14 DAY TRIAL // Studies covering the effects of marijuana and cannabis on the human body number in the hundreds. Because the use of the recreational drug is so widespread among today's youths, in the developed and developing world alike, researchers have long since tried to find out if the benefits of using it outweigh the downsides, or if the opposite is true. In the latest study of the “series,” University of Leicester experts have determined that smoking the plant could alter human DNA and trigger cancer cell formation.
Research in the effects of tobacco has long since revealed a connection between the over 2,000 chemicals in it and DNA damage, associated with the increased risk of developing lung or other types of cancers. But this connection was never before evidenced in regards to the effects of smoking cannabis. The chemical acetaldehyde, a compound that can be found both in tobacco and marijuana, was therefore the target of the new tests. However, the experts had to use a novel method of measuring its toxicity, as previous ones proved ineffective in doing so accurately.
Rajinder Singh, the leader of the UL research group, used the high-sensitivity process of modified mass spectrometry in order to determine exactly how acetaldehyde affected genetic material. The experts reported their finds in the June 15th issue of the American Chemical Society's (ACS) journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.
“These results provide evidence for the DNA damaging potential of cannabis [marijuana] smoke, implying that the consumption of cannabis cigarettes may be detrimental to human health with the possibility to initiate cancer development. The data obtained from this study suggesting the DNA damaging potential of cannabis smoke highlight the need for stringent regulation of the consumption of cannabis cigarettes, thus limiting the development of adverse health effects such as cancer,” the team wrote in the scientific paper, LiveScience reports.
Previous studies have linked marijuana consumption to impaired brain development, as well as to chances of psychosis. But others have found good effects for it, such as pain reduction. In the US, medical-grade marijuana can be acquired with a prescription, and is given by doctors to patients who refuse to take other forms of painkillers.