Posted on August 19, 2021 View all news
Every Brain Matters Takes Action and we need your help!
Now on our site, you will find well-researched professional letters addressing the science behind the many harms of marijuana, to send to your legislators, doctors, business associates, city council, or anyone you think needs to read them. These are all peer-reviewed, free, and approved by a team of doctors and researchers.
These letters have been compiled for our EBM Advocacy team by medical and research professionals, and now are available for your use! They are part of an ongoing project to educate Congress led by EBM Advocacy members and cover a wide variety of topics:
August 2021
CALL TO ACTION: Association of increasing cannabis use with US pediatric cancers and reproductive cell damage …
Dear :
On 7/15/2021, the Surgeon General issued a warning on health disinformation. He was referring to Coronavirus, but misinformation is costing lives in drugs, addiction, and marijuana use.
I am contacting you today to share science-based health policy on marijuana. My goal is to provide you with data and research to support your efforts in advancing legislation that promotes public health and safety for all Americans.
You may have been told that marijuana is harmless and even safe. This could not be further from the truth. The science of marijuana harms is not debatable. Anecdotal claims and unscientific reports are not sufficient evidence to further legalize/promote marijuana use.
All FDA-approved pharmaceuticals have undergone scientific rigors, protecting Americans for over a century. There have been FDA-approved marijuana-related products since 1985 (dronabinol = THC, Marinol®, generic versions) and 2018 (cannabidiol = CBD, Epidiolex®). These products have undergone the scientific rigors of medical research unlike the marijuana and current “retail CBD” products — which are not regulated by the FDA — that are sold in many states to an uninformed public.
The goal of this communication, and future communication, is to provide you with peer-reviewed scientific evidence about the many hazards of marijuana. On 1/11/1964, the Surgeon General issued an advisory on tobacco based on review of 7,000 medical publications. To date, there exist over 37,500 articles on marijuana research reports in the National Institute of Health’s National Library of Medicine (.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=marijuana).
On 8/29/2019, the Surgeon General emphasized “the importance of protecting our Nation from the health risks of marijuana use in adolescence and during pregnancy. Recent increases in access to marijuana and in its potency, along with misperceptions of safety of marijuana endanger our most precious resource, our nation’s youth.”
U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory: Marijuana Use and the Developing Brain | HHS.gov
Attached please find two accessible peer-reviewed scientific articles on the topic of cannabis rising use is consistent with rising pediatric cancers and seizure rates and is associated with DNA, chromosomal damage and is toxic to both male sperm and female oocytes.
Paper: A geospatiotemporal and causal inference epidemiological exploration of substance and cannabinoid exposure as drivers of rising US pediatric cancer rates
- Top Three Key Points:
- “The main results of this study confirmed that total Pediatric cancer rates have risen significantly nationally across USA and this trend holds for the commonest pediatric malignancies the leukemias, Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, localized and distant sarcoma and testicular cancer.”
- “It was important to note across this period that the use of tobacco, alcohol use disorders, cocaine and analgesic abuse declined as measured in major national surveys whilst cannabis use alone was rising.”
- The cannabinoid concentrations identified in USA Federal drug seizure data also rose for most cannabis components.
Epidemiological overview of multidimensional chromosomal and genome toxicity of cannabis exposure in congenital anomalies and cancer development
- Top Three Key Points:
- Cannabis causes major DNA alterations; these harmful changes can be passed to subsequent generations in humans.
- Previous studies have reported individual conditions in the young known to be associated with cannabis related chromosomal damage: the current data highlight cannabis harms on multiple human chromosomes.
- Cannabis and the cannabinoids (THC, cannabinol, cannabidiol and cannabinol) have been shown to be toxic to oocytes (female sex cells in the process of development), sperm, chromosomes, and DNA – which can be harmful to future generations.
Thank you for reading the letter and the accompanying peer-reviewed scientific articles. If you can help find any peer-reviewed, scientific articles that show that cannabis has no impact on the rising pediatric cancer rates and does not cause damage to reproductive cells, please send them to me.
With regards,
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