Sorry I haven't been really following this thread as I don't participate in the holiday. Just opened it up as I was curious as to why it was still going on 10 days later.
Anyways if I'm correct someone is spewing out ignorant myths.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by norml.org
Myth: One Joint Equals One Pack (or 16, or maybe just 4) Cigarettes
Some critics exaggerate the dangers of marijuana smoking by fallaciously citing a study by Dr. Tashkin which found that daily pot smokers experienced a "mild but significant" increase in airflow resistance in the large airways greater than that seen in persons smoking 16 cigarettes per day.1 What they ignore is that the same study examined other, more important aspects of lung health, in which marijuana smokers did much better than tobacco smokers. Dr. Tashkin himself disavows the notion that one joint equals 16 cigarettes.
A more widely accepted estimate is that marijuana smokers consume four times as much carcinogenic tar as cigarettes smokers per weight smoked.2 This does not necessarily mean that one joint equals four cigarettes, since joints usually weigh less. In fact, the average joint has been estimated to contain 0.4 grams of pot, a bit less than one-half the weight of a cigarette, making one joint equal to two cigarettes (actually, joint sizes range from cigar-sized spliffs smoked by Rastas, to very fine sinsemilla joints weighing as little as 0.2 grams). It should be noted that there is no exact equivalency between tobacco and marijuana smoking, because they affect different parts of the respiratory tract differently: whereas tobacco tends to penetrate to the smaller, peripheral passageways of the lungs, pot tends to concentrate on the larger, central passageways.3 One consequence of this is that pot, unlike tobacco, does not appear to cause emphysema.
Footnotes
1. D. Tashkin, "Respiratory Status of 74 Habitual Marijuana Smokers," Chest 78 #5: 699-706 (Nov. 1980).
2. T-C. Wu, D. Tashkin, B. Djahed and J.E. Rose, "Pulmonary hazards of smoking marijuana as compared with tobacco," New England Journal of Medicine 318:
347-51 (1988).
3. Donald Tashkin et al, "Effects of Habitual Use of Marijuana and/or Cocaine on the Lung," loc.cit.
|
There used to be a lot of false truths spread around in the past that lead to quite of few of these myths still persisting today. You have to realize that in the past very few researchers were given permission to do research on marijuana, and many that were, were given permission to prove these dangers no matter what they actually found. Thus they would go to great lengths to prove them.
Smoking anything is bad for the lungs. Sitting around the campfire is bad for you. Obviously a joint is one of the worst ways to smoke marijuana, with a vaporizor being one of the best as well as water-pipes.
Eating it (in cookies or brownies) is of course the best for you.