Legal News

Environmental regulators call the pot kettle black

By Richard Binder

State environmental regulators last month voted to place marijuana smoke on its list of hundreds of substances known to cause cancer.  Scientists with the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment found that marijuana smoke and tobacco smoke share 33 of the same cancer-causing compounds.

The measure would eventually require medical marijuana to carry a warning label telling of its potential cancer-causing risks.

The decision to list marijuana smoke as a cancer-causing agent falls under California's Proposition 65, a voter-approved measure that instructs regulators to identify substances that can cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.

First instituted in 1986, critics contend that the list of dangerous substances has grown absurdly long, including such common products as aspirin, gasoline, potato chips and French fries.

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Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on July 06, 2009 (boomark / email).