You Need To Think Before You Roll
by Lefteri Theodorakis

For years, people have considered marijuana a safe alternative to cigarettes, but a new study has shown that it can be more cancerous than tobacco.

Cannabis Sativa, or Marijuana, has a lot of street names. Some of the many names include weed, puff, ganja, Mary Jane, wacky backy, reefer, black widow, bud crystals and the list goes on. People smoke and use variants of marijuana because they hold the belief that marijuana has little or no effect on its users. This is a huge misconception.

Physiological effects of marijuana are paranoia, impaired short-term memory and impaired or reduced comprehension. The long term effects include enhanced cancer risk, decreased testosterone levels or low sperm count in men, increased testosterone levels in women.

Marijuana affects the lungs by increasing the cancer risks due to the carcinogens and irritants that are found in it. This is specific to marijuana users because they inhale deeper and hold their breath longer than the regular smoker does. This increases the carcinogenic risks of marijuana usage. 50 to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons are found in marijuana than in cigarettes.

According to a study done by the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, smoking a single cannabis joint is equivalent to smoking 2.5 to 5 cigarettes in the terms of damage to lungs. Marijuana smokers reported symptoms such as wheezing, coughing, chest tightness and increased phlegm after smoking.

Tetrahydrocannabinol, better known as THC, is the main psychoactive substance found in cannabis. THC, if smoked, it reduces the numbers of small, fine airways that transport oxygen and waste products to and from blood vessels in the lungs. Not only does this obstruct the airflow from the lungs to the rest of the body, it makes the lungs work harder in doing their job.

Regardless of efforts of the government to regulate marijuana usage, marijuana is still the number one used illegal drug in the U.S. Perhaps through education, people will understand that marijuana is not the risk-free drug that it was thought to be, and in the future may think twice of their usage of this harmful illegal substance.