Hello, I'm not sure if this is the correct place for this thread, but I was wondering if we could discuss the health effects of smoking cannabis. If anyone has information or knows of any research out there comparing say cannabis to tobacco, I would love to see it!

I've heard a lot about cannabis having anti-tumor properties, being a miracle plant, etc... Does anyone have any info to back this up? And are these relevant when smoking cannabis or do they only work when applied as hash oil, or something.

Just wondering.

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http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal...wbox-cfls.html
People should not be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.

marijuana actually is used in the treatment of glaucoma as it reduces the pressures in your eye (in glaucoma you have high pressures) i know this cuz i have a slight chance of getting glaucoma >< (possibility of going blind)

the cannabis family (marijuana and hemp) in my opinion is the greatest plant in the world
hemp alone could help this world in so many ways its unbelievable
hemp could actually be made into nearly anything and considering it would be extremely cheap to process if we actually made the effort and it is easy to grow and grows quick it would help us in more ways than we know

marijuana kills cancer causing cells, reduces with nausea, induces hunger, and helps with many other small problems

if these plants were legalized the positive outcome would completely eclipse any health concerns
if you think about it marijuana and hemp would boost our economy to unprecedented numbers
potheads love movies music video games and food
so if marijuana was legalized more people would smoke and more people would spend money on wee, seeds, grow equipment, bongs, pipes, smoke room stuff and the other things i mentioned earlier

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Live above . Live above the influence
Fuck that, everybody just and live above the government.

MARIJUANA MYTHS
by Paul Hager
Chair, ICLU Drug Task Force

1. Marijuana causes brain damage

The most celebrated study that claims to show brain damage is
the rhesus monkey study of Dr. Robert Heath, done in the late
1970s. This study was reviewed by a distinguished panel of
scientists sponsored by the Institute of Medicine and the National
Academy of Sciences. Their results were published under the title,
Marijuana and Health in 1982. Heath's work was sharply criticized
for its insufficient sample size (only four monkeys), its failure
to control experimental bias, and the misidentification of normal
monkey brain structure as "damaged". Actual studies of human
populations of marijuana users have shown no evidence of brain
damage. For example, two studies from 1977, published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed no
evidence of brain damage in heavy users of marijuana. That same
year, the American Medical Association (AMA) officially came out in
favor of decriminalizing marijuana. That's not the sort of thing
you'd expect if the AMA thought marijuana damaged the brain.

2. Marijuana damages the reproductive system

This claim is based chiefly on the work of Dr. Gabriel Nahas,
who experimented with tissue (cells) isolated in petri dishes, and
the work of researchers who dosed animals with near-lethal amounts
of cannabinoids (i.e., the intoxicating part of marijuana). Nahas'
generalizations from his petri dishes to human beings have been
rejected by the scientific community as being invalid. In the case
of the animal experiments, the animals that survived their ordeal
returned to normal within 30 days of the end of the experiment.
Studies of actual human populations have failed to demonstrate that
marijuana adversely affects the reproductive system.

3. Marijuana is a "gateway" drug -- it leads to hard drugs

This is one of the more persistent myths. A real world
example of what happens when marijuana is readily available can be
found in Holland. The Dutch partially legalized marijuana in the
1970s. Since then, hard drug use -- heroin and cocaine -- have
DECLINED substantially. If marijuana really were a gateway drug,
one would have expected use of hard drugs to have gone up, not
down. This apparent "negative gateway" effect has also been
observed in the United States. Studies done in the early 1970s
showed a negative correlation between use of marijuana and use of
alcohol. A 1993 Rand Corporation study that compared drug use in
states that had decriminalized marijuana versus those that had not,
found that where marijuana was more available -- the states that
had decriminalized -- hard drug abuse as measured by emergency room
episodes decreased. In short, what science and actual experience
tell us is that marijuana tends to substitute for the much more
dangerous hard drugs like alcohol, cocaine, and heroin.


4. Marijuana suppresses the immune system

Like the studies claiming to show damage to the reproductive
system, this myth is based on studies where animals were given
extremely high -- in many cases, near-lethal -- doses of
cannabinoids. These results have never been duplicated in human
beings. Interestingly, two studies done in 1978 and one done in
1988 showed that hashish and marijuana may have actually stimulated
the immune system in the people studied.

5. Marijuana is much more dangerous than tobacco

Smoked marijuana contains about the same amount of carcinogens
as does an equivalent amount of tobacco. It should be remembered,
however, that a heavy tobacco smoker consumes much more tobacco
than a heavy marijuana smoker consumes marijuana. This is because
smoked tobacco, with a 90% addiction rate, is the most addictive of
all drugs while marijuana is less addictive than caffeine. Two
other factors are important. The first is that paraphernalia laws
directed against marijuana users make it difficult to smoke safely.
These laws make water pipes and bongs, which filter some of the
carcinogens out of the smoke, illegal and, hence, unavailable. The
second is that, if marijuana were legal, it would be more
economical to have cannabis drinks like bhang (a traditional drink
in the Middle East) or tea which are totally non-carcinogenic.
This is in stark contrast with "smokeless" tobacco products like
snuff which can cause cancer of the mouth and throat. When all of
these facts are taken together, it can be clearly seen that the
reverse is true: marijuana is much SAFER than tobacco.

