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Thursday, August 13th, 2009 at 10:06 am | By: Radical Russ
(BBC News) Alcohol is largely to blame for an “alarming” rise in the rate of oral cancers among men and women in their forties, say experts.
Numbers of cancers of the lip, mouth, tongue and throat in this age group have risen by 26% in the past decade.
Alcohol consumption has doubled since the 1950s and is the most likely culprit alongside smoking, says Cancer Research UK.
Each year in the UK around 1,800 people die from the disease.
There are 5,000 newly diagnosed cases per year.
The charity’s health information manager Hazel Nunn said: “These latest figures are really alarming.
“Around three-quarters of oral cancers are thought to be caused by smoking and drinking alcohol.
“Tobacco is, by far, the main risk factor for oral cancer, so it’s important that we keep encouraging people to give up and think about new ways to stop people taking it up in the first place.”
But you know what doesn’t lead to an increase in oral cancer? Wait for it…
Seattle, WA: The use of marijuana, even long term, is not associated with an increased risk of developing oral cancer, according to the results of a large, population-based study published in the June issue of the journal Cancer Research.
Researchers found “no association” between marijuana use and the incidence of oral squamous-cell carcinoma, “regardless of how long, how much or how often a person has used marijuana,” according to a press release issued this week by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, which conducted the study.
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 12:03 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Times Union) ALBANY — Most lobbyists come to the Capitol with a briefcase, a position paper and a cellphone. At least one arrived with a pot plant, and for this she must answer.
Abigail Storm-Eggink, 58, doesn’t deny she’s the owner of the two 18-inch plants cops took from her in separate incidents recently. One was confiscated by the Albany Police Department on June 30 as she carried it down Pearl Street on her way to the Capitol, where the Kingston woman and her 71-year-old husband, Dan Eggink, have been coming regularly for 14 months — including the past 10 weeks straight, five days a week — to protest pot laws.
For two days, Storm-Eggink and her husband had paraded outside the government complex with the weed. But on July 3, according to a court document, after she brought it inside and used it as a visual aid while confronting senators in the corridors, she was charged by State Police with unlawful possession of a controlled substance as soon as she stepped out onto the landing on State Street.
Storm-Eggink hopes to use the trial before City Court Judge Rachel Kretser to make a larger case based on the First Amendment, religious freedom and what she sees as the inalienable right to the bounty of the land — including marijuana. Storm-Eggink, who plans to represent herself, is to appear Friday morning on the charges.
Huge mistake. Never try to represent yourself in a trial. Besides, experienced constitutional law experts have been trying to press the First Amendment religious use of cannabis argument for years and have not been successful. Not that I don’t agree with Storm-Eggink – I absolutely believe we have an inalienable right to the bounty of the land and that the only reason the Founders didn’t explicitly enshrine that right in the Constitution they were drafting on hemp paper is that they could never imagined that some future government would ban the most important crop in the colonies (just as they never could have imagined fully automatic assault weapons, but that’s a discussion for another blog). I think there is actually a stronger constitutional argument to be made for personal privacy and sovereignty based on the arguments that protect birth control use and a woman’s right to choose reproductive health options… but I’m no lawyer.
Dan Eggink says he wishes his first wife, who died of cancer in 1977, had been able to use the oils from cannabis. He’s convinced the herbal treatment kills cancer cells. (Needless to say, this theory falls well outside conventional medicine.)
Eggink says he and his wife “are on a mission from God — like the Blues Brothers.”
Sen. Marty Golden, R-Brooklyn, a former New York City police officer who was seriously injured during a drug bust, said he hopes Storm-Eggink gets the book thrown at her.
“You can advocate for anything in this state, but when you start to bring in samples that are illegal, then it’s illegal,” he said. “I hope she gets the max.”
Sen. Hugh Farley, R-Niskayuna, a business law professor, said the pot activists don’t bother him, and he considers them “kind of funny.”"They weren’t obnoxious; they weren’t in your face,” he said. “Every time we came out of conference they tended to be there. I don’t think they were taken seriously by anybody; I don’t think their issue is taken seriously by anyone. In my judgment they were just trying to get attention.”
Everyone knows that if you want to be taken seriously in Albany, you don’t bring pot plants and compare yourself to the Blues Brothers. You bring high paid lobbyists in $3,000 suits and offer campaign contributions.
Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 6:03 pm | By: Radical Russ
We’ve told you for a while now about the anti-tumoral properties of marijuana. We’ve repeatedly shown you that marijuana smoking does not lead to an increased risk of head and neck cancers. But now research is showing that marijuana smoking may actually help prevent head and neck cancers!
(Cancer Prevention Research) Cannabinoids, constituents of marijuana smoke, have been recognized to have potential antitumor properties. However, the epidemiologic evidence addressing the relationship between marijuana use and the induction of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is inconsistent and conflicting.
