Cannabis 'worse than tobacco'

BBC News ^ | 10 July 2002

[SheLion]

Cannabis poses a greater threat to health than tobacco, lung experts have warned.

The warning comes on the day that Home Secretary David Blunkett is due to make a Commons statement about the future of government drug policy.

Many young people are simply not aware that smoking cannabis may put them at increased risk of respiratory cancers and infections .

Dame Helena Shovelton:

The Home Affairs Select Committee has recommended that cannabis is downgraded from a class B drug to class C. This would mean that possession would lead to a caution, rather than arrest.

The British Lung Foundation is currently carrying out a review of research into the impact of smoking cannabis on health.

Preliminary results suggest that the drug is at least as harmful as smoking tobacco - and may carry a higher risk of some respiratory cancers.

Ignorance

BLF chief executive Dame Helena Shovelton said: "Many young people are simply not aware that smoking cannabis may put them at increased risk of respiratory cancers and infections.

"The government spends millions of pounds a year on smoking cessation and public education about the dangers of smoking, yet smoking cannabis is at least as harmful as smoking tobacco and, indeed, may carry a higher risk of some respiratory cancers."

She said regardless of cannabis's legal status, many young people will make their own decision about whether they wish to use it or not.

"The government have a public health responsibility to ensure they do so with full knowledge of the risks associated with smoking cannabis," she said.

"Fifty years ago, people thought smoking was a good thing. Now it is described as a public health disaster - we don't want to see the same thing happen with cannabis."

Under estimate:

The report is also expected to warn that research carried out in the 1960s and 1970s may underestimate the impact of today's cannabis since it is much more potent than the cannabis smoked then.

The average cannabis cigarette smoked in the 1960s contained about 10mg of D9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the ingredient which accounts for the psychoactive properties of cannabis, compared to 150mg of THC today.

British Lung Foundation chairman Dr Mark Britton said: "There is an urgent need for more research into the effects of cannabis on respiratory health so that we can feel confident in the advice we give to young people.

"As a respiratory consultant physician, I see the devastating consequences of smoking-related lung diseases, such as emphysema and chronic obstructive airways diseases, every day and I am fearful that long-term cannabis smoking may be linked to similar conditions."

[concerned about politics]

For anyone presently under the influence......

Blind psychic gropes buttocks to see future

[Nate505]

I agree, I'm not for what they do to the tobacco smokers (and I hate nothing more than self-righteous former smokers who become huge tobacco nazis, unlike myself, a former tobacco smoker who doesn't care if people smoke), but at the same time, it irks me to hear tobacco smokers complaining about how they are more deamonized than pot smokers are. When they outlaw tobacco, I'll pay more attention to that argument....

[HELLRAISER II]

I can relate to what your saying, but I like fine Cigars so I hate to see the attack against tobacco smokers. But unlike somebody that smokes a couple packs a day, I can just say alright it's to expensive I won't smoke them any more. But somebody hooked on nicotine is not that lucky, just ask my wife.

[john in missouri]

Well, to liberals, you're old enough to make decisions about sex at 10 years old, but if it has to do with something liberals don't like, the age of consent goes up to 105.

Damn! Ain't that the truth!

[Dane]

Bob Marley?

Oh don't you know that Marley's brain cancer was caused by him playing soccer and getting a cut on his foot that got infected, at least that is what the pot heads say.

Of course in pot head world, Marley smoking notebooked sized joints has nothing to do with his death.

[Dane]

My favorite way to use weed for cooking is using acetone. You put the weed in a mason jar and pour acetone over it. Stir it up good until it turn dark dark green. Then pour it through a cheese cloth into a pyrex baking dish. Put the weed back in the mason jar and repeat until the acetone stays clear. Then have a fan pointed at the baking dish until the acetone evaporates. It leaves a hard blackish green sticky coating on the dish. Then just add corn oil to dissolve it. You can bake with this black oil in anything that requires corn oil.

Nuff stated, you with that one post have shown the brain damaging effects of pot. I guess you are working on ways to incorporate Clorox into your cuisine.

[concerned about politics]

My favorite way to use weed for cooking is using acetone.

Why not soak it in Vodka or Gin and make a tincture? That way, you can do shots and get a two for one deal. ;-)

[shempy]

Smoking cigarettes puts acetone into the body through the lungs, which is far more dangerous than ingesting it through the stomach. It takes a large amount of ingested acetone to cause harm. The amount of acetone left behind after it dehydrates is negligible. Certainly less harmful than smoking the stuff in cigs.

[07055]

One of the reasons I love Free Republic is because any article posted about pot, guns, NASCAR, the Confederate Flag or the Clintons is guaranteed to get at least 75 replies. ;-)

[SheLion]

One of the reasons I love Free Republic is because any article posted about pot, guns, NASCAR, the Confederate Flag or the Clintons is guaranteed to get at least 75 replies. ;-)

Yes, it sure brings everyone together!! I like that! :)

[Eva]

Our local newspaper ran an article on marijuana that was included in a brochure from the local health department. It
claimed that gov't studies indicated that marijuana was more dangerous to the health than a cigarette. It also claimed that it was stored in the fatty tissues of the reproductive organs and could stunt the development of testicles in boys and reduce the reproductive abilities of both sexes.

We got a good laugh about the thought of all the young smokers looking down their pants to check.

[shempy]

Why not soak it in Vodka or Gin and make a tincture? That way, you can do shots and get a two for one deal. ;-)

Marijuana and I get along quite well. However, alcohol makes me way to loco. :)

[NYCVirago]

One of the reasons I love Free Republic is because any article posted about pot, guns, NASCAR, the Confederate Flag or the Clintons is guaranteed to get at least 75 replies. ;-)

Good list, but don't forget other hot topics like Anna Kournikova, breastfeeding, Britney Spears, the French, dogs, and gay rights!

[concerned about politics]

could stunt the development of testicles in boys and reduce the reproductive abilities of both sexes.

So can lack of the vitamin E found in butter and milk, but when mutations like that happen, they're politically correct.

[concerned about politics]

CONT'D.....

So can lack of the vitamin E found in butter and milk, but when mutations like that happen, they're politically correct.

Notice the rise in infertility clinics lately? They've taken milk and butter out of the kids diets.

[tacticalogic]

Yes, it sure brings everyone together!! I like that! :)

Maybe someday we'll have a thread that will get all of it together in one place at the same time. I think atomic bombs work that way.

[Dakmar]

Alright, who is the wisenheimer adding all the new keywords?

[Gabz]

I for one have never said, nor heard anyone else say, that tobacco smokers are more demonized than pot smokers.

But in some ways it is true - everyone is not continually being bombarded with news stories that pot causes everything from alzheimers to zits day in and day out the way you do about tobacco.

I think pot being illegal is ridiculous - what I and many others are trying to do is keep tobacco from going the way of pot. When we accomplish that, I will be more than happy to turn my energies to re-legalizing marijuana.

[Britton J Wingfield]

Brownies feh, make some pesto sauce. It even tastes good.

[Britton J Wingfield]

Tobacco smokers can smoke up to 2 packs per day, or 40 cigaretts. Imagine 40 joints a day!

My mom used to smoke 3 packs per day. Sweet as she is, she was a raging bitch when she kicked the habit. That's some serious withdrawal there.

No way could someone smoke that many cigs per day. I used to make a good joint last 2-3 days.