Researchers at Keck Medicine of USC have warned that heavy cannabis smoking significantly increases the risk of lung cancer and head and neck cancers — including mouth, throat and tonsil malignancies — even as scientists acknowledge they have not yet established how much marijuana use begins to elevate cancer risk.
As marijuana becomes legal in more places around the world, scientists are delivering a sobering message: smoking it heavily may come with serious cancer consequences.
Researchers at Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California, led by Niels Kokot, have published findings showing that people who smoked large amounts of marijuana faced an increased risk of both small cell and non-small cell lung cancer.
New Telegraph reports that a separate study by the same team found that daily marijuana users were 3.5 to five times more likely to develop cancers of the mouth, throat, tongue, tonsils, larynx and nearby salivary glands — a striking elevation in risk across multiple head and neck cancer types.
The research adds significant weight to concerns that the legalisation and normalisation of cannabis use has outpaced the scientific understanding of its long-term health consequences.
However, researchers acknowledge a critical gap in current knowledge. According to Brooks Udelsman, scientists have not yet determined exactly how much marijuana use begins to tip the cancer risk scale.
“What we don’t know right now is the dose relationship,” Udelsman said, noting that current evidence primarily concerns people who smoke heavily — particularly those who develop dependence or require medical intervention due to their use.
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