PUBLIC OPINION > Most People Think That Cigarettes Are Worse For You Than Pot

Second paragraph.

RESPIRATORY ILLNESSES

The main respiratory consequences of smoking marijuana regularly (one joint a day) are pulmonary infections and respiratory cancer, whose connection to marijuana use has been strongly suggested but not conclusively proven. The effects also include chronic bronchitis, impairment in the function of the smaller air passages, inflammation of the lung, the development of potentially pre-cancerous abnormalities in the bronchial lining and lungs, and, as discussed, a reduction in the capabilities of many defensive mechanisms within the lungs.

Marijuana smoke and cigarette smoke contain many of the same toxins, including one which has been identified as a key factor in the promotion of lung cancer. This toxin is found in the tar phase of both, and it should be noted that one joint has four times more tar than a cigarette, which means that the lungs are exposed four-fold to this toxin and others in the tar. It has been concretely established that smoking cigarettes promotes lung cancer (which causes more than 125,000 deaths in the US every year), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (chronic bronchitis and emphysema) and increased incidence of respiratory tract infections. This implies, but does not establish, that smoking marijuana may lead to some of the same results as smoking cigarettes. It is notable that several reports indicate an unexpectedly large proportion ofmarijuana users among cases of lung cancer and cancers of the oral cavity,pharynx, and larynx. Thus, it appears that the use of marijuana as a medicine has the potential to further harm an already ill patient in the same way that taking up regular cigarette smoking would, particularly in light of the fact that those patients for whom marijuana is recommended are already poorly equipped to fight off these infections and diseases

"Pot just stinks, and makes the inhaler goofy, laid back and out of it, non-responsive, and unable to maintain employment, those who smoke it feel that it does nothing to them, but it does."

I'll give you the 'stinks' - smells are subjective though and there are many different scents depending on the strain (from sweet to pungent) but inhilation is not the only way to use Cannabis I'm sure you already know so I won't get into that, but the rest of it is highly overblown sensationalism at work (propaganda). Somebody has been putting a lot of stock into the 'Reefer Madness'.

Look, if you're going to smoke all day every day, then sure - these statements are then true. But someone who knows their limit, and only takes a couple of hits in the afternoons and evenings then puts it away, the effects are more minimal than slamming down a couple of drinks down your gullet in under an hour after a hard day's work (for those with weak tolerances anyway, you drink more you need more - you smoke more, you need more and on and on that goes, but it doesn't mean anything because that is how our bodies Chemistry is programmed, and it only becomes a problem physically if you can't go without a substance and thankfully, Cannabis is absolutely not physically addictive unlike every other 'drug' - and that includes prescription chemistry experiments too). I speak from personal experience here, from both substances. Moderation is the key. A couple hits are comparable to a couple of drinks, and of course there will always be both Cannabis smokers and alcohol drinkers who are going to abuse both or one or the other substances when they want to "party" rather than when they just want to "take the edge off". That is never going to change.

For me personally, Cannabis is nowhere near as cognitively debilitating as drinking is. I'd rather never have to drink again, and given the choice between being able to kick back with a six pack or a bowl of Cannabis, I'd chose the Cannabis every time - and my liver would thank me for that decision. Unfortunately, I'm just not willing to risk being charged as a Felon - so I drink instead, for now.

I honestly am not a habitual Cannabis user, I really have only had several occasions to have ever used it. But if your statements are true of Marijuana, then that very same statement also applies to alcohol and especially prescription medications (prescription medications being this Nation's absolute worst abuse problem today). I never said that for some people the psychological addiction cannot become dominating over their lives, that is true, but the fact remains that every substance classed in the illegal category, and some others that are not, yet far more which are legal under a Physician's direction, are in fact not only psychologically addictive, but highly physically addictive. As for what I want with Cannabis? The freedom to chose what I will and will not put into or do with my own body. Nothing more and nothing less than that. I've said it a hundred times, if Cannabis did not carry a Felony offense I would chose to use it over alcohol, tobacco and anything else. And as for it leading to other hard core drugs, that is only by and large true because people are getting both Cannabis and those hard core drugs (which by the way I do support remaining illegal as they are man-made, dangerous and highly deadly substances) from the same source: death dealers. They cut their Marijuana with those substances so that their 'clients' get hooked on those other substances without having had a choice in the matter. Take the Mexican thug cartels out of the picture and Marijuana will no longer be a "gateway drug" for the vast majority of those who would use their free will to chose to use it. And that's all I'm saying.