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Doctors are to investigate the health risks of smoking cannabis after evidence of severe lung disease in young people who use the drug.
Onn Min Kon, a consultant physician of respiratory medicine at St Mary’s Hospital in London, has reported seeing many young cannibis smokers with lung diseases such as emphysema, which is normally diagnosed only in older tobacco smokers. “I’ve got a collection of young people who have lungs that look like they’re 65-year-olds,” he said.
Dr Kon now plans to study the lungs of patients who smoke cannabis and compare them with those who smoke only tobacco. When smoked, cannabis produces many of the same chemicals as tobacco, but may damage the airways to a greater extent.
In a 2002 report, the British Lung Foundation estimated that three to four cannabis cigarettes a day were associated with the same amount of damage to the lungs as 20 or more tobacco cigarettes a day.
The foundation said that while the dangers of lung cancer from smoking were well known, the risks of emphysema were often overlooked.
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i smoke cannabis daily and all day and have done for the past 10 years i use a vapourizer only which is a lot healthier i dont smoke tobacco and havnt for a few years i havnt had any problems (yet) with my brain or my lungs
ive read that research on animals has shown that the THC in cannabis when given in high doses for long periods of time actually reduces the size of cancer cells and seems to
kill off dying cells before they get a chance to mutate into cancerous cells. or something like that (its online google it if ya dont believe me)
i think a lot of the research is done based on people smoking joints which use unfiltered cigarette smoke which is far more harmful than a normal cigarette cos its unfiltered for starters.
the research should be done using people who only smoke pure cannabis without tobacco.
a lot of teens are also smoking whats called soap bar hash which is mixed with loads of other chemicals like henna, benzine, kerozine, wax etc not very healthy really
oliver , cambridge, uk
In memory of those soldiers who lost their heads in the ultimate battle, the Quest for Peace.
I have read the write up about three teen mugs who have killed a father after there day of drinking alcohol and smoking cannibis.
The charecteristics of the murders are a great example of 'mugs' in our society today. Their an embarressment to the marijuanna industry of smokers out there, people smoke the drug to live their life as a freedom, a social tool which can be enjoyed as an acepted risk of an individual decision making choice. Teenagers like these have no state of mind if they get involved in situations as such, they have Obviously been brought up into the wrong enviroment which they live around, and the influence they have grown around is not impressive to show their outcome.
I'm not supprised at all for the Wife of this man to be disgusted. Government, Law and Order should know better.
I just cannot believe they have been let off.
Sort it out and vanish the disgrace to world
Paul Brown, Nottingham, U.K
"Vaporizing is an alternative to smoking. Rather than burning the herb (which destroys some THC), a vaporizer heats the material (to usually 180 degrees Celsius) just enough so that the active compounds contained in the plant sublime (go from a solid to a gas) producing vapor, not smoke."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporizer
Mohamed, Calgary, Canada
"Lung disease is the least they have to worry about. Smoking Cannabis is akin to playing Russian Roulette with your brain."
Doesn't really need a comment does it? How such ignorance still exists ...
Peter, Lincs,
If the herb were to be legalized, there could be more research performed to make it safer to inhale. Prohibition has not ever worked, let's do something smart and right for a change and end prohibition for good!
Craig Patton, jacksonville, florida
we'll see...
nicolaus, san francisco,
Lung disease is the least they have to worry about. Smoking Cannabis is akin to playing Russian Roulette with your brain.
Paul, Rochester, UK
THe problem with cannabis use among youngsters is that it is usually mixed with tobacco and they inhale deeper and for longer incresing the problems associated with inhaling smoke.
There is a safe way to use cananbis as used by Medical users in the USA and Canada use a Vapourizer this doesn't burn the cannabis just heats it to vapourize the active ingredients.Such vapourizers eg a Volcano or Herbalair are completely safe as recent studies have shown.
The goverment if concerned about public health should infoem the public about this safe way of smoking cananbis.
Or you could just eat it!
John, Stafford, S.Yorkshire
Ho hum,
there are still some people who think that breathing smoke will not be harmful ? Incredible.
Edward Johns, Lannion, France