LATEST STUDY OF MARIJUANA USE CONCLUDES IT IS NOT CANCEROUS

Letter writer Jane Christmas ("Marijuana causes cancer and should be
totally illegal," April 2) is the one who has obviously not attended
medical school, or followed current research.

In the largest study of its kind Dr. Donald Tashkin, a UCLA
pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years, concluded that
smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung
cancer. Tashkin stated, "The new findings were against our
expectations. 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 S What we found
instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some
protective effect."

Federal health and drug enforcement officials have widely used
Tashkin's previous work on marijuana to make the case that the drug is
dangerous. Tashkin said that while he still believes marijuana is
potentially harmful, its cancer-causing effects appear to be of less
concern than previously thought. Ms. Christmas is better at repeating
the drug war dogma she was taught than doing real research.

David Lane

Santa Cruz