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Home > News Archive > 2000 > Researcher Finds No Link Between Marijuana And Head, Neck or Lung Cancer
Researcher Finds No Link Between Marijuana And Head, Neck or Lung Cancer
May 25, 2000 - Baltimore, MD, USA
A researcher from Johns Hopkins Medical School has found evidence that marijuana smoking does not increase the risk of head, neck or lung cancers, and based on his findings, says cancer prevention efforts should "remain focused on tobacco and alcohol, two known carcinogens."
Daniel E. Ford, M.D., who conducted the study, said he was trying to discover if cancer patients were more likely to smoke marijuana or tobacco, or to drink alcohol as opposed to healthy, control patients. Ford said he thought "[T]he association (between marijuana smoking and cancer) would fall away when we corrected for tobacco use. That was not the case. The association was never there."
Ford also found that "Daily marijuana use for a month or more was not associated with increased risk, even among those who never used tobacco."
This study has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
"It's puzzling why scientific studies which contradict erroneous government assertions about marijuana garner virtually no major media attention," said Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director. "Yet, similarly non peer-reviewed reports such as a recent one concerning the effects of marijuana use as it relates to potential heart attacks make for splashy news leads on television and lurid headlines in newspapers. If marijuana is, as it appears to be, a product that is safer than nearly any drug humans consume -- the public should be duly informed."
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director at (202) 483-8751.
updated: May 25, 2000
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