Health risks of cannabis 'probably overstated'

     Writing in the British Medical Journal, Stephen Sidney, 
     associate director of clinical research at the California
     health maintenance organisation Kaiser Permanente, said 
     that two long-term studies of the drug, involving a total
     of more than 100,000 people in Sweden and the US, found 
     no increase in deaths.

     Furthermore, unlike other drugs both legal and illegal,
     there has been no known lethal overdose from cannabis.

     The harmful effects of tobacco, with which cannabis is
     often compared, are long term. Smoking is known to 
     contribute to heart disease, one of the Western world's 
     biggest killers. Nicotine has a damaging impact on the
     heart but there is no nicotine in cannabis.
  
     Cannabis was also exonerated as a cause of heart disease
     by a study that showed no increase in calcium deposits in
     the coronary arteries of young adult users of the drug - 
     an indicator of thickening of the arteries that can lead 
     to heart attacks.
     
     "Although the use of cann-abis is not harmless, the current
     knowledge base does not support the assertion that it has 
     any notable adverse public health impact in relation to 
     mortality," Dr Sidney said.

     By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
     19 September 2003
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=444818

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