Health issues of cannabis smoking

2009.04.08

Smoking is one of the most spread methods of cannabis introducing. Now making joints of weed seem to be a part of cannabis culture, actually, there is a clear link between words “marijuana” and “join” in the mind of the society. However, smoking is the most harmful way of using cannabis. We all know that smoke consists of micro particles of a burned material. That is how an active element of cannabis gets into our body. But that plant material is still a stranger to human organism, it consists of lot's of elements other than THC. The health issues caused by this fact will be discussed in this article. We will discuss only the issues that are common for the process of smoking, without mentioning the problems that may be caused by using marijuana in all ways. I mean that no side effects of recreational usage of cannabis will be discussed. Perhaps, because they have not been reliably proven.

Recent studies have shown that cannabis smoke is more dangerous than tobacco smoke. There are several reasons for this. First of all, the most common way of smoking tobacco is using a cigarette with filter that absorbs some harmful elements. I think we cannot find a joint with filter anywhere in the world. Marijuana smoke has 20 times more ammonia than tobacco smoke. Ammonia is extremely toxic for respiratory system. However, it does not cause cancer whereas some components of tobacco smoke do. There have been a lot of researches trying to prove a direct connection between lung cancer and cannabis smoking, but all of them have failed. Some scientists believe that there are components of marijuana smoke that can actually be used to treat breast cancer.

There is another side effect. In many countries bongs for illegal smoking are made of plastic bottles. During the smoking process the fire melts plastic and extremely toxic chemicals appear in the air, mix with cannabis smoke and get into the lungs. Those elements are proved to cause cancer and a large range of other disease. The water that is used to filter and cool the smoke does some part of the job, but of course, not all. And do not forget, that the process of smoking weed means trying to inhale as much as possible for getting more high and spending less precious material. That also leads to inhaling more harmful particles too. The joints that are made usually contain paper – as a form. Inhaling the smoke of paper will not do one's lungs any better.

Having studied the health issues of cannabis smoking we may conclude that for more reliable and less risky cannabis experience it is better to advise either to eat the weed and it's products, or use vaporization that helps to get rid of more than 40% of harmful chemicals. The meaning of the process of vaporization is actually trying to get a gas form of THC that will be inhaled directly by the smoker, without any other harmful and useless particles.