Complications within the marijuana debate

[TaraJo]

So, this is something that came up in my government class and I thought I'd ask what people think of it here.

Marijuana is going to become legal, it's just a question of when. The public has been getting increasingly supportive of decriminalizing it, but then that brings in another problem.

Right now, marijuana is generally less damaging to your health than tobacco. It's nothing about marijuana being inherently healthier or safer or anything, but because of all the additives put in the cigarettes.

So, when marijuana becomes legal, what's the obvious thing to happen? Big companies are going to distribute it and they're going to do so the same way they do tobacco. All those additives and chemicals and other junk that gets added to tobacco..... those are going right into the marijuana.

So, what do you think should be done about this? Should they just be allowed to add all kinds of toxins to marijuana? Why or why not? If not, what should be done to prevent it?

[CapnAwesome]

As far as I'm aware, it's false that marijuana is less damaging to your health than tobacco because of additives. I'm fairly sure that's a myth. It's just that you can't smoke nearly as much of it. If you could smoke 2 packs of weed a day, I'd highly suspect similar damage to your lungs.

Regardless it doesn't matter for legalization. People should be allowed to put whatever they want into their own bodies.

[CleanShavenJesus]

It's just that you can't smoke nearly as much of it. If you could smoke 2 packs of weed a day, I'd highly suspect similar damage to your lungs.

Is there evidence for that?

[Angrboda]

My recollection is that weed is far more damaging, per amount. Given that taste isn't the main selling point of weed, I'm not sure it's a big concern.

[CapnAwesome]

Is there evidence for that?

You know, I'm not actually sure. After this thread I did a quick search for studies that have been done on the subject. The only comparison they have done is between heavy pot smokers and heavy cigarette smokers where a heavy pot smoker was defined as someone who smoked the equivalent of 20 joints a month. Not only is a single cigarette more condensed than a joint, but a heavy smoker can go through that many cigarettes in a day or less. A smoker who smokes a single cigarette a day doesn't have significant damage to his lungs.

I've never smoked cigarettes, but at one point I worked with weed and smoked 12 or so times a day and my lungs felt like shit and I felt like shit. I'd be shocked if it wasn't the equivalent but to the best of my knowledge no real study has been done.

It doesn't matter anyway. Under normal circumstances it's pretty hard to smoke enough weed to damage your lungs, additives or no and it's not a reason to keep weed illegal. Also even if that does happen there will still be 'natural weed' the same as you can get natural tobacco. Not a big deal.

[rexbeccarox]

My only contribution is that not too many people grow their own tobacco, but many people grow their own weed. I know this is largely because weed is illegal, but I don't really see it changing unless people become very lazy. Even then, most of us who smoke have so much access to the good stuff, I can't imagine people will settle for chemical-laden crap.

[Mystical]

So, a doctor told me that smoking weed every day is like smoking 1 cigar a day. So yeah, if you smOke it, it's not good. Smoking anything isn't good for your lungs, it paralyzes the cilia or something. So the chances of getting COPD are just as equal if not more, than tobacco. Weed in edible version is offered at the dispensaries, and is how alot of very sick people injest the thc. Myself included at one point.. Or there's a vaporizer, which is harmless to your lungs where it delivers you the thc via water vapor. So that's harmless.
Tobacco on the other hand, WILL give you cancer and COPD. It makes you radio active, and it has shit like arsenic in it. They're damn near TRYING to kill you if you're stupid enough to buy them (myself included at some point as well).

I agree that homegrown will be the future for awhile. I think that eventually someones going to take over the market like history shows us happens, and some laws will be passed and the profits from this venture will be used to enforce those laws preventing home grown crops and then will eventually push out small businesses completely, leaving us at the mercy of big corporations. Then the weed farmers will yet again have to go underground.