Thanks a lot man. My health paper is going to be great. Here is what I have so far, rough draft, if anyone cares about my stupid health class paper, haha.
Letter to the Editor
What measures might effectively decrease the use of cigarettes by teens? Period 1
11-5-06
Tobacco kills 406,290 people annually in the United States. Illicit drug use, direct and indirect, kills 17,000 annually. Marijuana, however, has never directly killed a single human in its entire existence. When dealing with the public/teenagers and drugs, brute force does not work; there are too many users for the problem to be stopped. In my opinion, the best way to decrease the use of cigarettes amongst teens would be to educate them of the dangers of tobacco, safer alternatives/activities to do instead, and ways to get help with fighting addiction.
Cigarettes are the cause of 90% of lung cancer cases. Cigarette smoke produces hundreds of toxic and radioactive chemicals when burnt. A byproduct of smoking is black, sticky tar, deposited in the lungs of the smoker. Nicotine constricts the bronchial tubes, making it harder for the lungs to be cleaned. Tetrahydrocannabinal-9, or THC, is the main psychoactive substance in marijuana buds. Although anti drug speakers claim marijuana smoke contains more tar than cigarette smoke, the fact that THC has been proven to dilate the bronchial tubes is completely overlooked. In fact, medical marijuana is sometimes prescribed to asthma patients.
“Berkeley carcinogenic tar studies of the late 1970's concluded that "marijuana is one-and-a-half times as carcinogenic as tobacco." This finding was based solely on the tar content of cannabis leaves compared to that of tobacco, and did not take radioactivity into consideration. (Cannabis tars do not contain radioactive materials.) In addition, it was not
considered that: 1) Most marijuana smokers smoke the bud, not the leaf, of
the plant. The bud contains only 33% as much tar as tobacco. 2) Marijuana smokers do not smoke anywhere near as much as tobacco smokers, due to the psychoactive effects of cannabis. 3) Not one case of lung cancer has ever been successfully linked to marijuana use. 4) Cannabis, unlike tobacco, does not cause any narrowing of the small air passageways in the lungs.” -Brian S. Julin, (
http://forum.grasscity.com/general-m...ht=lung+cancer )
With this information in front of us, we must first find the reason why one would defy human instinct (Survival) and kill themselves by inhaling deadly smoke. Anti tobacco videos say that people smoke to be “cool”, but the psychoactive effects are not mentioned (Yes, nicotine is a highly addictive psychoactive substance). From conversation with smokers, it seems that the relaxation, satisfaction, and the “buzz” is what appealed to them in the first place, and keept them smoking. Some smoke because it is merely something to do; waiting at the bus stop can be transformed into a meditative break in the middle of a busy day. With these factors in mind, an obvious solution would be substituting the substances smoked while retaining relatively the same effects/properties. While I do not condone breaking the law, there are an overwhelming number of teenagers that already smoke marijuana, possibly in conjunction with cigarettes. If an advertising campaign were to educate the public of the pros and cons of each plant, people could possibly make an informed decision to stop smoking, or substitute their cigarettes with joints. One could roll 20 joints, put them in a cigarette pack, and enjoy all the same pleasures of cigarette smoking.