Is marijuana bad for you?

Now to start this thread off, I would like to say that I am in no way am a smoker. I have smoked swishers and cigars, but that was in my past, but enough with that. I was wondering what your opinion on marijuana is. I believe it is a horrible substance that can eventually kill your brain and lungs. At school lately, we have had discussions and arguments on whether it is bad or not. I believe so, because when inhaling any type of smoke into your lungs, that could be fatal. It is said that there are more deaths caused by airplanes than marijuana aka "weed". My fellow class mates are always saying that there has never been any recorded deaths due to weed, but I believe that could be false. Give me your thoughts!

 

I'm sure smoke in your lungs isnt good for you.

 

Well I mean clearly, I didnt mean for it to sound like I didn't know that.

 

Oh no. I wasn't thinking that. =P

 

You don' t have to use tobacco nor to be a regular smoker to consume weed (it can be cooked for instance). If I am to believe my college physics teacher then average lungs can eliminate one cigarette a day. Weed itself, smoked pure, is much less harmful than tobacco. There is indeed no recorded death due to marijuana, you can' t overdose on it.

Consuming marijuana, as for most kind of consumptions, is basically a trade-off. It can kill you slowly in high doses, increases mental diseases risks, affects driving skills (though not as much as alcohol does) and is addictive. It also gives you pleasure, boosts creativity, shifts your perspective on things and has many medicinal uses.

Basically I wouldn' t recommend it to anyone, but I don' t condone responsible users either.

 

So i.g. Brownies? Would those be harmful to the body? I know a buddy of mine that just did them, and I'm a little nervous for him

 

Basically you first cook marijuana butter, which you can then use to replace normal butter in any recipe. Cookies, lollipops, ice-cream, you name it.

On the upside it doesn' t make you smoke tobacco and it allows you to consume 90% of the THC (the molecule that makes you high), as opposed to 30% when you smoke it, so it' s cheaper. On the downside the effects are delayed, they kick in one or two hours after eating, and it still increases the odds for you to get mental diseases if you' re genetically predisposed to them (hard for me to say if that' s the case for your buddy, ask him if there' s a history for crazies in his family tree).

 

This basically, but I can say that based on experience, it can fry you out. It's not any more dangerous than tobacco or alcohol, arguably less dangerous than the two, but it still requires responsibility and moderation. Much of the drug's danger comes from its illegality, in my opinion--possession is a crime, selling it is a crime, buying it is a crime, etc., so depending on where you're getting it from, there might be some shady stuff going on. In addition, we don't really teach people ( at least, in America ) about the effects of it & how to handle it responsibly.

There are claims that it is a "gateway drug" and there is some merit to them, but casual or recreational smokers I don't think have too much to worry about beyond the surface effects. However, medicinal marijuana could potentially be a great thing if it were legal. It has its benefits, you're probably better staying away from it than anything, but if you're responsible about it it won't kill you any faster than a cigarette.

 

Nah, it's not terribly dangerous. There isn't any record of a person OD'ing on marijuana and as far as drugs go, it's safer than alcohol and tobacco and pharmaceuticals. The smoke isn't as harmful, because there's no tar in it like cigarettes, but there are edibles and you can use a vaporizer (both of which give much more powerful effects). Like with anything though, you can become dependent on it or even addicted if you predisposed to, but otherwise, recreational use of it won't hurt you. Just be responsible.

 

I've heard over and over again that it affects your health of physical standing very little, I'll take their word for it, but I can't tell you how many people I've seen that have almost entirely surrendered their lives to it.

There are things other than your health that can be damaged by smoking it.

 

It depends on how he handles it. If he's gonna be one of those "smoke all day erry day" type, then he should stay away from it.

 

I've smoked marijuana regularly for the last six years (since I was 15). I've smoked cigarettes since the same age and I've been drinking for the last two years. Hell, I'll probably buy some weed this weekend or, if I'm lacking in funds, next weekend. I've used joints, pipes, blunts, bongs, bottles, cans, apples, vaporizers, brownies, etc. (you know that joke about giving potheads weed and nothing to smoke out of and suddenly, they're all engineers? It's true). I started after a year of peer pressure (also, found myself with extra money and my plans canceled for the day). At first, at least 4 times a week on a good week. After I came to college, I cut down to a few times a month (mostly because of a broken wallet).
All I can say is that I've never had an ill physical effects aside from one time where I became sick afterwards (but that was some pretty bad weed). The only socially ill effects were from my own irresponsibility such as doing it before work, driving afterwards, or spending money that I didn't have.
Granted, I understand that the bad effects tend to be more long term than short term, but from both research and experience, I find very little to be wrong with "the bud." My grades have never slipped because of it (hell, they got better the year that I started except when I would skip school to smoke, but hey, irresponsibility), it's helped me feel better when I've been emotionally unstable, it's helped me sleep and even eat sometimes when I couldn't for personal reasons. I've never sat around after smoking and thought, "Hey, let's do some meth, guys." Yes, I have my own list of "harder" drugs that I want to experience (curious? Shrooms, X, and LSD), but that's more of a bucket-list kind of thing that I've had for years.
With marijuana, the thing is the same with alcohol: responsibility.

