DANGERS OF MARIJUANA: PHYSICAL HEALTH ISSUES RELATED TO MARIJUANA

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DANGERS OF MARIJUANA: PHYSICAL HEALTH ISSUES RELATED TO MARIJUANA

analysis of U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration Demand Reduction Section May 2014 The Dangers and Consequences of Marijuana Abuse

analysis of DANGERS OF MARIJUANA: PHYSICAL HEALTH ISSUES RELATED TO MARIJUANA: (5.201559 secs.)

DANGERS OF MARIJUANA: PHYSICAL HEALTH ISSUES RELATED TO MARIJUANA

Marijuana use also affects the physical health of users, both short and long term.

o In 2011, according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), there were 1,252,000 emergency department (ED) visits involving an illicit drug. Marijuana was involved in 455,668 of these visits, second only to cocaine.64

o ED visits for marijuana increased 19 percent between 2009 and 2011.65

o Among ED visits made by patients aged 20 or younger resulting in drug misuse or abuse, marijuana was the most commonly involved illicit drug (143.9 visits per 100,000).66 o In 2012, an estimated 22.2 million persons aged 12 or older were classified with substance dependence and abuse in the past year (8.5 percent of the population 12 or older). Marijuana was the illicit drug with the largest number of persons (4.3 million) with past year dependence or abuse.67

o On an average day in 2010 there were 266 drug related ED visits for youth 12 to17 years of age that involved marijuana.68

o NIDA reports that marijuana increases heart rate by 20-100 percent shortly after smoking, an effect that can last for up to three hours. In one study, it was estimated that marijuana users have a 4.8-fold increase in the risk of heart attack in the first hour after smoking.69 o Under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, the Governor of California is required to revise and republish at least once a year the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity. On September 11, 2009, the California Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, published the latest list. The list included a chemical added in June, marijuana smoke, and lists cancer as the type of toxicity.70

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o A study by researchers at the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands found women who smoked pot during pregnancy may impair their baby's growth and development in the womb. The babies born to marijuana users tended to weigh less and have smaller heads than other infants, both of which are linked to increased risk of problems with thinking, memory, and behavioral problems in childhood.71

o A long-term study of over 900 New Zealanders by the University of Otago, New Zealand School of Dentistry has found that "heavy marijuana use has been found to contribute to gum disease, apart from the known effects that tobacco smoke was already known to have."72

o A study from Monash University and the Alfred Hospital in Australia has found that "bullous lung disease occurs in marijuana smokers 20 years earlier than tobacco smokers. Often caused by exposure to toxic chemicals or long-term exposure to tobacco smoke, bullae is a condition where air trapped in the lungs causes obstruction to breathing and eventual destruction of the lungs." Dr. Matthew Naughton explains that "marijuana is inhaled as extremely hot fumes to the peak inspiration and held for as long as possible before slow exhalation. This predisposes to greater damage to the lungs and makes marijuana smokers more prone to bullous disease as compared to cigarette smokers."73

o In December 2007 researchers in Canada reported that "marijuana smoke contains significantly higher levels of toxic compounds -- including ammonia and hydrogen cyanide -- than tobacco smoke and may therefore pose similar health risks." "Ammonia levels were 20 times higher in the marijuana smoke than in the tobacco smoke, while hydrogen cyanide, nitric oxide and certain aromatic amines occurred at levels 3-5 times higher in the marijuana smoke."74

o Marijuana worsens breathing problems in current smokers with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), according to a study released by the American Thoracic Society in May 2007. Among people age 40 and older, smoking cigarettes and marijuana together boosted the odds of developing COPD to 3.5 times the risk of someone who smoked neither.75

o Scientists at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, a medical university, have advanced their understanding of how smoking marijuana during pregnancy may damage the fetal brain. Findings from their study, released in May 2007, explain how endogenous cannabinoids exert adverse effects on nerve cells, potentially imposing life-long cognitive and motor deficits in afflicted new born babies.76

o A study from New Zealand reports that cannabis smoking may cause five percent of lung cancer cases in that country. Dr. Sarah Aldington of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington presented her study results at the Thoracic Society conference in Auckland on March 26, 2007.77

o Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that frequent or long-term marijuana use may significantly increase a man's risk of developing the most aggressive type of testicular cancer, nonseminoma. Nonseminoma is a fast-growing 14

