Cannabis Contains More 'Tar' Than Tobacco...

So, pretty much everyone has heard something about how cannabis contains more 'tar' than tobacco...

which it does...

WHAT???

YES, on average, Cannabis Sativa subset Sativa/Indica as a whole plant contains more 'tar' than the tobacco plant...

But who the hell smokes a cannabis plant??

Most people smoke 'weed' or the buds of a flowering plant, not the whole plant.

The actual buds, that are smoked, only contain 33% as much 'tar' as finished tobacco product.

'Tar' simply refers to any insoluble (doesnt dissolve in water) biproducts in either tobacco or marijuana smoke. An entire cannabis plant containing more 'tar' than a tobacco plant is irrelevant to it's cancerous properties and promotes the misconception that smoking weed is worse than smoking cigarettes.

However, the reason tobacco 'tar' is considered a cancer-causing agent is because of the radioactive polonium 210 and lead 210 that it contains as a byproduct of growing tobacco with phosphorous that is rich in radium 226. Radium 226 breaks down into these two radioactive biproducts which are associated with 90% of all tobacco-related lung cancer.

----Polonium 210 has a half life of 138.38 days, produces 4215 times as much alpha radiation as Radium 226 -1- and, I gotta quote this part, "By mass, polonium is around 250 billion times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide (the oral LD[SUB]50[/SUB] for <SUP>210</SUP>Po is about 50 nanograms compared to about 250 milligrams for hydrogen cyanide<SUP class=reference id=_ref-24>[25]</SUP>)." -2-. Meaning that Polonium is lethal to 50% of a tested population at levels over 8 million times smaller than a tylenol pill.
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Wow, I hate the guy in those commercials, but really whudafxup??? And believe me, I really, really hate those truth commercials!


FUCKING WEIRDO MOTHAFUCKA

----The Truth about TheTruth.com: Anti-smoking ads promote smoking by schoolage children -4- and TheTruth.com is actually sponsored by US tobacco companies -5-. What the fuck's up wit that??
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Anyway, the insoluble 'tar' in tobacco smoke acts as a carrier of these two atoms and causes them to remain in the throat and lungs.

Also, nicotine, the active ingridient in tobacco smoke is not only a physically addictive stimulant, but it is also a bronchoconstrictor which is a substance that causes the "constriction of the airways in the lungs due to the tighting of surrounding smooth muscle, with consequent coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath." - Wikipedia

This constriction of the lungs by nicotine makes it even more difficult for the body to dispel of the tobacco 'tar' and effectively the cancer causing agents in tobacco smoke.

Now, back to the point at hand:

Marijuana smoke contains 'tar' (insoluble biproducts of smoke) as well, but contains just 1/3 as much 'tar' as tobacco and the 'tar' in marijuana smoke contains only traces of these or any other radioactive elements.

Now, this made me almost burst out laughing when I read it:

THC, the active ingredient in marijuana smoke, is an expectorant. It actually dilates the airways of the throat when it comes in contact with the walls of the throat. So THC actually promotes the expulsion of a noticeable percentage of, not just the non-radioactive marijuana 'tar', but also clears the upper and lower throat regions of mucus. Expectorants are an integral part of most cold medications today.

Some claim, although unproven, that THC (not marijuana), may be more effective than any cough medication currently on the market.

"Studies even show that due to marijuana's ability to clear the lungs of smog, pollutants, and cigarette smoke, it may actually reduce your risk of emphysema, bronchitis, and lung cancer. Smokers of cannabis have been shown to outlive non-
smokers in some areas by up to two years. Medium to heavy tobacco smokers will live seven to ten years longer if they also smoke marijuana." - Main Article, cited below.

Also, unlike Nicotine, THC is not physically addictive. Nicotine is highly addictive because it causes the downregulation of dopamine in the brain - 3-. This is why tobacco smokers may consume a pack or even more in a single day, while marijuana smokers, are not inclined to use nearly as much of the drug.

Even with the desire, the higher cost of the drug and it's narcotic (sleep inducing) properties inhibit chronic usage of the drug by most users. Even still, for chronic users, outside of intravenous usage, it is nearly impossible to consume but a fraction of the required dosage to achieve any physical danger.
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There's a lot more that I wanna write about the article, but I gotta go to sleep, you can read the article yourself.

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1. Untitled. Erowid Psychoactive Vaults: 08-12-2007. http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_health2.shtml. 04-24-2007

P.S.: I typed this all the way through and didn't bother to go back and proofread and add some stuff that I originally planned on including in the beginning... Just be intelligent, dont believe it cuz I wrote it; read the article, check its sources, find your own sources, compare them, then comment.

 

yea, thx for posts too.

 

thanks yall.

Oh, and Scapris, your sight is pretty sick! Keep it up!
+rep!

 

I read random ass articles about weed all the time, I even wrote the factual parts of the Wikipedia article on G-13. I rewrote the entire introduction and parts of the Urban Legends. (Took me like a month to find out the real truth about g-13, thought it was worth letting ppl know, hopefully its not common knowledge, haha)

I can tell ppl smoking weed isn't bad for as long as I want, but if I dont read and learn more about the shit, I would never have convinced myself.

Thanks ya'll.

Oh, here's the original article if you missed the link:

http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_health2.shtml

It's archived by Erowid.org Cannabis, which, from what I've read in the past week (which is a lot), I endorse a lot of their Cannabis material, though not all.

I haven't taken the time to check the rest of the Erowid site out (and probably wont), so I cant say anything about the site in general.

 

Down the line, definitely! I would love to.

At the moment, I'm having a hard time getting any free time outside of working 12 hours a day, sleeping and taking care of my grow.

Let me know tho if something comes up, I'll be more than happy to help.

-SG

 

That's gross, did it hurt?... ouch...

 

yea... weed contains tar, cigarettes contain tar. Just cause weed helps you by making you cough a little isnt gonna reduce the ammount of tar you're still ingesting. So doing one doesnt really help the other, just makes the problem a lot worse.