36OhBuds
Active Member
Orithil - I'm not a veteran here, in fact this is the first month of my membership so I'm not trying to start a fight. Disclaimer. I'm only stating what I learned in my pre-med courses (obv didn't follow through with that). We actually had a marijuana friendly professor, and in fact, he advocated marijuana research and for us to do our own research. So, we were taught these concepts in class because in our state, it's an important thing to know. However, this is all science, and not my conclusion.
Other disclaimer: In no way shape or form is this meant to be medical advice and nobody should take it as such. You should always consult your own doctor before making a decision about using cannabis or for information you deem to be of a medical nature.
That being said...
The only difference between cannabis and cigarette smoke is that cigarette smoke has a longer lasting paralyzing effect on the cilia in your throat and also paralyzes all of the cilia in your lungs. Cannabis allows them to still function at a capacity, and thus, allows you to cough up all the shit you're inhaling.
When you smoke, your lungs get gunked up the same way that a pipe or bong does after awhile.
The cilia are still working though so you cough up some of the shit you're stuffing in your lungs. If you chronically smoke enough (when I was smoking an eighth a day, I was at this point) you will outrun your lungs ability to clear and detrimentally diminish your own lung function until you give them a chance to catch up (Smoker's cough).
It doesn't cause the same permanent damage as a cigarette, but it is still causing a loss in efficiency. They're not cleaning anything out, other than what you're putting in them, and they would do this regardless if you are inhaling marijuana smoke or smoke from a campfire. If anybody in this forum thinks otherwise then I'd challenge you to find concrete proof.
You're inhaling burned plant matter. To think our lungs can handle that over a period of time, and even more so, just because we all love this drug (and I love it as much as all of you) that it does something magical with it's smoke that other burned matter doesn't seems kind of naive.
But more importantly: Marijuana may be a bronchial dilator, but so is an Albuterol inahler, and that doesn't clean out your lungs (I know, I had one when I had bronchitis). It just helps you breath easier.
In the end, the only reason it gets the phlegm going is because you're coughing up what you're putting in, and I guess overall, that's probably a good thing.
CLIFFNOTES:
But the terminology of the myth I stated seems right: You would NEVER give someone with pneumonia marijuana and tell them to smoke it, ever. That being said, I think the reasoning follows that it doesn't clean out your lungs because if it did, the initial judgement would probably be different.
