kills brain cells

i was reading from a website about the war on drugs. the stated that weed actually DOES kill brain cells when smoked. here it is...

"Smoking marijuana poses some risks. As hard as it may be for some of you to believe, no matter how much you want to believe it, marijuana isn't all good. Smoking anything physically hurts your body. Anything that burns gives off carbon monoxide.
*Carbon monoxide kills brain cells. *"

So what do you think? I've heard so many things and I want to know whether to stop or not. School is important for me and I just started smoking. But if I'm going to become stupid in the long-term, I'll quit.

Everything kills brain cells. Smoking marijuana doesn't made you stupid. It hasn't for me. My concentration isn't the best, but I've done a lot more than weed. Not now though, I learned my lesson. Crack, well now that's another story.

I was wondering if anyone knows if the amount of carbon monoxide in cigarettes are roughly the same as weed. That is what I would assume. If that is true, and the average marijuana smoker smokes less than your average cigarette smoker, than smoking cigarettes would kill more brain cells than smoking weed.

Dude, holding your breath also kills brain cells. Don't make your decision on that one thing. For me, about a year after smoking weed weekly, i became unmotivated in school,and stopped doing homework etc. But who knows if this was weed or not, because it probly would've happened if i never touched a joint.

Well smoking anything isn't good for you because of the carcinogens released and from the carbon monoxide, but that doesn't dismiss the fact that marijuana is bad for you.

If you live near a busy road your probably losing brain cells at a faster rate due to carbon monoxide, and then you aren't even getting a high or getting anything positive from it

That's why I bought myself a vaporizer and quit smoking bongs/joints/pipes. I wanted to smoke Marijuana but the smoke wasn't good for my asthma, so now I get all the good stuff and the bad stuff stays behind

BRRRING in the LOOOOVE
PUUUSH out the JIIIIIIIVE

a.k.a. BRING IN THE VAPE
lol...

what im trying to say is, if ur so worried about marijuana smoke killing brain cells, why not just inhale vapor and just X out the middle man... pick up a vape, itll save more than just ur lungs
donkeysmell

Yeah that's why i got a vap, best investment ever

Yo Bongzilla, can you tell me what company you got your vap from and how much etc.
Ever since i joined here i'm always hearing about vaps and it sounds like it makes for radical investment, dude.

ReMeMBeR... !

good vapes...

are few and far apart!

i suggest doing a search on Eterra vaporizers, or if u have a bong already u can buy a VCB attachment off of Vrip's site providing u have a heatgun, eterra and vrip are two of the most foolproof vaporization methods i have yet heard of...
just thought id reitterate that
donkeysmell

ADR531: Yes, just as with cigarette smoking, smoking Cannabis (also known as marijuana, ganja, weed) will emit carbon monoxide in the smoke. As som of the writers have pointed out, carbon monoxide is also emitted in fuel emissions from cars, buses and planes. The amount of carbon monoxide from one marijuana cigarette is hard to say specifically or to compare to a tobacco cigarette as marijuana cigarettes, or joints or doobs as they may be called, are individually rolled and therefore there is no specifici size comparison. Since most marijuana cigarettes are shared, or "passed" with friends who are also smoking (or smoking out) together, the amount of carbon monoxide each person is getting from one marijuana cigarette would be less than one person smoking one tobacco cigarette. So the amount of CO (carbon monoxide) would be measureably small.

Does CO kill brain cells? Yes. So does oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Any of these taken individually in large amounts will lead to death. However the air we breath is made of all these, and more and our wonderful human body can distinguish between what the body requires for respiration, and what by products must be exhaled.

HI hope this has answered your questions. Let me add one thing more.

Don't let anyone force you to smoke marijuana or try anything you do not want to. You are the mistress/master of your own body! And smoking or not smoking marijuana is your choice alone.

Good luck with school and we'll be here when you have any other questions or just want to chat...and smoking is NOT a requirement to be our friend!

~ have a cookie

Saying that carbon monoxide kills brain cells is a little misleading. All in all, oxygen deprivation kills brain cells and CO can certainly cause oxygen deprivation because when O2 and CO compete to bond with hemoglobin, CO will always win. However, to say whether smoking causes brain damage, you have to know how much CO is in the smoke and are you getting enough oxygen? Smoke in a well ventilated area (outdoors! Air is 5 times more polluted inside) and make sure you are getting air. If you follow these steps you don't have to worry. If smoking really caused such bad brain damage, we would have a nation of idiots, brains rotted by cigarettes. Say what you want about smoking, but I don't see people being mentally disabled because of it. The largest risk with marijuana continues to be its psychoactive chemicals, which if abused can be harmful. Apply moderation, be a safe user.

~BD

bah, thats such bullsh*t. smoking anything will deprive your body of a certain amount of oxygen and eventually kill brain cells. brain cells are dying constantly anyways and there is no way in hell that you will be able to lose enough to inhibit your intelligence. these kinds of articles prey on peoples' lack of knowledge.

