# Compared to cigarettes, is smoking weed bad for your health? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 11, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/compared-to-cigarettes-is-smoking-weed-bad-for-your-health/480755 "2009-01-11T03:13:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/compared-to-cigarettes-is-smoking-weed-bad-for-your-health/480755/41 "2009-01-14T18:04:13Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I will have to say that most of the _heavy_ pot-users I have known are useless couch potatoes. Hoever, that may be a “chicken or the egg” question.😛 Yeah. Fucking Bob Marley. Such a slacker. And Snoop Dogg, Jennifer Aniston, Louis Armstrong, James Brown, Paul McCartney, Norman Mailer, Johnny Cash, Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, Carl Sagan, Stephen King, Neil Young, George Washington, Oliver Stone, Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Feynman and John Lennon…[bunch of useless couch potatoes](http://frankdiscussion.netfirms.com/who_celebtokers.html) there. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/compared-to-cigarettes-is-smoking-weed-bad-for-your-health/480755/42 "2009-01-14T18:38:59Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Yeah. Fucking Bob Marley. Such a slacker. > > And Snoop Dogg, Jennifer Aniston, Louis Armstrong, James Brown, Paul McCartney, Norman Mailer, Johnny Cash, Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, Carl Sagan, Stephen King, Neil Young, George Washington, Oliver Stone, Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Feynman and John Lennonbunch of useless couch potatoes there. There’s a difference bewteen a casual toker and a heavy user. Just like there’s a difference bewteen a casual drinker and an alcholic (who is currently not sober). Most of the celebs you list were casual users. Look, there’s nothing wrong with being an occassional toker as I said; pot is no worse than booze. But booze can ruin your life too. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/compared-to-cigarettes-is-smoking-weed-bad-for-your-health/480755/43 "2009-01-14T19:22:03Z")
> [@outside\_artist](#): > > 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? Speaking personally, anecdotally, and **hypothetically** , if we did that sort of thing around here we’d recommend the one sold by VaporBrothers. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/compared-to-cigarettes-is-smoking-weed-bad-for-your-health/480755/44 "2009-01-14T19:25:19Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Yeah. Fucking Bob Marley. Such a slacker. > > And Snoop Dogg, Jennifer Aniston, Louis Armstrong, James Brown, Paul McCartney, Norman Mailer, Johnny Cash, Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, Carl Sagan, Stephen King, Neil Young, George Washington, Oliver Stone, Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Feynman and John Lennon…[bunch of useless couch potatoes](http://frankdiscussion.netfirms.com/who_celebtokers.html) there. Friedrich _Nietzsche_? Really? ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/compared-to-cigarettes-is-smoking-weed-bad-for-your-health/480755/45 "2009-01-14T19:38:57Z")
> [@DLuxN8R-13](#): > > Friedrich _Nietzsche_? Really? Really, how could he not? He went to a private boy’s school where he wrote (bad) poetry and studied music, and then theology and philology (classic Latin and Greek). He later stopped teaching to become an “independent philosopher” and writer. Does this not sound a stoner to you? 😃 But yes, he did apparently write, " “If a man wishes to rid himself of a feeling of unbearable oppression, he may have to take to Hashish,” in his autobiography, _Ecce Homo_, and is understood to have been a partaker himself for _ahem_ “health reasons”. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/compared-to-cigarettes-is-smoking-weed-bad-for-your-health/480755/46 "2009-01-14T20:27:20Z")
Take this all with a grain of salt. From my understanding, compared to smoking cigarettes, smoking weed is no worse for your health. If, that is, you’re looking at cancer rates, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, or other lung problems. However, there’s something to be said for the effect smoking weed has on your brain. SPECT scans (single photon emission computed tomography) show that chronic users have “overall decreased perfusion when compared to a non-using control group”\* as well as “decreased temporal lobe activity.” Comparing a control group of patients with ADD to a group of patients with ADD who also used marijuana, marijuana users were found to have less prefrontal cortex activity than the control (ADD patients already have a decrease in prefrontal cortex activity compared to non-ADD people) and decreased temporal lobe activity. Perfusion is the delivery of oxygen- and resource-rich arterial blood to a particular type of tissue. Brains need a lot of it. A decrease in perfusion to the brain could easily interfere with global cognition. As the prefrontal cortex governs what we consider to be “civilized behavior” by providing appropriate inhibitions, the ability to predict consequences, and the drive to anticipate and plan for the future, decreased prefrontal cortex activity is not good. The temporal lobes appear to play roles in integrating memory and emotion with our perception of self/reality as well as housing the centers for language. Again, decreased activity is a bad thing. This isn’t to say that every person who lights up a spliff is killing off chunks of their brain. Clearly, some people’s brains are more resilient to and tolerant of insults. Just as clearly, other people’s brains are less resilient. The trouble is, it’s really hard to tell which one your brain is until the damage is done. Me, my brain’s got enough problems as it is. I’ll skip the tobacco and the marijuana, thank you. - All information cited is taken from Dr. Daniel Amen’s book _Change Your Brain, Change Your Life_. Yes, it’s a self-help book. Yes, there are some controversies concerning Dr. Amen. I believe, however, that the information he’s derived from controlled comparisons of SPECT scans is valid. YMMV. IANAD. I picked the wrong week to give up sniffing glue. ---
**Author:** ![HumanMonkeyGod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c67d28/32.png) [@HumanMonkeyGod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HumanMonkeyGod)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/compared-to-cigarettes-is-smoking-weed-bad-for-your-health/480755/47 "2009-01-15T15:27:20Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Yeah. Fucking Bob Marley. Such a slacker. > > And Snoop Dogg, Jennifer Aniston, Louis Armstrong, James Brown, Paul McCartney, Norman Mailer, Johnny Cash, Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, Carl Sagan, Stephen King, Neil Young, George Washington, Oliver Stone, Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Feynman and John Lennon…[bunch of useless couch potatoes](http://frankdiscussion.netfirms.com/who_celebtokers.html) there. not sure how, but that list doesn’t seem to have Joe Rogan - one of my personal favorite dudes all-around, and fairly outspoken as far as mj support. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/compared-to-cigarettes-is-smoking-weed-bad-for-your-health/480755.md?page=2)