Cannabis could be major public health hazard
Despite widespread belief to the contrary, smoking cannabis has similar effects to the consumption of tobacco, with the onset of a variety of lung diseases likely to occur much earlier in those who prefer pot.
Tobacco cigarettes kill 120,000 every year in the UK, and because of the similarity to cannabis, a toxicologist from Imperial College London has warned that ten of thousands could be putting themselves at similar risk by pursuing their pot habit.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, Professor John Henry is calling for more research into the effects of marijuana, a clear public health message on its wide-ranging risks, and support for prevention and cessation strategies that have already proved successful on the tobacco front.
Smoking cannabis causes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and a litany of other respiratory problems, especially in younger smokers. There is also evidence of lung, tongue, and other cancers in marijuana smokers.
The active ingredient in pot can cause sudden death, with the risks of heart attack quadrupling in the hour after smoking cannabis.
While the link between cannabis and increased risk of mental illness – especially schizophrenia and depression – is well documented, there has been less research into how pot can damage a smokers lungs and heart.
Epidemiological evidence is hard to pin down because marijuana is a relatively modern habit, and the potency continually fluctuates.
The “Nederweed” smoked in Holland is twice as potent as that commonly used in the UK, and the concentration of British weed has increased ten fold in the last couple of decades. An added complication is the wide variety in the sizes of spliffs consumed.
But Prof. Henry points out tobacco and cannabis emit a similar cocktail of chemicals when smoked, and though cannabis smokers indulge less frequently, the way a joint is smoked ensures a much greater retention of these substances.
Britain’s 13 million strong population of tobacco smokers is steadily decreasing, thanks to a barrage of public health campaigns, but this gradual success for health officials is being diminished by a mirroring increase in the number turning to cannabis.
Prof. Henry reports that between 1999 and 2001, the number of 14 to 15-year-olds who had tried cannabis rose from 19% to 29% in boys and 18% to 25% in girls, while the Home Office estimates that 3.2 million people in Britain smoke cannabis.
Although many of these youngsters are simply engaged in teenage experimentation with illicit substances and will not remain dedicated pot smokers, there will be a significant portion that continue to indulge, and carry the associated risks.
