Obscure reference.
Posted on 10/10/2005 11:57:50 AM PDT by A CA Guy
Heavy cannabis use could be a cause of Maori having the world's highest lung cancer rate, groundbreaking research suggests.
Many Maori from children to kaumatua use cannabis in "epidemic proportions", says a study by Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington.
But cannabis might not be as safe as the proponents of its legalisation say. A paper by Professor Beasley on the health effects of cannabis was among the research that prompted Wellington coroner Garry Evans to urge last week that government policy on illicit drugs be changed from "harm minimisation" to campaigning against drug use.
The paper reviews the literature on cannabis and suggests it is more cancer-causing than tobacco, and, like tobacco, causes bronchitis.
Smoking three cannabis cigarettes a day is equal to smoking more than 20 tobacco cigarettes, it says.
Professor Beasley said last night that his institute was close to finishing what he believed was the world's first study on links between cannabis and lung cancer.
In his paper for the coroner, Professor Beasley said information was urgently needed on the potential role of marijuana in New Zealand's high lung cancer rate, particularly among Maori, who had the world's highest rate and were heavy cannabis users.
Research showed cannabis use had reached epidemic proportions and was generally accepted and tolerated among Maori. "Users range from children through to kaumatua."
Cannabis use was rising. The proportion of the population to have tried it rose from 43 per cent in 1990 to 52 per cent by 1998 and the proportion of regular users from 18 per cent to 21 per cent.
Studies showed regular smokers of three to four cannabis joints a day had chronic bronchitis and other symptoms similar to those of smokers of 20 or more tobacco cigarettes a day.
(Excerpt) Read more at stuff.co.nz ...
* Research suggests cannabis use had reached epidemic proportions
wow! - this report is really going to bum everyone out over at DU. I didn't realize the Maoris were such big stoners.
Obscure reference.
LOL, keep up the good work.
What the heck is the matter with the Maoris. Do they not have bongs over there.
There are other regular news pubications where it is referenced, this was available first. :-)
Glad to help.
They are probably using pot to treat their lung cancer.
Poor guy on the right evidently got cannabis elbow trying to hold a joint like that up.
See, more harmful effects of smoking that stuff... :-0
Poor guy on the right evidently got cannabis elbow trying to hold a joint like that up.
See, more harmful effects of smoking that stuff... :-0
Spot on, that will be the drug activists spin here.
Just what did you do with your rolling paper from Cheech and Chong album???
Ok, well how about this alternative headline which is just as true:
Smoking (anything) as a habit, will give you lung cancer, even if you live in New Zealand.
If it burns it puts out Carcinogens.
There, fixed. Other types of smoke cause cancer, and there are ways to partake of cannabis other than smoking, so the original title is misleading.
And then again it could be from natural oils exuded from hundreds of millions of non-native fir trees grown by New Zealand's lucrative timber industry, and their effects on the lungs of aboriginal populations. The statisticians who trumpet this stuff should be very careful about drawing causal relationships because it's a double-edged sword.
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