cannabis joints damage lungs more than tobacco, study says

[Heretic.Ape.]

*sniff, sniff* does it smell like some crazy UK campaign to grope for studies to show how bad pot is? I suppose articles like this wouldn't have made much splash-- they weren't in the middle of trying to upgrade the public opinion of the marijuana threat when this study (Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection, or go straight to the actual study here) was done!
h.a.

[top]Cannabis joints damage lungs more than tobacco - study

Ian Sample, science correspondent
Tuesday July 31, 2007
The Guardian

A single cannabis joint may cause as much damage to the lungs as five chain-smoked cigarettes, research has found. Medical examinations of cannabis and cigarette smokers found the drug increased specific lung problems, including obstructed airways and hyperinflation, a condition where too much air remains in the lungs when a person exhales.Smoking one cannabis joint caused damage equivalent to smoking 2.5 to five cigarettes in rapid succession, researchers at the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand found. Doctors who carried out the study believe the damage is linked to the difference in the way cannabis is usually smoked, with users inhaling hard, holding their breath for longer and failing to use filters.
The report follows a flurry of confessions from ministers who admitted having used the illegal drug and comes days after a review of cannabis research, published in the Lancet medical journal, revealed that cannabis use may be to blame for 800 cases of serious psychosis in Britain.
The scientists set out to investigate whether smoking cannabis put users at greater risk of developing emphysema, a progressive and potentially fatal lung disease.
A group of 339 volunteers aged 18 to 70 were divided into four groups according to whether they smoked only cannabis, only tobacco, both, or were non-smokers. Each volunteer was then subjected to lung function tests and x-ray scans of their chests to assess the level of damage to their lungs and airways.
In the study, published in the journal Thorax, all smokers complained of coughs and wheezing, while only tobacco smokers showed signs of emphysema. Coughing was reduced among people who smoked cannabis and tobacco, possibly because these people smoked pure cannabis joints and so less tobacco leaf.
The extent of lung damage was directly related to the number of joints smoked. "The most important finding was that one joint of cannabis was similar to 2.5 to five tobacco cigarettes in terms of causing airflow obstruction," the authors write. "This pattern is likely to relate to the different characteristics of the cannabis joint and the way in which it is smoked. Cannabis is usually smoked without a filter and to a shorter butt length, and the smoke is a higher temperature," they add.

[Kakkoii]

Yeah, Marijuana smoke is a lot hotter, and a stronger density of smoke is taken in each puff, due to no filter, and direct flame contact as apposed to the slow burn of embers in cigarettes.

Swim made the smart choice of buying a vaporizer when swim used to smoke marijuana, It aloud for bigger,easier, and safer hits.

[Heretic.Ape.]

shit, breathing damages your lungs. this will be used to further support anit-weed propaganda. Shall we make a law to hold your breath when walking through downtown?

Reputation Comments on this post:

makes me laugh

[Kakkoii]

Originally Posted by heretic.ape.

shit, breathing damages your lungs. this will be used to further support anit-weed propaganda. Shall we make a law to hold your breath when walking through downtown?

Well..Breathing is considered a normal part of life obviously tho. Smoking cigarettes or marijuana would be self inflicted acceleration of damage to you're lungs.

But I agree, I hate seeing news like this. Because Marijuana really needs to be legalized already.

[jcdjinn]

But people aren't doing the math. To get high you smoke way less weed than there is tobacco in a cigarette, especially if it's high grade weed. And tobacco smokers often smoke between 20 and 40 cig a day, while big time stoners blaze maybe 6 or 7 times a day, and most pot smokers only smoke just a couple times a day at most. And tobacco smokers smoke every day, for decades straight. Most stoners smoke only a small fraction of the amount of tobacco smoked by a nicotine addict. And high quality weed in a vaporizer or water bong is hardly bad at all.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	word
	Good points you bring up there.

[Kakkoii]

Originally Posted by jcdjinn

But people aren't doing the math. To get high you smoke way less weed than there is tobacco in a cigarette, especially if it's high grade weed. And tobacco smokers often smoke between 20 and 40 cig a day, while big time stoners blaze maybe 6 or 7 times a day, and most pot smokers only smoke just a couple times a day at most. And tobacco smokers smoke every day, for decades straight. Most stoners smoke only a small fraction of the amount of tobacco smoked by a nicotine addict. And high quality weed in a vaporizer or water bong is hardly bad at all.

Well, You're casual marijuana smoker will usually smoke 1 bowl a day on average, at most. Atleast in my area that's how it is. I don't know of any hardcore smokers who would smoke 7 joints a day lol. Unless you're weed is shitty and the high only lasts for an hour. Yeah, they really didn't take into account the average smoked amount of each substance per day.

Water Bong...Those actually aren't all they're cracked up to be. Yes, the water catches a SMALL fraction of the carcinogens, and helps cool the smoke a bit. But in doing so, you do loose thc, because the particles it captures, have thc mixed in them.

Vaporizer is the best way to go with smoking anything. Crack heads are smart enough to vaporize lol.


What about the study I saw along time ago, that had stated that marijuana contains almost no carcinogens, or cancer causing chemicals. That study would be enough to prove marijuana's safety.

[Hyperspaceblastoff]

i smoke a quater of Kush a day no freakin joke
thats seven years of the herbal life
u gotta have a lotta time and money on ur hands 2 live my lifestyle

Reputation Comments on this post:

You should really edit this post for swimming. Haven't you read the news section lately! L.E are a watchin, stay safe.

[Heretic.Ape.]

^ hyper: please edit for swimming, thanks

[MrG]

Apart from the fact that 99.9 percent of joints smoked by Kiwi's, Brits and most of Europe have tobacco in them remember one simple fact.

