How bad for your health actualy is cannabis?

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Me and a friend were wondering, we all know when cannabis is inhaled it is bad for your lungs. but we were just wondering how bad.

when we were in amsterdam we saw something in a free newspaper saying that each spliff has about the same amount of tar as 15 cigs. this is worrying because if that is the case in the 4 years ive been smoking ive probably more unhealthy than someone who has been smoking 30 cigs a day for 10+ years:O

im just realy confused, i had know idea there could be that much tar and am still trying to think its not true.

what do all you guys think?

i think if its true im going to get a nice vapouriser.

 

[HeadyPete]

It's complicated. There is tar but it is not chock full of 10,000 chems like cigarette tar.

I believe one of the factors to lung cancer is from tobacco plants uptaking built up radioactive particles from the soil (from continued overuse of chem ferts on the fields) which lodge in your lung and irradiate the tissue, potentially causing a tumour.

The pot phlegm can't be great either, so most recommend cooking with pot to reduce any harm. Vaping will also reduce harm from combustion products in your smoke.

Interesting topic and I want to hear more...

 

[pipeline]

http://www.norml.org//index.cfm?Group_ID=3475

http://www.norml.org//index.cfm?Group_ID=7002

http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3444

 

[Guest]

I wouldnt worry about it 2 much man,my grandpa is over 70 years old,he hasnt touched a cig in his life,but hes been smoking bud for well over 50 years,and hes healthier then my friends kids who r teens.very interesting indeed.Yes i would have to say cannabis has much more tarr,then tobbaco,but sofar i havent hard of anyone dying from bud,i have a graph that says tobacco is the number 1 killer of drugs,totalying in at 400,000 deaths a year.Even caffeine and aspirin is a larger threat then cannabis,so why is out still outlawed?I have heard that before,but its just another anti campaign to keep you from smoking bud,they know if u do,it will unravel their brainwashing lies theyve fedd you.I know for a fact,if you stop smoking cannabis for a breif period,your lungs will get mucus in them,if youve ever had resin on your hands,water dosent work 2 well.but if you spit on your hands(as gross as it sounds,it works)the resin comes off easily,mucus is basically the same as your saliva,so when mucus gets in your lungs,it cleans them out.I would know because i got a cold a few weeks back,got mucus in my lungs and started coughing alot,well i started noticing little black specs in my saliva,it had 2 be resin.ive been a heavy smoker for a while and i only coughed up enough to probally pack 2 bowls,which isnt bad for as long as i have smoked.

 

[pipeline]

.......i only coughed up enough to probally pack 2 bowls,which isnt bad for as long as i have smoked.

Hahaha. What, its just 2 bowls worth....

 

[Guest]

Yeah I'm reading this book right now called "The Health Benefits of Tobacco"

The guy has a section on marijuana, saying smoking a joint of marijuana causes over 10 times the lung damage as smoking one cigarette.

He also talks about how there are not a lot of studies on marijuana, becuase its illegal, and they can't tax it. In other words, if it was legal, the government could come out with a ton of studies on marijuana, proving its risks, in order to increase taxes....similar to tobacco.

He also says in the book, that any medical condition that marijuana supposedly helps, can be helped BETTER by other drugs. I don't know if any of this is true but its kinda disturbing.

 

[HeadyPete]

Who is this author and who provides his funding, Indica?

Sounds real fishy....

 

[Guest]

His name is William Campbell Douglass 2, MD. He's a doctor for 40 years. He says that moderate cigar, pipe, and even cigarette smoking is actually beneficial. He says its not the poison, but the dose of the poison that needs to be looked at when it comes to nicotine and many other drugs.

He's not against marijuana, but he is against people who are pro-marijuana and anti-tobacco, because he thinks its ridiculous and gives reasons why.

I think the lungs can probably take some damage. I can definitely see that there is a difference between smoking 6 cigarettes a day versus 20 a day. William recommends you smoke only 6 a day, and 10 at the ultimate high end.

But if you throw on a joint a day also, where does that leave you? If there is a ton more tar in a joint, than that might push you up to a theoretical 15 cigarettes a day, in terms of lung damage, and could make you really susceptible to lung disorders, and who knows what else.

 

[Guest]

A recent study ( wish I had a link) said there are no known cases of lung cancer from marijuana smoke. Even though there is tar, the carcinogens in commercial tobacco and nicotine are not present in MJ. It's counterintuitive but there is a link around here. This was from a study published in 2006. But anything clogging your lungs = less oxygen in the blood= less energy right?

 

[Ruosk]

I've noticed that if I smoke my buds without tobacco, there's not really much phlegm or coughing (besides when hitting, of course). Also, saying that smoking anything (especially tobacco) is good for you sounds like bullshit at least to me. I just read in papers that even smoking a couple cigs a day increases your cancer risk big time.

Anyway, I'm glad I'll be getting my Volcano tomorrow.. time for my bongs to have some well earned rest.

Edit: burning anything causes carcinogenic byproducts, though I've understood that active compunds of cannabis also help cleaning up the lungs and therefore reducing the risk to some degree.

 

[gnosis]

As HeadyPete notes, tars aren't the sole factor in smoking related diseases.

