[hardik]

I have observed most of HN community to be pro-marijuana. Having no real experiece here and being really curious, I would like to ask you guys this simple question: Is Marijuana risky for your health? Have you personally been affected?

[hmapr]

Posting from a throwaway account: most of the risks of marijuana are: bad short-term memory, if you're a new smoker you might be paranoid, if you're smoking (as opposed to vaporizing) you're taking in smoke (bad for your lungs). It's also potentially psychologically addicting (like being addicted to shopping, chocolate, as opposed to physically addicting like meth or something).

If health is a concern, invest in a vaporizer instead of combusting with fire.

I've never personally been negatively affected with weed. It's an excellent mind expander and pairs extremely well with music and video. For some people (like myself), I have clear thoughts going through my head faster than I can write them down. Sometimes I like to lay back and vape and read Hacker News (like now) — it's a nice relaxer. Life just becomes more real.

[anonsmoker]

Very true about the last point. Technical people tend to be less creative than other portions of society. I fall into the less creative group. Weed is my solution to that. Most of my best (and worst) ideas came when I was high. I just always make sure to write them down so I can remember them and go over them when I'm sober.

[JeremyBanks]

Is Marijuana risky for your health?

There don't seem to be any long-term health risks. None have been demonstrated, a some you might expect (such as lung cancer) seem to have been disproven. Smoking can irritate your lungs in the shorter term, but fortunately there's no need to smoke.

Have you personally been affected?

If you use it frequently it makes it easier to fall into unproductive habits. For people who have a hard time staying committed or focused it would probably be a bad idea to become a regular user.

Edit: Oh, I read that as "has your personality been affected". Responding to the actual question: If I've smoked a lot recently I begin to develop a cough, but these days that doesn't happen as I use a vaporizer almost exclusively.

[grav1tas]

Can you link us on some studies disproving a link between Marijuana and some long-term health risk? I find it hard to believe that smoking something ISN'T bad for you, though am aware that there are other uses of it, as well..but a lot of people (if not most) tend to smoke it. What about the long-term cognitive impacts of using Marijuana as a mind-altering substance? Alcohol, caffeine and other drugs have long term effects, so what are the ones from Marijuana?

[JeremyBanks]

Can you link us on some studies disproving a link between Marijuana and some long-term health risk? I find it hard to believe that smoking something ISN'T bad for you, though am aware that there are other uses of it, as well..but a lot of people (if not most) tend to smoke it.

I don't understand why this is the case, it does sound rather implausible, but this study seem pretty good.[1][2]

What about the long-term cognitive impacts of using Marijuana as a mind-altering substance? Alcohol, caffeine and other drugs have long term effects, so what are the ones from Marijuana?

If you are at risk of some mental illnesses it can trigger the onset of symptoms.[3] I don't think that there has been any studies showing other risks, but there's probably a lack of research in this area.

  [1] Paper: http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/cmaj;180/8/814
  [2] Article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=large-study-finds-no-link
  [3] Article: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-food/201011/can-marijuana-induce-psychosis

[quizbiz]

http://pastebin.com/0VGDYvnE

[Locke1689]

That actually directly contradicts the OP's statement.

There is evidence that cannabis smoking is associated with an increased risk for lung cancer. (See "Cigarette smoking and other risk factors for lung cancer", section on 'Marijuana'.)

[YuriNiyazov]

What are the long-term effects of caffeine?

[thomasz]

> There don't seem to be any long-term health risks.

As long as you don't count psychosis as health risk...

[treo]

Recent studies[1][2] have shown that psychosis only may be a risk if you already are prone to it.

[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=S... [2] http://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/ebm/record/16936704/a...

[maqr]

Those aren't the right kind of questions. How about: Is prohibition good for society? Who is benefiting from prohibition? Should people be allowed to willfully consume drugs of their choosing?

To answer your question, I think most people would agree that it's less "risky" than alcohol, but risk is a hard thing to quantify. The reason there's so much pro-marijuana on the internets probably has less to do with marijuana usage and more to do with the free, open, and evidence-based nature of online communities.

[hardik]

I completely respect the freedom of choice you are referring to in your questions but I am genuinely interested in finding out about marijuana's health risks.

Just like risk is a hard thing to quantify, so is "right kind of questions" hard to define. :)

[aneth]

Given a world in which we are free to choose, as much of the US is becoming, these are the right questions to ask.

[anonsmoker]

Nobody can give you a 100% answer on whether or not it is a risky behavior. I can however enlighten you as to my opinion on the matter.

If you smoke in moderation, you will not observe any harmful effects.

When I smoked every day all day, I was definitely slower and less enthusiastic in general. I was a classic stoner. I didn't have any serious health problems, but my lung capacity was greatly decreased. This may have also been affected by my job at the time which prevented any consistant exercise.

