Effects of Pot

[MacDaddy]

I am new to teenhelp, but I have noticed already a very common theme. I have read numerous posts about how pot is so bad for you, that it will can cause lung and mouth cancer, that it destroys brain cells, etc... I am extremely intrigued as to where people are getting this information from? There is not one shread of viable proof to support these ideas, but if someone has information to disprove this, I would greatly appreciate it.

Caleb

[Slowly_Losing_Control]

You're right... people seem to have a very negative thought towards pot. I think it is mostly from people who have never tried it or never taken the time to learn anything about it. They have heard other people talk about how horrible it is, so they adopt the same thoughts. I know from personal experiences in my own life (from myself and other people) that there are both good things and not so good things that can come from smoking pot. Thanks for attempting to raise the idea that there is more than one way to look at pot. And welcome to TeenHelp

[Gidig]

Hey-

This is a really interesting point. When you see posts, feel free to post and politely say that you don't agree and post links to back up your information if you can. It's helpful to everyone because false information isn't ever helpful.

As a self-declared stoner, I make sure to know all I can about weed as I feel like if you're going to be putting something in your body you should know exactly what it's doing. With studies done on marijuana though, there aren't many "conclusive" results. Here's some information that basically just says there's no proof between lung cancer and marijuana but it's not ruled out.

Effects on the Lungs
Numerous studies have shown marijuana smoke to contain carcinogens and to be an irritant to the lungs. In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50-70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke. Marijuana users usually inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than tobacco smokers do, which further increase the lungs' exposure to carcinogenic smoke. Marijuana smokers show dysregulated growth of epithelial cells in their lung tissue, which could lead to cancer;6 however, a recent case-controlled study found no positive associations between marijuana use and lung, upper respiratory, or upper digestive tract cancers.7 Thus, the link between marijuana smoking and these cancers remains unsubstantiated at this time.

Nonetheless, marijuana smokers can have many of the same respiratory problems as tobacco smokers, such as daily cough and phlegm production, more frequent acute chest illness, and a heightened risk of lung infections. A study of 450 individuals found that people who smoke marijuana frequently but do not smoke tobacco have more health problems and miss more days of work than nonsmokers.8 Many of the extra sick days among the marijuana smokers in the study were for respiratory illnesses.

http://drugabuse.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html

You also have to realize though, that marijuana is a touchy subject and some people are really against it, and most people don't have their facts. I think it's super cool that you're calling people out on being wrong even if it isn't directly to them.

I hope this was somehow helpful and not just me babbling! Lol.
Maria.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Those who say it destroys brain cells refer to the memory impairments and these memory impairments are heavily supported. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1463999/

I think saying it destroys brain cells often is an over-simplification due to lack of understanding of neural mechanisms. These impairments can remain even after a month of not smoking, which could lead people to the idea that the effects are permanent, however, they generally are not permanent. http://www.neurology.org/content/59/9/1337.abstract I suppose people assume the memory impairments are from dying brain cells because from their limited understanding, that makes sense. In actuality though, it makes not much sense because there is high neuroplasticity and brain cells continuously die and replaced (i.e. myelination).

The mouth and lung cancer is supported by analogous studies from tobacco smoking as well as marijuana smoking but it's incorrect to say the pot causes these impairments. Rather, the process of inhaling the smoke is what causes the impairments. If one were to eat marijuana cookies, they don't get these impairments. Some people may compare chewing tobacco to eating marijuana cookies but when the chewing tobacco produces the oral cancers, it shows a clear difference in that the oral and lung cancers from pot are from the smoke only. Once again, the statement that pot causes these impairments is an over-simplification that is incorrect. If people want direct evidence of this, make a wood-burning fire at a campsite, your house/neighbour's house, or wherever else and enhale the smoke. You're going to start coughing away as it causes impairments.

[MacDaddy]

Originally Posted by Slowly_Losing_Control

You're right... people seem to have a very negative thought towards pot. I think it is mostly from people who have never tried it or never taken the time to learn anything about it. They have heard other people talk about how horrible it is, so they adopt the same thoughts. I know from personal experiences in my own life (from myself and other people) that there are both good things and not so good things that can come from smoking pot. Thanks for attempting to raise the idea that there is more than one way to look at pot. And welcome to TeenHelp

Exactly. People seem to just jump on this bandwagon against marijauna, yet they haven't really done any research for themselves. Thanks for the welcome btw

Originally Posted by Gidig

Hey-

This is a really interesting point. When you see posts, feel free to post and politely say that you don't agree and post links to back up your information if you can. It's helpful to everyone because false information isn't ever helpful.

As a self-declared stoner, I make sure to know all I can about weed as I feel like if you're going to be putting something in your body you should know exactly what it's doing. With studies done on marijuana though, there aren't many "conclusive" results. Here's some information that basically just says there's no proof between lung cancer and marijuana but it's not ruled out.


You also have to realize though, that marijuana is a touchy subject and some people are really against it, and most people don't have their facts. I think it's super cool that you're calling people out on being wrong even if it isn't directly to them.

I hope this was somehow helpful and not just me babbling! Lol.
Maria.

Thank you. It is nice to hear that other people are actually doing their research on this subject instead of just assuming the worse. I will be certain to politely post my opinions throughout this site. It wasn't just you babbling, no worries

P.s. I had to take your link out because apparently I can't post URLs until after I've posted 10 times.

Originally Posted by WOW!USaidSomethingSmart!

Those who say it destroys brain cells refer to the memory impairments and these memory impairments are heavily supported.

I think saying it destroys brain cells often is an over-simplification due to lack of understanding of neural mechanisms. These impairments can remain even after a month of not smoking, which could lead people to the idea that the effects are permanent, however, they generally are not permanent. I suppose people assume the memory impairments are from dying brain cells because from their limited understanding, that makes sense. In actuality though, it makes not much sense because there is high neuroplasticity and brain cells continuously die and replaced (i.e. myelination).

The mouth and lung cancer is supported by analogous studies from tobacco smoking as well as marijuana smoking but it's incorrect to say the pot causes these impairments. Rather, the process of inhaling the smoke is what causes the impairments. If one were to eat marijuana cookies, they don't get these impairments. Some people may compare chewing tobacco to eating marijuana cookies but when the chewing tobacco produces the oral cancers, it shows a clear difference in that the oral and lung cancers from pot are from the smoke only. Once again, the statement that pot causes these impairments is an over-simplification that is incorrect. If people want direct evidence of this, make a wood-burning fire at a campsite, your house/neighbour's house, or wherever else and enhale the smoke. You're going to start coughing away as it causes impairments.

You've made some very good points! Thank you for taking the time to post this.
P.S. I also had to remove your links because I can't post URLs yet.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Originally Posted by MacDaddy

You've made some very good points! Thank you for taking the time to post this.
P.S. I also had to remove your links because I can't post URLs yet.

No worries about having to take out the links. Given that you seem interested in this, have you looked around for yourself, such as on Google Books? You may also want to use Google Scholar although you may only get the abstracts but through my university I have access to numerous databases for scientific journals if there's a particular article you want me to look up or particular thing.

[MacDaddy]

Originally Posted by WOW!USaidSomethingSmart!

No worries about having to take out the links. Given that you seem interested in this, have you looked around for yourself, such as on Google Books? You may also want to use Google Scholar although you may only get the abstracts but through my university I have access to numerous databases for scientific journals if there's a particular article you want me to look up or particular thing.

I have looked around quite a bit, yeah. If I'm going to be smoking it I want to know what I'm smoking. I might have to take you up on that offer in the near future. I'll let you know if I find anything that I'm interested in. Thanks for the offer!