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testicular malignancy that tends to strike early, between the ages of 20 and 35, and accounts for about 40 percent of all testicular cancer cases. Dr. Stephen Schwartz stated that researchers are still studying the long-term health consequences of marijuana smoking, especially heavy marijuana smoking and "in the absence of more certain information, a decision to smoke marijuana recreationally means that one is taking a chance on one's future health."78

o According to researchers at the Yale School of Medicine, long-term exposure to marijuana smoke is linked to many of the same kinds of health problems as those experienced by long-term cigarette smokers. "...[C]linicians should advise their patients of the potential negative impact of marijuana smoking on overall lung health."79

o While smoking cigarettes is known to be a major risk factor for the bladder cancer most common among people age 60 and older, researchers are now finding a correlation between smoking marijuana and bladder cancer. In a study of younger patients with transitional cell bladder cancer, Dr. Martha Terriss found that 88.5 percent had a history of smoking marijuana. Marijuana smoke has many of the same carcinogen-containing tars as cigarettes and may get even more into the body because marijuana cigarettes are unfiltered and users tend to hold the smoke in their lungs for prolonged periods. Dr. Terriss notes that more research is needed, but does recommend that when doctors find blood in a young patient's urine sample, they may want to include questions about marijuana use in their follow-up.80

o Smoking marijuana can cause changes in lung tissue that may promote cancer growth, according to a review of decades of research on marijuana smoking and lung cancer. However, it is not possible to directly link pot use to lung cancer based on existing evidence. Nevertheless, researchers indicate that the precancerous changes seen in studies included in their analysis, as well as the fact that marijuana smokers generally inhale more deeply and hold smoke in their lungs longer than cigarette smokers, and that marijuana is smoked without a filter, do suggest that smoking pot could indeed boost lung cancer risk. It is known, they add, that marijuana smoking deposits more tar in the lungs than cigarette smoking does.81

o Smoking three cannabis joints will cause one to inhale the same amount of toxic chemicals as a whole pack of cigarettes according to researchers from the French National Consumers' Institute. Cannabis smoke contains seven times more tar and carbon monoxide than cigarette smoke. Someone smoking a joint of cannabis resin rolled with tobacco will inhale twice the amount of benzene and three times as much toluene as if they were smoking a regular cigarette.82

o According to research, the use of marijuana by women trying to conceive or those recently becoming pregnant is not recommended, as it endangers the passage of the embryo from the ovary to the uterus and can result in a failed pregnancy. Researchers from Vanderbilt University say a study with mice has shown that marijuana exposure may compromise the pregnancy outcome because an active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), interferes with a fertilized egg's ability to implant in the lining of the uterus.83

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o Infants exposed to marijuana in the womb show subtle behavioral changes in their first days of life, according to researchers in Brazil. The newborns were more irritable than non-exposed infants, less responsive, and more difficult to calm. They also cried more, startled more easily, and were jitterier. Such changes have the potential to interfere with the mother-child bonding process. "It is necessary to counter the misconception that marijuana is a 'benign drug' and to educate women regarding the risks and possible consequences related to its use during pregnancy," Dr. Marina Carvahlo de Moraes Barros and her colleagues concluded.84

o Marijuana smoking has been implicated as a causative factor in tumors of the head and neck and of the lung. The marijuana smokers in whom these tumors occur are usually much younger than the tobacco smokers who are the usual victims of these malignancies. Although a recent study published by the Medical College of Georgia and Stanford University suggests a causal relationship between marijuana exposure and bladder cancer, larger scale epidemiologic and basic science studies are needed to confirm the role of marijuana smoking as an etiologic agent in the development of transitional cell carcinoma.85

o According to a 2005 study of marijuana's long-term pulmonary effects by Dr. Donald Tashkin at the University of California, Los Angeles, marijuana smoking deposits significantly more tar and known carcinogens within the tar, such a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, into the airways. In addition to precancerous changes, marijuana smoking is associated with impaired function of the immune system components in the lungs.86

o Smoked marijuana has also been associated with an increased risk of the same respiratory symptoms as tobacco, including coughing, phlegm production, chronic bronchitis, shortness of breath and wheezing. Because cannabis plants are contaminated with a range of fungal spores, smoking marijuana may also increase the risk of respiratory exposure by infectious organisms (i.e., molds and fungi).87

o Marijuana takes the risks of tobacco and raises them. Marijuana smoke contains more than 400 chemicals and increases the risk of serious health consequences, including lung damage.88

o An April 2007 article published by the Harm Reduction Journal, and funded by the pro- legalization Marijuana Policy Project, argues that the use of a vaporizer has the potential to reduce the danger of cannabis as far as respiratory symptoms are concerned. While these claims remain scientifically unproven, serious negative consequences still remain. For example, driving skills are still impaired, heavy adolescent use may create deviant brain structure, and 9-12 percent of cannabis users develop symptoms of dependence. A vaporizer offers no protection against these consequences.89

o According to two studies, marijuana use narrows arteries in the brain, "similar to patients with high blood pressure and dementia," and may explain why memory tests are difficult for marijuana users. In addition, "chronic consumers of cannabis lose molecules called CB1 receptors in the brain's arteries," leading to blood flow problems in the brain which can cause memory loss, attention deficits, and impaired learning ability.90 16

