Marijuana.com

Richi

Yupp...

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PHDinTHC

That, or you can use peppermint oil, which is available at most homeopathic medicine outlets. I used to use that or spearmint oil.

When you smoke a joint, you are only getting roughly 20-30% of the THC, while a pipe affords you 40-60% THC and lastly a bong gives you anywhere from 70-90% THC content.

In addition, a bong filters out almost all of the carcinogens (cancer causing agents) which can irritate your throat and lungs. Try adding ice to the bong water and it cools the smoke very nicely...!

Richi

Peppermint leaves have the advantage of being only peppermint leaves.

Peppermint oil would contain alcohol, and other potentially harmful chemicals which are used to extract it from the leaves. Just buy yourself some herbal mint tea, where the only ingredient listed it peppermint leaves.

How can a bong filter out carcinogens, if no human has ever developed cancer from smoking cannabis in the history of our use of the plant?

PHDinTHC

You are correct. That's why I only got my oils from, as I stated, homeopathic stores. They don't use any other inorganic substances but alcohol (as a solvent), which evaporates off of your weed rapidly. Oils also has a stronger taste to them and you don't have to smoke the vegetative matter of peppermint leaves, that contain chlorophyll (which makes you cough). Oils give a cleaner & smoother smoking sensation. Conversely, you would have to smoke more for the same effect if you just added leaves, then if you opted for using oils, since adding leaves will obviously dilute your weed. Why not use oils? We all love good hash oil which is derived from the vegetative matter of pot, because it's purer. Same concept. You can buy 100% pure oils from here:

nutritiongeeks.com/details2.asp?Prod=peppermint-oil-now-16&Prodgp=peppermint-oil-now&gclid=CIjzlvLM9o8CFQGdPAod7hZyKw

As for a bong reducing carcinogens, it is a well-documented fact that there are over 400 additional substances in smoked marijuana. This is also why vaporizers have become so popular. Placing any kind of smoke in your lungs leads to a higher risk of cancer. Any type of smoke contains unhealthy tars. It's an inevitable result of the combustion process. See this:

Fact Sheet - MARIJUANA

A waterpipe or bong eliminates a large portion of these chemicals, which is why your used bongwater is typically nasty smelling and dark colored. Smoked cannabis does contain carcinogens. Go here:

Dope Tips II dope tips, reducing cannabis related harms, tips for safer use of cannabis use in nz, using marijuana

I think what you may have meant is, that marijuana by itself has never killed anyone in the history of the world. Clarify me if I'm wrong in this assumption.

[mod note - no commercial links]

Richi

I've never heard of this WELL internet community, but their marijuana fact sheet was copied and pasted off of the NIDA propaganda bullshit one. Nope, next.

Same with this... Kia Ora? An organization that is working to improve people's health in New Zealand?

Either way, their opinion is that a bong filters out ashes and embers. This is true, as these are large molecules which would get trapped in the water. Carcinogens such as nicotine, arsenic, formaldehyde, the list goes on, which are not found in marijuana anyway, would not be filtered out unless they dissolved in the water which they pass through.

And drinking bong water will not give you Hepititis A, unless you live in a country where you fill your bong with water which is already contaminated with Hepititis A.

Correct. Unless they choke on it, or a large bale of it causes them extensive physical damage. Marijuana has never been successfully linked to causing cancer.

Here are some studies from more reputable sources:

Large Study Find No Link between Marijuana and Cancer

Tobacco is Much Better at Causing Cancer than Marijuana

The California Cannabis research Medicinal Group

Note, even though the last website is a pro-pot organization, they draw on reseach performed by MD's.

 

sterbo

An interesting article by Don Tashkin who some of us 'ol timers might remember as the quintessential bad guy from his published studies in the early 70's.
Who ever would have thought...



Dr. Donald Tashkin, UCLA Medical Center
L'ESTEREL, Quebec -- Heavy marijuana smokers show less evidence of lung injury than heavy tobacco smokers, and it may be cannabinoids that are protecting them from developing a condition like emphysema.

