Marijuana Damage = not alot

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Marijuana smoke may not be as bad as propoganda made many of you believe.Read THIS.http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_health2.shtmlHeres just some highlightsStudies 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 alsosmoke marijuana. Cannabis is also radically different from tobacco in that itdoes not contain nicotine and is not addictive. The psychoactiveingredient in marijuana, THC, has been accused of causing brain and genetic damage, but these studies have all been disproven. In fact, the DEA's own Administrative Law Judge Francis Young hasdeclared that "marijuana in its natural form is far safer than many foods we commonly consume."Many people think smoking marijuana is just as harmful as smoking tobacco, but this is not true. Those who hold that marijuana is equivalent to tobacco are misinformed. Due to the efforts of various federal agencies to discourage use of marijuana in the 1970's the government, in a fit of "reefer madness," conducted several biased studies designed to return results that would equate marijuana smoking with tobacco smoking,or worse. For example the 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 thetar content of cannabis leaves compared to that of tobacco, and did not take radioactivity into consideration. (Cannabis tars donot 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 ofthe small air passageways in the lungs. In fact, marijuana has been shown to be an expectorant and actually dilates the air channels it comes in contact with. Thisis why many asthma sufferers look to marijuana to provide relief. Doctors have postulated that marijuana may, in this respect, be more effective than all of the prescription drugs on the market.

Ok I don't really care about Marijuana, that much. And I'm not against people using it. But I am a little worried about people thinking it is safe. I knew a friend of a friend who smoked it for 7 years and he died because it toxicated his lungs. He got to the point before he died where he couldn't manage to walk up the stairs or do any everday things like walk to the bus stop, goto the shops and even speak clearly. I'm not saying this will be the same for everyone. But just be a little careful, don't jump on the 'let's all smoke it as much as we want bandwagon' just yet. Although they post these scientific facts about how it's actually not that bad. They fail to answer the many other things that have happened to many people that have used it. Like I said if you want to use it, use it. I'm not against anyone using it, just be careful.Also remember; sometimes too much of something can be bad for you!Classic examples can be: Money, cigarettes, sugar, cocain, food and many more.

The thing is that tabacco has more consistant effects than marijuana.It can really fuck you up if your one of the unfortunate ones in the minority who the phycoactive effects cause long term damage. My dads mate works in one of Her Majestys prisons and has seen what this drug and others can do to people. The risks are relitivly small but still risks. I also think that the website in question is a bit biased.Salvia is legal in the UK and has stronger phycological effects. It can really fuck with your head but since theres no proven link to it since its still a fairly new drug you can use it legally.Also here, Marijuana is nearly legal, you wont get in trouble if caught using it or whatever, as long as you do it in your own home and away from schools etc its acceptable.It also has benificial effects with certain illnesses too. And if The Neatherlands think its ok, why doesen't the rest of the world?

http://www.ukcia.org/research/EffectsOfMarijuanaOnLungAndImmuneDefenses.htmlhttp://gopher.chem.wayne.edu/~bio340/StudentPages/Hines/HTML_new.htmlhttp://www.mediacampaign.com/marijuana/Strategizer.pdfRead that. Marijuana does horrible things to your body. While I cannot say for sure if Marijuana use is linked to lung cancer or emphesema, it is linked to NUMEROUS other health complications that make it very harmful to your body. The main difference between tobacco smokers and marijuana smokers is the difference of how many cigarrettes or "joints" smoked per day. On average, a tobacco smoker will smoke roughly 15-20 cigarrettes daily, while marijuana smokers will only have about 3-4 joints. That is the major reason for the rapid progressive effects of tobacco, and in NO WAY whatsoever is marijuana GOOD for you. Max, there aren't really "beneficial" effects of marijuana on people suffering with disease. The only reason why marijuana is EVER prescribed, is because the pain the person feels is so intense that only a mild psychoactive ingredient can relieve it. I'm not sure where people are getting the idea that cannibis is good for you, but its a load of crap.Oh yea, and yes, marijuana is addictive. And it doesn't help asthma either...