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o A small study (50 patients) was conducted by the University of California San Francisco, from 2003 to 2005, leading researchers to find that smoked marijuana eased HIV-related foot pain. This pain, known as peripheral neuropathy, was relieved for 52 percent of the patients in the controlled experiment. Dr. Donald Abrams, director of the study said that while subjects' pain was reduced he and his colleagues "found that adverse events, such as sedation, dizziness and confusion were significantly higher among the cannabis smokers."91

o In response to this study, critics of smoked marijuana were quick to point out that while THC does have some medicinal benefits, smoked marijuana is a poor delivery mechanism. Citing evidence that marijuana smoke is harmful, Dr. David Murray, then chief scientist at ONDCP, noted that "People who smoke marijuana are subject to bacterial infections in the lungs...Is this really what a physician who is treating someone with a compromised immune system wants to prescribe?"92 o Dr. Murray also said that the findings are 'not particularly persuasive' because of the small number of subjects and the possibility that subjects knew they were smoking marijuana and had an increased expectation of efficacy. He expressed the government's support for pain relief for HIV-affected individuals and said that while 'We're very much supportive of any effort to ameliorate the suffering of AIDS patients, the delivery mechanism for THC should be pills, and not smoked marijuana, which can cause lung damage and deliver varying dosages of THC."93 o Researchers involved with the University of California, San Francisco, project admitted that there may be a problem with efforts to gauge the effects of marijuana vs. the effects of a placebo. Some users were immediately able to acknowledge that their sample was indeed cannabis because of the effects of that substance. One participant, Diana Dodson said, 'I knew immediately [that I received cannabis] because I could feel the effects.'94 o Pro-marijuana advocates were encouraged by a medical study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. The study, published in October 2006, was based on interviews with people in Los Angeles (611 who developed lung cancer, 601 who developed cancer of the head or neck regions, and 1,040 people without cancer who were matched [to other subjects] on age, gender, and neighborhoods). The study found that people who smoke marijuana do not appear to be at increased risk of developing lung cancer.95 While this study's findings differed from previous studies and researchers' expectations, "[o]ther experts are warning that the study should not be viewed as a green light to smoke pot, as smoking marijuana has been associated with problems such as cognitive impairment and chronic bronchitis."96 NIDA continues to maintain that smoking marijuana is detrimental to pulmonary functions. o In its October, 2006, issue of NIDA Notes, mention is made of the most recent Tashkin study. 'Biopsies of bronchial tissue provide evidence that regular marijuana smoking injures airway epithelial cells, leading to dysregulation of bronchial epithelial cell growth and eventually to possible malignant changes.' 17

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Moreover, he adds, because marijuana smokers typically hold their breath four times as long as tobacco smokers after inhaling, marijuana smoking deposits significantly more tar and known carcinogens within the tar, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, in the airways. In addition to precancerous changes, Dr. Tashkin found that marijuana smoking is associated with a range of damaging pulmonary effects, including inhibition of the tumor-killing and bactericidal activity of alveolar macrophages, the primary immune cells within the lung."

o NIDA also comments on the Tashkin study in the Director's Notes from February 2007. While acknowledging that the study concluded "that the association of these cancers with marijuana, even long-term or heavy use, is not strong and may be below practically detectable limits...these results may have been affected by selection bias or error in measuring lifetime exposure and confounder histories."97 o In October 2006, one of the study's authors, Dr. Hal Morgenstern, Chair of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, said although the risk of cancer did not prove to be large in the recent study, "I wouldn't go so far as to say there is no increased cancer risk from smoking marijuana."98 o The British Lung Foundation's 2012 survey of 1,000 adults found that a third wrongly believed that cannabis did not harm one's health. The survey also revealed that 88 percent thought tobacco cigarettes were more harmful than cannabis ones, although the risk of lung cancer is actually 20 times higher from a cannabis cigarette than a tobacco cigarette. Part of the reason for this is that people smoking cannabis take deeper puffs and hold them for longer than tobacco smokers. This means that a person smoking a cannabis cigarette inhales four times as much tar and five times as much carbon monoxide as someone smoking a tobacco cigarette. The Foundation warned that smoking one cannabis cigarette increase the chances of developing lung cancer by as much as an entire packet of 20 cigarettes. "It is alarming that, while new research continues to reveal the multiple health consequences of smoking cannabis, there is still a dangerous lack of public awareness of quite how harmful this drug can be," said Dame Helena Shovelton, Chief Executive of the British Lung Foundation. "We therefore need a serious public health campaign ' of the kind that helped raise awareness of the dangers of eating fatty food or smoking tobacco ' to finally dispel the myth that smoking cannabis is somehow a safe pastime."99

