Barlow

I was looking at a health website and their outlook (of course) is that ANY kind of plant material inhaled into the lungs has the possibility of causing long-term health risks. It specifically mentioned mj.
Of course, this guy could be off the deep end, too. I believe the number was about 7 times worse than tobacco cigarettes...
Is there anyone who considers this a valid point, and is there a way to deal with that possibility besides not lighting one up (a filter, maybe)? Or am I just being paranoid?

Jenetik

I doubt its 7 times worse than cigs.. they put all kinds of blends in cigs now, probably lots more chemicals and tars in cigs.. I don't think its a fair comparison either.. is not like you smoke 20 joints a day..

Greenman

Putting any type of smoke or burning material in the lungs of course is not good for them, it does not take a rocket scientiest to figure that out. I wish everyone would keep in mind though that our lungs have evolved from burning dung in an non-ventalated cave, which I would guess is not to healthy either. Throughout the ages, people have been intentionally or unintentially breathing tainted air since our kind discovered how to burn stuff. Factory Workers, Peasents, Merchants, Oil drillers, Hunters, Computer Lab technitions, Photo-developers, etc etc. Lets not forget the milliatary, where they force you to endure tear gas and a whole host of nasty man-made gases and vapors.

There is also a difference between actual lung damage, and an elevated RISK of lung cancer. They are not one of the same thing. Ciggerette smoke actually causes mutations in the cell wall of the lungs, which are the beginnning of cancer. Does marijuana smoke do this? The answer to that is as convoluded as the answer to any question about pot. Although, Steve Kubby who smoked in excess of an ounce a month for 10 years daily had no signs of scaring, mutation, or other precursors to cancer, or any lung damage to speak of, using and re-testing on the most sophisticated equipment available to the medical field. Take the anecdote where you like.

With all the people smoking pot, if it really had 7 times the cancerous potential as a ciggerette, where are the bodies hiding? I mean, we know that ciggerettes kill over 400,000 people a year. How many does pot kill? Can someone please point me to a number? Any source that can put a bead on it would be nice. I doubt this thread will be flooded with responses to that request.

That aside, the normal smoking habits of a person using marijuana and those using tobacco are totally different. The majority of pot smokers I would bet smoke 3-5 joints worth of marijuana a day. Where the average ciggerette smoker consumes over 20 ciggerettes a day. Even if pot, per joint, had more potential of cancer than ciggerettes by seven fold. You still are not increasing your risk much at all when you compare the uses of the two substances. And there are more people, as a percentage of the using population, of marijuana users who smoke below 3 joints a day. The opposite is true of ciggerette use, where a good number of people smoke more than 1 pack a day.

Sorry I couldn't be more specific. But the specifics are very difficult to validate. This is more of a line of reasoning I use to debate the pot is worse than ciggerettes claim.

Where are the bodies?

Peace.

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Alpine Rocket

Check this article out. Very informative.
http://www.ukcia.org/lib/cancer2.htm

Greenman

To cut out the main portion of the article for thread purposed. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you go and read the article however.

.........

My asthma has improved since switching to a vaporizer. My theory is that the increased THC-transfer efficiency plus the total absence of tars is the reason. In other words, if anything in MJ helps you, its the cannabinoids, not the tars. My asthma was never helped by MJ smoke (quite the contrary).

So what are the statistics on asthma sufferers claiming to be helped by MJ smoke? Any studies?

Regards,
-1

Psycho Donkey

In a study I saw on the net (I'm trying to find the site I will post it if I do) it says one joint is equal to about 1.5 cigarrettes (sp?) give or take. But in all fairness I doubt anyone smokes a pack a day (about 20 cigs) or more of marijuana. It just isn't fair how peopel are so DARE trained these days...makes me want to cry .

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BLazewithme

i have heard that 5 joints is equivalent to about a piack of cigs

FreudPhilly

J Clin Pharmacol. 2002 Nov;42(11 Suppl):71S-81S. Related Articles, Links


Respiratory and immunologic consequences of marijuana smoking.

Tashkin DR, Baldwin GC, Sarafian T, Dubinett S, Roth MD.

Deportment of Medicine, UCLA School of Medicine, 90095-1690, USA.

Habitual smoking of marijuana has a number of effects on the respiratory and immune systems that may be clinically relevant. These include alterations in lung function ranging from no to mild airflow obstruction without evidence of diffusion impairment, an increased prevalence of acute and chronic bronchitis, striking endoscopic findings of airway injury (erythema, edema, and increased secretions) that correlate with histopathological alterations in bronchial biopsies, and dysregulated growth of the bronchial epithelium associated with altered expression of nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins involved in the pathogenesis of bronchogenic carcinoma. Other consequences of regular marijuana use include ultrastructual abnormalities in human alveolar macrophages along with impairment of their cytokine production, antimicrobial activity, and tumoricidal function. Cannabinoid receptor expression is altered in leukocytes collected from the blood of chronic smokers, and experimental models support a role for delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol in suppressing T cell function and cell-mediated immunity. The potential for marijuana smoking to predispose to the development of respiratory malignancy is suggested by several lines of evidence, including the presence of potent carcinogens in marijuana smoke and their resulting deposition in the lung, the occurrence of premalignant changes in bronchial biopsies obtained from smokers of marijuana in the absence of tobacco, impairment of antitumor immune defenses by delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol, and several clinical case series in which marijuana smokers were disproportionately over represented among young individuals who developed upper or lower respiratory tract cancer. Additional well designed epidemiological and immune monitoring studies are required to determine the potential causal relationship between marijuana use and the development of respiratory infection and/or cancer.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract

F-hole skull

a few puffs from your bowl after work isn't as bad as being a pack a day cigarette smoker, obviously. moderation is the key.