Marijuana use and testicular cancer
4:54 PM, February 9, 2009
Young men who began using marijuana as adolescents or who smoked pot at least once a week were twice as likely as those who never used the drug to develop testicular cancer, according to researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
The association was strongest with nonseminoma, an aggressive, fast-growing subtype of testicular cancer that typically strikes men between ages 20 and 35.
"It's not just that you develop testicular cancer, but you develop a worse type of testicular cancer,"
4:54 PM, February 9, 2009
Young men who began using marijuana as adolescents or who smoked pot at least once a week were twice as likely as those who never used the drug to develop testicular cancer, according to researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
The association was strongest with nonseminoma, an aggressive, fast-growing subtype of testicular cancer that typically strikes men between ages 20 and 35.
"It's not just that you develop testicular cancer, but you develop a worse type of testicular cancer,"
Read the rest of this article from the LA times!
What are its long-term effects?
Marijuana smoke contains some of the same cancer-causing compounds as tobacco, sometimes in higher concentrations.Studies show that someone who smokes five joints per week may be taking in as many cancer-causing chemicals as someone who smokes a full pack of cigarettes every day. The carcinogens in marijuana are 50-70 % stronger than that of tobacco.
Because within the first view hits, marijuana use increases the heart rate by over 50%, this dramatically increases the risk of a cardiac episode.
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Cannabis smokers beware: puff for puff, smoke from the plant contains significantly more chemicals and carcinogens than that from tobacco.
Cannabis smoke is well known to be more harmful to the lungs than tobacco, because smokers inhale cannabis one-third more deeply and hold it in their lungs for up to four times as long as cigarette smokers do. Yet while we have a list of more than 4000 chemicals and toxins present in tobacco smoke from dozens of studies, there is no comparable list for cannabis.
So David Moir of Health Canada and his colleagues set out to make a direct comparison, using machines that "smoke" the cigarettes and then collect and analyse the smoke. They found that directly inhaled cannabis smoke contained 20 times as much ammonia and five times as much hydrogen cyanide as tobacco smoke.
Marijuana Smoke Contains Higher Levels Of Certain Toxins Than Tobacco Smoke
ScienceDaily (Dec. 18, 2007) — Here's another reason to "keep off the grass." Researchers in Canada report that marijuana smoke contains significantly higher levels of several toxic compounds -- including ammonia and hydrogen cyanide -- than tobacco smoke and may therefore pose similar health risks.
David Moir and colleagues note that researchers have conducted extensive studies on the chemical composition of tobacco smoke, which contains a host of toxic substances, including about 50 that can cause cancer. However, there has been relatively little research on the chemical composition of marijuana smoke.
In this new study, researchers compared marijuana smoke to tobacco smoke, using smoking machines to simulate the smoking habits of users. The scientists found that ammonia levels were 20 times higher in the marijuana smoke than in the tobacco smoke, while hydrogen cyanide, nitric oxide and certain aromatic amines occurred at levels 3-5 times higher in the marijuana smoke, they say. The finding is "important information for public health and communication of the risk related to exposure to such materials," say the researchers.
FYI:
Tetrahydrocannabinol or THC can stay in a persons system from 3 and to up to 90 days depending on several variables such as height, weight, physical fitness and substance usage. Ocassional users would be clean within one week, a daily user can take up to one month, and a constant user can take up to almost 3 months .
So If you get a DUI driving under the influence and the minimum it stays in your system after smoking is 3-4 days (up to 45 days) you are basically screwed!
There are some pretty freaky cancers popping up from marijuana smokers and why is it that after all these years there are very few "studies" about the link between cancer and marijuana use? Because the studies or the lack thereof are usually bogus. There is plenty of money to be made in that business, just like the tobacco companies used to succeed in buying off all the studies back in the day!
The California Healthy Kids Survey was released on Monday showing that more young teens are using alcohol and marijuana in Santa Cruz County. More young people believe that alcohol is harmful but that is not deterring them from drinking; teens are smoking more pot believing that it is not harmful, how could it be - it's medicine. The laws in California and fourteen other sates allowing the use of medical marijuana have created an ideology that marijuana is in no way harmful. There is evidence that there are medical benefits to weed, there needs to be a way to produce and distribute the drug without sending out the wrong message to the young and impressionable. "Bill Manov, the director of Alcohol and Drug Services for the county's Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, thinks it's good news that more teens are perceiving alcohol as dangerous because it could lead to a decrease in future drinking habits. And although he said there's a pretty widespread acceptance of marijuana in Santa Cruz, he said he is still alarmed at the upward trend of use among children", reports San Jose Mercury News. Here are the reported statistics:
Thirty-six percent of high school freshmen countywide who were surveyed in February say they've been very drunk or sick from alcohol, up from 29 percent in 2005. Sixteen percent of seventh-grade students report binge drinking, up from 10 percent in 2005.
More freshmen report thinking that alcohol is harmful or extremely harmful, which is up seven percent from 2005.
Twenty-six percent of freshmen who took the survey report having used marijuana in the last 30 days, as opposed to 18 percent in 2005. Half of juniors say they've tried the drug.
Cigarette use increased three or four percentage points for high school students since 2007.
Six percent more said they think frequent use of cigarettes is harmful.
About a third of seventh grade students are overweight or at-risk, though those numbers drop to 29 percent in ninth grade and 23 percent in 11th grade.
More than 75 percent of seventh- and ninth-grade students still break a sweat for 20 minutes three times a week.
Fewer teenagers are exercising and more of them are partying. Habits in all different forms are popping up at alarming rates; young people are not as healthy as they were in the past for a number of reasons. About two hours of every young person's day is spent in front of the television. "Idle hands are the devil's workshop", the message is being sent that it is alright to get high and drink. Alcohol and marijuana may be sitting next to each other at the store one day very soon. America needs to tread lightly in figuring out the best way to implement medical marijuana.
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