Marijuana associated with three-fold risk of death from hypertension | Hacker News Reader

Marijuana associated with three-fold risk of death from hypertension

sciencedaily.com

7 pointsSQL22198 comments

>We selected participants eligible for mortality follow-up, aged 20 years and above, who answered “yes” or “no” to the question, “Have you ever used marijuana or hashish?” Participants who answered yes were classified marijuana users and those who answered no, as non-marijuana users. Duration of marijuana use was estimated by subtracting participant’s age at marijuana use initiation from the age at the 2005 screen.

So even if I smoked a single joint since I started smoking, I am put in the the same bucket as someone who smokes weed daily? That doesn't sound right. Am I missing something?

This methodology is barely science.

This is very much part of what science looks like today. There isn't enough funding for everyone to get large-scale long-term randomized placebo-controlled double-blind trials, you need CHEAP, simple, and flawed correlative studies to show that a better study should be considered for funding.

Legality will open the gates for a generation of researchers associating use with health outcomes, without legal gray areas. The sooner we find out and verify adverse and beneficial effects, the better for medical (and non-medical) users.

This seems completely contrary to reason. Who funded the study? Tobacco?

Why do you believe this is contrary to reason?

Did you read the study?

From the Reuters article:

"Despite the widely held view that cannabis is benign, this research adds to previous work suggesting otherwise," said Ian Hamilton, a lecturer in mental health at Britain's York University.

There are several “handwaving” maneuvers in the paper, best summarized by this quote from lead author (PhD candidate):

"Yankey said were limitations in the way marijuana use was assessed -- including that researchers could not be sure whether people had used the drug continuously since they first tried it."

A direct quote from the paper shows this:

"Duration of marijuana use was estimated by subtracting participant’s age at marijuana use initiation from the age at the 2005 screen."

Then the conclusion begins with:

Marijuana use, especially prolonged years of use, may increase the risk of hypertension mortality…

------

Should be clear now.

Nobody funded it.

"Declaration of conflicting interests The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article."

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