Marijuana Damages DNA And May Cause Cancer, New Test Reveals

[viljo]

Marijuana Damages DNA And May Cause Cancer, New Test Reveals
ScienceDaily (June 15, 2009) — Using a highly sensitive new test, scientists in Europe are reporting "convincing evidence" that marijuana smoke damages the genetic material DNA in ways that could increase the risk of cancer.
Researchers note that toxic substances in tobacco smoke can damage DNA and increase the risk of lung and other cancers. However, there has been uncertainty over whether marijuana smoke has the same effect. Scientists are especially concerned about the toxicity of acetaldehyde, present in both tobacco and marijuana. However, it has been difficult to measure DNA damage from acetaldehyde with conventional tests.
The research was carried out by Rajinder Singh, Jatinderpal Sandhu, Balvinder Kaur, Tina Juren, William P. Steward, Dan Segerback and Peter B. Farmer from the Cancer Biomarkers and Prevention Group, Department of Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine and Karolinska Institute, Sweden.
Raj Singh said: “Parts of the plant Cannabis sativa, also known as marijuana, ganja, and various street names, are commonly smoked as a recreational drug, although its use for such purposes is illegal in many countries.
The scientists describe development and use of a modified mass spectrometry method that showed clear indications that marijuana smoke damages DNA.
“There have been many studies on the toxicity of tobacco smoke. It is known that tobacco smoke contains 4000 chemicals of which 60 are classed as carcinogens. Cannabis in contrast has not been so well studied. It is less combustible than tobacco and is often mixed with tobacco in use. Cannabis smoke contains 400 compounds including 60 cannabinoids. However, because of its lower combustibility it contains 50% more carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons including naphthalene, benzanthracene, and benzopyrene, than tobacco smoke.

 

[viljo]

I've been reading about how genes work and function and have been wondering if or how cannabis affects genes.
for schitz research.
that's the real reason for posting.
I thought cannabis didn't cause cancer especially after reading the other posts by that scientist.

 

[Jeniger]

What a BS only speculation

 

[viljo]

well I think its a bit more then speculation
concerning how it affects dna which is what interests me.
as for the cancer I agree there was no hard evidence.
but as for bs that's yet to be seen.

 

[Jeniger]

Wich weed did they tested? how much thc? All has to do with the outcome of the test.... I don't think its possible to generalise the amount chemicals of every cannabis plant

They can say/write they find everything, but if the details are missing for me its bs

 

[viljo]

did u check out the toxicology report as well

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/tx900106y

its a bit over my head but I think they used specific chemicals found in cannabis.

 

[Jeniger]

wich kind of cannabis?


[quote:3740rz6y]Our research has focused on the toxicity of acetaldehyde, which is present in both tobacco and cannabis.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

Viljo, you're starting to annoy me by your unending search for negative articles on cannabis, and then posting news items about it. News items like this don't belong on the front page of our website. As pointed out by Jeniger, these kinds of reports are fraught with disinformation.

 

[Administrator]

I have moved it to the cannabis forum. Actually this news item has already been posted and discussed here.

CM

 

[spice]

Critical thinking is an art.

Not everyone partakes.

 

[viljo]

cm it wasn't my intention to annoy you or anyone else.

reckon I have come along way in understanding cannabis is not to blame for my condition and that there must have been an pre existing reason for the cause of schitzopherina.

i'll stop all posts regarding cannabis and am more than happy to discuss this with people outside this forum.

peace

 

[st.bot.32]

i'm all for keeping up with the latest findings on cannabis, even if they aren't always favorable towards it.

the problem is that the media tends to take preliminary research, take correlations and distort them. you have to dig through the articles to find out what is actually going on. eg 1 in 100,000 pot smokers might have testicular cancer, suddenly you have a headline like 'pot causes testicular cancer'

it would be nice to know what the actual effects and risks there are that come with cannabis usage so people can make an educated decision rather than the media propagating nonsense that people will simply ignore because they know they can't trust it. at best so far it seems teens and people with a certain gene type might have a higher risk of problems, but even that isn't conclusive

 

[restin]

the test doesn't "reveal" that marijuana causes DNA damage but marijuana SMOKE. There is actually no talk about the generall effect of marijuana in this test.

 

[Bastiaan]

Well so does tobacco smoke doesn't it?
Find me a smoke that doesn't cause risk of cancer when inhaled frequently..

 

[st.bot.32]

@restin, exactly. newspaper headlines always deliberately misinterpret the studies.

not only that, but this doesn't correlate with major real-world studies that have shown that pot smokers don't get cancer

 

[viljo]

I think restin is right.

unfortunately I bypassed the fact the chemical researched is already in tobacco and many other foods therefore can not contribute to psychossis by means of messing with gene function.

Im looking into thc and other chemicals that are only found in cannabis.

There saying it can't be just one or two genes but many thousand that are responsible.
If that's true I only seek answers to why or if cannabis affects these genes and why only a portion of people are affected.

cause if cannabis doesn't damage neuron function and doesn't damage dna or alter genes. Then what!!!

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

cause if cannabis doesn't damage neuron function and doesn't damage dna or alter genes. Then what!!!

Then we light another one! :weedman:

 

[restin]

If cannabis damaged DNA it would cause permanent damage that is equally distributed with users.

It may promote or inhibit certain genes during translation - it may - we simply don't know much about the effects of weed.

And you know that your DNA is changing during your lifetime? Everytime you change your lifestyle - doing more sports, eating healthier - your genes will change. So even if regular cannabis use changes genes that means nothing.

 

[reality_wars]

I wonder what the specific damage to the DNA would be, assumed this fairy tale is based on truth. Cannabis use is common since many, many generations, if not since the stone age. So, if this research is based on truth, it's hard to except that all of us originate from ancestors that damaged their DNA with smoking, so I guess our complete race is broken. Ergo: why should we care?

 

[restin]

that's not true, smoking cannabis is a fairly modern phenomenon. Afaik it originated for the western world when cannabis was exported to South America for making ropes and evolved a high THC content because of the climate. The oral consumption of cannabis is the one with tradition.

Except for some arabian countries where it is smoked as kif...anyway, our ancestors, the ones that used cannabis, would have rather eaten it.