A common montra of those who partake in the psychoactive drug marijuana, is that no one has ever died an overdose, whether that be through inhalation or digestion. This montra instils a false sense of security in which marijuana is not a "bad" drug for you, and that there are no negative effects. But a recent study published in Radiology made some staggering findings in observing chest CT findings in Marijuana smokers.
This study found that 75% of of solely marijuana smokers studied had developed emphysema. Furthermore, it was found that rates of bronchial thickening, bronchiectasis, and mucoid impaction were higher among marijuana smokers compared to their tobacco only smoking and control participants. Emphysema is a subset of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which itself is not fatal but is an overall long term disability and can lead to an early death. And although there is no documented deaths associated with an overdose, those who do smoke should not become overconfident in their assumptions.
As marijuana continues to be legalized in more states, and overall more prevalent in society. It should be realized that there are long term effects that should be considered when partaking in such activities, especially when there are many modes of ingestion. Overall those who do smoke should get checked for ailments related to emphysema so that it can be caught early and treated, and marijuana should not simply be considered a "safe" drug to take.
https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/radiol.212611
https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/copd/learn-about-copd
I found your post interesting because my physiology group performed a study investigating differences in S. aureus colonization differences between tobacco and marijuana differences, as well as mix user groups and non-smokers. We hypothesized that marijuana users would have lower rates of S. aureus infections and those that we did find would have have fewer virulence phenotypes, as well as less antibiotic resistance in part due to less suspected mutagenic agents. Unfortunately, we were unable to find any statistical differences between these groups. This may have been due to low participant spread amongst our 4 groups.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to compare your findings to tobacco users and had difficulty finding studies that specifically focused on emphysema rather than the more general banner of COPD. For the sake of having something to compare your articles findings too, I did find an article claiming that the age-adjusted prevalence of COPD was 15.2% for active tobacco smokers. I do not think we can make a direct comparison between the two numbers. Still a striking figure and a strong argument for continued research into the various forms of smoke inhalation.
I wonder if the absence of a filter could contribute to the development of emphysema. The CDC states that long-term exposure to lung irritants can contribute to COPD.
sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6586372/
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/diseases/copd.html
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ReplyDeleteOftentimes, people believe that smoking marijuana is less harmful than smoking tobacco. However, I enjoyed that your post was able to address this common misconception and show that the mode of intake is what is harmful not necessarily the substance being inhaled. However, your article did show that emphysema rates were higher in marijuana smokers than in tobacco smokers. This post prompted me to contemplate whether or not ingesting marijuana was really better than smoking it. In order to investigate this question I was able to find an article that said that ingesting marijuana edibles avoids the lung and emphysema risks, however, it is more common for people to take too much with edibles since the effect occurs more slowly. Here is the article below if you want to read more!
ReplyDeletehttps://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03-edible-cannabis-weed-health-effects.html