Part of the problem currently with studying the effects of marijuana is that nobody knows what they're really buying when they're buying it off the streets. Dealers can cut anything into it to stretch the crop. With medical marijuana, licensed growers and a known entity, it would be easier to measure the ill effects, although only people who are sick with someone else is getting it then. As my mother's doctor and many of her health care workers said, while she was dying of COPD, "lung cancer is not the worst thing that can happen from smoking". It's much tougher to do studies on effects of long term of marijuana use than cigarette use. The thing is, many people who would use medical marijuana are dying anyway and it's more of a comfort care, or need it short term during chemotherapy so that they can get through the nausea and eat.
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