Cases (n = 434) were patients with incident HNSCC disease from nine medical facilities in the Greater Boston, MA area between December 1999 and December 2003. Controls (n = 547) were frequency matched to cases on age (±3 years), gender, and town of residence, randomly selected from Massachusetts town books. A questionnaire was adopted to collect information on lifetime marijuana use (decade-specific exposures) and associations evaluated using unconditional logistic regression.
After adjusting for potential confounders (including smoking and alcohol drinking), 10 to 20 years of marijuana use was associated with a significantly reduced risk of HNSCC [odds ratio (OR)10-<20 years versus never users, 0.38; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.22-0.67]. Among marijuana users moderate weekly use was associated with reduced risk (OR0.5-<1.5 times versus <0.5 time, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.32-0.85). The magnitude of reduced risk was more pronounced for those who started use at an older age (OR15-<20 years versus never users, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.30-0.95; OR?20 years versus never users, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.17-0.90; Ptrend < 0.001). These inverse associations did not depend on human papillomavirus 16 antibody status. However, for the subjects who have the same level of smoking or alcohol drinking, we observed attenuated risk of HNSCC among those who use marijuana compared with those who do not.
Our study suggests that moderate marijuana use is associated with reduced risk of HNSCC.
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Exclusive interview with Corina Amato of Baltimore, Maryland, victim of a police terror raid where her dog was murdered in her bedroom and her entire home was demolished. No marijuana was found, but police were told there would be some by a snitch, and a judge signed off on the warrant.
Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 3:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
(San Jose Mercury News) Marijuana smoke is a carcinogen, sharing space on the list with arsenic, asbestos, and DDT, according to a scientific board of the California Environmental Protection Agency.
Under today’s ruling, some medical marijuana dispensaries will be required to label their baggies and joints with a warning that the contents, when smoked, may cause cancer. Pot brownies, lollipops, and other non-inhalables are not affected by the new ruling.
“Marijuana smoke is a mixture of different chemicals, and a number of those were already on Prop. 65,” said Allan Hirsch, chief deputy director of the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. “That was significant to the panel to go ahead and list marijuana smoke.”
Proposition 65, enacted by voters in 1986, requires the state to publish a list of chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity, and that businesses and government agencies post warnings when they use such chemicals.
Though marijuana smoke was added to the Prop. 65 list today, the labeling requirements won’t go into effect until June 19, 2010. Only medical marijuana dispensaries with 10 employees or more are required to post a warning either in their shop or on the products themselves. Violations of the law carry a fine up to $2,500 per violation, per day.
Dispensaries will be required to carry a warning that cannabis may cause cancer, even though it does not cause cancer. Dr. Donald Tashkin’s thirty years of research shows that even long-term cannabis smoking is not associated with an increased risk of head, neck, or lung cancer. He hypothesizes about a protective effect, an anti-tumoral effect from THC that seems to mitigate the carcinogens found in marijuana smoke.
But the California EPA did not need to prove that marijuana causes cancer, only that there were some chemicals in marijuana smoke that are listed as possible carcinogens by the State of California. It doesn’t matter whether THC counteracts those chemicals; if even one of its chemical ingredients are on the list, California considers the whole substance carcinogenic.
This would be somewhat like labeling water as an explosive because the hydrogen in H20 is combustible.
We can fully expect the prohibitionists to point to California now and say, “See, even in the land of almost-legal pot they know that it causes cancer!”
Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 2:20 pm | By: Dudemaster
To the Chairman of D.A.R.E:
For 30 years, Donald Tashkin has studied the effects of marijuana on lung function. His work has been funded by the vehemently anti-marijuana National Institute on Drug Abuse, which has long sought to demonstrate that marijuana causes lung cancer. After 3 decades of anti-drug research, here’s what Tashkin has to say about marijuana laws:
“Early on, when our research appeared as if there would be a negative impact on lung health, I was opposed to legalization because I thought it would lead to increased use and that would lead to increased health effects,” Tashkin says. “But at this point, I’d be in favor of legalization. I wouldn’t encourage anybody to smoke any substances. But I don’t think it should be stigmatized as an illegal substance. Tobacco smoking causes far more harm. And in terms of an intoxicant, alcohol causes far more harm.”
We’ve been told a thousand times that marijuana destroys your lungs, that it’s 5 times worse than cigarettes, and on and on. Yet here is Donald Tashkin, literally the top expert in the world when it comes to marijuana and lung health, telling us it’s time to legalize marijuana. His views are shaped not by ideology, but rather by the 30 years he spent studying the issue. He didn’t expect the science to come out in favor of marijuana, but that’s what happened and he’s willing to admit it.
Here’s the study that really turned things around:
UCLA’s Tashkin studied heavy marijuana smokers to determine whether the use led to increased risk of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. He hypothesized that there would be a definitive link between cancer and marijuana smoking, but the results proved otherwise.
“What we found instead was no association and even a suggestion of some protective effect,” says Tashkin, whose research was the largest case-control study ever conducted.
