1) tobacco is cancer causing largely because it delivers specific carcinogens such as nnk and nnal that are not present in cannabis. not all "tar" is created equal, and tobacco has some of the most carcinogenic types of tar known to science, whereas cannabis does not. 2) cannabis (marijuana) use is associated with a decrease in several types of cancer... potentially even providing a protective effect against tobacco and alcohol related cancer development. donald tashkin, a ucla researcher whose work is funded by nida, did a case-control study comparing 1,200 patients with lung, head and neck cancers to a matched group with no cancer. even the heaviest marijuana smokers had no increased risk of cancer, and had somewhat lower cancer risk than non-smokers (tobacco smokers had a 20-fold increased lung cancer risk). tashkin d. marijuana use and lung cancer: results of a case-control study. american thoracic society international conference. may 23, 2006. researchers at the kaiser-permanente hmo, funded by nida, followed 65,000 patients for nearly a decade, comparing cancer rates among non-smokers, tobacco smokers, and marijuana smokers. tobacco smokers had massively higher rates of lung cancer and other cancers. marijuana smokers who didn't also use tobacco had no increase in risk of tobacco-related cancers or of cancer risk overall. in fact their rates of lung and most other cancers were slightly lower than non-smokers, though the difference did not reach statistical significance. sidney, s. et al. marijuana use and cancer incidence (california, united states). cancer causes and control. vol. 8. sept. 1997, p. 722-728.

i'm 15. i also believe that this whole new rage on fake marijuana wouldn't be here in the first place if cannabis was legal. there wouldn't be any deaths. also, if people want something they're going to get it, and there will always be those people who want to make money so they will sell it to them. that's what created this whole "war on drugs" maybe it's time we see some change in this nation.

it's pretty funny. i'm 15 and i can find a source for weed in a second, but if i ever wanted alcohol it would take a few hours. just proves to show that kids my age are more into it. my friend says he would rather smoke weed than smoke a cancer stick or kill his liver or pop prescription pills, and honestly our health class is all propaganda. there's no way in hell one joint is five cancer sticks. they need to stop feeding us lies cause we know the truth. couple generations down they'll be laughing at the fact that marijuana was even illegal. go ahead politicians make your "above the influence" commercials. they aren't working. what's wrong with having the munchies, relaxing your mind and setting free? it's a brutal world out there and kids just want to get away from it all. if everyone smoked a joint the world would be a better place. this just is another fact to prove that the government wastes money "on the war on drugs" politicians get high all the time. it's called alcohol. many people do not smoke since many find it socially unacceptable due to the government. i know i'm 15, but what right does the government have to say what and what not the american people can do. it just seems like they'd rather have me do meth rather than marijuana cause of their stupid charts. this propaganda is pushed by alcohol companies, because where there seems to be marijuana dispensaries alcohol consumption seems to fall. maybe one day the government will learn, but till then people will still be smoking in there own quite ways opening a whole new world.

me being a teen at 17 years of age, i can say that it's much easier to buy marijuana than alcohol and sometimes even a pack of cigarettes. and more teens are realizing the marijuana is much safer than alcohol so they choose the "better" of the two.

1) teen use of alcohol and tobacco are down while cannabis use is up. does that suggest to anyone that maybe across-the-board criminal prohibition is not a particularly effective strategy for keeping drugs out of the hands of kids? 2) those statistics are also consistent with the fact that alcohol and cannabis, as recreational intoxicants, are substitutes. if cannabis use is displacing the use of the infinitely-more-dangerous alcohol, forgive me if i don't consider that news terribly alarming. let's compare a few facts about alcohol and cannabis. alcohol is toxic. people can and do die from alcohol overdose (including many young people who lack experience with alcohol). cannabis is non-toxic. it's literally impossible to fatally overdose on cannabis. alcohol abuse is the third-leading cause of preventable death in the u.s. (it turns out that drinking poison isn't good for you.) cannabis use has not been shown to significantly increase mortality. alcohol is physically addictive. you can be so physically addicted to alcohol that you can literally die from withdrawal. cannabis is not physically addictive. if you want to talk about "psychological addiction," be my guest (of course, that's also possible with alcohol... or sex, or shopping, or video games, or a thousand other things that humans find pleasurable), but let's all at least acknowledge that there is no cannabis equivalent to the agony (and danger) of derlirium tremens. alcohol, as as disinhibitor, is a massive contributor to violence. it's involved in something like half of all violent crimes and 70% of domestic abuse cases. (stop and think about those numbers for a minute.) cannabis use has never been linked to violence. if anything, it decreases the risk of violence by pacifying the user. while they can be overstated, there's a reason we have the stereotypes of the "belligerent drunk" versus the "mellow stoner." i know which one i prefer to be around.

our youth are much smarter than their parents. we understand how corrupt our government has become. we are a generation of science proven facts. the simple fact that science completely discredits the governments position, and they refuse to reclassify the drug so they will be proved wrong, and that they have made up laws to line their own pockets.

this is positive news. i has been my observation that teens that use alcohol are more likely, as adults, to be alcohol dependent and unhealthy both mentally and physically. i not seen that trend with marijuana use, however.

all things considered this is a positive trend and demonstrates kids being a bit more educated on what they put in their own bodies. if kids are going to toy with drugs, i'd rather they toy with softer drugs than harder drugs (like alcohol) as the odds of them waking up in one piece the next day are so much better. my main concern, and it is a sincere concern, is you have a whole generation that is using marijuana more than ever, and they try it and if they look at the government scheduling of marijuana, they must think they are taking a really dangerous drug.. and when they do do marijuana and realize it isn't 'all that'.. the us government educates them that marijuana is more harmful to them, and has zero value to society, unlike methamphetamine and cocaine, where the us government has listed those drugs as 'lesser'. i can see little timmy saying 'may as well do cocaine, it isn't as bad as marijuana' based on the education they receive at the federal level. -- one other thought.. as marijuana is overtaking other drugs in usage, while the usage of harder drugs goes down.. can anyone explain to me the 'gateway theory' again? because this seems to directly contradict it with actual numbers of hard drugs going correlating with marijuana use going up. the gateway theory would seem to have been an epic failure of a theory if the numbers are right.