By Calvin Palmer
Smoking cannabis could increase the risk of developing testicular cancer by 70 per cent, scientists in the United States have warned.
Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle noticed that the rate at which the disease has spread in U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand since the 1950s appeared to follow closely the increase in cannabis use.
Lead author of the research, published in the latest issue of the journal Cancer, Stephen Schwartz, Ph.D. said: “In the absence of more certain information, a decision to smoke marijuana recreationally means that one is taking a chance on one’s future health.”
The decision to get up every morning means that a person is taking a chance on their future health.
The decision to step outside the front door means that a person is taking a chance on their future health.
Other media sources are calling Schwartz, Dr Stephen Schwartz, thereby implying a medical degree and thus increasing his authority. His Web page at the University of Washington shows no medical degree just a doctorate. As one Ph.D. to another, albeit in a different field, check out the link under Resume, Schwartz is plain Schwartz in my book.
The Fred Hutchinson team interviewed 369 men with testicular cancer, in the Seattle area — mostly in their 20s and 30s — about their history of marijuana use and compared those responses with just under 1,000 similar men without the disease.
Even after other “lifestyle” factors such as smoking and drinking as well as risks such as a family history of the disease, cannabis use emerged as a significant possible cause.
Significance in statistical terms has a different meaning than its ordinary usage and there are different levels of statistical significance. It is more correct to state that cannabis use emerged as a statistically significant possible cause. Schwartz would concur on that distinction.
Regular or long-term cannabis smokers appeared twice as likely to develop the disease as those who had never used the drug. Being a regular marijuana smoker at the time of diagnosis was associated with a 70 percent increased risk.
But they emphasized that their results were not definitive and called for further study.
Schwartz, said: “What young men should know is first, we know very little about the long-term health consequences of marijuana smoking, especially heavy marijuana smoking, and second, our study provides some evidence that testicular cancer could be one adverse consequence.”
The next step, he said, would be to look more closely at cells in the testicles to see if any of them had receptors set up to respond to cannabis chemicals.
Surely the first step should have been to look closely at testicles to see if cells had receptors to respond to cannabis chemicals. If it was discovered that they had then research such as Schwartz’s would have more validity rather than just plain old scaremongering.
Isn’t it a little odd that so little is known about the long-term health consequences of marijuana smoking? If 1968, and the Summer of Love, is taken as the starting point of widespread recreational use of marijuana that gives 40 years of potential study and ample time for the effects of long-term use to become apparent.
Testicular cancer is most common in young men with a peak incidence between the ages of 20 and 40. So if the link between it and cannabis is as strong as these researchers suggest, shouldn’t an increase in testicular cancer have started to become apparent by at least 1978?
Speaking as a doctor, I came up with research by the University of Gondwanaland that reached a tentative conclusion, hitherto suppressed by the American Automobile industry, that driving a Ford truck increases the risks of testicular cancer by 70 percent.
Researchers Lugner and Boule interviewed 369 men with testicular cancer about what vehicle they drove and compared their responses with a 1,000 men without the disease.
Taking all other lifestyle factors into consideration, drivers of Ford trucks seemed twice as likely to develop the disease than those who had never driven a Ford truck. And driving more than 25,000 miles a year at the time of diagnosis was associated with a 70 percent increased risk.
Now some may say the coincidence between these two pieces of research is uncanny. Some might argue that they both belong in the realm of junk science. I suppose research dealing with Ford trucks might qualify for that label.
The last word is left to Henry Scowcroft, of Cancer Research UK.
Sowcroft said: “As the researchers themselves point out, this is the first inkling that there is any association between chronic marijuana use and testicular cancer.
“But the researchers only interviewed a relatively small number of men. So before we can reach any firm conclusions about whether this is a cause-and-effect relationship, rather than a statistical blip, the result needs to be replicated in a much larger study.”
That is a polite way of saying that the conclusions of Schwartz and his co-authors are, as the English say, a load of bollocks.
The findings of Schwartz et al have a whiff of politically-motivated research. Society rightly or wrongly frowns on the use of marijuana and other drugs. Youngsters pay little heed to penalties they might suffer if apprehended by the authorities, so why not scare them to death with this kind of finding .
Incidentally, the research was funded by, among others, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which might not be completely impartial regarding its attitude to cannabis use.
[Based on reports by The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and BBC News.]
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