Pubdate: Thu, 07 Mar 2013
Source: Westword (Denver, CO)
Column: Ask a Stoner
Copyright: 2013 Village Voice Media
Contact: http://www.westword.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?department=letters
Website: http://www.westword.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1616
Author: William Breathes

DOES SMOKING POT CAUSE STROKES?

Dear Stoner: My wife was telling me that she heard on TV that smoking 
pot can cause strokes in older folks. I'm 63 and just a little 
concerned. Any truth to this rumor?

Roberto Reefer Roller

Dear RRR: Back in February, a New Zealand scientist said he had found 
a link between cannabis use and certain types of strokes in people 
under the age of 55. Out of 160 stroke patients, 16 percent tested 
positive for marijuana. That was twice as high as the number of 
cannabis users in a control group with similar conditions and signs, 
but who had not progressed to a stroke. While the scientists and news 
media made a big deal out of those findings, they downplayed the more 
important part of the study: All but one of the 16 percent smoked 
cigarettes, which can more than double the risk of having an ischemic stroke.

In my completely unscientific opinion, the Kiwi study is crap - and 
it hadn't even been through a peer review before the media picked up 
on it. Other studies have shown that cannabis might even help the 
brain protect itself against strokes if they do occur.

Dear Stoner: What is the origin of the word "marijuana"? Is it named 
after a beautiful, red-haired lady named Mary Jane?

Word Smith

Dear Word Smith: You could write a paper on this, but here's my 
200-word version. "Marijuana" has mysterious origins, according to 
etymologists (word nerds). Most likely, it originated as slang in 
Mexican Spanish sometime in the 1800s, possibly with a different 
spelling ("mariguan") and likely not as a translation of the name "Mary Jane."

In America, the plant was called hemp or cannabis, and it was mostly 
known as either an ingredient in medicine or the fiber from which 
ropes were made. That all changed at the turn of the century, when 
newspapers and lawmen started using the term because it sounded 
exotic and Mexican - and therefore scary. It was a way of further 
demonizing the brown-skinned migrant workers. Especially out here in 
Colorado, where as early as 1917 lawmakers were banning the plant and 
levying an outrageously large (at the time) fine of up to $100 for 
its cultivation or use - and that only progressed through the '30s 
and '40s. By the '60s and '70s, the hippies, radicals and activists 
were taking back the term, though many probably didn't realize its 
origins even then. Today, "marijuana" is acceptable to all but the 
most humorless of cannabis supporters, who still deem it a racist term.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom