Pubdate: Mon, 11 Jan 2016
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
Copyright: 2016 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.leaderpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
Author: Naomi Lakritz
Page: A6

SAME SMOKE, DIFFERENT SPIN

Liberals Clamp Down on Cigarettes but Make It Easier to Smoke Pot

Where there's smoke - there's a strange disconnect in Prime Minister 
Justin Trudeau's thinking. Trudeau wants Health Minister Jane 
Philpott to make it one of her priorities to crack down even further 
on tobacco companies by mandating plain packaging for cigarettes, 
hoping to make smoking even less of an enticement for Canadians.

Trudeau wants to legalize marijuana, which will make smoking it more 
of an enticement to those Canadians who may have been previously 
deterred by its illegal status.

It makes no sense, and the British Lung Foundation, in a 2012 update 
of its 2002 report, A Smoking Gun, explains why: "Published research 
shows ... there is stronger evidence than ever before that smoking 
cannabis is linked to lung cancer."

The report states: "Cannabis smoke has up to twice the concentration 
of cancer-causing polyaromatic hydrocarbons as tobacco smoke. In 
addition, people tend to inhale higher concentrations of 
cancer-causing components when smoking cannabis because they tend to 
smoke the cigarettes without filters and to a smaller butt size than 
tobacco cigarettes. Cannabis smokers also inhale more deeply and hold 
their breath for longer, so carcinogenic products deposit in the 
lower respiratory tract. Taken together, this evidence forms a 
legitimate rationale that smoking cannabis may have greater potential 
to cause lung cancer than smoking tobacco."

According to a U.S. National Institutes of Health article by Dr. 
Peter Lange, a respiratory medicine specialist in Denmark, cannabis 
smoke "consists of a large mixture of compounds, including polycyclic 
aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, cyanide, benzene and many others."

When the 2002 British report was released, Britain's Daily Mail 
summed up part of it as saying that "benzyprene, found in the tar of 
cannabis joints, can change the makeup of one of the genes which 
suppresses tumours and could therefore make cancer more likely for 
people who smoke joints ... there are also more than 75 case studies 
of young cannabis smokers with cancers of the throat and gullet - 
diseases usually rare in people under 60."

Meanwhile, shortly after she was named to cabinet, Philpott said of 
tobacco: "... there is strong evidence that will help to decrease 
smoking rates. And it's widely known, of course, the tremendous 
health risks associated with smoking." So while Philpott is busy 
ordering redesigns of cigarette packages to deter smokers, Justice 
Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould will be busy drafting a law to 
encourage smokers by making marijuana legal.

In 2014, CBS News reported that University of California San 
Francisco researchers found "blood vessel function in laboratory rats 
dropped by 70 per cent after a half-hour of exposure to second-hand 
marijuana smoke - similar to results found with secondhand tobacco smoke."

"Smoke is smoke. Both tobacco and marijuana smoke impair blood vessel 
function similarly," said Matthew Springer, a cardiovascular 
researcher and senior author of the study. "People should avoid both, 
and governments who are protecting people against second-hand smoke 
exposure should include marijuana in those rules."

So, Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister Philpott, why are you so 
zealous in your desire to protect people from the effects of tobacco, 
but you want to legitimize marijuana, which would make it far more 
available to a lot of people? And why do we have smoking bans in 
public places to protect Canadians from the ill effects of 
second-hand smoke, when legalizing marijuana will expose them to the 
ill effects of second-hand smoke elsewhere?

Either you're for or against protecting the lung health of Canadians. 
And if you're in favour of protecting their lungs against the 
carcinogenic compounds in tobacco smoke, then you should also be in 
favour of protecting their lungs against the identical carcinogenic 
compounds in marijuana smoke.

As researcher Springer said, "There's no reason to think marijuana 
smoke is better than tobacco smoke." To crack down on one form of 
carcinogenic smoke while making another form of carcinogenic smoke 
more widely available is just common sense - said nobody ever, except 
the federal Liberals.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom