[mc32]

It’s fair to say that if we think smoke in general is deleterious to respiratory health and many chemical compounds found in different kinds of smoke are known carcinogens that marijuana is not exempt from those troublesome characteristics.

Given its potential harm as well as benefits in health, it’s worthwhile that people in general as well as proponents for liberalization, myself included, know more about all its effects. We as a population would be better served if there were a middle ground between it’s and evil gateway drug and it’s a cure to many ailments and should not be regulated.

[__blockcipher__]

I disagree. If you read the literature you will find cannabis smoke, physically, is stunningly non-harmful and not associated with much more than perhaps a slightly higher chance of respiratory infection.

Whereas tobacco is ridiculously deleterious and causes oxidative damage directly iirc.

I used to think it was all about smoke inhalation but it’s not that simple.

That being said, obviously I agree that we need to study the effects of cannabis as much as possible.

[anothergoogler]

When I smoked weed heavily, I had persistent sinus inflammation/infection and coughed up black and grey mucus every day. Open wounds took forever to properly heal. Switching to vaporizing cleared those symptoms up pretty much immediately. Smoke is just plain bad for you, even smoked meat (BBQ) is linked to cancer!

[gremlinsinc]

Damn...I don't smoke pot, but I love smoked brisket lol. If smoking is a concern though couldn't people just bake more cookies? Doesn't that have the same effect (again - I've never used...but am supportive of legalization for the sake of ending the drug war and attacks on minorities and poor people).

[dekhn]

Baked goods also contain acrylamide and probably cause very small increase in rates of cancer. Not worth it from a health perspective.

[acct1771]

What is that, and how?

[acct1771]

Lighting shit on fire produces carcinogenic material.

That's about all the science on MJ smoke (vs vapor etc) that I really need to know.

[thatcat]

Heat is well known to cause cancer, including in the form of hot beverages; but the contents of smoke aside from CO2 and H2O depends entirely on the source of combustion.

[dTal]

I'd not heard this about heat. It doesn't seem like an entirely straightforward link to me - aren't saunas supposed to fight cancer?

[thatcat]

Since cancer is caused by certain mutations and heat can induce mutation, ingesting hot things can be mutagenic and thus carcinogenic.[0]

Saunas at the right temp for the right time can induce the expression of protective heat shock protiens.[1]

[0]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2773211/

[1]https://www.selfhacked.com/blog/reasons-sweating-far-often/

[candiodari]

Ok ... and what about the actual burning leaves that you inhale and get stuck in your lungs ?

Are you seriously willing to make the argument that that (which is the common way to smoke it) is not harmful ?

I mean, shred a paper, burn it, watch the burning threads rise. Now imagine these things on top of alveoli in the lungs. Despite their tiny size those threads are hundreds to thousands of times bigger than those alveoli. Now think of what happens to these things, when held against ~215 degrees celcius threads.

Harmless. Clearly.

[__blockcipher__]

Sorry, your argument intuitively sounds valid but it isn't. I know because I made the same assumptions but my reading of the scientific literature has convinced me otherwise.

As one example, "tar" inhaled from cannabis is not correlated with long-term diseases like lung cancer, throat cancer, etc. However, the "tar" (a very vague term) from tobacco, wood smoke, etc is horrifically damaging to your body.

[dekhn]

Your presumption is wrong. Science has shown repeatedly now that your assumption about carcinogens in marijuana is incorrect (I'd describe it as a "zeroth-order hypothesis", simply imputing properties by superficial similarity but no other evidence).

In fact, with the except of one non-invasive prostate cancer, marijuana seems to have a protective effect against lung cancer.

It still does cause respiratory health problems in heavy smokers, but not nearly as significant as tobacco smoking.