Which Is Worse - Marijuana or Tobacco Smoke?
Friday, 7 August, 2009 - 04:02 PM
Despite the beliefs of those who consider marijuana less harmful, Canadian researchers found that smoking marijuana, like smoking tobacco, promotes cell damage. In fact, marijuana smoke has more toxic effects on cells than tobacco smoke does.
Tobacco smoke, however, does cause more chromosomal damage, but this study demonstrates the growing evidence for the danger of what some consider a 'natural' product. Benign? Hardly.
Comments
You were saying??
I know a couple sentences riddled with hearsay on a blog is concrete proof to prohibitionists, but maybe those of us in the fact-based world would like to take a look at what an actual, population-based study has to say on the matter.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19679602
"Cumulative cannabis use was associated with higher forced vital capacity, total lung capacity, functional residual capacity, and residual volume. Cannabis was also associated with higher airways resistance but not with forced expiratory volume in 1 second, forced expiratory ratio, or transfer factor. These findings were similar amongst those who did not smoke tobacco."
"By contrast, tobacco use was associated with lower forced expiratory volume in 1 second, lower forced expiratory ratio, lower transfer factor, and higher static lung volumes, but not with airways resistance. Cannabis appears to have different effects on lung function to those of tobacco."
It's almost uncanny how when you guys spout off with unfounded claims (to try to distract from the failure of prohibition), a real world study emerges that demonstrates the exact opposite. When you combine this study with the fact that there has never been a death caused soley by marijuana use; there is clear proof that marijuana smoke is in fact NOT as toxic as tobacco smoke. I assume a retraction of this fictional statement will be forthcoming?
My truth behind marijuana!!!
I grow up believing that marijuana was bad for you. The first time i saw marijuana was when i was in High School where marijuana was easier to get then tobacco and alcohol. I tried it once when i was 17 didn't like it. I am now a senior in college and i used it occasionally for recreational purposes. Never hurt anybody, as i've seen many times at parties from alcohol. Never hurt myself from smoking. About a year ago i was diagnosed with Chron's, and i suffered from sever stomach pains, nausea, frequent visits to the bathroom to name the least. After suffering for month i realized the times i smoked i felt better. It helped relieve all these symptoms including my in ability to eat that caused me to lose 30lbs where i only weighed 120lbs I'm 5'7'' and 24 yrs old. I am now a daily user who depends on marijuana just as much as i depend on other medications to help alleviate my symptoms. I am also much more relaxed and calm when i smoke, and i've seen an increase in my college GPA (and I'm a senior now all 400 level classes). You told us that Marijuana is toxic and is worse then tobacco with no proof!!!! Well here are some benefits of marijuana:
1. Pain Relief - http://www.pnas.org.ezproxy.library.unlv.edu/content/100/18/10529.full
2. Marijuana based drug for Osteoporosis - http://www.israel21c.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53...
3. Anti-cancer drug from marijuana
http://www.israel21c.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11...
These are a very very small portion of articles and research showing the positive benefits of marijuana.
If you really cared you would save people from the harmful effects of alcohol and Tabasco where in Russia 1,000,000 DIE EVERY YEAR 430,000 DIE FROM TOBACCO IN THE US.
So how many people does marijuana kill - 0 (No hospital or university has ever ruled marijuana as a cause of death.
What's wrong with Tabasco?
While I support your desire to educate the DFAF and its visitors on the truth about Cannabis, I was wondering why you have a problem with Tabasco? They come from a plant just like cannabis... and can you say "delicious hot sauce?"
I'm just saying... don't pick on hot sauce....
Come on, the DFAF could use a little mirth! Too many haters come here hoping to call people pot heads and wishing they all got sent to prison!
WHERE ARE THE DEATHS??
Where are the deaths? If cannabis is so much more dangerous than tobacco then why have there been absolutely no deaths caused solely by cannabis use when tobacco use kills tens of thousands a year? The real world evidence simply does not match what you are saying. Where is the evidence of the claims you are making? Where is this study? What were the conditions of this study? As with many of the claims made here, they are either shady, manipulated or complete fiction.
