Bad news for the War on Drugs

Just in time for the 2008 election campaign comes word from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA that marijuana does not cause cancer.

Dr. Donald Tashkin, a UCLA pulmonologist with twenty years experience in the field of marijuana research, just completed the largest study of its kind (if you don't count Grateful Dead tours) and concluded, to his surprise, that smoking marijuana heavily for years does not lead to lung cancer.

"We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer and that the association would be more positive with heavier use," Dr. Tashkin said. "What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect."

This is more bad news for the Bush administration, because federal health and drug enforcement officials have used Dr. Tashkin's research in the past as evidence that marijuana is dangerous.

Dr. Tashkin said he still believes marijuana is potentially harmful.

Well, everybody should believe in something.

I believe the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reserves to the states the power to decide whether it is a crime to grow, distribute or use marijuana within state borders.

You might believe it, too, if you read "Marijuana, Prohibition and the Tenth Amendment" at www.SusanShelley.com.


Copyright 2007

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