In article
d486916d-03cc-4e94-a807-bad314d70... at (no spam) 34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>,



kT <cos... at (no spam) lifeform.org> wrote:
Governments Steps Up Anti-Marijuana Campaign ...

with numerous flawed and biased studies.

They must be getting ... paranoid.

In addition to the issues raised in this story, it's also important to
note that the researchers did not control for use of other drugs.
While people with diagnosable addiction or dependence were not
included, participants could have been occasional or even regular
users of cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, etc., so long as they did not
have those drugs in their system at the time their blood was drawn.
This calls into question even the limited conclusion of this study,
that heavy marijuana use can affect levels of certain blood chemicals
which, in turn, may have an affect on heart disease risk. We simply
don't know what other things these people were doing that might have
affected the results.

It's also important to underline that this study looked only at blood
markers, not actual risk of heart attack, stroke, etc. Research has
never found marijuana users to have higher rates of heart disease,
higher death rates, or reduced life expectancy. As the Institute of
Medicine noted in its exhaustive review published in 1999,
"Epidemiological data indicate that in the general population
marijuana use is not associated with increased mortality."

Marijuana use is one of the most intensely studied social phenomena on
earth. If it were a significant cause of heart problems, it is simply
not plausible that this would have escaped notice for so long.

one "side-affect" I have noticed in pot users is a certain degree of
skepticism of the "conclusions" of any gummint study.

Governments Steps Up Anti-Marijuana Campaign ...

with numerous flawed and biased studies.

They must be getting ... paranoid.

In addition to the issues raised in this story, it's also important to
note that the researchers did not control for use of other drugs.
While people with diagnosable addiction or dependence were not
included, participants could have been occasional or even regular
users of cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, etc., so long as they did not
have those drugs in their system at the time their blood was drawn.
This calls into question even the limited conclusion of this study,
that heavy marijuana use can affect levels of certain blood chemicals
which, in turn, may have an affect on heart disease risk. We simply
don't know what other things these people were doing that might have
affected the results.

It's also important to underline that this study looked only at blood
markers, not actual risk of heart attack, stroke, etc. Research has
never found marijuana users to have higher rates of heart disease,
higher death rates, or reduced life expectancy. As the Institute of
Medicine noted in its exhaustive review published in 1999,
"Epidemiological data indicate that in the general population
marijuana use is not associated with increased mortality."

Marijuana use is one of the most intensely studied social phenomena on
earth. If it were a significant cause of heart problems, it is simply
not plausible that this would have escaped notice for so long.