Sunday, December 16, 2007

Marijuana smoke nastier than cigs

Dec. 14, 2007 -- New research from Canada shows that some toxins may be more abundant in marijuana cigarettes than tobacco cigarettes.

The researchers burned 30 marijuana cigarettes and 30 tobacco cigarettes on a machine in their lab, measuring levels of chemicals in the smoke.

Ammonia levels were up to 20 times higher in marijuana smoke than in tobacco smoke. Levels of hydrogen cyanide and nitrogen-related chemicals were three to five times higher in marijuana smoke than in tobacco smoke. Read more.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh please;cherries to watermelons here. The typical tobacco smoker inhales 20-30 individual sticks a day. Every day.

'Marijuana' smokers (the responsible ones, that is) inhale the equivalent of 1-2 sticks a weekend, many even less. Most of them do not imbibe daily, the way cigarette inhalers consume.

Indeed most commuters during peak traffic times probably inhale the same, if not more, of the very chemical exposures you shriek are inherent in cannabis use.

I understand the Recovery Industry thrives on this drivel in order to keep profit margins up, but don't post issues of harm, unless you are willing to add the very real issue of relative harm.

This drivel does my grandkids no good. No wonder they are all turning to prescription medications for their buzz.

Rick D. Day
Atlanta, GA

420 Guy said...

This is not new research at all, this same study has been done time and time again and it is nothing more then a straw man argument.

Yes Marijuana cigarettes or joints contain much more ammonia and other harmful chemicals, yes a marijuana cigarette is not the healthiest thing in the world. Well duh you are inhaling smoke, never good for the lungs.

This is only a half truth, several logical fallacis are involved in your interpretation of this study, As rick-day stated its comparing "cheries to watermelons".

What rick-day states about the amount of joints smoked on average as opposed to the amount of tobacco cigarettes smoked on average is true, however it doesn't stop there. This study studied joints only, and there are several toxin reducing methods to smoking marijuana such as a vaporizer, bong, or not smoking it at all and ingesting it instead.

Now lets ignore both of those, what about all the studies indicating the benefits of marijuana? In a true risk analysis you would have to weigh both the negative and positive aspects of both, tobacco has no positives, while marijuana has a litany.

Were you aware that another study showed that marijuana actually fights lung cancer? http://420-now.blogspot.com/2007/04/weed-cures-cancer.html
the study explains a long unexplained mystery as to why when it is known that marijuana contains more toxins then cigarettes are the levels of lung cancer among marijuana users so low, in fact tobacco users who also use marijuana also have a lower then average rate of lung cancer.