 

Never taken any but being in the presence of it being smoked, it made me feel ****. Not even like I am against it and was expecting to but I really felt bad, light headed, sick, stuff i've never had when being around cigarettes.

Learning more about the mental health problems associated with it, I am more against it then for it no, around the same feeling I have for alcohol which I find to be terrible for health and your life in general.

At it's core for me, it's the long term health effects and addiction that makes me dislike it. As much as I do cigarettes, alcohol, even gambling. Addictions are terrible to have, terrible to see, terrible for your life, for others, it's something I hate to see, filling me to be sad, angry, disgusted on some level.

 

Same thing exactly for me. I sometimes have had the sudden urge to try it, and the more I think about it, the more I want it. Ya know? Than I realize that I think it's pretty terrible. People say that inhaling it does nothing to your lungs, but I think putting anything black into your lungs is deadly...

 

Personally, I would say stay away from it regardless, but I have a certain respect for people who use it responsibly and don't let it control them.

 

I don't smoke, or drink, or anything, but I think I'm still biased. I'm from western Canada, where, as far as I can tell, literally everyone is high. But honestly, it amazes me that marijuana is so harshly criminalized yet cigarettes and alcohol get a free pass. I have friends who smoke weed regularly, and the worst thing that has happened to them was they ate an entire turkey.
At the end of the day, my argument has always been this: marijuana has medicinal purposes. Cigarettes don't.

 

Sure it is bad for you, expecialy in long term use... but should be illegal ? There are a huge number of things that are bad for you, yet they're still sold like alchool, tabaco, french fries, chocolates, and even normal medicine.
the problem is, it is illegal now, and for something become legal there are a huge number of problems, the first is that there are currently illigal drug dealers and cartels, and criminals that exist because the demand exists and the suply proves to make profit. The problem is that the crimes due to the substance being illegal are now to strong and it would not backoff just because marijuana is legal, they would use the place where it is legal to fill their suply and sell elsewhere, when drug dealers come other crimes follows so It is a bit tricky to make it legal in the short-term.

If it were legal from the begning it could have had a similar relation that Alchool/Tabaco have with the governements, high taxation that enables programs to control the use, and make people stay away from it, there would be less organized crimes (like gangsters during that law of no alchool), so in the logical sense it shouldn't be illegal, in the pratical sense it can't be legal , not now anyway.

 

My thought is that it should legal to buy and sell, but illegal to use in open air in public, just like what the law should be for tobacco. Ideally, there would be smoking booths for marijauna and tobacco so they could be used in public, and use on private property would be restricted to the owner's policies.

Seriously, I've walked past people who were smoking marijuana and it smells terrible. Tobacco isn't as bad because my dad smokes, but I hate that smell too.

 

Honestly anything is bad for you. I believe smoking cigarettes and such is worse than marijuana, however marijuana is still bad for you in the amount and ways people smoke it. Of course even medicine in the appropriate portions can kill you. It has it's uses.

Now on to the legality of medical marijuana. Honestly, I couldn't care if it was legal or not. Not much would change, as businesses would still not hire you if you failed a drug test. The only thing that would change would be you wouldn't go to jail for smoking it. There's a lot of theories and proposals as to why a nation could prosper over legalizing marijuana, but the truth is, employment rates would most likely drop. People would be less inclined to go out and find a good job, for fear of failing a drug test. And even though legal, any legitimate business who is serious about what they do, would never hire someone under the influence of marijuana. Specifically jobs involving machinery. It's not only a hazard to the employee, but also the employee's around them, and the employer would lose money for any mistakes or slacking off.

Marijuana has, and more than likely will, remain "illegal" and it won't get you anywhere in life if you're using it for the wrong reasons. Think what you will, but what can you really do while you're looking down from the clouds?

 

I honestly don't see a problem with weed at all. I personally wouldn't smoke it, but there's nothing wrong with it from what I see. Unless you either got it laced with something, and that's where the problems begin. Instead of smoking I used to Illegal Street Race, but that's about it really. I stopped when I was 16, and even my Street Race buddies some of them took some tokes of some kush and were doings speeds of 165 plus so there's not a problem with it. Just from what I saw besides Street Racing being illegal and safety issues blah blah blah. Yea they were doing 165 Plus and drove fine so if it impairs your driving that much then tell them that.