o A large international study by researchers from the University of Adelaide found that women who use marijuana during pregnancy double the risk of giving birth prematurely. Preterm or premature births, which is at least three weeks prior to the due date, can result in serious and life-threating health problems for the baby, and increased health problems in later life, such as heart disease and diabetes.100

summary: drug_related = 100%, drugwar_propaganda = 100%

I thought the text was interesting because of these details:

aggrandizement cannabis chemicals cocaine dissent attacked dissent silenced drug ngo drug propaganda agency drug reform ngo drug related drugs drugwar propaganda euphoric stimulant government prohib harm reduction hashish illegal drugs intoxicant medical cannabis mpp plants prohibition agency prohibitionist propaganda theme1 propaganda theme2 propaganda theme3 propaganda theme4 propaganda theme5 propaganda theme7 propaganda theme8 school stimulant tobacco use is abuse various drugs various illegal drugs youth

analysis of article text

    prohibitionist     prohibition_agency     drugwar_propaganda     legalization     drug_reformer
    reform_referenda     cannabis     stimulant     narcotic     hallucinogen

incarceration/prison mentioned? NO - the issue of prison or incarceration was NOT mentioned in this article .

propaganda analysis

EXP - explicit prohibition propaganda (explicit_propaganda) GRP - hated group (propaganda_theme1) MAD - madness, violence, illness (propaganda_theme2)
SOC - survival of society (propaganda_theme3) USE - gateway, use is abuse (propaganda_theme4) KID - children (propaganda_theme5)
WAR - demonize, war, epidemic (propaganda_theme6) TOT - total prohibition (propaganda_theme7) DIS - dissent opposed (propaganda_theme8)

asserted: $drug_related at 100% ($harm_reduction $prohibition_agency $illegal_drugs $drug_ngo $prohibitionist) asserted: $drugwar_propaganda at 100% ($propaganda_theme1 $propaganda_theme2 $propaganda_theme3 $propaganda_theme5 $propaganda_theme7 $propaganda_theme4 $propaganda_theme8) asserted: $propaganda_theme1 at 100% ("users" "cannabis smokers" "marijuana smokers" "cannabis users"), 14 hits asserted: $propaganda_theme2 at 100% ("Harm" "harmful" "alarming" "dangerous" "health risks" "threating" "negative impact" "heart rate" "blood pressure" "memory loss" "heart attack" "damage" "damaging" "DANGERS" "danger" "DANGERS OF" "danger of" "impair" "impaired" "impairment" "bronchitis" "lung damage" "risk of cancer" "cancer" "cancers" "problems" "problem" "toxicity" "dementia" "health problems" "detrimental" "disease" "suffering"), 84 hits asserted: $propaganda_theme3 at 75% ("Society" "American" "neighborhoods" "Public Health"), 8 hits asserted: $use_is_abuse at 100% ("drug misuse" "Drug Abuse" "pot use" "cannabis users" "Marijuana use" "marijuana users" "use marijuana" "Abuse"), 17 hits asserted: $propaganda_theme4 at 100% ($use_is_abuse) asserted: $propaganda_theme5 at 80% ("child" "infants" "newborns" "babies" "baby" "adolescent" "youth"), 11 hits asserted: $propaganda_theme7 at 98% ("legalization" "legalization Marijuana"), 2 hits asserted: $dissent_silenced at 60% ("Prevention. The study"), 1 hits asserted: $dissent_attacked at 90% ("Pro-marijuana" "marijuana advocates" "advocates"), 3 hits asserted: $propaganda_theme8 at 90% ($dissent_silenced $dissent_attacked) asserted: $illegal_drugs at 100% ($cannabis $various_illegal_drugs $stimulant) asserted: $drugs at 90% ($various_drugs) asserted: $drug_ngo at 100% ($drug_reform_ngo) asserted: $drug_reform_ngo at 100% ($mpp) asserted: $mpp at 100% ("Marijuana Policy Project"), 1 hits asserted: $prohibitionist at 90% ($government_prohib) asserted: $government_prohib at 90% ("Dr. David Murray" "David Murray" "Murray"), 4 hits asserted: $prohibition_agency at 100% ("NIDA" "Drug Abuse Warning Network" "DAWN" $drug_propaganda_agency), 6 hits asserted: $drug_propaganda_agency at 100% ("ONDCP"), 1 hits asserted: $harm_reduction at 100% ("Harm Reduction"), 1 hits asserted: $chemicals at 100% ($cocaine) asserted: $plants at 100% ($cannabis $tobacco) asserted: $euphoric_stimulant at 100% ($cocaine) asserted: $intoxicant at 100% ($cannabis) asserted: $stimulant at 100% ($cocaine) asserted: $medical_cannabis at 50% ("active ingredient in marijuana" "Smoked marijuana" "marijuana advocates were encouraged by a medical" "Medicine, long-term exposure to marijuana" "medicinal benefits, smoked marijuana"), 9 hits asserted: $cocaine at 100% ("cocaine"), 1 hits asserted: $cannabis at 100% ("MARIJUANA" "cannabis" "pot" "smoking pot" "THC" "tetrahydrocannabinol" "smoked pot" "smoke pot" "pot, as smoking" $medical_cannabis $hashish), 108 hits asserted: $hashish at 100% ("cannabis resin"), 1 hits asserted: $tobacco at 100% ("cigarettes" "tobacco"), 22 hits asserted: $various_drugs at 90% ("Drug"), 8 hits asserted: $various_illegal_drugs at 100% ("drug related" "illicit drug" "Drug Abuse"), 5 hits asserted: $youth at 80% ($propaganda_theme5) asserted: $school at 100% ("School" "College" "University"), 15 hits asserted: $aggrandizement at 100% ("experts"), 1 hits

