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|  PREVIOUS MESSAGE | | | | | | AUTHOR: | scryingglass | DATE: 05/25/03 8:07am | | SUBJECT: |  Re: Fiance wants to try herbal smoking!!! | | IN REPLY TO: Fiance wants to try herbal smoking!!!
AUTHOR: hastings | | | I think you really are making a bigger deal out this. For one to my understanding, he's not even talking about marajuana, and they are legal and more healthier than regualar cigarrettes, more and more people are trying to find healthier alternatives to the unhealthy standard cigarette and if anything he's making a responsible choice, next to quitting that is.
On a nother note, even if he was speaking of marajuana, it's not a "drug" like the ones that it so commonly and mistakenly gets catagorized with, the addictive kind that is. It's not even as harmfull as ciggarettes!
Marijuana does contain more tar than tobacco -- but low tar cigarettes cause just as much cancer, so what is that supposed to mean? Scientists have shown that smoking any plant is bad for your lungs, because it increases the number of `lesions' in your small airways. This usually does not threaten your life, but there is a chance it will lead to infections.
Tobacco contains nicotine, and marijuana doesn't. Nicotine may harden the arteries and may be responsible for much of the heart disease caused by tobacco. New research has found that it may also cause a lot of the cancer in tobacco smokers and people who live or work where tobacco is smoked. This is because it breaks down into a cancer causing chemical called `N Nitrosamine' when it is burned (and maybe even while it is inside the body as well.)
Marijuana contains THC. THC is a bronchial dilator, which means it works like a cough drop and opens up your lungs, which aids clearance of smoke and dirt. Nicotine does just the opposite; it makes your lungs bunch up and makes it harder to cough anything up.
There are benefits from marijuana (besides bronchial dilation) that you don't get from tobacco. Mainly, marijuana makes you relax, which proves your health and well-being.
There are 40 million people in this country (U.S.) who have smoked marijuana for a period of their lives. If marajuana is a gateway drug, why aren't there tens of millions of heroin users, then?
In Amsterdam, both marijuana use and heroin use went *down* after marijuana was decriminalized -- even though there was a short rise in cannabis use right after decriminalization.
Does Marijuana cause brain damage?
The short answer: No. The long answer: The reason why you ask this is because you probably heard or read somewhere that marijuana damages brain cells, or makes you stupid. These claims are untrue. The first one -- marijuana kills brain cells -- is based on research done during the second Reefer Madness Movement. A study attempted to show that marijuana smoking damaged brain structures in monkeys. However, the study was poorly performed and it was severely criticized by a medical review board. Studies done afterwards failed to show any brain damage, in fact a very recent study on Rhesus monkeys used technology so sensitive that scientists could actually see the effect of learning on brain cells, and it found no damage. | |  | |
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