That's according to the principal investigator of a study done at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Speaking at the third annual meeting of the International Cannabis Research Society here, Dr. Donald Tashkin, a pulmonologist and UCLA professor of medicine, concluded heavy marijuana use did not cause the same degree of lung injury as tobacco smoke. "My own feeling is that marijuana smokers probably will not develop emphysema as a consequence of smoking marijuana," he said, but cautioned that does not rule
out the development of other conditions like respiratory carcinoma. "It may be that the THC(delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) in marijuana could have
different effects on inflammatory cells, which may mediate injury in the lung."
His study, which aimed to measure the pulmonary effects of habitual marijuana use, followed nine tobacco smokers, 10 marijuana smokers, 10 nonsmokers and four smokers of both marijuana and tobacco. He gave both quantitative and qualitative explanations for his finding. Marijuana users
in the study smoked three or four joints daily for 15 years on average, while tobacco smokers in the study smoked 25 cigarettes daily over a period of 20 years, indicating a marked difference in exposure to smoke. "There is
a seven-fold difference in the amount of smoke to which marijuana and tobacco smokers are exposed," he said. "It's the quantitative difference in smoke exposure that might explain the difference in the degree of lung injury as assessed by these physiologic indices."
Moreover, the phagocytes gathered from the lungs of marijuana smokers do not have the same properties
as those gathered from the lungs of tobacco smokers. "We have previously shown that the macrophages that are harvested from the rinse-out of the lungs of marijuana smokers seem not to be activated," he said. "They do not
release toxic oxygen species, either under basal conditions or under stimulated conditions nearly to the extent that tobacco macrophages do. If anything, basal secretion of superoxide seems to be reduced in the marijuana smokers." Dr. Tashkin measured the clearance of the molecule diethylene
triamine penta-acetate (DTPA) from the lung, believed to be a more sensitive indicator of lung injury than measuring the lung's diffusing capacity. If DTPA clearance is accelerated, then it implies an increase in the leakiness of the alveolar epithelial membrane, which implies injury to the membrane,
he said. Dr. Tashkin noted DTPA clearance is accelerated in tobacco smoke-related lung injury.
Initially, the chronic effects of marijuana smoke were
measured in comparison to those of tobacco smoke: DTPA clearance was measured at about 12 hours after the last marijuana or tobacco cigarette smoked. To determine the acute effects of marijuana and tobacco smoking, Dr. Tashkin restudied these smokers a week or two later, giving them a single joint of marijuana or a single tobacco cigarette or both, and then measuring DTPA clearance 15 minutes subsequently. "What we found was the clearance of DTPA was abnormally rapid from the lung in the tobacco smokers," he said." It was about twice the rate of non-smokers. In the marijuana smokers, there was a tendency toward a much less rapid rate of clearance. There was no acute effect in either tobacco or marijuana, and there was no added effect
of marijuana or tobacco." As with the lungs to tobacco smokers, when the lungs of marijuana smokers are "washed out", a marked increase in the number of alveolar macrophages is witnessed.
But whereas tobacco smoke has a concomitant effect of activating the macrophages, leading to the subsequent
release of certain toxic substances, marijuana smoke fails to activate the macrophages, Dr. Tashkin said. He noted this difference could be attributed to differential regulation of cytokins. "It may be that the macrophages from marijuana smokers release certain suppressive cytokins, like transforming growth factor- beta, which is known to suppress the inflammatory activity of nearly all of the site populations," he said. "That's our hypothesis, which we are currently exploring."
Short Term Effects "In studies of acute effects of smoked marijuana, not only have no detrimental effects on lung function been observed but, in fact, potentially desirable airway dialation has been a constant finding suggesting that
marijuana might have a therapeutic potential in the treatment of bronchial asthma."
"The therapeutic utility of marijuana has been investigated in stable asthmatics. In such individuals, smoking of marijuana containing 10 mg delta-9 THC has a potent bronchodialator effect and even promptly reverses asthmatic attacks that are experimentally provoked in the laboratory."
Long Term Effects
"To evaluate further the possibility that chronic marijuana use may lead to respiratory functional abnormalities, Tashkin et al. (1980) compared the results of a battery of lung function tests administered to 74 young habitual marijuana smokers, and a group of closely matched non-marijuana smoking subjects....[Tashkin goes on to describe the control group in
further detail.] Comparing the marijuana smokers with their controls, no difference in routine tests of lung function, including tests considered.





ALL CLEAR: An interview with Dr. Donald Tashkin :: hightimes.com

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mjpotter

Thats very true. Essential oils when smoked actually release carcinogens almost as toxic or worse than ciggarettes. Its not potentially harmful to smoke oils IT IS HARMFUL.