Now They Tell Me!
“Marijuana Use Does Not Raise Lung Cancer Risk”
[Editor’s Note: In keeping with the policies, rules, regulations, voluntary self-flagellations, edicts and Ouija board messages of this website, upper management has instructed me to remind the gentle reader that neither The Cheerful Oncologist nor his staff, minions, roadies, ancestors or anonymous love-letter-writing admirers condone the use of illegal drugs.]
I remember the day as clearly as if it was today. The sun gloated in the pale cream sky as it baked a gaggle of kids lying around the city pool. I was dazzling the girls (or so I thought) with a recap of last night’s episode of “All in the Family,” which was our favorite show as well as a national phenomenom back then. Inevitably our conversation turned to forbidden activities, as it did frequently during our junior high school years, and the topic of marijuana drifted into sight. Only the roughest kids in school were awarded the distinction of being bad-ass pot smokers, which in those days was unquestionably acknowledged as the highest caste in our rigid social system. The rest of us just jabbered about marijuana like a busload of women on an Elderhostel tour. I would be lying if I said we never wondered what the feeling was like to be high. Most of us never got the opportunity to find out, and those who did never really took up the habit, mainly out of fear of breaking the law. We had a vague uneasiness about smoking marijuana, the same feeling one gets when touching a match to charcoal soaked in lighter fluid.
Some of us grew up to be doctors. At least one of us became an oncologist who, among other duties, implored his patients and friends to make healthy choices. One of the choices he advocated was to minimize the risk of getting lung cancer by not smoking cigarettes - or marijuana, which is known to contain the same carcinogens found in tobacco. In fact, most doctors assumed that marijuana smoke was more harmful than tobacco, and it would only be a matter of time before scores of long-term pot smokers would march out of their homes like the zombies in Night of the Living Dead, mortally stricken with lung cancer.
Now this report appears: “In the study, the heaviest smokers were those who had smoked more than 22,000 marijuana cigarettes, or joints. Moderately heavy smokers were those who had smoked between 11,000 and 22,000 joints.
“The heavy marijuana smokers did not have an elevated risk of developing cancer. People who smoked more marijuana did not seem to have a higher risk than those who smoked less or none, the study found.”
We are not just talking about lung cancer:
“Even in those heavy, long-term marijuana users, the risk of head and neck cancers including cancer of the tongue, mouth, throat and esophagus does not seem elevated compared with that in those who did not smoke.”
The cause of this surprising conclusion is still under study, but according to the lead author “tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), an active substance in marijuana smoke, may promote earlier death of aging cells, preventing the injured cells from becoming cancer cells.”
Great Caesar’s Ghost! Where do you suppose this line of research will lead to?
I must emphasize, as do the study authors, that smoking both marijuana and cigarettes increases the risk of getting lung cancer or head and neck cancer, so to you smokers out there who think they can protect themselves by playing an old Cheech and Chong album while toking up, my advice is this:
Enjoy the comedy, but foreswear the coffin nails - and go easy on those cosmic brownies!
Since, as you state, Marijuana is known to “contain the same carcinogens found in tobacco,” yet doesn’t seem to raise the chances of getting cancer, wouldn’t it be ironic if it actually protected against cancer … ? ;o)
Comment by Moof — May 25, 2006 @ 3:52 pm
So, does that mean in brownies, since you don’t smoke it, its ok? LOL…….
Really glad your back on line , oh great O.C.
Comment by cheryl — May 25, 2006 @ 5:25 pm
Those of us who remember the 70s all too well just experienced a communal deep exhalation…
Glad you’re back online, C.O.! Weblessness is a painful condition.
Comment by TheTundraPA — May 25, 2006 @ 9:12 pm
Hey mannn, far out, I tol yu ik wood b ok!
Comment by Geno — May 25, 2006 @ 11:42 pm
Okie Dokie…well you just removed another nail in the coffin of breast cancer. When I was diagnosed my sisters held an intervention. It was a “This is why you were cursed and we weren’t” meeting. Envision Job and his three friends. “You drink” “You smoked pot” “you are a little heavy” “You eat meat”…one and one my sins were laid out. Even “You let them cut into cancer?” was put on the table. The outcome was obvious, I’d given myself breast cancer…this was something I’d chosen with my lifestyle choices. Nobody considered that the gene damaged happened between the time I was 13 and 20 and I wasn’t concerned at all about breast cancer. I was more concerned with eating a diet full of fruits and vegetables and no sweets so I’d not end up a diabetic like my Grandmother. No one considered that I wasn’t looking for breast cancer because none of the 52 first degree female relatives in our family had breast cancer. Why should I have cared? I got a mammogram every two years because I had no family history of breast cancer. I had a clean one six months before I was diagnosed. None of the three sisters had one. But this was my fault. The last thing on the plate was that I’d smoked pot, and now you are telling me that maybe the biggest risk factor that I faced was that I was a woman over the age of 40? Thank you.
Comment by emmy — May 26, 2006 @ 2:46 am
People will always have excuses, won’t they? Take a tip, the best and smartest way to be as healthy as possible (while keeping fingers crossed) is to do your best to take care of your body which tries its best to do right and carry you through as many years as possible. I am always hurt when I see people being so careless with their precious, precious, precious health, when there are so many who would give anything to have theirs back.
Keep preaching, Doc.
Comment by Feisty — May 26, 2006 @ 3:53 am
Emmy, I have a very hard time when someone is ill and family and friends tell you it is your own fault. Talk about kicking someone when they are down.
I expereinced some of the same type things. Although mine was more in the area of them just not wanting to accept it at all. They wouldn’t allow me to talk about it or to expect their support. They asked no questions when I would return from a Dr. appt. and they became angry when recovery from major cancer surgery took longer than the time frame “They” allotted for me to get well. I had a 7 hr. cancer surgery and my husband spent the day on the damn golf course. But, to do otherwise would have meant facing what he could not accept. It was the worst experience of my life. I don’t mean the cancer, I mean my loved ones response to it. Were these the same people that I spent my life taking care of and supporting in every way imaginable? I could not have lived without my oncologist. Not just for the type medical care he gave me but because he knew and he understood what was happening to me. His support couldn’t have been better.
Yes, I’am a little bitter but, I’m getting better. I ask and expect nothing from anyone anymore. I have learned to become self sufficient.
Comment by Cathy — May 27, 2006 @ 3:23 am
It doesn’t compute right to me…How can you put smoke into your lungs and it not damage them?
Comment by Sweeti — May 27, 2006 @ 8:39 pm
Sweeti, if I’m not mistaken, smoking anything still increases risk of emphysema.
Comment by Ali — May 28, 2006 @ 4:04 pm
While case control studies are informative, I think I’ll wait until a cohort study comes out and corroborates this (if there is not one examining this already, too lazy to look right now) before I put too much weight on this finding.
Comment by Ferguson — June 6, 2006 @ 5:17 am
People know about the harm of smoking but go on doing it, I do not think that they will stop if they always hear about consequences of pernicious habitAnother way out should be found, probably…
Comment by Lene Petite — July 28, 2006 @ 3:15 pm
Hello there, I was just wondering if you had come across any information about the symptoms of throat and esophageal issues associated with smoking marijuana and cigarettes? And not just cancers. Thanks!
Comment by Amanda — June 4, 2009 @ 4:23 am