November 14, 2024

expert reaction to paper on cannabis use causing chromosomal damage, increasing cancer risk, and harming offspring

A commentary paper published in Addiction Biology looks at cannabis use causing chromosomal damage and increasing cancer risk.

Prof Wayne Hall, Emeritus Professor, National Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research, University of Queensland, said:

“The article by Hulse and Reece is a speculative commentary. It is not a systematic review of scientific studies on the adverse health effects cannabis. Their commentary relies heavily on their own studies in making the questionable claim that cannabis use is a cause of a wide variety of different types of cancer and birth defects.

“The authors’ studies comprise the weakest type of evidence for a causal relationship between cannabis use and these adverse health outcomes, namely, associations between the prevalence of cannabis use and the prevalence of these health outcomes in the population. The papers used in this commentary are generally published in more mid-tier journals. Except for testicular cancers, there is little support for their claims from well-designed epidemiological studies.

“Their exaggerated claims about the health risks of cannabis conflict with the findings of systematic reviews of the epidemiological and clinical evidence¹.

“The adverse health effects of cannabis documented in these reviews include the following: motor vehicle crashes, if users drive while intoxicated; reduced birth weight in children whose mothers used cannabis during their pregnancies; the development of a cannabis dependence syndrome; impaired cognitive and educational performance in youth; and a worsening of the symptoms of mental disorders such as anxiety, depression and psychoses.”

1 – Hoch, E., Volkow, N., Freeman, T., Lorenzetti, V., Friemel, C. and Hall, W. Cannabis, cannabinoids and health: a review of evidence on risks and medical benefits. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-024-01880-2

‘Key insights into cannabis-cancer pathobiology and genotoxicity’ by Reece & Hulse was published in Addiction Biology at 05:01 UK time on Thursday 14th November 2024,.

DOI: 10.1111/adb.70003

Declared interests:

Prof Wayne Hall “I received payment from the World Health Organisation for preparing reviews of the evidence on the adverse health effects of cannabis for (2016-2023)”