The link below goes to an article that gives journalists the impression that pot has been shown to cause cancer.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080311165905.htm

A careful read of the piece shows that the researchers didn’t control for other factors when considering the correlation they found between pot smoking and HPV-based cancers of the head and neck. Since HPV is considered almost necessary and certainly sufficient to cause other cancers such as cervical, penile, and anal, and pot has never been associated with any other cancers nor with lung cancers, you really have to wonder if it plays any role at all in the findings. More likely, pot-smoking is associated with high sex-partner counts (the licentious lifestyle, dontcha know), which are associated with HPV, which…causes cancer in the head and neck, all by itself, just as it does elsewhere in the body. So it might look like being a pot smoker increases your risks of cancer, but it probably just means you’re kind of a party animal who gets HPV and who might, sadly, get cancer some day because of it.

More will be revealed, and note that even the lead researcher admitted “It’s possible that other behaviors linked with marijuana use could be the real culprit[s], and our results will need to be confirmed.” Which is what I was trying to say, above.

So, as we continue our journey towards de-stigmatizing this lovely herb, let us be bold and analytical and not accept weak research findings unless they were found while a theory was being tested, and found unequivocally.

–Caroline

We should disassociate it from hippie-dom, stoners, and earthchildren.

Within ten years, pot snobs will be common and vocal.

Pot accessories will be what wine accessories are now.

60% of the population will smoke nightly.

Until then…there’s Medical Marijuana…

CC