Hey, Love all your govt linked websites. You fucking moron. Its pointless to continue to argue. My aunt has been using marijuana since her teenage years... She is doing great now.. She did have a period where she was broke, but that was because she was hurt at work, and it takes forever to get disability.. She now uses it as medical marijuana... She is doing great.. Almost 50... Just as healthy as ever... ( minus back problems.. but shit happens when you fall off a ladder.. and a car rear ends you )

In reply to: Its pointless to continue to argue. My aunt has been using marijuana since her teenage years... She is doing great now.. She did have a period where she was broke, but that was because she was hurt at work, and it takes forever to get disability.. She now uses it as medical marijuana... She is doing great.. Almost 50... Just as healthy as ever... ( minus back problems.. but shit happens when you fall off a ladder.. and a car rear ends you ) and i'm sure some people have grandma's that have smoked every day and drank alcohol everyday, and are still alive.but the general trend of people that smoke and drink everyday wont be that they live just as long as healthier peoplesome people are lucky, some are notwanna take a risk with it in your life???

Actually Erowid is a very unbiased reliable source of information. They want to give you the facts, not just get everyone to smoke. I don't know if you've ever even looked at the site before, because it talks about the harmful effects of everything and warns people away from doing many things.Btw, government sites are pure bullshit. I know many people who have been smoking weed for countless years and are doing fine. Did you even read some of the articles? On the other hand, rats exposed for 1 year to increasing doses of marijuana smoke failed to demonstrate any anatomic or functional evidence of emphysema, whereas such evidence was apparent in tobacco-exposed rats (Huber and Mahajan 1988). They talk about how everything is "supposedly" dangerous and then the experiments always show the contrary.Early human studies yielded mixed results: some reported an association between regular marijuana use and chronic bronchitis and emphysema (Chopra 1973; Hall 1975), while others failed to find such a relationship (Boulougouris et al. 1976; Rubin and Comitas 1975). These studies may be criticized because of deficiencies in experimental design, including (1) failure to control for the important confounding variable of tobacco, (2) only small numbers of participants, and (3) probable selection biases. Wow so wait, weed didnt harm all of them and the ones that it did give bronchitis and emphysema to may have been smoking tobacco?Recently, a longitudinal analysis of the lung function results obtained in Los Angeles (Tashkin et al. 1997) revealed an accelerated rate of decline in lung function with age (as is characteristic of tobacco smokers who are destined to develop symptomatic COPD) in the tobacco-smoking participants but failed to find such an effect in the marijuana smokers. The mixed findings from these two studies leave open the question as to whether habitual smoking of marijuana, in the absence of tobacco, can lead to COPD. Wait, earlier it talked about how it did lead to COPD but now its saying it doesnt know. Who wrote this guide? I could go on and on. I'm not trying to say smoking marijuana is GOOD for you, because I know it is unhealthy, im just trying to point out that it is much better for you than cigarets.

First of all, if you paid any attention to any of those links, you would notice that they are all RESEARCH links, and not government links. Secondly, there are plenty of people in the world who just get lucky and never get symptoms or complications from using things like alcohol and smoking. Next, medical marijuana is NOT in any way the same as normal dope. Theres a big difference between the two, and if you wanna say that its okay to use marijuana since they use it as an ingredient for medical purposes, then maybe you want to do opium and cocaine, as both ingredients are found in medicines. It all depends on how you combine them, the dosage, and what it is used for. You can try to tell people that marijuana is good for you, or even that it is harmless, but it is by far a very very bad drug for your body. And that isn't to say that I'm promoting smoking either, as I think thats a horrible habit as well.Finally, don't ever curse at me again. All it does is make you look stupid and make your point even less valid. So yea, for you, its pointless to argue. Marijuana = Bad . Its that simple. And by the way, weed is not better for you than cigarretes. Its the fact that people inhale more cigarretes daily that makes them more deadly. They both have roughly the same amount of carcinogens and damaging properties in them. Don't try to use the excuse of "I have friends that smoke for years" or whatnot, because I 'had' friends that smoked and they aren't doing so well, and even if you asked them, or worse if you smoked too, you wouldn't notice any big change and they wouldn't say, "Man this is messing me up." You talk about articles and what people are saying, but if I got me and roughly 100 people in my school to write articles about how cocaine is good for you I guarantee people will believe that load of crap too.

