The BBC website published a story yesterday, following on from two studies recently published in Respirology and the European Respiratory Journal suggesting that heavy cannabis users may be at a significantly greater risk of chronic lung disease - including cancer - compared to tobacco smokers.

One of the studies took a sample group of 79 patients in New Zealand and claimed that the risk of lung cancer rose 8% for each year of smoking one joint a day, and 7% for each year of smoking an entire packet of cigarettes a day. The speculated reason for this was “…the heightened risk may be connected to the fact that the cannabis smoker inhales more deeply and for longer, increasing the amount of carbon monoxide.”

A second, smaller study was conducted amongst 10 smokers - yes ten - who were treated for chronic respiratory problems at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. All of them admitted intense cannabis use for at least a year and had developed bullous lung disease, a condition where air becomes trapped in the lungs, at an average age of 41, compared to 65 for tobacco smoking patients.

Thankfully, the campaign group Transform Drug Policy Foundation added a bit of perspective to this, suggesting that it is very difficult to separate cannabis from tobacco use as the two were so often smoked together. They continued to point out that inhaling smoke from any burning object was intrinsically harmful, and that policy should focus more on educating people about the risks of taking the drug - which can be taken using other methods.

The UK Government may decide later this year whether it will reclassify cannabis as a class B drug, having downgraded it to a class C substance in 2004. There is some evidence to suggest that usage has actually fallen since reclassification occurred.

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