More bad news for marijuana smokers. Smoke that joint and watch your teeth fall out.
It’s the gums that are harmed by smoking pot, according to researchers who appear to have cribbed anti-smoking junk studies that purport the same harm from smoking tobacco. We’re told pot smokers risk severe gum disease more than those who don’t smoke grass and they get gum disease earlier. The negative effects of cannabis, so say the researchers, are independent of other gum disease risk factors, including tobacco use, socioeconomic status, and infrequent trips to the dentist. The risk, derived as usual from questionnaire-based epidemiology, falls into the insignificant range, just like the harm to the gums supposedly caused by tobacco use.
The purpose of this study is quite obvious. Smoke is smoke and the behavior engineers must deplore it all as they relentlessly spread false information to propagate the idea that enjoying oneself is bad. Anti-tobacco junk studies form the template that is now being used for all sorts of "evidence" against pleasures the elite frown upon.
As usual the news reporter merely regurgitates a press release and provides no context as to the percentages, numbers, and risks that make up the "proof" of the study. In this case the reporter contradicts himself by noting that the study factored in socioeconomic status and trips to the dentist, then in a later paragraph states that pot smokers tend to have a lower socioeconomic status and make fewer trips to the dentist than those who don’t smoke marijuana. So here we have another study that focuses on poorer people and discovers that, just as with poor tobacco smokers, those who have lesser means generally may have more trouble with their health. Lifestyle epidemiology is an awful waste of time, and of money, that might go to good use.
0 Comments