Dr. Ravenholt, former Director of World Health Surveys at the US Centres for Disease Control, declared that Americans receive more radiation from tobacco smoke than from "any other source. In 1990, the then US Surgeon General C.Everett Koop declared on US national television that radioactivity in cigarette accounts for at least 90 per cent of all smoking related cancers.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/seta/2003/06/05/stories/2003060500020200.htm

Radioisotopes from the radon decay sequence are an oft cited but disputed cause of cigarette-induced lung cancers. In particular, the radioisotope polonium-210 has been measured in cigarette smoke at levels of 0.0263 - 0.036 pCi[17]. Polonium-210, an alpha emitter, has been identified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as a cause of lung cancer in humans when inhaled, and is also a causal agent for diseases such as liver and bladder cancer, stomach ulcers, leukemia, cirrhosis of the liver, and cardiovascular disease.[18]. Furthermore, the majority of cigarette-induced lung cancers are adenocarcinomas, which are characteristic of the type of damage produced by alpha particle radiation such as that of polonium-210.[19]

In 1982, Winters et al. published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine which showed skeletons of cigarette smokers contained deposits of lead-210 and polonium-210. [20] In 1983, NCAR radiochemist Ed Martell published a paper in which he experimentally calculated that smokers who die of lung cancer have been exposed to 80-100 rads (0.8 to 1 Gy) of radiation.[21] Former United States Surgeon General C. Everett Koop cited radioisotopes in cigarette smoke as being responsible for 90 percent of smoking-related deaths. [22]. The presence of radioactivity in cigarette smoke was used by Koop and other government officials to justify banning smoking from US-bound commercial airline flights. [23]

Other studies suggest there is no correlation between levels of radioisotopes and smoking-related cancers, noting there are not enough Polonium-210 compounds in cigarette smoke to significantly impact lung cancer in smokers. (Bogden et al., 1981; Hecht, 1999; Hecht 1999 is a review which cites [24]).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette


Obviously science isn't settled on this subject, but it is possible that a major part of the damages caused by cigarette smoke are due to the radioactivity it contains (radioactivity is in tobacco because of the industrial way it's grown).

 

[Guest]

Yeah I've heard that. Its the phosphate in the chemical fertilizer... its harvested from certain rock that has plutonium-210 or something in it. So if you put that to harvest your marijuana, your in the same predicament, I would imagine.

If you smoke organic, non-additive tobacco...than its possible your eliminating some of that stuff. But then, there is the issue of how the tobacco is cured, with various studies that don't seem to make sense. And then there's the issue of just plain ol' smoke in your lungs, causing bronchitis and such.

The Dr. of this book, isn't saying smoking is good... he's saying, in moderate use of tobacco, the benefits outweight the small risks. But its IN MODERATION.

 

[gnosis]

I was indeed speaking of the effects of intensive cigarette smoking. And Polonium 210 is also the substance which was used as a poison on that Russian agent in London a few weeks ago

 

[HeadyPete]

It's in the tobacco industry's interest to downplay every neg effect, including radioactive smokes. What do you think that would do to their bottom lines? What a
PR campaign...

Let's not even talk about the 1000s of other chems present in cig smoke, added there by the friendly neighborhood death merchant.

He says that ....... and even cigarette smoking is actually beneficial.

This I would never believe in a million years, sorry. Doctors are wrong sometimes. I looked at the good Dr. and he doesn't strike me as a tobacco industry apologist, but.....

 

[HeadyPete]

I was indeed speaking of the effects of intensive cigarette smoking. And Polonium 210 is also the substance which was used as a poison on that Russian agent in London a few weeks ago

 

[Guest]

Cannabis is not unhealthy inhaled if you vaporize it. I suggest the Volcano vaporizer. Best $500 I have ever spent, got it about a year ago and now I only smoke at parties. I used to cough up black crap out of my lungs every morning, that has disappeared and my lung capacity has expanded greatly. Don't get a cheap vaporizer, either. Those metal conduction type vapes don't work. The Volcano will knock you on your ass using half the herb you would normally smoke, and the taste is superior to smoke.

 

[HeadyPete]

hey planter, what do you think of those vapes that are the wooden box with the tube that you inhale through?

I just don't like the idea of walking around with a big plastic "balloon" sticking from my face.

 

[Guest]

The whip style vapes such as the Vapezilla and the Vapor bros work well too, but they are really only suited for personal use as they are difficult to "pass around" with friends. I was a bit skeptical about the bag system until I tried it, and now it is the method I prefer. The bag eliminates the loss of vapor that occurs with a whip and is easier (for me) to use. Some people claim the taste from a whip is better than a bag and that may be true for the first few tokes one takes, however the taste quickly turns to "popcorn" after the initial vapor is inhaled. The bag system "evens out" this effect, which means the entire bag tastes the same every hit. In this way I am able to avoid the "popcorn" taste. It is really about preference, but having used the Vapezilla, Vapor Bros and Volcano, the 'cano is my favorite by far.

 

[9Lives]

^^ I've never used one myself but the likes of aromazap and vaporbros is supposed to be the next best thing after the volcano.

I've seen nothing but good things about them from their owners..

And how bad is cannabis for your health...vaporizing or smoking its the least of your worries if you live in a big city..

 

[Haps]

Smoking or ingesting cannabis is healthy, not unhealthy. It prevents alzheimers, and inhibits tumor and cancer growth. I had lung problems, cronic bronchitis over and over again, living on inhalers and steriods. Then the wif kicked my ass out, and I moved out of chicago, and 6 months later - my lungs were better. It was the city that was killing me, not the cigars or weed. Cannabis is medicine.
H