Marijuana, Cocaine Linked To Cancer

August 18, 1998 - Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Longterm marijuana or cocaine smoking might increase the risk of lung cancer, suggests a small study that compared tissue samples from people who smoke tobacco and illegal drugs.

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that smoking marijuana and crack can cause the same precancerous changes in their bronchial cells that tobacco smoking causes well before the smoker gets cancer.

The study, reported in this week's Journal of the National Cancer Institute, also found that smoking both tobacco and marijuana or cocaine increased the risk, because those smokers' were more likely to sustain additional precancerous changes. Also, these combination smokers were more likely to have damage to their p53 gene, an important gene in fending off cancer.

The study compared respiratory tract tissue samples from 28 healthy volunteers and 76 smokers of tobacco, marijuana, cocaine or a combination of the drugs.

``For the first time, our investigation shows tobacco is not the only smoked substance that sets in motion the molecular events which can lead to lung cancer,'' Dr. Sanford Barsky, a UCLA pathologist and study co-author, said in a statement.

Tobacco is one of the world's best known cancer-causing agents. But whether other smoked drugs cause cancer has been controversial. Marijuana in particular has been of concern because of reports that use among young people is rising, and because it contains many of the same carcinogens as cigarettes. But epidemiological studies tracking cancer in marijuana users have been mixed.

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