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Hydrocronics

I was wondering how susceptable I would be to getting emphysema, lung cancer, or some other serious illness from smoking marijuana. Many joints a day.
I also smoke cigarettes, but often go for 5 days or so without smokes until i smoke again (i go somewhere during the week and purposely bring no cigs) but I smoke a lot of pot then, because im really just needin a smoke sometimes.

i know its hard to answer my question, but i mean,
this scares me
the possibility of cancer or emphysema or whatever.
i dont need that.
thats for certain.

if theres one bad thing about marijuana, its the way we choose to use it (smoking.)

 

ClangoCyclotron

In 1975, lung researchers reported that smoking three to five joints a week is equivalent to smoking 16 cigarettes a day in terms of impaired lung function

This about it. You're setting something on fire and inhaling it. Without a filter, mostlylikely.

There's no way that you ignite anything and breathe in it's embers and fumes and NOT walk away with some kind of lung damag and weed is no exception.

There are no magical fairy properties to weed. it's a plant just like tobacco, and it's smoke happens to be heavier and thicker
oh and add on to the fact that pot smokers HOLD IN their hits, thus allowing the smoke in deeper into their lungs for a longer time

An average marijuana cigarette contains 30 nanograms of the same carcinogen linked to tobacco smoke, except a tobacco cigarette contains 21 nanograms...

bo-battie

using a water bong helps to filter out alot of the carcinogens found in herb smoke, so i would make a recommendation in that direction.

if you want the high without any smoke, look into getting your hands on a vaporizer. they're more time consuming, but it's a fair trade-off.

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ClangoCyclotron

Recent studies suggest that bongs do not filter out carcinogens as well as previously believed (by uneducated potheads...go figure).

A vaporizor is probably the best way to inhale marijuana. It filters out a LOT more inpurities and carcinogens than a bong would. And infinitely more than inhaling straight from a joint or bowl.

You could always make pot butter and eat it. Some of my best highs ever were from brownies. But you waste a lot of weed making the butter.

CheebaMonkey

Please give us a link to this study so that the rest of us can read it. How did it impair the lungs?

I'll give you a 1976 report.

Tashkin, Dr. Donald, UCLA studies, 1969-83; UCLA Pulmonary Studies, 1969-95.

It's from the book by Jack Herer, The Emperor Wears No Clothes. Dr. Tashkin sent his report to the Rheims conference in 1976.So in the other 28 areas of the lungs, tobacco was more of an irritant than marijuana.

I really don't like to use older studies because their results may conflict with newer studies, which USUALLY are better.

Onto Emphysema.

Emphysema is a degenerative disease that usually develops after many years of assault on lung tissues from cigarette smoke or other toxins that pollute the air. These toxins destroy the small air sacs in the lungs, called alveoli, that stretch as they transport oxygen from the air to the blood and then shrink as they force out carbon dioxide. As a result, the lungs lose their elasticity, and exhaling becomes difficult as the damaged lungs trap air and cannot effectively exchange it with fresh air. As the damage progresses, the effort needed to breathe increases and, ultimately, each breath becomes labored.

Some ways to treat emphysema are to stop smoking cigarettes (obviously) and to use bronchodilators.

This class of medication works by relaxing the muscles around the airways. They are typically indicated for the relief of bronchospasm in patients with reversible obstructive airways disease. More commonly used to treat asthma, they may be prescribed for emphysema patients if there is a tendency toward airway constriction or tightening.

Marijuana is a bronchodilator, something that opens up your lung's airways.

During a later interview, Tashkin congratulated me [Jack Herer] on the tip I'd given him that marijuana used for emphysema produced good results among persons we knew.

He laughed at me originally, because he had presumed that marijuana aggravated emphysema, but after reviewing his evidence found that, except in the rarest of cases, marijuana was actually of great benefit to emphysema suffers due to the opening and dilation of the bronchial passages.

Tashkin feels there is no danger for anyone to worry about potentiating emphysema "in any way" by the use of marijuana totally the opposite of tobacco.

In December 1997, we asked Dr. Tashkin again, and he unequivocably stated that "marijuana does not cause or potentiate emphysema in any way."

And finally this.

The nature of the marijuana-induced changes were also different, occurring primarily in the lung's large airways - not the small peripheral airways affected by tobacco smoke. Since it is small-airway inflammation that causes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, marijuana smokers may not develop these diseases.

If anyone wants to treat their emphysema safely with cannabis, use a vaporizer.

Hydrocronics, while I can't say that smoking marijuana won't increase your risk of emphysema (minor increase at most), I can say that patients use it to treat their emphysema. Kind of a paradox. I find it funny that you are worried about getting emphysema and cancer from weed when you said that you smoke cigarettes. Cigarettes cause both of these.

