Cannabis Study House - NORML Weekly News in Audio 2006.5.25

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Weekly News in Audio

May 25, 2006

Santa Cruz Voters To Decide Lowest Pot Priority Ordinance

THC Analog Suppresses Pain, Bladder Over-Activity From Interstitial Cystitis, Study Says

Cannabis Smoking Not Linked To Lung Cancer, Case-Control Study Says

Santa Cruz, CA:
Santa Cruz Voters To Decide Lowest Pot Priority Ordinance

Santa Cruz officials this week confirmed that a municipal initiative that seeks to make marijuana law enforcement the city's "lowest priority" has been certified to appear on the November 2006 ballot.

The measure, sponsored by Santa Cruz Citizens for Responsible Marijuana Policy, directs Santa Cruz police to make activities related to the investigation, citation, and/or arrest of adult cannabis users their lowest priority. It would also appoint a Community Oversight Committee to monitor police activity as it pertains to marijuana law enforcement. Seattle voters passed a similar proposal in 2003, which has led to a 75 percent reduction in citywide marijuana arrests.

According to the results of a November 2005 city poll, 85 percent of Santa Cruz voters oppose criminalizing adults who use cannabis.

If passed, the Santa Cruz initiative would also demand city officials express public support for regulating cannabis as a legally taxed commodity. Oakland voters approved a similar proposal in 2004.

Proponents are gathering signatures in support of similar city initiatives in Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood in hopes of gaining support for a potential statewide measure in 2008.

Atlanta, GA:
THC Analog Suppresses Pain, Bladder Over-Activity From Interstitial Cystitis, Study Says

Administration of a synthetic, structural derivative of THC reduces bladder inflammation and bladder over-activity in animals, according to preclinical findings presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association.

Rats administered the THC analog IP 751 experienced reduced irritation and pain in the bladder associated with interstitial cystitis (IC), investigators reported. Interstitial cystitis is a chronic pelvic pain disorder that affects an estimated 700,000 Americans, mostly women.

Previous preclinical research has demonstrated cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system to play a potential role in the treatment of various gastrointestinal disorders, such as Crohn's Disease and colitis, while clinical trials of natural cannabis extracts have demonstrated cannabis to dramatically reduce incontinence associated with Multiple Sclerosis.

San Diego, CA:
Cannabis Smoking Not Linked To Lung Cancer, Case-Control Study Says

Smoking cannabis, even long-term, is not positively associated with increased incidence of lung-cancer, according to the findings of the largest population-based case-control study performed to date. Lead investigator Donald Tashkin of the David Geffen School of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, at the University of California-Los Angeles, presented the results this week at the 2006 International Conference of the American Thoracic Society in San Diego.

Investigators assessed the possible association between cannabis use and the risk of lung cancer in middle-aged adults (ages 18-59) living in Los Angeles. Researchers conducted interviews with 611 subjects with lung cancer and 1,040 controls matched for age, gender and neighborhood. Data was collected on lifetime marijuana use, as well as subjects' use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, diet, occupation, and family history of cancer. Investigators used a logistical regression model to estimate the effect of cannabis smoking on lung cancer risk, adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity, education, and cumulative tobacco smoking and alcohol use.

"We did not observe a positive association of marijuana use -- even heavy long-term use -- with lung cancer, controlling for tobacco smoking and other potential cofounders," investigators concluded. Their data further revealed that one subset of moderate lifetime users actually had an inverse association between cannabis use and lung cancer. The study did report a 20-fold increased risk in heavy tobacco smokers.

Investigators also did not report a positive association between cannabis use and increased incidence of upper aerodigestive tract (UAT) cancers. The five-year trial was sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

NORML Senior Policy Analyst Paul Armentano said that Tashkin's findings reaffirm the results of prior case-control studies dismissing a causal link between cannabis use and certain types of lung and upper aerodigestive tract (UAT) cancers. These include: a 2001 John Hopkins University hospital-based case-control study that found neither "lifetime use" nor "ever use" of cannabis were associated with head, neck or lung cancer in younger adults; a 2004 University of Washington case-control study that found "no association" between cannabis use and incidents of oral cancer, regardless of how long, how much or how often individuals had used it; and a 1997 Kaiser Permanente retrospective cohort study that found that cannabis use was not associated with increased risks of developing tobacco-use related cancers of the lung and upper aerodigestive tract or other cancers in men and women who used marijuana but did not smoke tobacco.

"The most remarkable aspect of this study is that its findings are, in fact, unremarkable," Armentano said. "As has been previously reported by the US Institute of Medicine and others, there is no conclusive evidence that marijuana causes cancer in humans, including those cancers generally related to tobacco use."

Armentano suggested that cannabis consumers who desire the rapid onset of action associated with inhalation but who are concerned about the potential harms of noxious smoke can dramatically cut down on their intake of carcinogenic compounds by engaging in vaporization rather than smoking.

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