If you ask this question to 100 doctors you’d get 100 different answers. Partly because the facts aren’t 100% clear and partly because every person views marijuana differently. There’s no doubt in my mind that many statements doctor’s make regarding marijuana are at least minimally influenced by their personal stand on marijuana. Yes, I’m a marijuana smoker and I don’t care who knows it. It doesn’t make me a bad person, I’m not ashamed of it. The real shame is that marijuana is largely condemned because of how it’s portrayed in pop culture (i.e. the ‘stoner’ image) even though there are hundreds of studies that show the positive effects it can have on people. It makes no sense that marijuana is illegal and cigarettes, which kill hundreds of thousands of people every year, are legal, especially because the dangers of cigarettes have been PROVEN!!!!
The University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) teamed up with the University of Alabama at Birmingham to study the effects of marijuana and tobacco on people’s lungs. They gathered data on over 5,000 adults who smoked marijuana or tobacco for over 20 years. They found a consistent loss of lung function with continued tobacco use, obviously. But the surprise was what they found regarding marijuana. The researchers found that both air flow rate, the speed in which a person can exhale, and lung volume, the amount of air a person can hold in their lungs at one time, increased in the marijuana users. The tobacco users studied generally smoked between 10 and 20 cigarettes a day while the marijuana users generally smoked 2 to 3 times a month. When the frequency of marijuana users using were higher, the findings were more on par with the tobacco users. Cigarette users smoke much more often then marijuana users because cigarettes are addictive whereas marijuana isn’t. No one smokes marijuana 10 to 20 times a day unless they’re Snoop Dogg or Tommy Chong.
The point is marijuana isn’t bad for you if it’s used in moderation. Unfortunately for most people, there is no such thing as tobacco use in moderation. Therefore cigarettes are much more unhealthy than marijuana. I just want to leave anyone reading with a question: would your view of marijuana change if it was legalized nationwide?
http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2012/01/11282/marijuana-shown-be-less-damaging-lungs-tobacco
Loved this blog and the detail that went into it. As a fell marijuana user, I agree that it should be legalized if tobacco is. The only reason it’s not is because of the whole “Reefer Madness” issue. Speaking of Tommy Chong, he smoked 5 to 10 times a day for years and was able to quit like it was nothing for prison. Tommy Chong also has recently stopped smoking marijuana because he is in “Dancing with the Stars” and he promised his dancer partner he wouldn’t smoke for a few weeks. He’s been able to do it no problem because he isn’t physically addicted like a cigarette smoker. I respect you are open about your stance on cannabis too.
I read the article and agree with mostly all of it except for the last part when it says marijuana is addictive. I strongly disagree with that statement. Obviously I’m not an expert and I’m not half as smart as people who study this stuff, but nonetheless I think that’s a completely bogus statement. I’ve been smoking pot for about 2 and a half years and I have never once felt a physical need for marijuana. Majority of my friends smoke pot in some capacity and none of them, to my knowledge, have ever felt a need either. The sooner scientists and researchers realize 99% of the time we smoke weed is because we like being high, the better.
As someone who has smoked both marijuana and cigarettes, I can safely say I feel better smoking marijuana than I do cigarettes. By smoking cigarettes, you’re pretty much guaranteed to develop a smoker’s cough and the risks of cancer have been proven, while really the only thing that marijuana has proven to do is get you high. Personally, I’m not bothered by either cigarette or marijuana smoking.
I’m unbiased on the use if marijuana because for one I have never smoked it before and two I have plenty of friends that smoke quite frequently and they are still good people. I do believe that cigarettes are worse for you in the long run because of how addicting they are. On the other hand though I do know some kids who smoke weed 1-2 times a day and when they get your common cold have a smokers cough. Marijuana use in moderation doesn’t seem as bad as cigarettes because cigarette smokers have no moderation. Here is a pretty good article from the American Lung Association. http://www.lung.org/associations/states/colorado/tobacco/marijuana.html