Is marijuana less harmful than cigarettes?

Answer 1

There have been no empircal studies to date that show smoking marijuana causes more harm to the lungs than tobacco products do. The UCSF did a 20-year, 5,000 person study alongside CARDIA's research of 5,000 medical records spanned across 21 years on the effects of marijuana compared to tobacco products and have found that while tobacco use certainly does degrade the lungs, marijuana use has been found to actually increase air flow rate to a certain point.

However, that being said, marijuana does contain some of the same carcinogens as tobacco does and subsequently does in fact damage the lungs but since people do not smoke marijuana like people smoke cigarettes and the fact there is fewer carcinogens leads research to show that the damage is no where near as extensive as tobacco.

Any possible lung damage, while unlikely, is easily ameliorated by ingesting marijuana in another method such as in foods, vaporizing (Heating the marijuana enough to only vaporize the cannabinoids) or smoking high-quality hash as it contains very little plant material and therefor very little carcinogens and tar.

---

Smoking pure cannabis is more harmful to lungs than tobacco, a health charity is warning.

A study by the British Lung Foundation found that just three cannabis joints a day cause the same damage as 20 cigarettes.

It is vital that people are fully aware of the dangers so they can make an educated decision and know the damage they may be causing

Dr Mark Britton

And when cannabis and tobacco are smoked together, the effects are dramatically worse.

Evidence shows that tar from cannabis cigarettes contains 50% more cancer causing carcinogens than tobacco.

Dr Mark Britton, chairman of the British Lung Foundation, said: "These statistics will come as a surprise to many people, especially those who choose to smoke cannabis rather than tobacco in the belief it is safer for them.

"It is vital that people are fully aware of the dangers so they can make an educated decision and know the damage they may be causing."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2419713.stm

yea i believe that completelly but unless you are out of your mind no one would smoke 3 joints a day they would get to stoned.

Answer 2

Yes, it is far more addictive because they put extra ingredients into the tobacco.

Marijuana for the most part is pure.

But for marijuana you inhale more and deeper so health wise they are both just as harmful.

Answer 3

"Marijuana is much worse than cigarettes. In fact, smoking just one joint of Marijuana has the same effects on your body as smoking a whole pack of cigarettes."

this is the biggest lie ever. marijuana at a specific amount contains about 33% of the harmful chemicals as tabaco , and these chemicals are soluable unlike the tar from tabaco . the THC chemical in marijuana contains no toxins wat so ever. cigarettes are worse, to answer your question, and there has bin no evidence of anyone dying from the actual use of marijuana, an average of 75 people a year die while "high" on marijuana, but ther is no certain connection between marijuana and the deaths

Answer 4

"Most definitely. Tobacco contains addictive additives. Marijuana does not. A lot of people die from smoking cigarettes. No one has ever died from smoking grass."

Not true. They do around equal damage to your lungs, but what people don't really look at is the volume of smoke. Even the most avid pot smokers don't smoke as many joints as heavy smokers do cigarettes, so the data shows that pot is less harmful.

However, if you were to smoke the same amount of pot per day as someone would cigarettes, you would end up with a lot of the same health problems.

http://www.healthline.com/blogs/smoking_cessation/2007/07/is-cannabis-smoking-more-harmful-than.html

http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_health1.shtml

Answer 5

1. Physically addictive

2. harsher on the lungs/kill the cilia (small small hairs)

3. effects of cigs can decrease overtime so your just smoking this tobacco just so you can not think about having another

4. lastly believe it or not cigs can be more expensive SOMETIMES like if your a one a day, 6 a pack x 7 days= $42 bucks and i could almost get a quarter for that and it would last me the week and make me feel great

Answer 6

No, marijuana has been proven to have some beneficial sideffects, unlike cigarettes which have absolutely nothing beneficial in them, just poisens.