Sentence-By-Sentence Analysis

(1) DANGERS OF MARIJUANA: PHYSICAL HEALTH ISSUES RELATED TO MARIJUANA Marijuana use also affects the physical health of users, both short and long term. o In 2011, according to the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), there were 1,252,000 emergency department (ED) visits involving an illicit drug .

re: "DANGERS", "DANGERS OF" - Drugs, the prohibitionist explains, are a wicked bane on modern man. If not for the noble drug war (i.e. jailing drug users), exclaims the propagandist, then people will run amok, and violence, death, psychosis, and plague shall cover the land. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) ) re: "Drug Abuse", "Marijuana use", "Abuse" - "This strategy equates the use and abuse of drugs and implies that it is impossible to use the particular drug or drugs in question without physical, mental, and moral deterioration." [W.White,1979] (Use is Abuse (propaganda theme 4) ) re: "Drug Abuse Warning Network", "DAWN" - Power is sweet; it is a drug, the desire for which increases with a habit. -- Bertrand Russell

(3) Marijuana was the illicit drug with the largest number of persons (4.3 million) with past year dependence or abuse.67 o On an average day in 2010 there were 266 drug related ED visits for youth 12 to17 years of age that involved marijuana.68 o NIDA reports that marijuana increases heart rate by 20-100 percent shortly after smoking, an effect that can last for up to three hours .

re: "heart rate" - It is prohibition, claim prohibitionists, that saves people from drug crazed, whacked out, high flying drug users. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) ) re: "youth" - Drug war propaganda plays on parental fears for the well being of their kids. If drug users are not jailed, says the prohibitionist, then your children will surely suffer. (Children Corrupted (propaganda theme 5) ) re: "NIDA" - "for other people, this would be wrong, but because I have the best interests of my followers at heart, it's ok for me to...." -- How Power Corrupts Leaders, Ronald E. Riggio

(4) In one study, it was estimated that marijuana users have a 4.8-fold increase in the risk of heart attack in the first hour after smoking.69 o Under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, the Governor of California is required to revise and republish at least once a year the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity .

re: "heart attack", "cancer", "toxicity" - Drugs, scream prohibitionists, cause all bad things in life: crime, violence, insanity, etc. If not for prohibition (i.e., jailing drug users), then criminality, violence and psychotic behavior would explode upon the land, the prohibitionist assures us. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) ) re: "marijuana users" - Prohibition propaganda claims that all use of any "drug" is abuse. (Use is Abuse (propaganda theme 4) )

(6) The list included a chemical added in June, marijuana smoke, and lists cancer as the type of toxicity.70 13 ....... o A study by researchers at the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands found women who smoked pot during pregnancy may impair their baby's growth and development in the womb .

re: "impair", "cancer", "toxicity" - The rhetoric of prohibition asserts that insanity, crime, and violence are caused by drugs, or are controlled by prohibition. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )

