The Administration has invested heavily in studies to show various health risks of marijuana use. the most recent suggests that heavy marijuana use can increase the risk of a heart attack or stroke. However, the sample group were smokers of between 75 and 350 marijuana cigarettes per week. If you are smoking 350 marijuana cigarettes per week, I expect you will have a variety of “issues,” not the least of which is remembering your name and city of origin.
Frankly, I am much more interested in the fact that the Administration was able to find a large group of people who smoked at much as 350 joints a week. That is 50 joints a day or over two joints an hour. Put another away, that is 18200 joints a year!
How exactly did these people succeed in conversing with the researchers? These people sound like from Reefer Madness the Musical: “Mary Jane, oh Mary Jane. You conquered me like Charlemagne.”
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, U.S. government researchers said on Tuesday.
Dr. Jean Lud Cadet of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, said the findings point to another example of long-term harm from marijuana. But marijuana activists expressed doubt about the findings.
Cadet said a lot of previous research has focused on the effects of marijuana on the brain. His team looked elsewhere in the body, measuring blood protein levels in 18 long-term, heavy marijuana users and 24 other people who did not use the drug.
Levels of a protein called apolipoprotein C-III were found to be 30 percent higher in the marijuana users compared to the others. This protein is involved in the body’s metabolism of triglycerides — a type of fat found in the blood — and higher levels cause increased levels of triglycerides, Cadet added.
High levels of triglycerides can contribute to hardening of the arteries or thickening of the artery walls, raising the risk of stroke, heart attack and heart disease.
The study did not look at whether the heavy marijuana users actually had heart disease.
“Chronic marijuana use is not only causing people to get high, it’s actually causing long-term adverse effects in patients who use too much of the drug,” Cadet, whose study is in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, said in a telephone interview. “Chronic marijuana abuse is not so benign.”
The marijuana users in the study averaged smoking 78 to 350 marijuana cigarettes per week, based on self-reported drug history, the researchers said. Continued…
i agree noone is smoking 350 joints a week. That is just fictitious or you are smoking cigarettes and think thats a joint. @ bender: your college mates were doing quaaludes and acid also so dont just blame the weed.
I was convinced this was from The Onion at first. I read the story, and now I am convinced these researchers should be writing for The Onion.
The “war on drugs” continues to increase the potency of drugs sold, marijuana first among them.
Maybe the quantity of joints is inflation adjusted to be equivalent to 1975 marijuana?
78 – 350 joints a week?
Who in the name of Christ smokes that much?
Not even the ‘twirlers’ at Grateful Dead shows…
” Frankly, I am much more interested in the fact that the Administration was able to find a large group of people who smoked at much as 350 joints a week. That is 50 joints a day or over two joints an hour. ”
That sounds like a tall tale to me. If you were to smoke that much pot, you would eventually forget where your stash was. It’s kind of a built-in safety factor.
Knew a lot of heavy pot smokers in college 35 years ago.
Every one of them developed a psychosis of one form or another.
“If you are smoking 350 marijuana cigarettes per week, I expect you will have a variety of “issues,” not the least of which is remembering your name and city of origin.”
I’m getting to an age where the surest memory I have is that I used to have a good memory. I am, however, reminded of Robin William’s observation about going through the late 60’s and being able to remember it.
I wonder what the effect of drinking 11 to 50 diet Cokes per day would be on a “random” sample of 18 people? Caffeine paranoia, increased heart rate or kidney problems could be among the few dire effects. That’s a study that will never be done because of possible negative financial effects on a major coporation. It is nice that our government keeps scientists employed in useful studies that reinforce incorrect conclusions. We have enough unemployment problems in this country