Bill Clinton, 42nd
United States President, famously, or infamously, confessed to having used
marijuana, but claimed that he never had inhaled its smoke. And Barack Obama, 44th President, all but
boasted of having binge smoked marijuana in cars and in a Volkswagen bus with the
windows shut tight, so that he and his friends could suck in every last whiff
of the burning “weed.” Only two
presidencies and marijuana already had gone from verboten to akzeptabel.
But this is not a
political blog. It is all about you. The scientific community still argues about
the extent to which cannabis is a health hazard. The people in the white coats will not answer
the question definitively any time soon because of the powerful lobbies for and
against marijuana.
Since most of what
I see in the popular press is pro-pot, let me adopt the anti-pot position. Most striking to me is the astounding fact
that many “highly educated” people whom I know or whose work I read, while vociferously
denouncing tobacco and its “profiteers” are most blasé, even supportive of,
marijuana sucking. It is as if they believe
that we have two sets of smoke-receiving lungs—one for tobacco and one for what
they casually call, “joint”. But who am
I to tell you about cannabis and tobacco? Rather, I should give you the
information that I have seen recently, and you will reach you own decision. I’ll mostly confine myself to two respiratory-relevant sources.
The first source is
Michael Greger, M.D. FACLM, a physician, who—among other professional
activities— has published scientific papers in, Family and Community Health, Critical
Reviews in Microbiology, the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition,
and Public Health, and the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, and who has
lectured to the National Institutes of Health, United States Congress, and Conference
on World Affairs. His opinion about cannabis
smoking is:
“There is unequivocal evidence
that habitual or regular marijuana smoking is not harmless and causes
respiratory symptoms and airway inflammation.” If you take biopsies from the
airways of those that smoke crack, cannabis, or tobacco, compared to
nonsmokers, there is significantly more damage in the lungs of crack smokers,
marijuana smokers, and tobacco smokers. And, the levels of damage seemed
comparable—especially between the marijuana smokers and tobacco smokers—which
is remarkable, since the tobacco smokers were smoking about a pack a day,
whereas the marijuana smokers were only smoking about 20 joints a week, rather
than 25 cigarettes a day. And those smoking crack were just doing a gram or two
a week. So, to see similar rates of damage between marijuana smokers and
cigarette smokers suggests each joint is way worse than each cigarette.” (2018)
The second source
comes to us from the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute of the University of
Washington (2018).
“Based on the current scientific
research, there is no definitively proven "safe" way of inhaling
marijuana (smoke or vapor).
Inhaling marijuana smoke in the
long-term is likely to result in damage to the respiratory tract.
Smoking both marijuana and
tobacco increases the risk of damage from both substances.
While marijuana smoke contains
carcinogens, research about the association between marijuana smoking and
cancer is limited and conflicting. The same is true for other lung-related
diseases.
Marijuana smoking does appear to increase cough, sputum production, airway inflammation, and wheeze.
Using a water pipe or bong does
nothing to reduce exposure to tar and carcinogens in marijuana smoke; using a
vaporizer may reduce the harm associated with smoking marijuana, however
vaporizers may carry their own risks and more research is needed.”
Please recall that
the aforementioned discussion is deliberately limited to a direct comparison of
the respiratory effects of cannabis versus tobacco. You, no doubt, have heard that marijuana also
has been implicated in a host of other unhealthful conditions, such as accelerated
heart rate, nausea, vomiting, and pregnancy risks. Neurological and psychological problems also
are common, such as: time distortion, mood change, in-coordination, confusion, memory
deficits, irritability, sleeplessness, anorexia, cravings, and anxiety.
Therefore, if you
plan to run for the United States Presidency or aspire to any other occupation,
I suggest that you think at least twice about whether to smoke pot, with or
without inhaling.
References
Gregor, M.
(2018). Effects of Smoking Marijuana on
the Lungs. https://drgreger.org/pages/about-us
University of
Washington (2018) Learn about
marijuana. http://adai.uw.edu/marijuana/factsheets/respiratoryeffects.htm
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