Given its potential harm as well as benefits in health, it’s worthwhile that people in general as well as proponents for liberalization, myself included, know more about all its effects. We as a population would be better served if there were a middle ground between it’s and evil gateway drug and it’s a cure to many ailments and should not be regulated.
Whereas tobacco is ridiculously deleterious and causes oxidative damage directly iirc.
I used to think it was all about smoke inhalation but it’s not that simple.
That being said, obviously I agree that we need to study the effects of cannabis as much as possible.
That's about all the science on MJ smoke (vs vapor etc) that I really need to know.
Are you seriously willing to make the argument that that (which is the common way to smoke it) is not harmful ?
I mean, shred a paper, burn it, watch the burning threads rise. Now imagine these things on top of alveoli in the lungs. Despite their tiny size those threads are hundreds to thousands of times bigger than those alveoli. Now think of what happens to these things, when held against ~215 degrees celcius threads.
Harmless. Clearly.
In fact, with the except of one non-invasive prostate cancer, marijuana seems to have a protective effect against lung cancer.
It still does cause respiratory health problems in heavy smokers, but not nearly as significant as tobacco smoking.
tl;dr; according to the author's "Irresponsible Utilitarian Analysis," the statistically dominant factor in whether widely-legalized marijuana would be a net benefit or harm to society is its impact on driving. Since cars are, for most of us, the most dangerous thing in our lives, this probably makes a decent amount of sense.
