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Monday, December 17, 2012

Now that marijuana is legal in Colorado, advocates and proponents are screaming and pontificating, but what are a few of the real facts?



Today's Random Fact:

In 2011, use of marijuana by teenagers hit a 30-year peak, with one out of every 15 high school students reporting they smoke most days, and for the first time U.S. teens reported smoking more pot than cigarettes. But: teenagers don't smoke any more pot in states where medical marijuana is legal than in ones where it's not. Legalization advocates argue that the best way to reduce use by minors is to legalize and regulate pot.

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Bonus Fact:

It's true that marijuana smoke, like tobacco smoke, contains carcinogens. But even hardcore pot smokers typically consume much less pot than tobacco smokers do cigarettes, probably not enough to cause cancer. A 2006 UCLA study concluded that even heavy marijuana use does not lead to lung cancer. "We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use," said the study's lead author. "What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect." This and other studies suggest that pot can actually inhibit the growth of cancerous tumors.