NO DANGER HERE

Editor:

The Canadian Health Network asserts: "Marijuana smoke contains about
50 per cent more of certain carcinogens than the same amount of
unfiltered tobacco." From this a reasonable person might assume a
corresponding increase in cancer risk. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The University of California studied relationships between marijuana
smoking and cancer and found that even those who smoked more than
20,000 joints in their life did not have an increased risk of lung
cancer. The study found "no increase in the risk of developing lung
cancer for marijuana smokers."

In fact, studies from all over the world have reported that THC
fights cancer. A Medical College of Virginia team discovered in 1974
that "THC slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers and a
virus-induced leukemia in lab mice and prolonged their lives by as
much as 36 per cent." The March 2000 issue of Nature Medicine
announced that researchers had destroyed incurable brain tumours in
rats by injecting them with THC. In July 2002 the medical journal
'Blood' reported that THC produced "programmed cell death" in
different varieties of human leukemia and lymphoma, thereby
destroying the cancerous cells but leaving other cells unharmed.

Canadians deserve to know.

Rick Gwilt, Burnaby