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ASH Daily News

11 November 2002

HEADLINES

Cannabis, smoking and cancer
Corporate profile: Gallaher
Dentists urge patches to give up


FULL TEXT


Cannabis, smoking and cancer

A British Lung Foundation report out today claims that smoking three joints
a day might do as much damage to the lungs as do 20 cigarettes.

The report, A Smoking Gun?, comes as the government prepares to reclassify
cannabis as a less harmful drug and endorse a more relaxed attitude to
policing its use. The report says that cannabis smokers suffer significantly
more chronic and acute respiratory symptoms such as coughs, wheezes and
acute bronchitis than non-smokers. It also says that the cannabis available
on the streets today is 15 times more powerful than the joints being touted
three decades ago.

The report is a review of 90 published studies and was put together with the
help of a grant from the Department of Health. Dr. Mark Britton, chairman of
the British Lung Foundation said: “The evidence is not cast iron but
evidence takes a long time to accumulate. It took 40 years to get the
evidence showing tobacco causes cancer.”


Full BLF Report: http://www.lunguk.org/news/a_smoking_gun.pdf
Independent article:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=350987
ASH Comment: ASH urges caution whilst interpreting the findings of this
report. The ratio of 20-3 of risk between smoking cannabis and tobacco, for
instance, is a calculation presented at a conference, and related to the
incidence of bronchitis. Whilst the report argues that THC (the active drug)
levels in cannabis are up to 15 times higher in modern cannabis than in the
drug supplied in the '60s, and it is unlikely that users are 15 times as
stoned as in the '60s. It is possible that higher levels of THC actually
mean LOWER smoke exposure (and cancer risk), as less smoke is needed to
achieve a given THC dose.

Source: The Times, Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian



Corporate profile: Gallaher

The Times runs a profile of the tobacco company Gallaher, subject to much
rumour of a takeover by British American Tobacco in recent days. Nigel
Northridge, the chief executive of Gallaher doesn’t actually negate the
possibility of a takeover by BAT when quizzed on the matter: “It’s always
been there. The analogy I use with my employees is that we’re driving a car
down the middle of the road and if you look too much in your rear view
mirror, you’re going to crash. Glance at it every now and then, but just
keep driving as fast as you can.”

Full profile of company (available only for 7 days before being archived):
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-37-476390,00.html
Source: The Times,




Dentists urge patches to give up

Dentists urged the government to let them prescribe nicotine patches to
smokers to cut mouth cancer.

The British Dental Association said if people quit smoking “the results
could be significant.” Oral cancer kills around 1,700 Britons a year.

Source: The Sun, 8 November 2002



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Naj Dehlavi
Action on Smoking and Health
102 Clifton Street
London EC2A 4HW
http://www.ash.org.uk