The risks of marijuana

Risks depend on the person using the cannabis, Sarocket. And for every link that touts the wonders and absence of dangers from cannabis, there are an equal number of links that advise caution for good reason. You'll notice that the folks here, as you'd expect them to be, are mostly on the advocacy side, but thinking it's all good and completely harmless is just as much of a disservice to cannabis and its users as thinking it's all bad. People with certain medical conditions aren't ideal candidates for cannabis use. These include people with heart, lung, and circulatory system diseases and people who seem to be particularly vulnerable to the effects of THC on delusional/schizophrenic disorders. It triggers more depression than it cures in some people. In longtime male smokers, it's not great for erectile function, but, then, neither are lots of things, including simply aging. To me, the biggest risk is that in far too many places, cannabis can still get folks arrested and incarcerated.

I think it's a substance to be used judiciously and cautiously, but you'd expect me to say that since I study traditional medicine and since I am one of those whose asthma and heart rhythm trouble are made far worse by smoking.

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Originally Posted by burnable

while it's not ideal to inhale any type of smoke into the lungs, there is a key difference between cannabis smoke and tobacco smoke. the nature of tobacco smoke causes the bronchial airways to constrict, making it difficult for the lungs to expunge the unhealthy matter (carcinogens). Whether MJ smoke has more or less carcinogens than tobacco is pretty irrelevant; MJ smoke causes the bronchial airways to DILATE, making it easier for the lungs to cleanse themselves. It expedites the process if you exercise a lot. I haven't perused the links provided by Storm Cow, but i bet there's something in there about how that specific property of cannabis smoke decreases cancer risk and curtails the process by which malignant cancer cells are nourished.

In short, be moderate, smoke only the best, exercise frequently, and let your body be its own gauge of whether what is being imbibed is healthy or not. Some people have a hard time using cannabis and functioning normally, but to others it can be monumentally helpful. :)

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Burnable, I bolded the part of your claims above that people often get mixed up on. It's not marijuana smoke that dilates the bronchial tubes, it's actually only THC. While plenty of people are lucky and have healthy, clear lungs that aren't troubled by cannabis smoke, an equal or greater number have a fairly nasty inflammatory response to the whole smoke which aggravates asthma, inflammation, and irritation, making them more vulnerable to infections. THC alone would probably be great for asthma or emphysema or chronic bronchitis, but the particulate crap in combination with the chemical byproducts of combustion make whole smoke a fairly nasty proposition. This is why real medical-cannabis purists and prescribing physicians advocate eating or vaporizing it instead of smoking it. This is also why, if you sit and talk for long to people who've used cannabis heavily for a period of decades or sometimes just years, they'll often have the same gravelly voice, wheezy breathing, and smoker's cough that longtime cigarette smokers do. They won't be as likely to have lung cancer--again the beneficial wonders of the THC work to keep that risk much lower--but lots of them'll get the other effects of longtime smoking.

^awesome. it's good to have a legitimate presence from the medical community to make corrections on what people have read but sometimes misconstrued:)