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The nicotine in tobacco makes cigarette smoking more likely to cause cancer, while the THC in marijuana may help protect users from the carcinogens in the drug, a University of Colorado researcher says.
The BBC reported Oct. 17 that researcher Robert Melamede said that while tobacco and marijuana were chemically similar, tobacco posed more of a cancer threat. "Compounds found in cannabis have been shown to kill numerous cancer types including lung, breast, prostate, leukemia, lymphoma and skin cancer, said Melamede. However, studies also have shown that low levels of THC may cause lung-cancer cells to grow.
"It is possible that as the cannabis-consuming population ages, the long-term consequences of smoking cannabis may become more similar to what is observed with tobacco," Melamede said. "However, current knowledge does not suggest that cannabis smoke will have a carcinogenic potential comparable to that resulting from exposure to tobacco smoke."
But some cancer experts said that previous studies on marijuana's cancer potential were performed with purified cannabinoids, not raw marijuana. "Smoke from tobacco and cannabis contains many of the same carcinogens, and cell damage linked to lung cancer has been found in the lungs of chronic cannabis smokers," said Jean King, director of tobacco control at Cancer Research UK.
Source: Cancer Risk from Tobacco Greater than Marijuana Smoking, Researcher Says | The Partnership at Drugfree.org
The BBC reported Oct. 17 that researcher Robert Melamede said that while tobacco and marijuana were chemically similar, tobacco posed more of a cancer threat. "Compounds found in cannabis have been shown to kill numerous cancer types including lung, breast, prostate, leukemia, lymphoma and skin cancer, said Melamede. However, studies also have shown that low levels of THC may cause lung-cancer cells to grow.
"It is possible that as the cannabis-consuming population ages, the long-term consequences of smoking cannabis may become more similar to what is observed with tobacco," Melamede said. "However, current knowledge does not suggest that cannabis smoke will have a carcinogenic potential comparable to that resulting from exposure to tobacco smoke."
But some cancer experts said that previous studies on marijuana's cancer potential were performed with purified cannabinoids, not raw marijuana. "Smoke from tobacco and cannabis contains many of the same carcinogens, and cell damage linked to lung cancer has been found in the lungs of chronic cannabis smokers," said Jean King, director of tobacco control at Cancer Research UK.
Source: Cancer Risk from Tobacco Greater than Marijuana Smoking, Researcher Says | The Partnership at Drugfree.org