Prejudice against marijuana and smoking in general runs so deep for many people that it just seems inconceivable that marijuana could actually reduce the risk of lung cancer. But that’s what the data shows and it not only demolishes a major tenet of popular anti-pot propaganda, but also points towards a potentially groundbreaking opportunity to develop cancer cures through marijuana research.
Over and over again, all the bad things we’ve been told about marijuana are revealed to be not only false, but often the precise opposite of the truth. So the next time someone tells you that marijuana is worse for your lungs than cigarettes, you might want to mention that the world’s leading expert on that subject happens to be a supporter of legalization.
To the Chairman of D.A.R.E., You know that if you tell the truth, then you’d have to admit there is nothing wrong with using the safer alternative, Marijuana. But, if you admitted it, then you’d likely be admitting your organization doesn’t need all of that money you receive from grants and donations to combat the use of Marijuana.
In other words, we are aware the prohibition of Marijuana helps to keep you employed. Ergo, if you want to keep your job, you have to keep up the lie. But the sad fact is, EVERYONE knows you are lying and have thus lost credibility with the American public, just like that clown, er, I mean ex-drug czar, John Walters.
Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 8:20 am | By: Dudemaster
Good news about Marijuana is hard to find because so much of the media is used to rolling out the bad stuff. A local California NBC News affiliate produced this short news story about how Marijuana can stop the spread of breast cancer and what they plan to study next.
Do you think if we send our President a copy, he will stop laughing at Marijuana users asking for legalization?
The active chemical compound in marijuana aggressively targets brain cancer cells, and helps to kill them by encouraging them to dissolve themselves, according to a recent report by Spanish researchers.
As someone who could benefit from this breakthrough, I’m stunned this didn’t make popular mainstream news (can you read the sarcasm between the lines?)
Guillermo Velasco and a team of researchers at Complutense University in Spain have shown that the psycho-active chemical in marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannibinol (THC), encourages brain cancer cells to begin a process called autophagy, in which the cell basically dissolves itself.
The team noted that cannabinoids such as THC showed cancer-fighting effects in mice implanted with human brain cancer cells and in human patients with brain tumors. When mice implanted with human brain cancer cells that received the THC, showed significant reduction of tumor growth.
Two patients enrolled in a clinical trial received THC directly to the brain as an experimental treatment for recurrent glioblastoma multiforme, a highly aggressive brain tumor. A comparison of biopsies taken before and after treatment showed that that tumors showed increased autophagy activity after receiving the THC.
None of the patients showed toxic effects from the treatment. Earlier assessments of THC in cancer treatment have also shown the therapy to be well tolerated. The researchers say that these findings might lead to new approaches for fighting tumor growth in brain cancer.
This breakthrough is absolutely amazing and sheds light on what can happen in a country that has decriminalized Marijuana. Spain decriminalized the personal possession and growing of Marijuana, but still has laws which prohibit its sale. However, even with this limited decriminalization model, Spain has a flourishing cannabis industry that also includes companies that are interested in medical applications.
As you can read, the country of Spain has far surpassed the right and passage of Freedoms allowed to American Citizens in this country. They have a NON-TOXIC medicine that FIGHTS BRAIN cancer which their citizens are allowed to use as freely as they would like.
In contrast, Americans go to prison (some for 20 – 99 years) for growing and using the same medicine for the same reasons.
I wonder if the United States government would allow American Citizens to resign our citizenship and move to Spain so we could finally live in a Free Country where we are allowed to consume life saving medicine?
RevRayGreen: I'll post a pic of me and my son....gimme a minute
Missippi Hippy: Guess what... I'm gonna be a new... ummmmm well, my pet piggie Ganja is in labor and they ain't mine in the same sense. See what your wife [...]
RevRayGreen: days they didn't talk back..or act disrespectful..
RevRayGreen: feel so lucky my son is 18 going 19 and my daughter 16 going on 17..relish the days that can't talk back
Urb Age: Congrats Spof thats awesome. My little Clara is about to hit 20 months. Im not the activist I used to be, but its made me a better man.
Urb Age: Heck I was gonna go up there, but just not feeling well this weekend..Dang it, I hate it when that happens..
RevRayGreen: wishing I was hanging at NORML cafe...
JohnH: Just a quick comment about tokin' and sperm motility....been tokin since age 14 and have 8 kids ranging in age from 30 to 9...(what can I say, I found 2 [...]
slash5city: really ..oprah 35 yr or more in the closet toker ...outed ....o my god !!
SneakerPimp: that would be huge news just imagen the headline
RevRayGreen: maybe Oprah smokes and keeps it on the DL...
SneakerPimp: and good afternoon
mr reuben: I could do without seeing Rob K. on tv. But Bruce and Eithan get a big thumbs up from me.
Marijuana-Related Health Costs Minimal Compared To Those Of Alcohol, Tobacco; California Medical Association Says Pot Prohibition Is A "Failed Public Health Policy"; Oregon: State NORML Affiliate Opens First 'Cannabis Café'. […]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
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