This is my first post! I'm glad to be apart of this worderful board. Nowadays, it seems that everything is bad for you in one way or another. I smoke almost everyday and haven't noticed that I've gotten "less smarter." I am in college and still keep my gpa around 3.5, so I believe it's up to the person. Doesn't inhaling gas fumes at the pump also kill brain cells, I heard that somewhere. Anyways, like others have said, you lose brain cells everyday. The only way I could see your grades going down is if you lose the motivation to study and go to class. That's just my opinion.

Opie

WELCOME OPIE!!!

yup, the schpiel that had been previously given was that just about anything can kill brain cells now-a-days... actually it kinda sucks now that i think about it...

i live right next to a busy highway, i wonder how many braincells i kill daily walking around the area, can anyone give an estimate?
lol... prob not eh?
donkeysmell

And of course there is Proof that Marijuana actually helps prevent Brain Damage:

-> Marijuana protects your brain
by Dana Larsen (01 Jan, 1999) Studies reveal that marijuana protects against brain damage from stroke, heart attacks, and nerve gas.

The US National Institute of Health has found that chemicals in cannabis can reduce the extent of damage during a stroke, at least in rats.

Experiments with rat nerve cells, and then with actual rats, suggest that THC and cannabidiol, both compounds found in marijuana, can protect cells by acting as antioxidants, and could be useful in the treatment and prevention of stroke, heart attacks, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Researchers are investigating how cannabidiol and other antioxidants can reduce the severity of damage from "ischaemic strokes", in which blood vessels in the brain become blocked.

During ischaemic strokes, which make up 80% of all strokes, free radicals are released into the bloodstream. These harmful molecules are believed to cause stroke damage, such as paralysis and loss of speech and vision. Cannabidiol has potent anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, so it can neutralize free radicals and limit their damage.

Meanwhile, an Israeli pharmaceutical company called Pharmos is conducting human clinical trials using a synthetic, injectable version of cannabidiol, which they have dubbed Dexanabinol.

Dexanabinol's creator is Professor Raphael Mechoulam of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who discovered THC in 1964, and has been studying cannabis for over thirty years.

Dr William Beaver, who chaired a panel assembled last year by the US National Institute of Health to review the medical uses of marijuana, called Dexanabinol "the most medically significant use ever made of marijuana."

The human clinical tests began in 1996 with 67 patients in Israel's neurotrauma centres. About 1000 patients will be involved in the next phase, at a cost of $15 million over two years. According to US medical investment analysts, Dexanabinol showed no serious side effects when administered to healthy volunteers.

Aside from the five million people worldwide who suffer a stroke or head trauma each year, there's another huge market for Dexanabinol, the US Army. US military tests on rats have shown that those exposed to Dexanabinol were 70% less likely to suffer epileptic seizures or brain damage after being exposed to sarin and other nerve gases. Dexanabinol is effective as both a preventative measure and as an antidote.

The military's greatest concern seems to be whether Dexanabinol possesses the same psychoactive and enlightening properties as THC and some other cannabinoids. Although THC and cannabidiol both provided equal defense against cell damage, cannabidiol doesn't have significant psychoactive effects.

Of course, the obvious corollary to this is that if synthetic Dexanabinol can prevent brain damage, then organic marijuana does so as well. So the next time grandpa has a stroke, try and get him to take a few bong-hits before the ambulance arrives. Better yet, give him a hash brownie each evening before he has that stroke. You might just save his life.

I saw on the news a while back that they proved that brain cells do in fact regenerate...so this is all a moot point

OH MY GOD, =( AFTER GOIGN TO THE SITE IT MADE ME BELIEVE THAT WEED DOES NOT KILL BRAINCELLS. NOW PEOPLE ARE SAYING THAT IT IS?!?!?!?!?!?!? MAN I GOTTA QUIT, BRAINCELLS ARE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT~!!!!!!!

What was said is that it dosen't kill enough to cause any loss of cognitive abilities.

Actually what was said was that:

Oxygen deprivation caused by smoke inhalation can kill brain cells.

Cannabis contains chemical compounds that have been found to protect brain cell injury.

If you smoke cannabis, could the smoke you inhale be sever enough to cause oxygen deficiencies that could cause brain cell death and would the cannabinoids (chemical compounds natural occurring in the cannabis) be sufficient to protect agaisn that brain cell injury?

I don't know. Haven't found a specific study on it to prove one way or the other sceintifically.

As for various methods of taking in cannabinoids, there are a number pharmaceutical companies in Europe and Israel currently testing injections, oral sprays, patches and other methods of induction other than smoking. Also there is a method called vapourization which vapourizes only the THC canabinoid for inhalation without burning, therefore no smoke is inhaled.

That's good news. I have always wanted to find a patch of some sort. Do you have any more info on these people? A website maybe?