I found this Scientific American article fascinating. Wouldn't it be interesting if, say, Warren Ellis's "anti-cancer" meds from Transmetropolitan (which allow people to smoke without fear of cancer) are as close as a bong hit every few days?

"The study does not reveal how marijuana avoids causing cancer. Tashkin speculates that perhaps the THC chemical in marijuana smoke prompts aging cells to die before becoming cancerous."

Now the study really only suggests that the marijuana is countering its own cancer causing capacity, but I think the next natural questions are "Does it slow or stop the cancer from cigarette smoking if one also smokes marijuana?" which seems likely to me, and "Can we isolate the inhibiting factor and dose people to help in early detected lung cancers or in patients suspected to be high risk for lung cancer?"

I'm also wryly amused by the thought that smoking the illegal substance may have saved some people's lives. I see the lawsuit now, against the government for outlawing a substance that, were it not illegal, could have saved people from dying from illnesses contracted through use of the legal substance...

I never got much into smoking beyond the experimental puffs; I have allergy related asthma, so it's a raspy business. I do love the smell and taste of clove cigarettes though, probably the worst thing one could possibly smoke...I indulge along the lines of a few cigarettes every few years, heh. I also enjoy the rare good cigar, of course, just because it goes so well with whiskey. (Come to think of it, I tend to smoke the cigarettes like the cigar, holding the smoke in the mouth more than inhaling.) If I were to start smoking however, or had for many years, I'd find this curious information to file away for my personal health interests...

Try not to make any self-incriminating comments here please, or comments incriminating of others, I don't want my blog to be the springboard for investigations, hehe. (I also don't want to become the host of true drug confessions.) But the idea of this does fascinate me. I wonder if the accelerated cell death has a different drawback?