Is cannabis actually healthy?

Great Debates
1

I would say that this board sways heavily towards a liberal/evidence based attitude towards cannabis and drugs in general, so I expect some objective and balanced reasoning. Basically my question is: Is cannabis actually healthy? And if so, what should be done (if anything)?

I share the view presented by most scientist today that legalisation and decriminalisation is a more effective way of countering drug problems than prohibition, and that either way cannabis is not a very dangerous drug. But when doing some research because of another debate, I stumbled on an interesting fact(?):

**Obesity is significantly lower in cannabis user than in the average population, even after being adjusted for other factors. **Cite

Now since obesity is such a major health issue (costing the US $147 Billion per year cite ), it seems plausible that you could make the case that cannabis is an overall positive contributor to public health. Especially if you add in the supposed medicinal effects on a variety of other diseases.

So could we end up with the conclusion that cannabis is not just a relatively “safe” recreational drug, but actually something healthy? And if so, does that mean we should treat it more like vitamins than like alcohol or other drugs?

It seems to have no significant adverse mental or psychological effects:

It doesn’t seem to have any bad pshysical effects at all:

Oddly enough it doesn’t even mess up your lungs, like you’d think it does:

So while I started out just looking for evidence that cannabis isn’t as dangerous as some people think, I ended up with a bunch of stuff indicating it’s might even be good for you. Should we be encouraging people to smoke weed and feel bad about not doing it ourselves? Doesn’t that sound like something you’d have to be high to come up with?

2

I have a couple of mild disagreements with some of your assertions/assumptions, and a few assertions/assumptions of my own.

First, I think what we’re really talking about is occasional or very moderate use. Too much of anything will cause problems. If you stick to that level of use alcohol is arguably healthy as well, as low level use of beer and wine have some benefits provided you don’t do something stupid like drink sufficiently to become intoxicated then attempt to drive or perform other tasks with diminished reaction times and judgement could be a bad thing.

And that’s my first disagreement - pot DOES alter one’s judgement and reactions and thus I would say that mixing pot use with driving or other such activity is probably not a good idea, as it would increase the risk of accidents.

Second, no doubt there are some people who have medical conditions that might be aggravated by pot use. Asthmatics, for example, probably should not be smoking anything (although alternate routes of administration may be fine). Really, I find the notion that inhaling smoke of any sort could be innocuous is bizarre, it might be better to say that pot smoke is less harmful than some other types of smoke

Third, although the effects on memory and learning are not large they actually are present. Thus, for marginal students, people with other sorts of memory impairment, and the like adding pot to the mix may not be a good idea.

And finally, I’ve noted that some people really do over use pot. Right now, I’m dealing with someone who, instead of dealing directly with problems in their life, is retreating into a haze of pot which comes under abuse in my book - the money spent on the drug is affecting her ability to meet her financial obligations in life, she’s not fixing what’s wrong, and everything is going to hell as she mellows out from dawn to bedtime. So while pot may be relatively harmless it is still possible to use it to help screw up your life. That’s not a problem inherent to pot, she could just as easily be drinking her problems away, or compulsively gambling, or whatever, but the point is that people can get into trouble using it beyond just the legal issues of a banned (in most places) drug.

But yes, for the majority of healthy adults using pot is probably about as awful and drinking coffee or having wine with dinner.

3

More recent research has indicated that there is a link between cannabis use and psychosis. It’s not clear at this point if cannabis in fact causes psychosis or if there is some other relationship at work, but if someone has a family history of schizophrenia or anything else like that then I would say that it’s an especially bad idea to use pot.

4

i would say over the population it will be a good outcome.the come down of it is about a million times better than alcohol.
and it is my theory that the law of it beening ilegal causes the psychosis.
what would happen if it wasnt ilegal is fear (not psychosis)and that is normal and would not lead to psychosis.fear also controls use to some extent.

5

It probably depends a lot on the user, as with any drug. My wife tried some and nearly died because she has asthma. A co-worker of mine who had a past murder conviction would smoke it and get really irrational, paranoid, and violent, like a mean drunk.

So I guess it’s fine to smoke pot if you do it a little bit and you’re a well balanced, healthy person. Contraindications would be asthma or any mental illness.

