certanty that you will never see sugar outlawed, never. 
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Comment #4 posted by Sam Adams on February 22, 2008 at 09:14:51 PT

Don't think!
Life is so much easier if you just kick back and let the government take care of everything for you! Don't worry about those silly doctors, spending all night hunched over in the lab with all those vials and beakers. You don't need them! They're just silly, with all the pish-posh about global warming and curing cancer with reefer.Just listen to ole' GW and Dick Cheney. They'll take the message from GOD and fix everything up just right!  GOD says cannabis is more harmful than cigarettes, it's in the Bible, right? 
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Comment #3 posted by museman on February 22, 2008 at 08:38:22 PT

the unpopular opinion
"Despite popular opinion, however, smoking marijuana is more physically harmful than smoking cigarettes, he said."This is the 'unpopular' opinion, the prohibition writ and wrote, the same old lies, same old grasping at straws by medical patsies put inplace by the DEA and the NWO.Before they called it 'cancer' they called it 'industrial disease' - I wonder why?Despite REAL reasearch showing the cancer inhibiting properties of cannabis a handful of govenment paid lackies get monopolies on journalism and media, and attempt to undermine positive actual reasearch with paranoid fantasies of cancer."The FDA has approved Marinol, a drug that contains a synthetic version of THC, the intoxicating ingredient in marijuana. According to the DEA Web site, Marinol is considered effective at alleviating the same symptoms as smoking marijuana." Yet cannabis has no medical applications? F-ing hypocrits.
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Comment #2 posted by dongenero on February 22, 2008 at 08:34:55 PT

my thoughts too JohnO
This article goes nowhere and with no basis to go anywhere. Campus reporter, I guess it's written by a journalism freshman or something like that. 
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Comment #1 posted by JohnO on February 22, 2008 at 08:27:43 PT:

There is no lack of scientific consensus
Marijuana is known to be gentle and kind to those who use it, safe and generally effective for medicine by those who have studied it. Particulars aside, the people who have studied cannabis for it's safety have concluded it is safe. To say "there is a lack of scientific consensus on the possible medical benefits and health risks of marijuana" you would have to include the myriad of *studies* which never took place to offset the positive gains by those which did. There they go again with the DEA as a source for information, they cannot get it straight. Did anyone else notice the contradictions raised by the statement about Marinol VS smoked marijuana? "According to the DEA Web site, Marinol is considered effective at alleviating the same symptoms as smoking marijuana." First they say smoking marijuana is not effective, then they say Marinol is as effective as smoking marijuana. To follow that logic, Marinol is not effective at all. WHAT? Why did they approve it? OK I'm not the one who is confused by this. Waiting for big brother to get off my back. JohnO
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