Smoking marijuana does not increase the risk of lung cancer

Tobacco deformation

Patients and cannabis users from overseas are often lost when they arrive in Europe. In our country, joints are mixed with tobacco at a ratio several times higher than the cannabis content. In Canada, the United States and many other countries around the world, this is unacceptable. Even the heavy tobacco smokers across the big pond would not think of mixing tobacco and ganja.

They generally cling very much to the separation of tobacco use, the consumption of which the vast majority of them have a problem with, unlike cannabis, with which only a tiny or no percentage have a problem. In Holland and Germany, many patients smoke their prescribed marijuana with a mammoth tobacco content that American patients would just shake their heads in puzzlement at.

This phenomenon can probably be explained by different histories in black markets in different parts of the world. Until the late 1990s, Europeans preferred hashish, which they smoked exclusively pure from pipes. Today, in the Netherlands and other European countries, smoking joints is the preferred method, but these often have problems with combustion due to the large weight.

In the 1960s and 1980s, weed dominated the black market in the USA. Slimmer joints were packaged, which were as strong as the European ones and at the same time did not have much problem with burning when properly grinned. Today, Americans prefer to vaporize hash, which is both more affordable and more acceptable to them than packing joints.

Europeans rolls with tobacco

The fact that European studies have come out negative for marijuana inhalation probably stems from the fact that most of the people tested are also tobacco-marijuana mix smokers or have been in the past. However, in order to obtain objective study results, it is obviously necessary to test only long-term smokers of pure marijuana.

It is these much more accurate studies that are being done by Med-Cannabis in the US and Canada due to a more liberal approach to cannabis use and research. The results of the research are uniform: unlike tobacco, there is no relationship between smoking cannabis and the development of upper respiratory tract diseases, as well as the development of lung cancer. The latest published study says the following:

Regular inhalation of Marijuana does not cause any significant change in the lungs of users. The risk of lung disease associated with cannabis use is very low and incomparably low with tobacco use.

Since 2006, at least four studies have been published confirming this academic work, which collectively compares around 5,000 cases. The 2013 ‘Effects of Marijuana Smoking on the Lung‘ published by the American Thorax Society classifies marijuana smoking as beneficial to the lungs rather than carcinogenic. This research was conducted by renowned lung specialist Professor Donald Tashkin.

In a series of publications he has repeatedly demonstrated the stimulant properties of marijuana on the upper respiratory tract and the absence of a carcinogenic effect on the lungs. Tashkin was formerly one of the leading pulmonologists in the US who was commissioned during the Reagan administration to produce negative results in research on cannabis smoking in order to scientifically justify the significant tightening of cannabis management that was the responsibility of the “cowboy” policy in the early 1980s.

Tashkin did what was asked of him, but at the same time found the subject of his study for the next 30 years. There can now be no doubt that, among lung specialists, it is Tashkin who is working most intensively in research into the effects of cannabis on the lungs. His latest study was conducted on 1,200 subjects and the results on the development of lung cancer were negative even in smokers who had smoked over 20,000 joints in their lifetime. In 2009, a former enemy of cannabis noted this :

In the past, I was under the impression from my research that if marijuana has a negative effect on the lungs, it should not be legalised because of the negative impact on public health. This is not the case today. I am convinced that cannabis should not be stigmatised as an illegal substance. Tobacco and alcohol are incomparably more dangerous substances, both in terms of health and social loss.

Problems with the consumption of tobacco mixes in joints.

Unfortunately, there are many health problems associated with smoking tobacco mixes in joints. Even smoking pure marijuana is a bad way to go compared to vaping or eating cannabis edibles. Given today’s healthy lifestyle trend, it is logical that cannabis users are increasingly favouring these completely harmless, and in effect healthful, ways of consumption. During the cannabis renaissance in the 1970s, few people were aware of the risks associated with smoking tobacco, which is why tobacco joints were readily accepted by the general public.

Smoking tobacco joints carries mainly the risk of addiction, although only the psychological dependence of vaping on cannabis makes most of the consumers addicted to nicotine. Most of these people will tell you “I have no problem without weed, I’ll just smoke more cigarettes”. Another plus for consuming pure cannabis compared to mixes is that there is no problem taking longer breaks for recreational use. Last but not least, consuming pure cannabis has an effect on the final effect. Those who know the difference know that they are more relaxed but also tired when consuming tobacco mixes.

Does smoking cannabis help fight lung cancer ?

Tumor biopsies in THC-treated animals showed that it has tumor-suppressive properties on the diseases of the test animals. Our study recommends further research on cannabinoid substances as a new alternative therapy to limit the growth of metastases in certain types of lung cancer.

Freedom of choice

Since the triumphant rise of vaporization, the vast majority of “cannabis patients” are familiar with the fact that vaping and eating is the healthiest known form of cannabis consumption. However, it stands to reason that joints will not just disappear from cannabis culture. However, the rolling of pure joints is increasingly accepted in society because it does not dissuade tobacco opponents.