Evidence-Based Science: Relative Risks of Smoking Cannabis

"Occasional and low cumulative marijuana use was not associated with adverse effects on pulmonary function." - That is the conclusion of a 20 year longitudinal study of more than 5000 men and women by NIH researchers just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association: Association Between Marijuana Exposure and Pulmonary Function Over 20 Years - http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/307/2/173.short

Patients Out of Time has previously highlighted similar results from the leading pulmonary research on the long term effects of smoking cannabis.

Dr. Donald Tashkin, Medical Director of the Pulmonary Function Laboratory and Professor of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles, presented the results of twenty-five years of observations (on cannabis smokers; tobacco smokers; a combination of the two; and non-smokers) at our Fifth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics, held in April, 2008 in Pacific Grove, CA. His presentation is viewable here in three videos:
Does regular marijuana smoking cause COPD, Emphysema and/or Lung Cancer?

More Pulmonary Science - "The Missoula Chronic Use Study"

When the federal government refused to study its own I.N.D. patients who had been receiving legal medical cannabis for years, Patients Out of Time and others commissioned a study, Chronic Cannabis Use in the Compassionate Investigational New Drugs Program (IND), otherwise know as the Missoula Study (2001). The Director of the study, Ethan Russo, MD presented the results at the Second National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics in Portland, OR in 2002 - including MRI scans; chest x-rays and pulminory function tests; neuro-pychological exams; endocrine and immune system tests; brain-wave (EEG) tests; hormonal system tests and the "P-300, an Evoke-Potential electro-physical test of memory. Video - Missoula Study, Part Three

The reefer madness scare that smoking cannabis leads to lung cancer or pulmonary disease is unfounded. Based on science, Patients Out of Time encourages other means of administering medicinal cannabis, but if patients do choose to smoke the raw material it is advisable to direct patients to limit their breath-holding to no more than 3 seconds to limit the amount of time for the smoke particulates to be absorbed into the body.  Patients can eliminate any potential harm from smoke by using a vaporizer, which will heat the cannabis to release the medicine for inhalation, but will not cause combustion that will produce smoke.  

Patients Out of Time is dedicated to disseminating the latest research and educating health care  professionals and the public about the medicinal use of cannabis.  If you want to hear the truth about this herbal medicine, you can depend on Patients Out of Time.  Our next conference will feature researchers from Italy, Spain, Israel, Canada and the U.S.

- Mary Lynn Mathre, RN, President, Patients Out of Time

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it        Jan 14, 2012