(11) This predisposes to greater damage to the lungs and makes marijuana smokers more prone to bullous disease as compared to cigarette smokers."73 o In December 2007 researchers in Canada reported that "marijuana smoke contains significantly higher levels of toxic compounds -- including ammonia and hydrogen cyanide -- than tobacco smoke and may therefore pose similar health risks."

re: "marijuana smokers" - Prohibition rhetoric often attempts to associate hated groups with targeted drugs. (Hated Groups (propaganda theme 1) ) re: "health risks", "damage", "disease" - Prohibitionist propaganda claims that horrible dangers are caused by "drugs." (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )

(14) Findings from their study, released in May 2007, explain how endogenous cannabinoids exert adverse effects on nerve cells, potentially imposing life-long cognitive and motor deficits in afflicted new born babies.76 o A study from New Zealand reports that cannabis smoking may cause five percent of lung cancer cases in that country .

re: "cancer" - Drugs, claim the prohibitionist, cause insanity, violence, and terrible sickness. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) ) re: "babies" - "Since the Harrison Act of 1914, the user and the seller of illicit drugs have both been characterized as evil, criminal, insane, and always in search of new victims, the victims are characterized as young children." [W.White,1979] (Children Corrupted (propaganda theme 5) )

(16) Sarah Aldington of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington presented her study results at the Thoracic Society conference in Auckland on March 26, 2007.77 o Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that frequent or long-term marijuana use may significantly increase a man's risk of developing the most aggressive type of testicular cancer, nonseminoma .

re: "Cancer" - Prohibitionists claim use of currently illegal drugs causes crime, death, illness, lunacy, mania, melancholy, and all means of sin and degradation. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) ) re: "Society" - Prohibitionists assert that the survival of the community, society, the nation, the world, etc. are at stake. Only continued and increased punishments for drug users can be contemplated, because, say prohibitionists, society will otherwise fall apart. (Survival of Society (propaganda theme 3) ) re: "marijuana use" - Prohibitionists try to hammer in the idea that 'all use is abuse.' The rhetoric of prohibition needs to deny that many people can use currently illegal drugs without abusing them. (Use is Abuse (propaganda theme 4) )

(17) Nonseminoma is a fast-growing 14 ....... testicular malignancy that tends to strike early, between the ages of 20 and 35, and accounts for about 40 percent of all testicular cancer cases .

re: "cancer" - Prohibition propaganda rarely misses an opportunity to link crime, violence, and insanity with "drugs". The propagandist insinuates that prohibited drugs cause evil, and if it weren't for "drugs" bad things would not exist. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )

(20) In a study of younger patients with transitional cell bladder cancer, Dr .

re: "cancer" - drug war rhetoric transforms drugs users into scapegoats -- (Richard L Miller, Drug Warriors and their Prey) (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )

(24) Terriss notes that more research is needed, but does recommend that when doctors find blood in a young patient's urine sample, they may want to include questions about marijuana use in their follow-up.80 o Smoking marijuana can cause changes in lung tissue that may promote cancer growth, according to a review of decades of research on marijuana smoking and lung cancer .

re: "cancer" - Drugs, scream prohibitionists, cause all bad things in life: crime, violence, insanity, etc. If not for prohibition (i.e., jailing drug users), then criminality, violence and psychotic behavior would explode upon the land, the prohibitionist assures us. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) ) re: "marijuana use" - Prohibitionist propagandists repeatedly assert that "use is abuse." Details about "using" as opposed to "abusing" drugs are ignored. (Use is Abuse (propaganda theme 4) )

(25) However, it is not possible to directly link pot use to lung cancer based on existing evidence .

re: "cancer" - Drugs, scream prohibitionists, cause all bad things in life: crime, violence, insanity, etc. If not for prohibition (i.e., jailing drug users), then criminality, violence and psychotic behavior would explode upon the land, the prohibitionist assures us. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) ) re: "pot use" - The rhetoric of prohibition will assume that "use" and "abuse" are identical. (Use is Abuse (propaganda theme 4) )

(26) Nevertheless, researchers indicate that the precancerous changes seen in studies included in their analysis, as well as the fact that marijuana smokers generally inhale more deeply and hold smoke in their lungs longer than cigarette smokers, and that marijuana is smoked without a filter, do suggest that smoking pot could indeed boost lung cancer risk .

re: "marijuana smokers" - Drugs are linked with groups of people who are already seen as deviant or shameful. (Hated Groups (propaganda theme 1) ) re: "cancer" - Drugs, claim the prohibitionist, cause insanity, violence, and terrible sickness. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )

