Buzzby

Marijuana Linked To Early Onset Lung Disease
ABC News Australia | 03/25/2006

New research from Melbourne's Alfred Hospital has found that people who smoke marijuana risk lung disease up to 20 years earlier than those who only smoke cigarettes.

A study shows patients report symptoms ranging from breathlessness to chest infection and may develop young disease as early as age 28.

Associate Professor Matthew Naughton says there are several reasons for the early onset, including how the marijuana is smoked.

"Normally with a tobacco you just take a gentle inhalation but when people are smoking marijuana it's often a forced inspiration to the maximum capacity and held in that fashion for 20 to 30 seconds," he said.

"There's no filter and there's no regulation as to the preparation of the leaf that is being smoked, so therefore all sorts of chemicals and even fungi may be in the marijuana, contributing to accelerated infections within the chest."

Doctors say in about 40 per cent of cases, lung disease does not show up in the normal way in marijuana smokers.

They say high resolution CT scans are needed to detect it.

(BuzzNote: I wonder why they don't cite the research so people can find out the methodology and quantified results? These nebulous statements are directly contradicted by this study of 64,000 Kaiser patients in California.)

__________________