Cannabis more harmful than tobacco?
Popular wisdom amongst pro marijuana people is that smoking marijuana is a healthy activity while smoking tobacco is not. A study published in the New Scientist says that not only is smoking pure marijuana just as dangerous to health as smoking tobacco, it may actually be worse.
Research shows that smoking three joints a day is the equivalent of smoking 20 cigarettes, largely a result of how joints are smoked, with far deeper inhalation and deliberate retaining of smoke in the lungs which result in more tar and CO2 entering the lungs. Up to 2/3 more smoke is inhaled from joints than cigarettes, it is inhaled 1/3 deeper and is held on average 4 times as long.
Other findings reveal:
- Tar in joints has a far higher concentration of carcinogens benzathracenes and benzpyrenes than tobacco smoke.
- THC decreases immune cell function that protects the lungs from infection.
- THC levels in joints has risen radically over the past 40 years, with some modern majrijuana strains having 30 times the THC levels of previous strains
For further reading see and Marijuana Does not cause Cancer
Comment
Everything we do has some element of danger to it, and if we only did what was safe we would be deadly boring. It is good to know what the research says.
Adapted for byronbodyandsoul.com by Mark O'Brien
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