Smoking joints is bad for your lungs because every hit has Satan in it!

Smoke cigs, they are much better for you. Apparently. And legal. And taxed.

Mmm'kay?

Granny, come here a minute, I got some eggs and I wanna show you something.

[Alicia]

Originally Posted by MrG

Brits and most of Europe have tobacco in them remember one simple fact.

.

Thats very true and often over looked in these studies it does not include the use who use solely with out tobacco. personally joints jus waste weed much more better in a bong or pipe,bucket.

[Evil GIR]

When will it end ?

All I seem to hear about now is cannabis turns you in to a psycho, Cannabis give you lung disease, cannabis makes you worship the devil. Dont you think there going a bit over the top with the negative cannabis news.

If they do reclassify cannabis, I dont think its really going to make any diffrence to who smokes it, well unless you get caught.

[Alicia]

it would not be bad if they actually had something based on fact rather then fiction and old 60's take. Does not matter how much shit they talk, people believe it and go around citing off like its fact.

irritating isn't it.

[Heretic.Ape.]

I looked for the actual study in Thorax that the article is based on but they only have issues up to 2003 available electronically. If anyone happens to stumble on a copy it would be an appreciated addition to the archives.
This is a great opportunity for us to watch the manufacture of consent in action: the government decides what they want you to believe and then use their puppet media to mold your ideas. Watch carefully boys and girls!
In the words of the acclaimed propaganda enthusiast Edward Bernays "engineering consent... [is] the essence of the democratic process" !

[Nature Boy]

This study baffles me. It's a lot like someone saying getting a punch on the arm is more painful than getting a kick in the testicles. It's bloody obvious that it isn't, yet they always find a compelling way to spin their shit together.

Reputation Comments on this post:

LOL - Nice analogy.

[OccularFantasm]

Maybe I am misinterpreting something in this study, but doesn't this study disprove itself. It implies that cannabis doesn't cause emphazema, whereas tobacco does. then it says well were going to heat the weed up hotter because we need something to say in our study. I can't imagine tons of people smoke joints or blunts when their tiny. Everyone swim knows, swim included, puts the blunt in the carb of a bowl or in a bong after about 3/4 of the way. Also, I enjoy how they do not factor in people who smoke rollies. A great number of tobacco smokers roll their own cigarettes, most without filters.
I feel this would have been important data that was simply left out from the study. The addition of this would replace speculation in the study with an actual study, for the part about filters anyway. Also for every person smoking a hot bowl, theres someone smoking a corn cob pipe full of tobacco. Well it might not be a corn cob pipe, but c'mon, that'd be awesome.

[Kakkoii]

I pretty much ignore so called studies like this these days.

If you declared every study done in the world true.

Then almost every thing we eat and do will cause cancer and kill us early lol.
They're are always studies saying, oh this caused cancer.. Then a year later they say, ooh wait, we did a study again and it doesn't. And back and forth.

It's quite annoying, What are these studies? Just hypothesis's scientist's make up to get they're names in the papers and get a nice big cut of tax money?

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Nature Boy

This study baffles me. It's a lot like someone saying getting a punch on the arm is more painful than getting a kick in the testicles. It's bloody obvious that it isn't, yet they always find a compelling way to spin their shit together.

I'd think of it as the article saying that getting hit in the stomach once every so often hurts more than getting hit in the arm constantly day after day.

[Nature Boy]

Originally Posted by Bajeda

I'd think of it as the article saying that getting hit in the stomach once every so often hurts more than getting hit in the arm constantly day after day.

That would suggest that the occasional cannabis joint is far more damaging than the occasional cigarette however, and that's not true either. Smoking in general is harmful but commercial cigarette tobacco smoke is the pits when it comes to doing real damage.

[tayo]

They must not be taking into consideration the potential for nicotine to cause mutations(cancer) from just one inhalation. Since they didn't why don't they just say one unfiltered cigarette is as bad as 5 filtered cigarettes. It's just the amount of combusted material going into the lungs.

[Bajeda]

^^^^ The study seems to imply that, and that was what I was trying to say.

As to the veracity of the claims made, I don't have the time currently to do further research to find out. If you know of studies in this area please post them here (or request an upload in the Medline thread) so they can be compared to the one described in the article.

[darawk]

This is all irrelevant. The only reason cannabis joints are more harmful is because cannabis is illegal. If you could buy filtered marijuana cigarettes and people knew that holding in the smoke doesn't enhance absorption much, then joints would be no more harmful than cigarettes. Not to mention the fact that smoked marijuana is proven NOT to cause cancer, which certainly can't be said for cigarettes.

[Snipp]

Canabis has been shown to be incapable of causing lung cancer. For all the so-called negative ingredients in it, pot does not affect the small, peripheral airways of the lungs. Its not to say that weed smoking does not "affect" the lungs, (how could breathing in smoke not affect your lungs), but its damage doesn't appear to be statistically significant.

I have rather bad asthma, and taking a few hit of my pipe does actually clear my lungs. At least in this way, pot is healing my lungs, not damaging them.

[Heretic.Ape.]

@Snipp, please review the rules on self incrimination. You may also want to look into SWIM. Thanks, welcome to the forums.
h.a.

[Snipp]

Originally Posted by heretic.ape.

@Snipp, please review the rules on self incrimination. You may also want to look into SWIM. Thanks, welcome to the forums.
h.a.

Thanks, I was trying to search what swim meant, but it brought up a million pages!

[dre3k]

The fact that they got these scientist to do this study is a crime itself. Oh cigarettes cause less air obstruction. Tobacco kills people all year long. I'll smoke the joint!

Reputation Comments on this post:

reviving an old drug NEWS thread with pointless rambling