6. Legal marijuana would cause carnage on the highways

Although marijuana, when used to intoxication, does impair
performance in a manner similar to alcohol, actual studies of the
effect of marijuana on the automobile accident rate suggest that it
poses LESS of a hazard than alcohol. When a random sample of fatal
accident victims was studied, it was initially found that marijuana
was associated with RELATIVELY as many accidents as alcohol. In
other words, the number of accident victims intoxicated on
marijuana relative to the number of marijuana users in society gave
a ratio similar to that for accident victims intoxicated on alcohol
relative to the total number of alcohol users. However, a closer
examination of the victims revealed that around 85% of the people
intoxicated on marijuana WERE ALSO INTOXICATED ON ALCOHOL. For
people only intoxicated on marijuana, the rate was much lower than
for alcohol alone. This finding has been supported by other
research using completely different methods. For example, an
economic analysis of the effects of decriminalization on marijuana
usage found that states that had reduced penalties for marijuana
possession experienced a rise in marijuana use and a decline in
alcohol use with the result that fatal highway accidents decreased.
This would suggest that, far from causing "carnage", legal
marijuana might actually save lives.

7. Marijuana "flattens" human brainwaves

This is an out-and-out lie perpetrated by the Partnership for
a Drug-Free America. A few years ago, they ran a TV ad that
purported to show, first, a normal human brainwave, and second, a
flat brainwave from a 14-year-old "on marijuana". When researchers
called up the TV networks to complain about this commercial, the
Partnership had to pull it from the air. It seems that the
Partnership faked the flat "marijuana brainwave". In reality,
marijuana has the effect of slightly INCREASING alpha wave
activity. Alpha waves are associated with meditative and relaxed
states which are, in turn, often associated with human creativity.

8. Marijuana is more potent today than in the past

This myth is the result of bad data. The researchers who made
the claim of increased potency used as their baseline the THC
content of marijuana seized by police in the early 1970s. Poor
storage of this marijuana in un-air conditioned evidence rooms
caused it to deteriorate and decline in potency before any chemical
assay was performed. Contemporaneous, independent assays of
unseized "street" marijuana from the early 1970s showed a potency
equivalent to that of modern "street" marijuana. Actually, the
most potent form of this drug that was generally available was sold
legally in the 1920s and 1930s by the pharmaceutical company
Smith-Klein under the name, "American Cannabis".

9. Marijuana impairs short-term memory

This is true but misleading. Any impairment of short-term
memory disappears when one is no longer under the influence of
marijuana. Often, the short-term memory effect is paired with a
reference to Dr. Heath's poor rhesus monkeys to imply that the
condition is permanent.

10. Marijuana lingers in the body like DDT

This is also true but misleading. Cannabinoids are fat
soluble as are innumerable nutrients and, yes, some poisons like
DDT. For example, the essential nutrient, Vitamin A, is fat
soluble but one never hears people who favor marijuana prohibition
making this comparison.




LEGALIZE IT!!!!!!!!!

__________________
WORD TO YOUR MOTHER-everything i say here is not to be taken seriously, I only come on here to look cool. and man do i look cool.

actually i believe that marijuana is a gateway drug in the majority of cultures and societies
also i believe with better techniques marijuana has got better

__________________
Live above . Live above the influence
Fuck that, everybody just and live above the government.

Are you above the influence of ignorance? -- Above The IGNORANCE -- Marijuana and Cannabis Facts, Videos, Truths.

I highly suggest all to view this site if you have not

for the past 90 years or so the government has done nothing but lie to us about marijuana and im tired of it

__________________
Live above . Live above the influence
Fuck that, everybody just and live above the government.

it can only be a gateway drug IF YOU let it.

i dont really see your point about the majority of cultures and societies seeing it as a 'gateway' drug. every person makes there own dicisions.

if by smoking marijuana it makes you wonder how 'other' drugs would affect you, then thats your own decision if you want to try them or not.

__________________
WORD TO YOUR MOTHER-everything i say here is not to be taken seriously, I only come on here to look cool. and man do i look cool.

of course it is your decision but no one ever said it forced you to take other drugs
it just introduces you to those other drugs ore easily than if you have not smoked marijuana
also it introduces you to that lifestyle of drug users
most likely if you know potheads you know people who use other drugs
if you never smoked weed this would be less accesible to you
people around me who dont smoke weed rarely know shit about other drugs or where to find them
but potheads usually are much more educated and have dabbled in other drugs

__________________
Live above . Live above the influence
Fuck that, everybody just and live above the government.

gateway meaning it LEADS to new things. in this case 'harder drugs' ... i see what you are trying to say. but gateway is not the word your looking for.
an introductory drug would make sense a little better. it introduces a different lifestyle in a way. and its your decision to how you live your life. i think you said it the best, potheads usually are much more educated. but knowing about 'other harder drugs' and doing those drugs are two different subjects.

__________________
WORD TO YOUR MOTHER-everything i say here is not to be taken seriously, I only come on here to look cool. and man do i look cool.