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Cannabis – more carcinogenic than cigarettes
It’s a fact… cannabis joints really are carcinogenic. And their effect is so pronounced that it is the equivalent of smoking twenty normal cigarettes! This is the worrying conclusion of a new study conducted by a team of researchers in New Zealand.
For 5 years they monitored 102 patients under the age of 55 who were suffering from lung tumours. All of them responded to a questionnaire regarding their consumption of alcohol, and of cannabis in particular.
The results make disturbing reading. In the group that consumed at a rate of over 10 joint-years – which corresponds to one joint per day over ten years or two joints per day over 5 years – the risk of bronchial cancer increased six-fold. In the long term, the study reveals that the risk of lung cancer increases by 8% per joint-year. And with good reason: cannabis smoke contains twice as many carcinogenic hydrocarbons as cigarette smoke!
The way joints are smoked also adds to the risk. They are usually smoked without a filter and almost to the end, which increases the amount of smoke inhaled. This facilitates the deposit of carcinogenic substances in the bronchial tubes. And one final point, the absorption of carbon monoxide by the blood is five times greater after a joint than after a cigarette.
This is the first time that the carcinogenic power of cannabis has been so clearly laid out. The few epidemiological studies carried out in humans up to now had produced contradictory conclusions. Their main problem was the difficulty of separating the carcinogenic power of cannabis from that of cigarettes, as the two were often consumed together. The authors go on to conclude that it is essential that public health programmes also include campaigns aimed at reducing cannabis use, particularly among young people.
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