It is said that cannabis's ability to cause the body to shed old cells in the respiratory system is what prevents development of cancers. Tobacco smoke doesn't tend to kill cells. It preserves them, which is what leads to lung, throat and mouth cancer.
No one is being fooled by your tactics anymore. You focus on the risks of marijuana because you cannot focus on the successes of prohibition, because there are none! Why don't you guys take a shot at defending the failure of the policy you promote to control these risks. The fact is prohibition does absolutely nothing to mitigate, control or reduce the risks of marijuana use. NOTHING! If marijuana is so much more dangerous than tobacco, why do you promote absolutely no common sense government regulations for it? Do you suggest a removal of the regulatory system for tobacco and an outright criminalization of its users? How many arrests were needed to cut tobacco use in half in America? (hunt: none) I again ask the question that you have been going to great lengths to avoid (this must be the 10th time or so without a real answer). How on Earth is a lack of regulations better than a government regulated and monitored system? How is your way better?
Umm - hunt?
The government is regulating and monitoring marijuana by keeping it illegal. It's better to keep another addictive substance illegal than to let our 18 year olds go driving under the influence of something else.
How is your way better?
You don't know what you are talking about
How is weed being regulated and monitored by the government when they aren't shipping it places and selling to people. You use false logic on the subject of whether it is better to have something illegal rather than restricting who receives the drug and actually keeping it out of the hands of minors. You want to know why it is much easier for a teenager to get marijuana than tobacco or alcohol? Because the seller does not care if the customer is a minor or not. Don't talk about things you have no idea about.
4 decades of failed policy
4 decades of failed policy and THAT'S all the defense you can muster for it? The government ISN'T regulating OR monitoring marijuana. That's absurd! It's NOT being kept out of the hands of ANYONE. According to the DFAF itself, drugged driving is ALREADY a huge problem in the United States. What is prohibition accomplishing other than waste?
How is our way better? Well in short: A federal regulatory system would license and monitor grow operations. It would set standards by which marijuana related establishments would operate by. It would provide a product of known potency and production conditions. It would open up America to the use of industrial hemp, allowing us the possibility of energy independence and a petroleum-free existence. It would neuter the black market organizations that are currently getting filthy rich by selling marijuana to kids. It would SET AND ENFORCE AN AGE LIMIT. It would ensure a life isn't destroyed by simply possessing marijuana and ensure that experimentation with marijuana is not an indoctrination into a life of crime. And it would free up valuable law enforcement resources to peruse those who continue to operate outside of these regulations in regards to marijuana. None of this is a possibility through prohibition.
Time after time the case has been made for legalization. And time after time you fail to make even a shaky case for continuing what has been an obvious failure of a policy called prohibition. Scare tactics are all you have left. There is NO defense for prohibition. That's why every time it comes to defending your stance you have to dive into hypothetical nightmare scenarios and rants about marijuana's risks. The plain, unadulterated picture is: If you find the health risks of marijuana use unacceptable, you must also find the health risks of tobacco and alcohol unacceptable and advocate the criminalization of it's users just like marijuana. If you find the addictive risks of marijuana unacceptable, you must also find the addictive risks of tobacco, alcohol, most pharmaceuticals and even caffeine unacceptable and advocate the criminalization of its users like marijuana. Otherwise it's just senseless hypocrisy. Tobacco use has been cut in half in the United States and it wasn't through making it illegal. Nor was there a single arrest needed to accomplish that. It was through regulation. PROHIBITION HAS FAILED. NOT EVEN PROHIBITIONISTS CAN MAKE THE POINT TO THE CONTRARY. TIME TO CHANGE COURSE.
Scare Tactics Is All They Have Left!!!!
Funny how that is, the people who are all about "doing good" and are for prohibition, anti-drug, pro-drug war, etc. always seem to be the ones to stoop to the lowest level. Why is that?