Uninformed Smokers

I don't know the exact hard facts of MJ, but from what I have heard and experienced with MJ, I have run into some smokers that have some surprising thoughts on MJ.

First, a lot of my friends smoke sheesha (sp?) (hookah).. From what I've read from multiple studies online, smoking sheesha is worse for your lungs than cigarettes.. I do not know if this is true but my friends do it all the time and when I told them this they did not believe it in the least..

Second, I have seen online a ton of places saying how MJ can help treat asthma. I have come to the conclusion that smoking MJ is safer for your lungs and body than cigarettes. Both short and long term..

Whenever I mention that to my friends, they don't believe it at all.

Now these friends are the ones that smoke MJ only some times, and I think it's because they think it is bad for them.. so that is why I bring up these topics around them..

They never believe any of it though and when I tell them to go research it themselves I know they never do because they never mention it again..

I think in terms of safety for lungs and body overall, the list from worst to safest goes cigarettes->sheesha->MJ.. That is what I think, at least. I'm in both good physical and mental health, smoking mainly MJ, sheesha maybe once a month, and never cigarettes.

 

Smoking IS bad for your health. One big myth is that "marijuana does not cause lung cancer". It does not have as many carcinogens as processed tobacco smoke, but ALL smoke has carcinogens as it is the product of combustion of an organic substance. If you burn something with carbon in it, it's not going to be good to inhale it. Even if smoke had no chemical carcinogens, it would still be an irritant and cause lung damage over time. As a lot of people mix tobacco with weed, that just adds more carcinogens and tar to your smoke.

Obviously, the above is not actually talking about weed, it's talking about SMOKE. INHALING ANY SMOKE IS BAD FOR YOUR LUNGS AND CIRCULATORY SYSTEM, PERIOD. Lucky for us, we can vaporize. The other good thing is that you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who smokes pot at the same rate as people smoke cigarettes. It takes me 3-4 good hits to get high, which is really pretty negligible in terms of negative effects on the lungs. Still, it IS bad to breathe in smoke in any form.

Marijuana is also known to affect the endocrine system and hormone levels, especially in males by inhibiting testosterone production. It's not a big concern unless you're an extremely heavy smoker, but it does happen. No, it won't make you impotent or infertile, and you probably don't notice any effects at all.

The jury's still out on long term effects on the brain. The studies being done seem to constantly be flip-flopping, so I ignore them until someone gets their act together and publishes some proven studies. It's pretty obvious a lot of these studies are fraudulent and have a heavy bias. Some sides will say marijuana will destroy your brain, other sides say it's 100% harmless - I find it hard to believe either of those. It MUST have some long-term effect on the nervous system, but science hasn't been studying it long enough to see what really happens to the brain of someone who smokes often and for many years of their life. In moderation, I don't believe it has any ill-effects.

Aside from that, there remains the obvious impairment (or improvement, haha) of your thought process while you are high. As someone who is concerned with safety, I don't advise doing anything potentially dangerous while using marijuana. Some people drive while high and do fine, but I highly advise against it. Do not operate any sort of machinery, don't play with guns, fire or knives, and don't go picking fights while high. That's my advice, but not everyone will follow that.

So apart from a few minor downsides, marijuana is quite harmless. The real danger of smoking pot comes from your own personality. Stupid people often do VERY stupid things while high, while typical people tend to act...well, typical. If you do stupid, dangerous things while sober, there's a good chance you'll do them while high with potentially bad results. Be responsible when you smoke, I think that's the number one rule anybody should follow.

 

Yes! One of my friends suprised me with her views the other day. We've smoked together two or three times, but she only smokes socially. When I was stoned the other day she mentioned it was bad for my health to do it so often. We got into a big debate about it, looking articles up online, etc. she thinks marijuana is addictive and will give you lung cancer and mental health problems.

My friend is a really smart person, which is why I was surprised she hadn't done more research. But her brains seem to be her problem - she thinks she can reason her way into a belief about marijuana. She said if you're inhaling so many chemicals, it's bound to be bad for your lungs and is therefore likely to lead to lung cancer. It's just makes sense.

But you can't use reason here, you have to look at scientific evidence!

Another of my friends said legal marijuana is marijuana without the "addictive chemical." He says THC is the addictive chemical. What?!

Maybe some people just like to think it's bad because that's what they've been taught and that's part of the thrill of it... I for one only do it because I really believe it's NOT detrimental to my health!

 

I think that with the decreasing use of cigarettes (just an assumption that it's decreasing) we will discover some marijuana-related cancer. I know a lot of people who smoke weed that refuse to smoke cigs and I'm sure you guys do too. I don't know whether there was lots of people doing this in the past, but as people are becoming more educated away from tobacco we might see weed-only people getting cancer.

Just a thought.

 

smoking hookah isn't as bad for you as cigarettes. it's filtered through water. not only that, if you're smoking it correctly, the tobacco is "roasting" instead of burning. releasing fewer of the toxins in tobacco and a very low amount of tar. you'll see studies that say one hookah session you inhale the equivalent of 40-100 cigarettes. i find it hard to believe considering there's a gram or less of tobacco in each hookah bowl. in addition, most of the studies you see about hookah are conducted by.. guess who.. cigarette companies.