{"id":7326,"date":"2010-12-21T12:07:23","date_gmt":"2010-12-21T12:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=7326"},"modified":"2010-12-21T12:07:23","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T12:07:23","slug":"medicinal-marijuana-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2010\/12\/medicinal-marijuana-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicinal Marijuana?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Correspondence]
\nTashkin, Donald P.; Roth, Michael D.; Dubinett, Steven M.
\nUCLA School of Medicine; Los Angeles, CA 90095-1690<\/p>\n

———————————————-<\/p>\n

To the Editor: You point to largely experiential evidence of the medicinal
\nbenefits of marijuana and the apparent absence of serious short-term toxicity.
\nHowever, a note of caution is warranted. Although it is true that smoking
\nmarijuana carries no immediate risk of death, there may be serious adverse
\neffects in the very patients for whom medicinal marijuana is most commonly
\nconsidered (i.e., those whose immune defenses are already compromised by AIDS or
\ncancer plus chemotherapy). For example, in patients with AIDS, marijuana use has
\nbeen associated with the development of both fungal and bacterial pneumonias.
\n[1,2] Moreover, among HIV-positive persons, marijuana use has been shown to be a
\nrisk factor for rapid progression from HIV infection to AIDS and the acquisition
\nof opportunistic infections or Kaposi’s sarcoma, or both. [3]<\/p>\n

Cellular studies and studies in animals lend support to these potential health
\nconsequences of marijuana. For example, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol has been
\nshown to have immunosuppressive effects on macrophages, natural killer cells,
\nand T cells, as well as on the response of mice to opportunistic infection. [4]
\nIn our own studies, [5] (and unpublished data) we recovered alveolar macrophages
\nfrom the lungs of habitual marijuana smokers and found a significant reduction
\nin their ability to kill fungi, bacteria, and tumor cells, as well as a
\ndeficiency in their ability to produce protective inflammatory cytokines, such
\nas tumor necrosis factor (alpha).<\/p>\n

Donald P. Tashkin, M.D.<\/p>\n

Michael D. Roth, M.D.<\/p>\n

Steven M. Dubinett, M.D.<\/p>\n

UCLA School of Medicine; Los Angeles, CA 90095-1690<\/p>\n

REFERENCES<\/p>\n

1. Denning DW, Follansbee SE, Scolaro M, Norris S, Edelstein H, Stevens DA.
\nPulmonary aspergillosis in the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. N Engl J Med
\n1991;324:654-62. Bibliographic Links <\/p>\n

2. Caiaffa WT, Vlahov D, Graham NM, et al. Drug smoking, Pneumocystis carinii
\npneumonia, and immunosuppression increase risk of bacterial pneumonia in human
\nimmunodeficiency virus-seropositive injection drug users. Am J Respir Crit Care
\nMed 1994;150:1493-8. Bibliographic Links <\/p>\n

3. Tindall B, Cooper DA, Donovan B, et al. The Sydney AIDS Project: development
\nof acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in a group of HIV seropositive homosexual
\nmen. Aust N Z J Med 1988;18:8-15. Bibliographic Links <\/p>\n

4. Newton CA, Klein TW, Friedman H. Secondary immunity to Legionella pneumophilia
\nand Th1 activity are suppressed by delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. Inject Infect
\nImmun 1994;62:4015-20. <\/p>\n

5. Sherman MP, Campbell LA, Gong H Jr, Roth MD, Tashkin DP. Antimicrobial and
\nrespiratory burst characteristics of pulmonary alveolar macrophages recovered
\nfrom smokers of marijuana alone, smokers of tobacco alone, smokers of marijuana
\nand tobacco, and nonsmokers. Am Rev Respir Dis 1991;144:1351-6. Bibliographic
\nLinks Accession Number: 00006024-199704170-00025
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Correspondence] Tashkin, Donald P.; Roth, Michael D.; Dubinett, Steven M. UCLA School of Medicine; Los Angeles, CA 90095-1690 ———————————————- To the Editor: You point to largely experiential evidence of the medicinal benefits of marijuana and the apparent absence of serious short-term toxicity. However, a note of caution is warranted. Although it is true that smoking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,68,64,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cannabis-marijuana","category-drug-use-various-effects","category-health","category-marijuana-and-medicine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}