is weed really more harmful to your health than cigarettes?

It’s extremely harmful to your health if you are high and driving in front of me. Weed makes people drive VERY slowly….

and I’ll kill you while smoking a cigarette.

To really answer your question: No. Cigarettes are more harmful.

No not really. Cigarettes are more addicting.

smoking anything is unhealthy. But cigarettes are way worse because of the carcinogens

Indeed it is, and don’t listen to Riser, it doesn’t make you drive slow, or at least for me… but i compiled a list of 3 facts i know off the top of my head…

1) Most weed smokers smoke the bud, not the leaf. The bud contains only 33% as much tar as tobacco.

2) Weed smokers do not smoke anywhere near as much as tobacco smokers, due to the fact of the psychoactive effects…

3) There was never a report of lung cancer that has ever been successfully linked to marijuana use.

So there yout have it weed > Cigs.

@iceblu. I’m sorry there isn’t a sarcasm emoticon.

Wouldnt act of smoking anything have carcinogenic effects?

@riser: Me too, fluther needs emots i wasnt trying to bash you or anything.

@Spargett: Yea, it would, but the the damage from weed is FAR less, in the short, and long run.

@spargett actually it has been shown that marijuana use can prevent lung cancer ^_^

The stat on this that I remember hearing was that 1 joint was equivalent to a full pack of cigarettes; this is because cigarettes have filters while joints, bowls, blunts etc. don’t. That could have just been anti-drug propaganda that the DARE program made up though, so I’m not certain of the accuracy.

http://www.hightimes.com/ht/news/content.php?bid=662&aid=5

Cannabis Smoke Versus Tobacco Smoke

Cannabis smoke contains many of the same carcinogens as tobacco smoke, including greater concentrations of certain aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzopyrene, prompting fears that chronic marijuana inhalation may be a risk factor for tobacco-use related cancers. However, marijuana smoke also contains cannabinoids such as THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol), which are non-carcinogenic and demonstrate anti-cancer properties in vivo and in vitro. By contrast, nicotine promotes the development of cancer cells and their blood supply. In addition, cannabinoids stimulate other biological activities and responses that may mitigate the carcinogenic effects of smoke, such as down-regulating the inflammatory arm of the immune system that is responsible for producing potentially carcinogenic free radicals (unstable atoms that are believed to accelerate the progression of cancer).

Cannabis smoke – unlike tobacco smoke – has not been definitively linked to cancer in humans, including those cancers associated with tobacco use. However, certain cellular abnormalities in the lungs have been identified more frequently in long-term smokers of cannabis compared to non-smokers. Chronic exposure to cannabis smoke has also been associated with the development of pre-cancerous changes in bronchial and epithelium cells in similar rates to tobacco smokers. Cellular abnormalities were most present in individuals who smoked both tobacco and marijuana, implying that cannabis and tobacco smoke may have an additive adverse effect on airway tissue. The results suggest that long-term exposure to cannabis smoke, particularly when combined with tobacco smoking, is capable of damaging the bronchial system in ways that could one day lead to respiratory cancers. However, to date, no epidemiologic studies of cannabis-only smokers have yet to reveal such a finding. Larger, better-controlled studies are warranted.

Everything is “bad for you”, so don’t worry so much; just enjoy life. Afterall, you could avoid smoking, drinking, drugs and fatty foods all your life and get hit by a bus tommorow.

@gorillapaws it is actually true that joints are bad for you because of the lack of filter and the combustion happening so close to your mouth. If your using a bong your fine though. If your really that concerned just get a vaporizer then you have 0 combustion and it just releases all the THC from the plant without burning.

@uberbatman

There are much better and more proven things to do to prevent cancer such as exercise and and eating healthy/organic.

I wouldn’t count on sitting on a couch taking bong rips all day as cancer prevention.

@spargett Lol obviously im just saying its not bad like everyone makes it sound.

@Spargett- that last line was great. I might take a rip or two, just in case!

