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Marijuana Smokers Face Rapid Lung Destruction -- As Much As 20 Years Ahead Of Tobacco Smokers
Science Daily ^ | (Jan. 27, 2008) | staff

Posted on 01/27/2008 5:32:48 AM PST by saganite

A new study finds that the development of bullous lung disease occurs in marijuana smokers approximately 20 years earlier than tobacco smokers.

A condition often caused by exposure to toxic chemicals or long-term exposure to tobacco smoke, bullous lung disease (also known as bullae) is a condition where air trapped in the lungs causes obstruction to breathing and eventual destruction of the lungs.

At present, about 10% of young adults and 1% of the adult population smoke marijuana regularly. Researchers find that the mean age of marijuana-smoking patients with lung problems was 41, as opposed to the average age of 65 years for tobacco-smoking patients.

The study "Bullous Lung Disease due to Marijuana" also finds that the bullous lung disease can easily go undetected as patients suffering from the disease may show normal chest X-rays and lung functions. High-resolution CT scans revealed severe asymmetrical, variably sized bullae in the patients studied. However, chest X-rays and lung functions were normal in half of them.

Lead author Dr. Matthew Naughton says, "What is outstanding about this study is the relatively young ages of the lung disease patients, as well as the lack of abnormality on chest X-rays and lung functions in nearly half of the patients we tested."

He added, "Marijuana is inhaled as extremely hot fumes to the peak inspiration and held for as long as possible before slow exhalation. This predisposes to greater damage to the lungs and makes marijuana smokers are more prone to bullous disease as compared to cigarette smokers."

Patients who smoke marijuana inhale more and hold their breath four times longer than cigarette smokers. It is the breathing manoeuvres of marijuana smokers that serve to increase the concentration and pulmonary deposition of inhaled particulate matter – resulting in greater and more rapid lung destruction.

This paper is published in the January 2008 issue of Respirology.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: marijuana; mrleroymourns
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LOL! Think they will stop prescribing medical marijuana in Kali after this?

Nah!

1 posted on 01/27/2008 5:32:52 AM PST by saganite
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To: saganite

If you look back on my posts on the subject of marijuana over the years I have been in FR, you will see that I am no pro-drug libertarian. I am no pro-drug anything.

However, I am highly (no pun) skeptical of this “study”.

Marijuana smokers have been around a long time. I don’t see pieces of coughed-up lung on the subway, and I ride the NYC subway every day, and I’m sure there’s more than a few potheads riding with me.

This sounds like Reefer Madness to me.


2 posted on 01/27/2008 5:37:33 AM PST by samtheman
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To: saganite
LOL! Think they will stop prescribing medical marijuana in Kali after this?

Why are these side effects any more dire than 90% of other prescription drugs?

Think they care? More business for them.

When my youngest son was going through the tortures of hell in the early 80's with the cut-burn-poison regime of cancer treatment, they gave him 'medical marijuana" to combat nausea. It was in pill form and did diddly - he threw it away after the first week

3 posted on 01/27/2008 5:39:23 AM PST by maine-iac7 (",,,but you can't fool all of the people all the time" LINCOLN)
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To: saganite

Doctors don’t prescribe it in California. They can only make what are called “recommendations”.


4 posted on 01/27/2008 5:39:35 AM PST by Mojave
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To: samtheman

I don’t see coughed up lung myself but what’s that supposed to prove. Good grief, come up with something more substantive than that as an excuse to dismiss the study!


5 posted on 01/27/2008 5:39:35 AM PST by saganite (Lust type what you what in the “tagline” space)
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To: saganite
extremely hot fumes

Dude! Get a bong.

6 posted on 01/27/2008 5:40:56 AM PST by csvset
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To: maine-iac7

The article isn’t talking about marijuana in pill form. If you read it, it specifically refers to marijuana ingested through smoke.


7 posted on 01/27/2008 5:41:18 AM PST by saganite (Lust type what you what in the “tagline” space)
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To: samtheman

Gotta keep that WOD going, man. The govt relies on the forfeiture incomes now. Cops have excellent second incomes by stealing form the homes they raid and selling the stuff later after stealing it from the evidence room. No way it can ever be stopped, even though it is a complete and total failure on all levels.