Im havin me a toke and a cig after all that info, to live forever is a farse.

sighes what a good influence. heh.

Um, lemme just re copy what I wrote earlier........I'm not trying to say smoking marijuana is GOOD for you, because I know it is unhealthy, im just trying to point out that it is much better for you than cigarets.

But thats where you're wrong. Its not MUCH better for you, if any better at all. Granted, cigarettes aren't good for you either, but that doesn't make marijuana better. As I said earlier, the main reason why cigarettes have more complications that are reported are: a)it is legal to smoke cigarettes so people are more inclined to go to the doctor when something's wrong, and b)people smoke WAY more cigarettes daily than people smoke weed. I'm sure that had weed been legal and people smoked more of it daily, complications due to it would increase dramatically.

I love all these people that are like, NO YOUR WRONG! Weed is just as bad as cigaretts because I SAID SO!!! Why dont you fucking link to some factual guides that state the same thing you are. So far I have showed you more proof than you have showed me, which is as of now, a total of 0.Btw, smoking has now cured my friends asthma at least when he smokes, for whoever said smoking definately doesnt help asthma. Wow for some reason these guides that I posted are comming out to be true, and all of this nonsense you guys are saying is just crap you have heard over the years of your life and you have taken to believing.

Why is it that "WE" are arguing over which is better for you? Does it matter that much?Is it that important to let teens know that ciggs are worse than Pot? I dont think so.They both are nasty habits,and both "CAN" cause problems.

I will make things quite simple. First of all, smoking weed does not cure asthma. I don't care what you say or anything. Secondly, for you to say I haven't provided factual links is absolute bull****, as I have linked to three research studies (which by the way aren't linked to the government so you can't use that excuse). Lastly, I'm not trying to say that cigarettes are better than weed, or vice versa. I am merely saying that marijuana is extremely harmful to your body, and the link that was provided in the start of this thread tries to prove otherwise. Marijuana = Toxic and Dangerous for your body, end of story. If you have a reply to this, you're just reiterating the same crap that was said before. Like I said, Marijuana = Bad, and there's nothing that anyone can say to disprove that. Oh yea, sunnysunshine, I never was arguing that cigarettes were better. In fact, in every post I was arguing that they are both equally harmful...

The HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL MENTAL HEALTH LETTER reports the findings of other major cannabis studies:In three major studies conducted in Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Greece, researchers have compared heavy long-term cannabis users with non-users and found no evidence of intellectual or neurological damage, no changes in personality, and no loss of the will to work or participate in society. The Jamaican study states that, even as cannabis use in Jamaica "is pervasive" and is used "in heavier quantities with greater THC potency than in the U.S.," its use is "without deleterious social or psychological consequences." The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report (1894): an exhaustive seven-volume, 3,281-page report that concludes: "Moderate [cannabis] use produces practically no ill effects." The journal PHARMACOLOGICAL REVIEWS reports that decades of research prove that, "Compared with legal drugs...marijuana does not pose greater risks." Yet based upon mortality statistics, we can safely conclude that cannabis is one of the safest medical drugs known, for, while prescription drugs, defined as safe by the FDA, kill up to 27,000 and aspirin up to 1,000 Americans per year, cannabis kills 0 per yearConclusion:Not only does the best scientific research overwhelmingly confirm that cannabis is both an effective medicine and a safe drug, but that it may be both chemo-preventive and therapeutic and generally beneficial to health. What this shows us most clearly, in light of the consensus to the contrary, is the enormous power of a Big Lie.http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_medical_info2.shtml

You don't have to smoke weed, it can be eaten or vaporized

I guess not a lot of people on here have been taught how cite internet sources. I can see the affects of weed right now.

What?Thanks Fab, I still believe whole heartedly that marijuana is not extremely damaging or bad for the body. After reading all of these guides, and everything how can you people still think it is so insanely bad for you?And you are right, you can eat and vapo it. I actually have a vapo that I bought so I wouldnt get the non-carcinogenic tar in my lungs.

Tell this girl I know weed isn't bad. She's had 2 miscarriages.