(31) The newborns were more irritable than non-exposed infants, less responsive, and more difficult to calm .

re: "infants", "newborns" - "The inflaming of this fear about the fate of our own children [makes] it difficult if not impossible for most Americans to take a careful and reasoned look at our drug policies."[W.White,1979] (Children Corrupted (propaganda theme 5) )

(33) Such changes have the potential to interfere with the mother-child bonding process .

re: "child" - Prohibitionists are champions of "the child", "kids", "children", etc. Only continued or increased punishments of all adults caught using "drugs" will send the correct "message" to children. (Children Corrupted (propaganda theme 5) )

(36) The marijuana smokers in whom these tumors occur are usually much younger than the tobacco smokers who are the usual victims of these malignancies .

re: "marijuana smokers" - The rhetoric of prohibition will try to use labeling and guilt by association to link drugs and drug users with hated groups. (Hated Groups (propaganda theme 1) )

(39) In addition to precancerous changes, marijuana smoking is associated with impaired function of the immune system components in the lungs.86 o Smoked marijuana has also been associated with an increased risk of the same respiratory symptoms as tobacco, including coughing, phlegm production, chronic bronchitis, shortness of breath and wheezing .

re: "impaired", "bronchitis" - The rhetoric of prohibition asserts that insanity, crime, and violence are caused by drugs, or are controlled by prohibition. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )

(41) Marijuana smoke contains more than 400 chemicals and increases the risk of serious health consequences, including lung damage.88 o An April 2007 article published by the Harm Reduction Journal, and funded by the pro- legalization Marijuana Policy Project, argues that the use of a vaporizer has the potential to reduce the danger of cannabis as far as respiratory symptoms are concerned .

re: "Harm", "damage", "danger", "danger of", "lung damage" - Drugs, the prohibitionist explains, are a wicked bane on modern man. If not for the noble drug war (i.e. jailing drug users), exclaims the propagandist, then people will run amok, and violence, death, psychosis, and plague shall cover the land. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) ) re: "legalization", "legalization Marijuana" - The ancient and first commandment (Mat 22:38, Mark 12:28) is, "Thou shall not legalize the herb." (Gen 1:29-30) To be seen of men (Mat 23:5), thou shalt make thy righteousness (Isa 64:6) of thine holy rulers (1Chron 21:1, Mat 4:8, Luke 4:5, 1Jn 2:18) shine forth over the wickedness of marijuana! Pharmakeia evil-doers (that is to say, marijuana users - sorcerers and witches all; Gal 5:20,Rev 21:8,22:15), shall be arrested (Luke 12:11), scourged (Mark 15:15, John 19:1), imprisoned (Mat 25:36), and enslaved (1Tim 1:10, Rev 18:13), for ever and ever (Rev 19:3). For to punish marijuana users is like unto the Righteousness of the Saints. (Rev 19:8) Amen! (Total Prohibition or Access (propaganda theme 7) )

(43) For example, driving skills are still impaired, heavy adolescent use may create deviant brain structure, and 9-12 percent of cannabis users develop symptoms of dependence .

re: "users", "cannabis users" - Drug users are "those people" - they are linked with groups that everyone agrees are bad. (Hated Groups (propaganda theme 1) ) re: "cannabis users" - Any use of an illegal drug is deemed to be "abuse," weasels the propaganda of prohibition. (After all - it is illegal!) (Use is Abuse (propaganda theme 4) ) re: "adolescent" - Prohibitionists forever claim that children are corrupted by drugs, and this is why adult users must be punished harshly. (Children Corrupted (propaganda theme 5) )

(44) A vaporizer offers no protection against these consequences.89 o According to two studies, marijuana use narrows arteries in the brain, "similar to patients with high blood pressure and dementia," and may explain why memory tests are difficult for marijuana users .

re: "blood pressure", "dementia" - Prohibitionists claim use of currently illegal drugs causes crime, death, illness, lunacy, mania, melancholy, and all means of sin and degradation. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) ) re: "marijuana use", "marijuana users" - Abusus non tollit usum. (Abuse is no argument against proper use.) -- Latin proverb (Use is Abuse (propaganda theme 4) )

(49) Citing evidence that marijuana smoke is harmful, Dr .

re: "harmful" - Drugs, the prohibitionist explains, are a wicked bane on modern man. If not for the noble drug war (i.e. jailing drug users), exclaims the propagandist, then people will run amok, and violence, death, psychosis, and plague shall cover the land. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )

(50) David Murray, then chief scientist at ONDCP, noted that "People who smoke marijuana are subject to bacterial infections in the lungs...Is this really what a physician who is treating someone with a compromised immune system wants to prescribe?"92 o Dr .

