Good thread, wasn't it George Carlin who said and I quote: "Making Marijuana illegal is like saying God made a mistake."
Heres some more links and info on the many benifits of this wonder plant!
Cannabis and cancer.
Large Study Finds No Link between Marijuana and Lung Cancer
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?art...5F83414B7F0000
Study finds no marijuana link to lung cancer
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/ma...k_lung_cancer/
Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...052501729.html
Cannabis and tobacco smoke are not equally carcinogenic. "A connection between marijuana smoking and lung or colorectal cancer was not observed"
http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/2/1/21
Cannabis smoke less carcinogenic than tobacco smoke
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/32229.php
Cannabis study finds less cancer risk than tobacco
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/oc...alcohol.health
Marijuana Unlikely to Cause Head, Neck, or Lung Cancer
http://www.webmd.com/news/20000508/m...o-cause-cancer
Smoking Marijuana Does Not Cause Cancer According to a Case-control Study
http://bbsnews.net/article.php/20050710150925597
Cannabis and brain damage.
Heavy Marijuana Use Doesn't Damage Brain
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/n...t-damage-brain
Marijuana Boosts Brain Cell Growth
http://www.aphroditewomenshealth.com...lth_news.shtml
Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8155
High Times for Brain Growth: Marijuana-like drug multiplies neurons
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20051015/fob7.asp
"studies using DTI have not found any abnormalities whatsoever in any part of the brains of adolescent heavy cannabis users. In fact, if anything, adolescent cannabis users tended to have larger brains, with more cells (white matter) than the controls. That doesn't mean that using cannabis in adolescence makes you smart, but it surely rules out significant global brain damage."
http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/...1/17/lIDABD3EJ
"Smoking marijuana does not have a long-term effect on intelligence. Only the heavy current users had experienced a decline in their IQ scores over the 10-year period - about four points, But people who had once smoked heavily and then given up were right back up to normal. Light users, former users and abstainers all saw their IQ scores climb between two and six points."
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2140
Study: Alcohol, Tobacco Worse Than Pot
http://cbs3.com/topstories/alcohol.t....2.282305.html
Human studies
There is very little evidence from human studies of structural brain damage. In their controversial paper, Campbell et al (1971) were the first to present evidence suggesting that structural/morphological brain damage was associated with cannabis use. They used air encephalography to measure cerebral ventricular size, and claimed to have demonstrated evidence of cerebral atrophy in ten young males who had used cannabis for three to 11 years, and who complained of neurological symptoms, including headaches, memory dysfunction and other cognitive impairment. Compared to controls, the cannabis users showed significantly enlarged lateral and third ventricular areas. Although this study was widely publicised in the media because of its serious implications, it was heavily criticised on methodological grounds. Most subjects had also used significant quantities of LSD and amphetamines, and the measurement technique was claimed to be inaccurate, particularly since there were great difficulties in assessing ventricular size and volume to any degree of accuracy (e.g. Bull, 1971; Susser, 1972; Brewer, 1972). Moreover, the findings could not be replicated. Stefanis (1976) reported that echoencephalographic measurements of the third ventricle in 14 chronic hashish users and 21 non-users did not support Campbell et al's pneumoencephalographic findings of ventricular dilation.
