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xxdr_zombiexx

Cannabis 'damages male fertility'
BBC News | Wednesday, 31 March, 2004

Men who smoke cannabis could be damaging their fertility, research carried out by Queen's University Belfast has suggested.

The study by the university's Reproductive Medicine Research Group examined the direct effects on sperm function of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis.

The group found that THC made sperm less likely to reach the egg to fertilise it.

They also discovered that the presence of cannabis impaired another crucial function of sperm - the ability to digest the egg's protective coat with enzymes to aid its penetration.

The government reclassified cannabis to a class C drug in January, putting it on a par with tranquilisers.


'Informed choice'

Dr Sheena Lewis, from the university's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said on Wednesday that the recent reclassification of cannabis made research on its effects more important.

"The need to determine its effects on male fertility is even greater, so that men can make an informed choice about smoking the drug based on its risks to their health," she said.

The idea for the study came after researchers looking at the lifestyle habits of infertile men noticed that many men attending infertility clinics at Belfast's Royal Maternity Hospital were regular cannabis users.

Dr Lewis told delegates at the British Fertility Society's annual meeting in Cheltenham that recent experiments on sea urchin sperm suggested that cannabis may be a major cause of infertility.

"These experiments on human sperm tell the same story," she said.

One in six couples in the UK are affected by infertility, with 40% of these cases due to problems with sperm.

Dr Lewis said: "It is estimated that 3.2m people in Britain smoke cannabis, and that figure may now increase.

"Add the two together and we may find that the use of recreational drugs will exacerbate male fertility problems."

[zombienote: More scare tactics from UK prohibitionists unhappy with the recent reclassification of cannabis.

Of course, this study contradicts the ONDCP ads of last year with the "If you smoke pot you could get pregnant ads, doesn't it?

It's just a boon for propaganda that it doesn't really have to make coherent sense.

One moment pot is making teens pregnant, but responsible adults become infertile?

Propaganda is designed to strike at the particular fears of the target group. In this case, teens fear the shame of early pregnancy, but adults fear not being able to have children. So, Viola! Pot can scare both groups.

I am not a medical researcher, and there really might be something to this thing, even if it is just a statistical bump, but I know all sorts of people who smoke pot and have beautiful happy children. Healthy, smart, funny, silly - really joyful kids.

We have discussed among ourselves the appearence of pot smokers frequently having more girls than boys. Anybody else notice anything like that?

And furthermore, what is the strange thing that happens to people who PLAN on kids? The whole time we date we have to try to NOT get pregnant. But when people want to get pregnant, they have to "try". It happens to people who don't smoke pot. What's up with that?]

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reggie_the_dog

The people that conducted the study claimed that "The idea for the study came after researchers looking at the lifestyle habits of infertile men noticed that many men attending infertility clinics at Belfast's Royal Maternity Hospital were regular cannabis users. "

Well lets consider the age of would be fathers to be 20 to 40 years old. Then figure that about 1/3 of men in this age group in the UK smoke cannabis. Then figure that cannabis smokers may have less hang ups about their inability to have children and see it as something to see a doctor about instead of seeing it as an attack on their masculinity.
Then figure that, as Zombie said, cannabis supposedly leads to teen pregnancy too. I was taught in DARE that people automatically became addicted to heroin exactly 6 months after their first toke of cannabis. Seeing as I started 11 years ago and have never touched heroin I tend to think nearly all supposedly negative side effects of cannabis use are like the automatic addiction to heroin, just BS propaganda.

MrIMStoned

Exactly 6 months later eh? I've been smoking for 5.95 months, uh oh!

Are lives will always be full of propaganda.
Ever since theres been a medium theres been someone using it to spew their lies.

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hauptmann

From what I have read this isnt just another scare tactic or propaganda. In fact the information I have seen on this subject has been consistent. All of the studies I have ever read on this subject have shown that there are atleast moderate decreases in sperm production and sperm motility. What is not mentioned here is that these studies also show that these effects taper off and disappear after abstaining from consuming marijuana. I believe it is very foolish for anyone to scoff at every study involving marijuana and negative side effects seeing as most of us reading this consume marijuana. No I dont think this information contradicts their ads about teen pregnancy, seeing as what they were saying is marijuana impairs ones judgement and they(the female teen) might not be able to make the right choice(bullcrap anyways,yes I know). And I do have to agree with Doc's last notation, this is a good thing for some of us seeing as the effects are not permanent. . Its easy if you want to have kids and have problems, stop smoking and if you cant stop smoking because you want a baby then you have to wonder if this person should be able to have a baby in the first place.This information is not new at all and it is clear why this information has floated back to the top of news pile as the UK has seen marijuana's reclassification recently.

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purplesmoke

Marijuana ... as a contraceptive?

Just what message IS our government sending to our children?

I thought marijuana made you pregnant. Now this article tells me that If I smoke enough, marijuana will actually decrease my chances of making someone pregnant.

Actually, I somewhat hope this is true.



"Just say no to sex..... with pro-lifers"

 

brianf131

yeah, lately i've noticed that my sperm likes to just go eat a ham sandwich and take a nap whenever i smoke weed, but i just hit the gin before i hit the skin and it seems to work

on another note, i've been smoking for 9 months and at exactly the 6 month mark i started using crack cocaine and heroin and am now heavily addicted to both.

WNB

Wait, so I'm confused. Did they get a couple hundred guys, give some of them weed for a long period of time, and than arrange for them to have sex, than check who got pregnant? In other words, did they conduct an experiment? Because if they didn't, this is just a study, which, like the vast majority of studies on the issue, is flawed in so many ways. Even if it weren't flawed, you can't assume causation based on the results, only correlation.

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reggie_the_dog

I think this is just a study, so it is possible that these men that they studied also smoked tobacco or drank alcohol, or used perscription drugs or other illegal drugs too. I would like to see if they questioned these people about using other substances, perhaps they drink a lot of tea or coffee or caffinated coca-cola or are overweight or have a bad diet too or do something else that appears not to pose a threat. Perhaps it is the cannabis, perhaps it is something else, perhaps a combination of both Oh well.

xxdr_zombiexx

From what I have read this isnt just another scare tactic or propaganda. In fact the information I have seen on this subject has been consistent. All of the studies I have ever read on this subject have shown that there are atleast moderate decreases in sperm production and sperm motility.

Yeah... even the tiniest statistical finding would be trumped up for the scare purpose though. Perhaps out of a million pot smokers of a certain age and demographic with all other health factors being equal it might be a tiny perecentage.

But often time people have medcal issues irrespective of cannabis smoking that impede sperm things, and without the whole study to dissect, we do not know if they just blew off all those other factors, or if they managed to find a number of very healthy potheads.

It's being used for propaganda purposes nonetheless.

Kannibal

Im not going to debate whether or not this study is on target or not.I just want to say from personal experience I don't buy into it so easily.
I am 50 years old and 32 years of those 50 I've smoked pot.I've raised 7 children to adulthood and still have one daughter living at home age 11.I know i'm only one person and hardly represenative of a study but I have a hunch i'm not a big exception here.
I am certainly not against marijuana research.I just wanted to chime in as someone who has experienced it first hand for many a moons now.
Eight kids and 32 years later.If the study IS on to something...I thank god I smoked the herb cuz believe me 8 was enuff.