Pot and Cancer: No link

The Scientific American reports on a large study of pot and tobacco smokers. Marijuana smokers end up with significantly more tar (4x) and more carcinogens (1.5x) in their system than tobacco smokers and yet the study found they are no more likely than non-smokers to get lung cancer and significantly less likely than tobacco smokers to get it.

Why this is is not known, though one speculation is that the THC in marijuana kills aging cells prone to becoming cancerous. So maybe it's not all good news for potheads. It'll be interesting to see if that hypothesis proves true. If it were it might be medically advisable for tobacco smokers to take up cannabis as well to protect themselves from lung cancer.

Moreover, it seems if we banned tobacco and legalised marijuana we'd at least save Medicare a far slab of expensive cancer patients. Couple this with the fact that marijuana smokers drive more safely than drunk drivers and are more concious of their intoxication, and you have to wonder about our priorities in making certain drugs socially (and legally) acceptable and others not.

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