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Simple College Life

Finally, a real reason to not smoke pot?

According to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, men who began using marijuana as adolescents or who smoked pot at least once a week were twice as likely as those who never tried the drug to develop testicular cancer.

“Researchers interviewed 371 men aged 18 to 44 who had been diagnosed with testicular cancer. They interviewed an additional 979 men of the same age group and from the same three Washington counties who did not have cancer.” Mary Engel, LA Times.

According to this LA Times Article, the researchers found a 70% higher risk of testicular cancer in those who were using pot at the time of diagnosis, with an even higher risk associated with younger age at first use and frequency of use. Apparently, any hormonal change during puberty are believed to make that a particularly vulnerable period for environmental influences, like, smoking marijuana.

I wonder, really, how accurate this type of research has been. Hasn’t marijuana been used to help deal with Cancer for many years? Should money be spent in research such as this one that seems to have a set agenda from the start? It has been, apparently, the first research of its kind. Hopefully it will spark a new discussion and more input can be placed upon this theory.