I still smoke fairly frequently, but usually not more than a hit or two a day max. I take regular breaks of a week or more to control my tolerance and to prevent "stoner creep". I stay mentally sharp and I exercise regularly now and haven't detected any issues with my habit. It does feel good though to take a few months off once a year or so just to make sure I'm not too reliant on the green.

The only physical dangers that I see is that you tend to take on a less active lifestyle and can do a lot of damage to your body due to lack of exercise and proper eating habits. If lung damage is a concern, it can be prevented by edibles or a vaporizer.

Weed is an issue with many employers and most likely will be for the near future. Drug tests are no more than a IQ test though. If you can't fake a (corporate) drug test, you probably have a learning disability.

[chc]

I'm not convinced that effect is significantly different from watching TV or reading Hacker News. A little bit might not be bad and probably even has some desirable effects, but too much pleasurable consumption and you fall into a less productive state of mind. It's true for all luxuries.

[trotsky]

Regular/daily use is definitely demotivational, at least in the long run. This can (but certainly doesn't necessarily) lead to depression, which can be a serious illness for some.

One major effect is that use makes things more interesting. This can be beneficial - it might allow an artist or programmer to dive into their work or help in music appreciation. This same property also masks boredom which can have serious consequences. Someone who is bored with their life often seeks to change it for the better, a person bored with TV may turn it off.

[c00ki3s]

This! If you're watching futurama for the 10th time, you have to wonder if your time might be put to more use elsewhere. It's actually quite funny, not only makes pot stuff more interesting, you also forget a lot of details which makes is much easier to do them again and again and ....

[russellallen]

For what it is worth, I have been told by the head of a paediatric mental health unit at a major hospital that there was increasing evidence in the literature of a link of some kind between marijuana use and the onset of episodes of schizophrenia, although the mechanism wasn't agreed upon. She said newer research was increasing the confidence in the link rather than decreasing it.

[pavel_lishin]

But that only affects people who are already schizophrenic, doesn't it? If I'm not at risk for schizophrenia, it's not going to make me a schiz.

[r0s]

I'll go out on a limb and say it depends on how you use it.

Ingested cleanly the drug itself is not risky in any way, sugar does more damage.

I've known senior, lifetime heavy users with no ill effects of daily smoking.

[zalew]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqq8-3ZBFeE @8:00 there's some myth debunking about alleged health risks due to smoking mj.

continued http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUU2YB9OgaU&feature=relat...

I recommend watching whole 'The Union'

[hristov]

I cannot answer your question because I have only used pot two or three times in my life, but I can give you some advice: don't take the word of a drug user about whether drugs are good or bad for you. Drug users, like most people tend to suffer from self delusion, and you really do not want to be a victim of that.

There are very few people in the world that can be brutally honest about themselves and their lives. Very few people are willing to admit that a voluntary choice they took has caused a serious permanent damage in their lives.

[endlessvoid94]

While I agree with the second part, I think it's a fallacy to connect it with a fictitious group of people labelled "drug users".

True, there is a class of people who "use" drugs and a class of people "abuse" drugs, but in the common vocabulary, there's unfortunately no distinction between the two. And there really ought to be.

We (society) get all of the negative consequences of drug abuse and none of the positive consequences of responsible drug use.

[roel_v]

You're basically saying that only non-users can make a cost/benefit analysis of drug use. One could equally well claim that a portion of non-users have an anti-drug bias for self-justification reasons. Where does one draw the line? The only solution is to not rely on 'opinions' and naked theory, but on data. Which is hard, but even when accounting for error margins, there is to the best of my knowledge no reason to accept that people who have at one point in their lives illegally used controlled substances have a statistically significant bias that distorts everything that comes from them.

[r0s]

There is no evidence to back up your bogus, overreaching claim. You make no distinction between use and abuse.

[hardik]

Thanks for the response guys; I am wondering if there is a winner-bias at play here. (I don't expect too many drug "abusers" as referred in a comment above here on HN)

[roel_v]

Yes there presumably is. If you want scientific research, you should go to scholar.google.com or better yet to the library of your nearest teaching hospital / medical university. There have been thousands if not tens of thousands papers on the issue. You'll never get a scientifically valid answer on the internet, and probably not even in the library - but at least there you'll have data.

Anecdote time: I know a doctor who is convinced that he is right on his opinion that marijuana causes depression, has near-100% gateway properties and causes long term brain damage even after short periods of use. The rub? He works at a psychological hospital that get a lot of patients with acute drug-induced psychoses or other drug-related issues. From his sample, of course he comes to his conclusions! I have tried to explain the concept of 'sample bias' several times to him but either he is incapable of such numeric thinking or just refuses to do so.

[riffic]

and from my perspective, most doctors are full of shit

[leppie]

I'll let you know if I die ahead of time.