The Pharisees of the Public Temple gotta have these issues to prove how superior they are to everyone else.


8 posted on 01/27/2008 5:42:27 AM PST by Seruzawa
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To: samtheman

Heavy drug use, drinkin, smoking.....whatever you abuse and put into your body WILL show in the body. Forty year olds who have lived this lifestyle look sixty. It all adds up, especially when you do all of the above.


9 posted on 01/27/2008 5:44:51 AM PST by tioga (Beware: conservative with back to the wall. Proceed with extreme caution.)
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To: saganite

I’m not trying to prove anything. I am not a medical researcher.

I am just coughing-up my gut reaction to this story. Marijuana smokers have been around in very large numbers since the late 60s and suddenly some “researcher” has “discovered” they have a high incidence of lung disease.

If that turns out to be true with further studies, then tough titties for the marijuana smokers, of which I am not one.

But until it’s confirmed with a lot more studies, I remain HIGHLY skeptical — without being high at all. Ever.

I don’t get high on anything, but I am often highly skeptical of things I read, even things labeled “research”.


10 posted on 01/27/2008 5:44:58 AM PST by samtheman
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To: Seruzawa

I am not one of you. I am not an anti-WarOnDrug fanatic. Don’t count me as one of your soldiers. I just call’em as I see’em and this stinks of bogus to me.


11 posted on 01/27/2008 5:46:15 AM PST by samtheman
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To: saganite

Guess Bill was lucky he “didn’t inhale”...


12 posted on 01/27/2008 5:46:25 AM PST by GOPJ (Hillary Didn't Win A Single County In S.C.)
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To: Seruzawa
Cops have excellent second incomes by stealing form the homes they raid and selling the stuff later after stealing it from the evidence room.

Potheads are divorced from reality.

13 posted on 01/27/2008 5:48:39 AM PST by Mojave
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To: csvset
The hit you cough on...
is the one you get off on.
14 posted on 01/27/2008 5:48:57 AM PST by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: saganite

Ice climbers, sky divers, ocean kayakers and even sushi eaters face significant risks to their survival. It is not the job of government in a free society to deny risky choices to people, unless those people violate the rights or damage the property of others.


15 posted on 01/27/2008 5:51:10 AM PST by coloradan (Failing to protect the liberties of your enemies establishes precedents that will reach to yourself.)
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To: saganite

Ok, the following dismisses the study: Smoking pot is already illegal under federal law, therefore, it simply doesn’t matter how hazardous it is. Why was this study even done?


16 posted on 01/27/2008 5:54:06 AM PST by coloradan (Failing to protect the liberties of your enemies establishes precedents that will reach to yourself.)
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To: Mojave

Of course they are.

But so are you Armchair Drug Warriors.


17 posted on 01/27/2008 5:55:19 AM PST by Seruzawa
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To: saganite
One: It is no ones business but the person smoking MJ if their lungs rot out or not. Two: The amount of people on FR who are obviously not conservative and who believe in big government control over what people put into their bodies constantly amazes me. I don't do drugs, never have, never will. But this type of crap in this article is the same BS they say about cigs. The only difference is MJ is already illegal and cigs are legal.

The war on drugs is a farce and designed to keep drug dealers in business. Legalize most drugs and take the money out of it. You instantly lose a huge amount of crime, just as happened when prohibition was repealed. Take the money out of it and you take the crime out of it, and if MJ smokers want to ruin their lungs , let them. Their lungs belong to themselves not the government or some self righteous A**ho** pretending to be a conservative.

18 posted on 01/27/2008 5:58:20 AM PST by calex59 (N)
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To: saganite

19 posted on 01/27/2008 5:58:47 AM PST by HangnJudge
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To: samtheman
> This sounds like Reefer Madness to me.

It is.

Every so often the War-On-Drugs types have to re-justify their own existence.... and it doesn't matter to them what crap study they use to get folks worried again.

Next we'll hear that smoking pot makes your left arm fall off. The fact that nobody actually knows any real person whose left arm fell off due to pot smoking will be ignored....

20 posted on 01/27/2008 5:59:46 AM PST by dayglored (Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!)
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