6

The question is nonsensical, if you take a pharmacological approach. There’s nothing inherently “healthy” about any sort of medication. Medications have effects on your health, that doesn’t mean the medication *itself can be called healthy or unhealthy. It would just be contraindicated for your condition. And whether the effect a medication has is good or bad depends on your existing health problems. A blood-thinner would have a positive effect on your health if you had a pulmonary embolism. The same blood-thinner would have a negative effect on your health if you had hemophilia. But it doesn’t make any sense to say that the blood-thinners themselves are healthy or unhealthy. You can’t evaluate a drug’s healthiness independently of the patient for whom it’s prescribed.

Cannabis is a more complicated drug than blood-thinners, of course. Because it affects mental health, and we haven’t advanced our understanding of psychology beyond the beginner’s level, it’s difficult to say exactly when cannabis use is contraindicated. If you have existing psychosis, maybe you should avoid it. If it makes you paranoid and unhappy, you should definitely avoid it. If you’re depressed, it might help lift you out of the fog–or it might just make you feel really lazy and ignore your problems. If you have anxiety, it might decrease your anxiety–or it might make you have a panic attack. If you’re mentally-healthy, it’ll probably make you feel pretty good, but won’t necessarily have any positive effects since you don’t have a health problem in the first place.

Because we understand so little about the mind (as opposed to the cardiovascular system), it’s really difficult to know how cannabis will affect a person before they actually try it. But again, that doesn’t make the drug itself healthy or unhealthy. It’s just a drug, a means to an end.

*with exceptions for things that are universally poisonous/deadly to humans, of course

7

!!! That seems [munch] very counterintuitive!

8

According to RationalWiki, you might want to be careful with the stuff if you’re a teenager:

9

Define healthy. There are plenty of things that can either improve or degrade health depending on the circumstances.

10

I’m in the moderate to heavy category when it comes to marijuana use. And I believe its use is not for everyone. Pot effects different people in vastly different ways. Even different strains will effect the same person differently. Not everyone has a pleasant experience while on weed.

PSA:
If you are under a Doctors care for any reason be sure to let them know of any use of marijuana use.

11

um… what? You feel that some people are insane because pot is illegal?

12

It didn’t occur to her, having asthma, to try it in food, or tea, or a tincture, or an inhaler? I interviewed the owners of a medical marijuana dispensary for a newspaper article a few years ago, and they offered a staggering (heh!) number of ways to use cannabis without setting it on fire and sucking it into your lungs.

13

Someone with asthma probably shouldn’t use it with an inhaler either. Really, if you have asthma you want to avoid getting stuff in your lungs that isn’t there with normal lung use.

14

A very simple example is someone takes cannibis and can not tell there parents.over time this creates problems.
they should beable to tell there parents and they know this.this creates a hidden area with in themselfs a sperate state that becomes confusing to the person.if it goes on long enough it can turn into schizophrenia.
if there is no law they can tell who ever they want.and the difficult feeling you can get with cannibis are fear of death.that is normal with mind altering drugs.but shouldnt lead to schizophrenia.It will lead you to whether you really want to do it.or not.

15

Does cannabis use lead to the inability to capitalize and poor sentence construction as well?

I understand what you’re saying but your presentation is poor enough that it detracts from the credibility of your opinion.

Also - I don’t think hiding something from your parents causes schizophrenia, or any other mental illness. I’ve hidden lots of things from my parents, most of them not being their business anyway, and I’ve yet to go crazy from it.

16

I started smoking dope when it was decriminalized in California in 1976. Let’s just say, anecdotal evidence, I’ve never seen someone injesting cannabis on a regular basis get smarter, stronger, achieve superhuman powers, etc. In fact, anecdotal evidence suggests the opposite. YMMV.

17

i went to a party.then i smoked a chillum/pipe.walked up the stairs met a girl talked ,then i thought she was conected with the poilce.then for a period of time after this(at party) other things are starting to become more like a plot set to catch dope smokers it is very worrying and annoying(it is a illusion).this has created a pattern in the mind/brian/thoughts, that will happen again uder the influnce.then it starts to happen when i am at home i think strange/police people are outside coming to get me.this pattern gets trigged more and more and grows some how.this is all being created by the law.
in the end this will lead to schizophrenia.if you get rid of the law this will not happen atall,you will get fear of dying that is all.or fear of the effects it has on your body.all thoughts of this nature should beable to be expressed to anyone (not just some people)without fear of law.

18

I must really be doing it wrong.

19

Dude, if you seriously think carrying secrets of having broken the law makes people schizophrenic… then we’re all nuts.

20

I think he’s doing it now.