Not a single case of cancer has ever been linked to marijuana use ALONE. This explains why (I don't know if its proven yet, but I think it is true). But I can't say that you won't get cancer from marijuana alone, because scientists have seen pre-cancerous changes in their cells.

Cannabinoids themselves are not carcinogens (something that causes cancer) or mutagens (something that changes/damages your chromosomes, which contain your DNA). Sources: here, here, here, here, here, and here. The risk of cancer comes from all that nasty crap in marijuana smoke, such as tar and hydrocarbons.Post a link to this. OK, how big is this "average marijuana cigarette?" It could weigh less or more than a cigarette. And which carcinogen's are you talking about? If they are tar and hydrocarbons, cigarettes do not contain them, they are created in combustion (when you burn a cigarette, or marijuana). Sources here and here. So if you want to measure the amount in a cigarette, to see how much tar for example, you have to measure the amount of tar in a closed volume of smoke. And such factors as how much smoke they inhale, the amount of time the cigarette or weed is burning (getting destroyed) while they aren't smoking, smoking with others, and the amount of the tobacco or marijuana are are variables which affect this.

All cigarettes are not created equal. Their are varying amounts of substances between different brands. This gives you info on topics such as the amount of tar in tobacco smoke in different brands.

There is no combustion when you eat something like bud brownies. So it's healthier than smoking.

I hope I have somewhat helped you with your questions Hydrocronics.WHAT?!?! When was this scientifically proven?!?!

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ClangoCyclotron

You know, the thing I hate doing the most is spreading misinformation. Monkey, I read a little further into the issue when I saw your post, and I am coming to the persuasion that most information regarding lung damage is seriuosly twisted.

When you talk about average carcinogens, the studies I have read were the horribly skewed variety that did not consider what was being smoked. Most of these studes analyize the the carcinogen content in the LEAF -- most marijuana smokers smoke the flowering tops (the buds), which have 1/3rd less carcinogens than a tobacco leaf. I was duped.

Also I plan to read a little more into lung damage and emphysema, but it looks like Tashkin has more or less laid to rest the myth about marijuana aggrivating emphysema.

My apologies.

Hydrocronics

thankyou monkey.

i have researched marijuana a great deal, but never have i bothered to thoroughly check statistics, etc. of some sort, which answered questions regarding serious lung/airway damage.

I have been a habitual user for some time, which I have also smoked cigarettes for the majority of (quit a few times).

Its just I've been told that I have a pretty bad cough in my sleep, and sometimes my lungs have a good deal of phlegm in them.

I was just getting worried about the possibilities of marijuana related cancer, but i wasnt sure if there was ever a case of it by itself, without someone smoking cigs.

Im not a heavy smoker anymore really, I was just worried more about how much marijuana I smoke.

Thanks again.

I love marijuana.

I just dont want it to turn into a hate after I get a lifelong or fatal disease. u know?
=\

later.

CheebaMonkey

Oops, I'm sorry if I was a little harsh ClangoCyclotron, I didn't mean anything by it. It's just that I get angry about how reefer madness tactics try and spoon feed BS to people that marijuana is worse than cigarettes.

Hydrocronics, so then you still smoke cigarettes? You should really stop. Cilia, those finger-like structures in your lungs help remove foreign particles. Tobacco smoke paralyzes the cilia in your lungs. Weed is an expectorant, which means it helps loosen and clear mucous and phlegm from your lungs by coughing.

If you stop smoking cigarettes, the cilia that aren't permanently damaged will return to their normal function.

But then again, tar can paralyze the cilia, and smoking weed deposits tar in your lungs. But at the same time it's an expectorant. Another paradox...

Perhaps all the coughing is the weed doing its job. Or you have too much crap in your lungs and should definitely stop smoking cigarettes, and cut back on the weed. Or use a vaporizer, or even just eat it.

ikari

Why do these these threads keep coming up?

It's already been brought up like 10 friggin' times.

It's ALL summed up into two points, you can go look for the threads in which proof was posted.

1. NOBODY has ever gotten lung cancer from smoking marijuana alone.

2. Cancer is caused by cigarettes because cigarettes have been sprayed with radioactive chemicals. It's the radioactive substances that cause cancer, NOT the tar/carcinogens.

You have a higher chance of getting cancer from breathing polluted air (Toronto anyone?) than smoking marijuana everyday.

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CheebaMonkey

Actually, the major source of radiation in cigarettes comes from the phosphate fertilizer the tobacco companies use.