By Brad Richardson
Is Smoking Marijuana Bad?
We have been told our whole lives that smoking is bad for your health. We know that smoking increases cancer. We know that it coats our lungs in black soot – almost the same way as building a fire in the fireplace causes soot build up and can catch your house on fire except instead of a fire, it is our ability to breathe. Every doctor will tell you not to smoke. They will tell you to quit immediately if you do smoke. So when marijuana began to come up as medicinal, doctors were skeptical, with very valid reasons.
Smoking for Your Health
That seems absolutely ridiculous, but many studies are beginning to show that smoking marijuana isn’t quite the evil that they once thought that it was. There are some good benefits to smoking weed. It has been proven to help many neurological diseases. Seizures are lessened. Memories are healing. Minds are restoring themselves. Patients with some types of cancers are seeing cancer cells shrink or completely go away. Nerves are relaxed. Looking over the benefits, it makes you wonder if there is any real downside. There are even reports about how dabbing is for wellness too.
The other side will argue that you are impairing your judgment or that you won’t be able to think clearly…but isn’t that true of most ways of pain management? Whether you smoke to lessen your pain or pop a pill, you aren’t going to be driving anywhere any time soon. In fact, many people who deal with chronic pain would argue that cannabis effects them far less in terms of day to day tasks than pain pills/opiates do. Plus a little bit of smoking isn’t going to do even near the damage to your body that the pain pills will do.
Maybe Smoking Isn’t the Way to Go
There are some downsides to smoking. For one, you just plain smell. You can get filters og tips to keep the smell off of your fingers. However, you probably will still have the smell on your clothes and in your hair. And of course the big downside is that it isn’t exactly legal in all of the United States (yet!). However, you do have options to get around both of these and still get the medicinal benefits.
If you are in a state where it is legal, you can skip the smoking altogether. There are more edibles out there every day as the industry grows….from baked goods to hard candies and everything in between, you can find a way to get your THC without smelling like smoke. Additionally, in legal states you have access to vape pens and tinctures, which are also relatively smell-less ways of consumption.
If you are in a state where it is illegal, you could go with CBD oil. Good CBD oil comes from the same plant but is filtered so that it contains no THC. That means that it is not going to make you fail that drug test, but you get the same benefits.
Conclusion
Here is the bottom line: deciding if using marijuana for your health is good for you should be left to each individual. Everyone has a different endocannabinoid system. Basically, you can research what your condition is and research personal stories of how THC or CBD (or both) helped others. Then you can make your own choice.
Maybe smoking isn’t as bad for your health as you thought!
Author Bio:Brad Richardson is a regular contributor to Plantsily and other cannabis-centric websites. In his spare time he works hard with local organizations within his state, to ensure that Marijuana is soon legalized.