I knew a guy that smoked joint after joint, probably equal to a pack a day cigarette smoker. At the age of 54, he had a heart attack. When the doctor came in with tests results of his lungs, he told him he had to quit smoking becuase of the damage that was done. This guy had never smoked a cigarette in his life. My wasband’s doctor told him the same thing after his first heart attack. He said that pot constricts the blood vessels, similar to caffeine or cigarettes. So yeah, I guess it’s bad.. but like anything else that’s fun.. moderation is the key. But like Laura047 said, I could be hit by a bus tomorrow, so I’m not going to worry so much about it. We all run frantically to the gym to work out, eat all the “healthy foods” they tell us to eat, and some are so fanatical about preserving there bodies so they present a pretty corpse when they die. I would rather go to the grave worn out, torn up, having used up every once of life my old organs could give me, and have a sign in my casket that says.. DAMN!! What a ride!!

Hahaha Scamp I love you. That would be a great way to go. Whats the point in looking when your dead anyway? Isn’t that the morticians job?

To shorten the responses I’ve seen, with my own knowledge ..

Cannabis is all natural.
It is cut, sold and smoked.
Tobacco is natural, until it is cured.
Chemicals are used on it, and sent to the wrapper.
You get cigarettes filled with Tobacco and additives.

Clearly, Cannabis is better for you.

@Rastamon, cigarettes have filters on them which filter out much of the tar and other “bad stuff.” Also, I’ve never understood why people think all natural stuff is inherently good. Hemlock is all natural but that didn’t help Socrates much. There are tons of naturally occuring things out there that are harmful, so don’t make the mistake of assuming that something is safe/inherently good just because it’s all natural. Also, there are plenty of synthetic/artificial things that are very helpful to us—sunscreen for example. The saftey of things really needs to be determined by well designed scientific experiments and not by broad generalizations like artificial and all natural.

well said gorillapaws im very pro marijuana but i hate when people use the argument that it grows in the ground so its safe. Poison ivy is all natural too. What happens when we smoke that?

I agree as well. Its natural but so is cancer. I do disagree with the filter thing… they remove some of the bad stuff… not nearly enough. Theres so much shit in those things. I guess the argument of “all natural” helps to point out that you know whats in the weed, as opposed to cigarettes that have all those additives. Isn’t nicotine added to cigarettes and isn’t naturally in the tobacco?

I’m pretty sure nicotine is naturally occuring in tobacco, but I would not be surprised if tobacco companies add additional amounts to their products along with the other stuff they add—but I honestly have know idea.

As far as filters not removing enough, I completely agree with you. My point though is that the way marijuana is typically smoked, all of that stuff that gets caught in the filters of cigarettes ends up in the lungs of a marijuana smoker.

Thats why i dont smoke joints ^_^.

And yes tobacco has nicotine naturally occurring in it as it is part of the Nicotiana genus.

My question is when tobacco companies first proposed to put all the additives into cigarrettes why was it allowed? Like i realize there is no way of stopping it now, but why was it allowed back then when they first started? Was there no regulations on what was allowed to be added? Who was it that said “yea i want to put rat poison in these”? And someone else agreed “yea great idea”

The thing that’s always blown my mind about marijuana is how vastly different its effects are on different people. I pretty much cheese out and like to watch movies and satisfy my munchies, but I’ve known many people that could get high as gas and then do something active that requires concentration and coordination—like play basketball. I have no clue how that’s even remotely possible. I almost never smoke anymore though since it effects me so intensely.

I smoke every day, ace my finals, work my job, create music, dive further and further into spiritual texts, practice raja yoga, generally try to make the world a better place.

You couldn’t pay me to smoke a cigarette however.

i’ve read somewhere that it is better to smoke cigarettes because it has filters…

@wenbert the filters dont do shit in the grand scheme of things. It also depends on how were talking about smoking the marijuana. In a joint? yea really bad for you. In a bowl? still bad but not as bad as the joint. In a bong? much better with a good filtration through the water, that can be great depending on your bong. Vaporizer? AMAZING. No tars no nothing, just nummy THC.

also Marijuana is much healthier for the human body than Tobacco is. Ever have a tobacco over dose? i wouldnt wish that on anyone. Ever had a marijuana overdose? i didnt think so.

Its not worse for your healthy, You just do more stupid stuff that could hurt your health.