Medicine: Pot and Angina

The physiological effects of smoking marijuana have been as little documented and almost as hotly disputed as the psychological and social results. Two physicians at the Long Beach (Calif.) VA Hospital have now produced some firm data for one class of pot smokers: those with angina pectoris, a condition that causes intervals of intense chest pains. Knowing that smoking any tobacco cigarette (even the nonnicotine variety) hastens the onset of angina in men with coronary-artery disease, Drs. Wilbert S. Aronow and John Cassidy tested ten such volunteers with a marijuana cigarette and a nonmarijuana cigarette. Before smoking, the men exercised...

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