The introduction of more accurate and non-invasive techniques, in the form of computerised tomographic (CT) scans, (also known as computer-assisted tomographic (CAT) scans), permitted better studies of possible cerebral atrophy in chronic cannabis users (Co et al, 1977; Kuehnle et al, 1977). Co et al (1977), for example, compared 12 cannabis users recruited from the general community, with 34 non-drug using controls, all within the ages of 20-30. The cannabis users had used cannabis for at least five years at the level of at least five joints per day, and most had also consumed significant quantities of a variety of other drugs, particularly LSD. Kuehnle et al's (1977) subjects were 19 heavy users aged 21-27 years, also recruited from the general community who had used on average between 25 and 62 joints per month in the preceding year, although their duration of use was not reported. CT scans were obtained presumably at the end of a 31-day study, which included 21 days of ad libitum smoking of marijuana (generally five joints per day), and were compared against a separate normative sample. No evidence for cerebral atrophy in terms of ventricular size and subarachnoid space was found in either study. Although these studies could also be criticised for their research design (e.g. inappropriate control groups, and the fact that cannabis users had used other drugs), these flaws would only have biased the studies in the direction of detecting significant differences between groups, yet none were found. The results were interpreted as a refutation of Campbell's findings, and supporting the absence of cortical atrophy demonstrated by Rumbaugh et al's (1980) CAT scans of monkeys. A further study (Hannerz and Hindmarsh, 1983) investigated 12 subjects who had smoked on average 1g of cannabis daily for between six and 20 years, by thorough clinical neurological examination and CT scans. As in the studies above, no cannabis related abnormalities were found on any assessment measure.
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wc...nnab2-ch75.htm
Cannabis and Schizophrenia.
RSNA: Brain Scans Suggest Marijuana-Schizophrenia Link
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Radiolog...eeting/tb/2239
There are serious issues with these link studies, first of all that schizophrenia does not seem to have gone up in the era of heavy marijuana use - instead it has gone down or remained flat. This was in an era in which pot use exploded. The studies imply that pot only may cause scz in adolescence and not afterwards.
The study above does suggest impaired growth of a particular, very tiny structure of the brain by using pot in adolescence. However, the clinical correlates of such damage are a form of aphasia which adolescent pot users do not have. So there are no clinical correlates to the damage to this structure.
This structure does develop abnormally ON ONE SIDE in pot using adolescents. In scz, this structure ON BOTH SIDES. Furthermore, this is only a miniscule portion of the damage to the brain that happens when someone gets schizophrenia! Scz is a disease that is characterized by massive damage all across the brain to virtually every structure you can think of. Therefore, this very minor brain damage is certainly not sufficient to cause scz.
Read more about it here:
Does Marijuana Cause Schizophrenia?
http://robertlindsay.blogspot.com/20...zophrenia.html
Medical benefits of cannabis.
Marijuana Cuts Lung Cancer Tumor Growth In Half, Study Shows
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0417193338.htm
Heart study finds benefit from pot
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/sectio...cle_471358.php
Marijuana Chemical Fights Hardened Arteries
http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/n...dened-arteries
Marijuana can prevent blindness in Glaucoma patients.
http://www.preventblindness.org/reso...ijuanaFS01.PDF
Use of Marijuana to Treat Glaucoma
http://www.medem.com/medlb/article_d...C&sub_cat=2012
Cannabinoids promote embryonic and adult hippocampus neurogenesis and produce anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects
http://www.jci.org/115/11/3104?FIRST...855602212_4399
Decreased Depression In Cannabis Users, Study Says
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6586
Marijuana users report less depression.
http://www.doctordeluca.com/Library/...nMjUsers05.pdf
Medical marijuana for ADD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj72e5q61Fs
Study backs medicinal benefits of cannabis
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2000/...bis000301.html
U.S. Government Knew In 1974: THC Inhibits Cancer Tumors
http://projectcensored.org/publications/2001/22.html
and to recent research in Spain finding that THC stopped brain tumors in rats and protected surrounding nerve tissue, demonstrating neuroprotectant aspect of Cannabinoids. PDF of Dr. Guzman's research:
http://americanmarijuana.org/Guzman-Cancer.pdf
There is also evidence that cannabis is protective against the neurotoxic effects of stroke and head injury. Further evidence shows that cannabis is effective in slowing the progression of various neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, MS, Parkinson's, and ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease).
http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/co...ract/36/5/1071
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/95/14/8268
http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/21/17/6475
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/en...&dopt=Citation
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...cd713e4c6bf29b
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/...ll/126/10/2191
http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/cmu/am..._sclerosis.htm
Cannabis also protects mice against brain cell death caused by alcohol.
http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/cgi/co...urcetype=HWCIT