Quote Originally Posted by vej33
increased heart rate is not a risk, it happens when you run, when you fuck, even when you sleep. it's normal. so smoking is not a natural reason for a raised heartrate, but it certainly is a common thing to happen.
Kind of off topic, but interestingly, your heart rate increases more during a heated argument than during sex. Caffeine is a greater health risk as far as inducing heart problems than Cannabis.

Respiratory problems are obviously the most prominent, but there is not a scientific link between smoking Cannabis and lung cancer. People don't really die of Cannabis consumption. It's practically impossible to overdose (lethality is something like 1,500 joints in 45 minutes). Short-term memory loss is also fairly common to some degree, but goes away after you quit smoking for a while. There isn't really any permanent damage unless you go out of your way to make it as unhealthy as possible. But simply using Cannabis has no negative effects to the general public (adverse psychotic reactions to Cannabis range in the neighborhood of 1 in 10,000 regular users, pretty damned low rate).

Common "withdrawal" symptoms include headaches, loss of appetite, and a desire to smoke. Studies have shown Cannabis smoking can actually stimulate new cell growth in the brain.

There is actually a naturally occurring chemical system in our brains, called an endocannabinoid, that functions exactly like THC does. It regulates your mood, pain, appetite, balance, memory, digestion, nausea, reproduction, and bone growth. Scientists had no idea this system in our brains existed until they studied Cannabis. What happens when your body absorbs Cannabis is that all the receptors for this system fire at once in your brain and cause a rush of sensations and a blocking of pain.

A lot of naysayers use the fact that smoking is unhealthy to pursue this legislation against Cannabis. It's true that smoking, inhaling burned materials into your lungs, is bad for your health. It's bad. But you don't have to smoke it to get its effects, and for Cannabis in particular there are ways to smoke it to minimize tar intake and prevent long term damage.

Edit - Check out the attached toxicity chart.