16th November 2004, 4:24 PM
Quote:Marijuana is just about as bad as cigarettes. Re: my opinion on the legality of cigarettes.
There's a fairly new way of administering marijuana/tobacco called <a HREF="http://www.canorml.org/healthfacts/vaporizers.html">vaporization</a>:
Quote:Vaporization is a technique for avoiding irritating respiratory toxins in marijuana smoke by heating cannabis to a temperature where the psychoactive ingredients evaporate without causing combustion.
Laboratory studies by California NORML and MAPS have found that vaporizers can efficiently deliver cannabinoids while eliminating or drastically reducing other smoke toxins.
Like tobacco, marijuana smoke contains toxins that are known to be hazardous to the respiratory system. Among them are the highly carcinogenic polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, a prime suspect in cigarette-related cancers. These toxins are essentially a byproduct of combustion, separate from the pharmaceutically active components of marijuana, known as cannabinoids, which include THC. Although there is no proof that marijuana smoking causes cancer, chronic pot smokers have been shown to suffer an elevated risk of bronchitis and respiratory infections. Respiratory disease due to smoking may therefore rightly be regarded as the primary physiological hazard of marijuana.
Basically, with vaporizers, a flame never comes into contact with the cannabis/tobacco. Think of a test tube with one of the two inside, and a flame underneath, heating the substance into a clear-to-whitish vapor. With the hazardous smoke factor out of the equation, what's your opinion?