The (relative) dangers of marijuana

[Nick]

In Canada, alcohol, opium, and marijuana were made illegal under the same law. America followed suit. (I'm not sure about the other countries, so I won't claim I am.)

Marijuana was included in this, because of a book written by "Jake Canuck", the pen name of a one Emily Murphy, the first female member of parliament in Canada, and one of the suffragettes. (I think I spelled that wrong..)

In this book, she insisted that black people (in not so nice words...) smoke marijuana, and rape white women. That they get superhuman strength from smoking, and the "irrefusable urge to kill".

The book in it's entirety can almost be regarded as funny. What I don't find funny is that it's still the basis of our law today.

When the law was passed in Canada, most MPs did not know anything about marijuana, except for what they may have read about in Emily Murphy's book. We as people have NEVER been presented with real evidence as to why it was made illegal. This ridiculous book remains as the basis for the original law.

The reason why marijuana, and other drugs, are not illegal is because of the people making money off of them already. Lobby groups are ran by rich people, don't think that criminals are somehow excluded from politics. Organised crime and politics are synonymous.

[Pie]

alcahol is still legal in america, so is smoking, but marajuana is illigal, as for opium, what the heck is that?

[Nick]

Opium is basically unrefined heroine. Obtained from poppies.

Anyway, that's besides the point. The point was, they were all made illegal under the same law. Alcohol was, as we all (even you, Pie) know, is legal again.

But marijuana wasn't as common back then. When alcohol was relegalised, marijuana still remained legal.

The point is, the reason marijuana is illegal and alcohol is legal, is mainly because there are so many more alcohol users. People refer to drugs these days as "drugs and alcohol". Why "and alcohol"? Alcohol is a drug too, and one that kills MANY people every year, at that.

More people die from hot dogs or ladders than marijuana.

[formerly known as hf]

we're proabably deviating from the original thread... but I just want to point out that smoking marijuana the way most users do carries with it the same risks of cancer etc. as smoking cigarettes does - it's not any safer - it kills less as the side-effects are not always directly attributed to marijuana smoking, and because there are less users than there are smokers. It's just as dangerous as cigarette smoking (but not more so) - unless you cook with it or make tea...

[Nick]

we're proabably deviating from the original thread... but I just want to point out that smoking marijuana the way most users do carries with it the same risks of cancer etc. as smoking cigarettes does - it's not any safer - it kills less as the side-effects are not always directly attributed to marijuana smoking, and because there are less users than there are smokers. It's just as dangerous as cigarette smoking (but not more so) - unless you cook with it or make tea...

As a heavy smoker of both cigarettes and marijuana, I'm going to have to disagree on that.

I smoke about a pack a day. Each cigarette is about a gram of tobacco. In Canada tobacco is rather pricy, so that comes to 10 dollars a pack (I'm poor and smoke rolled cigarettes, but for arguments sake anyway...)

I smoke maybe 2 grams a day of marijuana, on average. A gram in Canada costs 10 dollars. If I were to smoke the same ammount as I did tobacco, that is, 25 grams a day, that would cost me around 180 dollars a day, at the cheapest. Not to mention I would pretty much have to do nothing all day but smoke, because it would take quite a while to smoke 25 grams.

Point is, marijauna smokers smoke a lot less joints than smokers smoke cigarettes.

Also, the structure of marijauna smoke is different so that it travels the larger paths of the lungs, rather than the smaller passages which tobacco smoke passes through, which causes lung diseases like bronchitis.

[formerly known as hf]

so you use marijuana straight?

usually, like most users, to make a joint I mix 'marijuana' with baccy...

but, yes, most skunk users don't do it to the same extent that cigarette smokers do. This doesn't make it safer, it just makes it relatively safer due to methods of use, i.e: quanitity

[Nick]

usually, like most users, to make a joint I mix 'marijuana' with baccy...

Well of course, the burning temperature of tobacco is much lower than that of marijuana, so mixing "clip" (as we canadians would call the added tobacco) into it makes it burn better. But I know I'd only add like maybe, 10% tobacco compared to the volume of marijuana.

But in terms of the volume of tobacco I smoke through joints, compared to the tobacco I smoke on in cigarettes... it's... "nothing worth mentioning".

[formerly known as hf]

we could debate forever the relative safety or not of marijuana - I'm not trying to say it's deadly, just that it shouldn't be portrayed as being especially safe compared to other drugs, legal or not. It's as harmful, not especially more or less so...

[Nick]

we could debate forever the relative safety or not of marijuana - I'm not trying to say it's deadly, just that it shouldn't be portrayed as being especially safe compared to other drugs, legal or not. It's as harmful, not especially more or less so...

Compared to what drug? Give me a more firm argument and I'll be quick to try and prove it wrong.
I'd think more damage is done in total to the lungs of humans by car fumes than marijuana.
More people get killed by pro wrestling, lightning, banana peels, or niagra falls, than direct deaths from marijuana.

[formerly known as hf]

I'd think more damage is done in total to the lungs of humans by car fumes than marijuana.
More people get killed by pro wrestling, lightning, banana peels, or niagra falls, than direct deaths from marijuana.

Of course - there are more cars than there are marijuana smokers - (there is more pollution than there is marijuana smoke) - the same with the rest

As I pointed out earlier, it is very difficult, because of the nature of the illness, to attribute death to marijuana smoking.

Most deaths due to cigarette smoking are classified as 'lung cancer' etc.
And as you point out, most marijuana smokers also smoke tobacco, even if it's just in the joint - making it doubly difficult to atribute any death to marijuana as opposed to others

[Savanik]

I doubt that graph.

Someone who smokes cigarettes is MORE dependant on cigarettes than a herion user is on herion? I don't recall many stories about people being mugged for cigarette money.

Or maybe they're using some new, strange definition of 'dependence' that I'm not familiar with.

Sav

[Nick]

Well again, even if it were legal I'd have trouble smoking enough weed in a day to ammount up to be on par with what most cigarette smokers smoke.

So, is the main argument you're saying for the harm of marijuana being it's effects on the lungs?

[Nick]

I doubt that graph.

Someone who smokes cigarettes is MORE dependant on cigarettes than a herion user is on herion? I don't recall many stories about people being mugged for cigarette money.

Or maybe they're using some new, strange definition of 'dependence' that I'm not familiar with.

Sav

Check the "withdrawal" part of the graph, Sav.

Point is, a heroine user can get by (moreso) during the day if they get minimal use of heroine, rather than their normal dosage. As long as they get high at some point.

If I'm screaming for a cigarette, and somebody gives me one, I'm going to be just as bad, half an hour later.

[formerly known as hf]

yes, on the lungs, it is linked to other psychological problems, but not moreso than any other kind of addiction is.

As for how bad it is for the lungs compared to tobacco - it's less dangerous - not by a huge amount - inhaling any kind of smoke is dangerous.

I just don't like pictures of marijuana to be painted as it being so much less dangerous than anything else - it's as dangerous, maybe less so, maybe slightly moreso depending on the statistics you choose to look at - not overwhelmingly more dangerous or less dangerous

[Nick]

I disagree. Compared to other "drugs", it's incredibly less dangerous.
Many people overdose on tylenol, cocaine, heroine, amphetamines, ecstacy, etc EVERY YEAR
There are no recorded deaths of overdose of marijuana. It's been said you would need to smoke twice your body weight. For me, that's an incredible 270 pounds of weed. I'd die from lack of oxygen if I could smoke the last of it before the first of it was out of my system.