And does it matter you roll a joint, smoke out of a pipe, bong, etc.?
I know someone will come in with the tar & other Bad Stuff statistics, but I can tell you that filtering smoke through water (hookah or bong) does cut down on the Bad Stuff, compared to the raw smoke through a joint.
At least, that’s what I remember when I was justifying my bong purchases…
No cite available, but I’ve commonly heard that marijuana smoke is 2-5 times more carcinogenic than cigarette smoke. However, most pot smokers don’t smoke 20+ joints per day (well, maybe Bob Marley did) so they intake fewer carcinogens per day than typical cigarette smokers.
I imagine also that it’s hard to get detailed statistics on this—“Hey, we want to get people to smoke a bunch of weed every day for at least a decade to see the long-term effects. Is that okay?”
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
It may not be as bad for you, but generally speaking people don’t toke on a cigarette and leave the smoke in their lungs. Marijuana smokers tend to hold the stuff in until they turn blue. That can’t be good for you either.
Also, why do anti-pot ads almost never mention this, concentrating mainly on the dangers of behavior influenced by the psychological effects and “weed with its roots in Hell!” type stuff? I mean, all they would have to say is “it’s like smoking, but worse” and the message would be a lot more effective (plus they could take advantage of the anti-smoking advertising dollars by proxy).
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
Because it’s more dramatic and scary to show two unsupervised kids getting high and accidentally shooting themselves with Daddy’s gun.
“Marijuana - it’s the thinking man’s cigarette”
Dave Van Ronk - Talking Cancer Blues
The general consensus on pot smoke is that it tends to contain more carcinogens than cigarette smoke (unless filtered through water, as mentioned above), but that’s ameliorated somewhat by far less consumption (people don’t, nay, can’t smoke weed like they smoke cigarettes), and THC itself has antitumor properties, to the point where pot smokers don’t show any greater incidence of lung cancer than nonsmokers (cite).
As long as it is illegal, the question will not be answered definitively. Better to throw them all in prison.
Cannabis also lacks the forty-leven various additives, addictives, and preservatives that tobacco has. There’s also the fact that it tends to be self-limiting. There are not many people who can smoke a “half pack” of cannabis per day. As people age, the ability to enjoy cannabis often dwindles whereas tobacco users just keep puffing.
That last bit is anecdotal, but it’s firsthand as well as confirmed by a number of people I know. The older I get, the more uncomfortable and un-fun it has gotten to smoke, to the point where I partake less than once a year (to see hopefully whether the situation has changed, which it never does).
WWWNS? What would Willy Nelson Say?
On a similar note, does anyone have any statistics regarding ingesting weed as opposed to smoking it? Is it a safer way of using the drug, does it cause one to build up a tolerance more quickly, is it bad for the bowel, etc…?
I noticed no one’s mentioned vaporizers yet. With those you eliminate almost all the lung-related problems with smoking weed.
Vaporizer
Quote:
Rather than burning the herb, which produces irritating, toxic, and carcinogenic by-products, a vaporizer heats the material in a controlled manner so that the active compounds contained in the plant boil off into a vapor. The vapor ideally contains virtually zero particulate matter or tar, and significantly lower concentrations of noxious gases such as carbon monoxide.
That might be because it’s not worst than smoking. The psychological effects are also not as bad as the ones from alcohol.
Does anyone know of a good quality vaporizer? There are so many of them and I have never heard of that method until now. I went to a few sites but which one to buy?
I happen to know that a brand new HerbalAire 2.1 received just three days ago is killer.
I’m so happy with it I registered just to say that. :smack:
Back to my cave for another three years…
Marijuana may make you crazy.
Erm, correlation doesn’t equal causation. It’s odd that no where in that site did it mention that perhaps people with a predisposition for schizophrenia may be more drawn to smoking marijuana. That seems like a rather odd omission.