Media Ignored Expert's Shocking Findings That Marijuana Helps Prevent Lung Cancer: Now It's ........

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Fred Gardner

Media Ignored Expert's Shocking Findings That Marijuana Helps Prevent Lung Cancer: Now It's Med-School Material
UCLA professor Donald Tashkin will share his research discoveries to medical students this week.

October 24, 2012 |


You'd think it would have been very big news in the spring of 2005 when Donald Tashkin, a professor of pulmonology at UCLA's David Geffin School of Medicine, revealed at a conference that components of marijuana smoke, although they damage cells in respiratory tissue, somehow prevent them from becoming malignant. But headlines announcing "Pot Doesn't Cause Cancer" did not ensue.

Tashkin will review his findings and discuss current research this Thursday in Santa Monica, California as part of a course for doctors accredited by the University of California San Francisco. (It is open to the public; pre-registration is $95.)

Tashkin has special credibility. He was the lead investigator on studies dating back to the 1970s that identified the compounds in marijuana smoke that are toxic. It was Tashkin who published photomicrographs showing that marijuana smoke damages cells lining the upper airways. It was the Tashkin lab reporting that benzpyrene -- a component of tobacco smoke that plays a role in most lung cancers -- is especially prevalent in marijuana smoke. It was Tashkin's data documenting that marijuana smokers are more likely than non-smokers to cough, wheeze and produce sputum.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse supported Tashkin's marijuana-related research over the decades and gave him a grant to conduct a large, population-based, case-controlled study that would prove definitively that heavy, long-term marijuana use increases the risk of lung and upper-airways cancers. What Tashkin and his colleagues found, however, disproved their hypothesis. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/media-ignored-experts-shocking-findings-marijuana-helps-prevent-lung-cancer-now-its-med-school

[tk2kewl]

1. feeling healthier already

[Scuba]

2. Dr. Tashkin and other scientists put together a movie as well ...

http://marijuanamovie.org/


There's a five-minute summary and a full-length documentary at the link.

[eShirl]

3. k&r

[NICO9000]

4. I'm shocked that media ignored this! Shocked I tells ya!

[bemildred]

5. I guess the thing to do is eat it.

Have a salad. You won't even get (very) high.

[RainDog]

6. I was in a big, long "discussion" about Tashkin's work here.

Someone - more than one - was denying his work because it didn't fit the mainstream narrative.

people need to realize the mainstream narrative only approximates reality when it benefits their owners.

anyway, I posted vids of him here, which are in my journal. I'll see if I can find them and post them as their own comment.

[RainDog]

7. Dr. Donald Tashkin

[RainDog]

8. Dr. David Bearman

David Bearman M.D., Santa Barbara, California, is one of the leading physicians in the U.S. in the field of medical marijuana. He has spent 40 years working in substance and drug abuse treatment and prevention programs. Dr. Bearman was a pioneer in the free and community clinic movement. His career includes public health, administrative medicine, primary care, pain management and cannabinology.