[ad_1]
Marijuana is the mostly used federally unlawful drug in the U.S., based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with an estimated 48.2 million customers nationwide in 2019.
That quantity has solely elevated since then, with states persevering with to legalize leisure and medical hashish use. Many pro-legalization activists champion the drug as a relatively innocent various to tobacco and different medicine, in addition to a worthwhile therapeutic for the chronically sick.
DOCTOR WARNS OF CANNABIS-RELATED MEDICAL RISKS: LEGAL DOES NOT MEAN SAFE
However, medical professionals and public health officers proceed to analysis and warn of its long-term results on the thoughts and physique.
Here’s a more in-depth look.
One physician instructed Fox News Digital in March 2024 that smoking marijuana is as unhealthy as smoking tobacco cigarettes. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
How harmful is smoking marijuana?
Marijuana, like nearly any product that’s smoked, carries a major danger of injury to the lungs and cardiovascular system – and whereas doing so usually is not thought-about uniquely harmful, it is also not measurably safer than utilizing tobacco or comparable substances.
“People think marijuana is harmless. It is not,” Dr. Abra Jeffers – who co-authored a current research on day by day marijuana use printed by the Journal of the American Heart Association – instructed Fox News Digital in March.
“We found that using marijuana (mostly by smoking) is as bad as smoking tobacco cigarettes.”
The identical research additionally discovered day by day customers to be at a 25% elevated danger of coronary heart assault and a 42% elevated danger of stroke.
What results can marijuana have on the mind?
Some of the mostly cited results of marijuana use are its impacts on mind growth and psychological health.
All marijuana merchandise comprise tetrahydrocannabinol, generally known as THC – and THC focus is straight linked to the severity of marijuana’s results on a consumer’s mind.
MARIJUANA WITH HIGH THC LEVELS LINKED TO ADDICTION, PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS, STUDY FINDS
“There is a massive increase in mental illness as a result of this increase in marijuana use,” Dr. Kevin Sabet, a former White House drug coverage adviser, instructed Fox News’ Trey Gowdy in 2023.
“We know that today’s marijuana can quintuple your risk of psychosis and schizophrenia, which is the worst thing you can imagine. It increases about six times the risk of suicide.”
Furthermore, habit, generally known as marijuana use dysfunction, impacts an estimated 10% to 30% of customers, based on research cited by the CDC.
Marijuana people who smoke are in danger of lung tissue injury, scarring and extra. (Pablo Vera/AFP by way of Getty Images)
Can smoking marijuana trigger lung most cancers?
While marijuana smoke incorporates many of the identical “toxins, irritants, and carcinogens” as cigarette smoke, the CDC notes, extra analysis is required to find out whether or not there exists a hyperlink between marijuana use and the growth of respiratory cancers.
In quick, it is believable that utilizing the drug elevates one’s danger of lung most cancers, however specialists at the moment lack the proof to make a name in both path.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER
Other pulmonary risks posed to marijuana customers embody lung tissue injury and scarring to small blood vessels. Users can also expertise better vulnerability to bronchitis and higher-than-normal ranges of mucus manufacturing.
Studies have additionally linked marijuana use by younger folks to an elevated danger of growing bronchial asthma.
Experts are unclear whether or not use of marijuana in a single kind is safer than one other. (Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press by way of AP, File)
Are different marijuana merchandise, like edibles, any safer to make use of?
As is the case with many sides of marijuana analysis, specialists are nonetheless unclear on whether or not one technique of consumption is relatively “safer” than every other.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Other hashish merchandise, like oils and concentrates used for vaping and “dabbing,” are inclined to comprise “highly concentrated forms of THC and may contain additives or be contaminated with other substances,” the CDC notes.
“The effects of using these more concentrated forms of THC are not well understood but may include higher risk of developing cannabis use disorder.”
For extra Lifestyle articles, go to www.foxnews.com/way of life.
[ad_2]
Source hyperlink