Cannabis joint hits lungs like 5 cigarettes

Researchers from the Medical Research Institute, New Zealand have found out that smoking Cannabis impacts the lungs two to five times more than smoking cigarette alone caused by deep inhaling and filter less joints.

The Cannabis smokers are impacted with lung disease far more than other tobacco smokers and non smokers. The cannabis users usually smoke their joints without filters and inhale deeply and because of this the smoke is hotter when it hits the lung directly compared to filtered cigarettes. The users also hold the breath longer to get a good high and thus causing damage to their lungs even more.

The New Zealand researchers did this experiment on 339 volunteers and divided them into four categories, one who smoke only cannabis, those who smoke tobacco only, those who smoke both Cannabis and tobacco, and those who smoke neither. Cannabis smoking causes decreased lung density on HRCT scans. Macroscopic emphysema was detected in 1/75 (1.3%), 15/92 (16.3%), 17/91 (18.9%) and 0/81 subjects in the cannabis only, combined cannabis and tobacco, tobacco alone and non-smoking groups. respectively.

The volunteers’ lungs were scanned by Computed Tomography (CT) to get a high-definition image of their lungs and tests were conducted to check their air flow or breathing efficiency (respiratory efficiency).

From the results, it is interesting to see those who smoke Cannabis only have a less or no significant influence in causing emphysema (Only 1 out of 75 users), but the testing of their lungs show far severe damages. Tobacco smokers and combined Cannabis and Tobacco smokers show serious damages of emphysema, a degenerative and crippling lung disease. Cannabis smokers had lighter symptoms such as wheeze, cough, chest tightness and phlegm, which tobacco smokers also had but with heavier symptoms.

The CT analysis showed that the cannabis smokers had more fine damages on their lungs. This had happened in small fine airways that are important for bringing in oxygen and taking away waste gases. As a result, their lungs had to work harder.

The damages were proportional to the number of Cannabis joints they smoked. In statistical terms, each joint contributed to damages equivalent of smoking two to five cigarettes.

Professor Richard Beasley, the lead researcher said the results are troubling since cannabis is the most widely used drug worldwide, an estimated 160 million people use cannabis (Source: UN Office on Drugs and Crime).

If the cannabis users still want to get high even after reading this New Zealand study, they should say adieu to their lungs.