Reefer Madness at Fox News

Fox News ran a story yesterday on a new marijuana "study" that suggests smoking cannabis leads to lung cancer. It got a lot of ink, yet no one in the mainstream media took the time to do proper due diligence. Had they done so, they would've discovered this new "study" was conducted not on humans but on calf thymus DNA, in vitro (meaning it was done in a Petri dish...).

Here's the real story: In 2006 Dr. Donald Tashkin (David Geffen School of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles), considered the world's foremost expert on the effect smoking cannabis has on lung function, led the largest human study ever to assess cannabis use and its lung cancer risk. His study reported that smoking cannabis was not at all associated with cancers of the lung or upper aerodigestive tract cancers. Period.

And just last month, Dr. Tashkin reiterated his 2006 findings in a newspaper interview. But he went a step further by stating that smoking cannabis may even have some cancer-preventive properties. (I'll smoke to that!) In addition, Dr. Tashkin said that he believed laws prohibiting the consumption of cannabis should be repealed. (I'll smoke to that, too!) He also stated that smoking tobacco causes more harm than smoking cannabis - and as an intoxicant, cannabis is far less harmful than alcohol. World's foremost expert, remember.

President Obama is on record that he favors science over ideology. Over 17,000 scientific research studies already exist on the effects of cannabis, with the overwhelming majority confirming the ideological hysteria over cannabis to be unfounded. And now we have the pre-eminent authority on the science clearly stating no connection between smoking cannabis and lung cancers can be made - and that cannabis prohibition should be repealed. How much more science does Mr. Obama need?

It is time for President Obama to man-up and do the right thing. If he doesn't, he puts the lie to his claim of favoring science over ideology.

Stay healthy and high when it helps