Is marijuana really safer to smoke than tobacco?

Question

I have never tried it myself, but I am totally for the legalization of marijuana, both medically and recreationally.

But I have heard a claim that just doesn't seem to make sense coming from people that share this view.

They say that marijuana doesn't do the same thing to your lungs as tobacco. This doesn't make sense to me. Doesn't tobacco smoke harm your lungs simply because it is smoke? You get tar and a whole bunch of chemicals/carcinogens from burning any plant matter, not just tobacco. Not to mention the fact that most joints don't have filters.

If anything I would guess that smoking pot is MORE harmful to your lungs than smoking tobacco cigarettes.

Granted, when you smoke pot you don't usually smoke as often as a cigarette smoker, but say you were to smoke just one cigarette or one joint, which would be worse worse for your lungs?

Answer 1

Here are some studies that made comparisons:



bullous lung disease occurs in marijuana smokers approximately 20 years earlier than tobacco smokers. - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080123104017.htm



Marijuana smoke caused significantly more damage to cells and DNA than tobacco smoke, the researchers note. - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090805110741.htm



"A Canadian report says marijuana smoke contains more toxic compounds, including ammonia and hydrogen cyanide, than tobacco smoke. Researchers, including David Moir of the Safe Environments Program in Kitchener, Ontario, determined ammonia levels were 20 times higher in marijuana smoke than in tobacco smoke, while hydrogen cyanide, nitric oxide and certain aromatic amines occurred at levels 3-5 times higher in the marijuana smoke, Science Daily said Tuesday. The study was published in the Dec. 17 issue of American Chemical Society's journal Chemical Research in Toxicology." - http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2007/12/20/Toxic-chemicals-found-in-marijuana/UPI-63301198127783/#ixzz1PETrih8J



Another study found that continued use of cannabis in humans, but not cigarette smoking, is associated with a more pronounced loss of grey matter in the anterior cingulated and the prefrontal cortex regions of the brain. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23000300



“Maternal cannabis use during pregnancy resulted in more pronounced growth restriction than maternal tobacco use.”

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890856709660731





The smoke from marijuana, the second most

commonly smoked substance after tobacco, contains,

in addition to THC, a large number of toxic

gases and particulates (including high concentrations

of procarcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons)

that are capable of causing lung injury

and potentially respiratory malignancy. Whereas

THC produces short-term bronchodilation by relaxing

airway smooth muscle, heavy habitual use

of marijuana is associated with a number of adverse

pulmonary consequences (table 1). These include

1) symptoms of acute and chronic bronchitis,

2) conflicting findings concerning the presence

or absence of mild, progressive airflow obstruction,

3) endoscopic and microscopic evidence of

airway wall edema, vascular congestion and increased

mucous secretion, 4) extensive histopathologic

and immunohistochemical evidence of damage

and dysregulated growth of the tracheobronchial

epithelium, and 5) accumulation of increased

numbers of alveolar macrophages that

demonstrate impaired antimicrobial and tumoricidal

function and impaired ability to generate immunostimulatory

cytokines and inducible nitric

oxide synthase and nitric oxide, an important effector

molecule in microbial killing. These features

raise concern that marijuana smoking may be

a risk factor 1) for opportunistic infection, especially

in already immunocompromised patients

due to AIDS, organ transplanatation or cancer

chemotherapy, and 2) for upper and lower respiratory tract cancer. http://archest.fsm.it/pne/pdf/63/2/pne63-2_tashkin.pdf

Answer 2

A joint can cause a bronchitis or asthma attack.A cigarette would not.

Answer 3

There are many reasons why marijuana is not worse

for you than smoking cigarettes. You may have heard

that “one joint is equal to ten cigarettes” but this is

exaggerated and misleading. Marijuana does contain more tar

than tobacco — but low tar cigarettes cause just as much

cancer, so what is that supposed to mean? Scientists have

shown that smoking any plant is bad for your lungs, because

it increases the number of ‘lesions’ in your small airways.

This usually does not threaten your life, but there is a

chance it will lead to infections. Marijuana users who are

worried about this can find less harmful ways of taking

marijuana like eating or vaporizing. (Be careful –

marijuana is safe to eat — but tobacco is not, you might

overdose!) Marijuana does not cause cancer the way

tobacco does, though.

Here is a list of interesting facts about marijuana smoking

and tobacco smoking:



o Marijuana smokers generally don’t chain smoke,

and so they smoke less. (Marijuana is not physically

addictive like tobacco.) The more potent marijuana

is, the less a smoker will use at a time.



o Tobacco contains nicotine, and marijuana doesn’t.

Nicotine may harden the arteries and may be

responsible for much of the heart disease caused by

tobacco. New research has found that it may also

cause a lot of the cancer in tobacco smokers and

people who live or work where tobacco is smoked.

This is because it breaks down into a cancer causing

chemical called `N Nitrosamine’ when it is burned

(and maybe even while it is inside the body as well.)



o Marijuana contains THC. THC is a bronchial dilator,

which means it works like a cough drop and opens up

your lungs, which aids clearance of smoke and dirt.

Nicotine does just the opposite; it makes your lungs

bunch up and makes it harder to cough anything up.



o There are benefits from marijuana (besides bronchial

dilation) that you don’t get from tobacco. Mainly,

marijuana makes you relax, which improves your health

and well-being.



o Scientists do not really know what it is that causes

malignant lung cancer in tobacco. Many think it may

be a substance known as Lead 210. Of course, there

are many other theories as to what does cause cancer,

but if this is true, it is easy to see why no case of lung

cancer resulting from marijuana use alone has

ever been documented, because tobacco contains

much more of this substance than marijuana.



o Marijuana laws make it harder to use marijuana

without damaging your body. Water-pipes are illegal

in many states. Filtered cigarettes, vaporizers, and

inhalers have to be mass produced, which is hard to

arrange `underground.’ People don’t eat marijuana

often because you need more to get as high that way,

and it isn’t cheap or easy to get (which is the

reason why some people will stoop to smoking leaves.)

This may sound funny to you — but the more legal

marijuana gets, the safer it is.

It is pretty obvious to users that marijuana prohibition

laws are not “for their own good.” In addition to the

above, legal marijuana would be clean and free from

adulterants. Some people add other drugs to marijuana

before they sell it. Some people spray room freshener on it

or soak in in chemicals like formaldehyde! A lot of the

marijuana is grown outdoors, where it may be sprayed with

pesticides or contaminated with dangerous fungi. If the

government really cared about our health, they would form an

agency which would make sure only quality marijuana was

sold. This would be cheaper than keeping it illegal, and it

would keep people from getting hurt and going to the

emergency room.

Sorry for the amount of words, copy and pasting from the website in the source.