NIDA Funds Research That Finds Smoking Cannabis Does Not Cause Lung Cancer

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Funds Research That Finds Smoking Cannabis Does Not Cause Lung Cancer

Professor of Medicine at UCLA Donald Tashkin announced in June of 2005 that after a grant in 2002 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse helped fund a study that would reveal smoking marijuana did NOT cause lung cancer.

Professor of Medicine at UCLA Donald Tashkin announced in June of 2005 at a meeting of the International Cannabinoid Research Society, and published later in 2006, that after a grant in 2002 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse helped fund a study that would reveal that although respiratory tissue cells became damaged, there was something in cannabis acting as an anti-cancer agent.

After interviewing 1,212 cancer patients, matching them with 1,040 cancer-free controls by age, gender, and neighborhood, the findings suggest quite firmly that marijuana use did not cause higher rates of cancer.   The study also linked a decrease in cancers in tobacco smokers when they also smoked marijuana, noting again with his colleagues at UCLA in regards to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, “The more tobacco smoked, the greater the rate of decline.  In contrast, not matter how much marijuana was smoked, the rate of decline was similar to normal.”