re: - Power is addictive, and it corrupts. And those who have power fear losing it. -- Richard A. Viguerie

(54) One participant, Diana Dodson said, 'I knew immediately [that I received cannabis] because I could feel the effects.'94 o Pro-marijuana advocates were encouraged by a medical study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention .

re: "Cancer" - Drugs, claim the prohibitionist, cause insanity, violence, and terrible sickness. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) ) re: "Pro-marijuana", "marijuana advocates", "advocates" - Don't justify the wholesale marijuana arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment industry; but instead pretend the issue is about some pro-dope "advocates" and "activists", who just want to get stoned. Act as if no one is imprisoned for cannabis. Or (if pressed), weasel. Assert the numbers in "federal" prison for marijuana "possession" as an "unrelated charge" are "practically zero". Nobody goes to prison for pot, and only nut-bar moon-bat activist advocates would ever say so. (And this is precisely why people must always go to prison for pot.) If anyone balks, pretend that arresting and imprisoning people for marijuana is a new 'third' way, and that the problem all along was lack of trust in the competence and good faith of government.

(55) The study, published in October 2006, was based on interviews with people in Los Angeles (611 who developed lung cancer, 601 who developed cancer of the head or neck regions, and 1,040 people without cancer who were matched [to other subjects] on age, gender, and neighborhoods) .

re: "cancer" - Prohibition propaganda rarely misses an opportunity to link crime, violence, and insanity with "drugs". The propagandist insinuates that prohibited drugs cause evil, and if it weren't for "drugs" bad things would not exist. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) ) re: "neighborhoods" - The survival of society is assured, -- says the propaganda of prohibition -- as long as drug users are punished (jailed). (Survival of Society (propaganda theme 3) )

(58) Moreover, he adds, because marijuana smokers typically hold their breath four times as long as tobacco smokers after inhaling, marijuana smoking deposits significantly more tar and known carcinogens within the tar, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, in the airways .

re: "marijuana smokers" - Prohibition propaganda often uses crude forms of name-calling to link a targeted drug with groups the majority dislikes. (Hated Groups (propaganda theme 1) )

(60) Tashkin found that marijuana smoking is associated with a range of damaging pulmonary effects, including inhibition of the tumor-killing and bactericidal activity of alveolar macrophages, the primary immune cells within the lung." o NIDA also comments on the Tashkin study in the Director's Notes from February 2007 .

re: "NIDA" - "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." -- Lord Acton

(61) While acknowledging that the study concluded "that the association of these cancers with marijuana, even long-term or heavy use, is not strong and may be below practically detectable limits...these results may have been affected by selection bias or error in measuring lifetime exposure and confounder histories."97 o In October 2006, one of the study's authors, Dr .

re: "cancers" - Drugs, claim the prohibitionist, cause insanity, violence, and terrible sickness. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )

(63) The survey also revealed that 88 percent thought tobacco cigarettes were more harmful than cannabis ones, although the risk of lung cancer is actually 20 times higher from a cannabis cigarette than a tobacco cigarette .

re: "harmful", "cancer" - Prohibitionist propaganda claims that horrible dangers are caused by "drugs." (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )

(66) The Foundation warned that smoking one cannabis cigarette increase the chances of developing lung cancer by as much as an entire packet of 20 cigarettes .

re: "cancer" - drug war rhetoric transforms drugs users into scapegoats -- (Richard L Miller, Drug Warriors and their Prey) (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )

(67) "It is alarming that, while new research continues to reveal the multiple health consequences of smoking cannabis, there is still a dangerous lack of public awareness of quite how harmful this drug can be," said Dame Helena Shovelton, Chief Executive of the British Lung Foundation .

re: "harmful", "alarming", "dangerous" - Drugs, claim the prohibitionist, cause insanity, violence, and terrible sickness. (Madness Crime Violence Illness (propaganda theme 2) )

MAPInc Bookmarks:

Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?265 (Marijuana Policy Project)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/campaign.htm (ONDCP Media Campaign)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

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Bot's analysis of: "The Dangers and Consequences of Marijuana Abuse" the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Demand Reduction Section, May 2014
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	*Wonder Drug Cover-Up:* Yes, it's true: pot fights cancer. more As Bad For Your Lungs As Smoking 20 Normal Cigarettes? 20 times more likely to cause cancer than tobacco? Why does the US Government make cannabis researchers use only Government-issued marijuana?



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incarceration/prison mentioned? NO - the issue of prison or incarceration was NOT mentioned in this article .

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