Is it the chemical makeup of nicotine vs THC/CBD? Given the fact they are both smoked, and burnt plant matter are both inhaled in the lungs, it is said that burnt tobacco smoke is more carcinogenic than cannabis smoke. Also, cannabis is used medicinally and therapeutically whereas tobacco is not.
Edit: I am aware that cannabis is better used medicinally as a tincture or in a non-smoked method (i.e. edibles). That would be the safest method of consumption.
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Personally, I stopped smoking and had the odd puff of weed and I didn’t ever buy any or rush out to get it again. One puff of a cigarette and I smoked for another 10 years.
If the effect wears off though, you end up taking more so that can lead to a habit. Life is freer without habits.
There’s not a lot of research on cannabis and some of the research that’s out there indicates that it might also cause lung cancer. So the real answer is *we don’t know* or, more likely, *it may be the same, it may be different, there’s not enough data to know*
I try to stick to a tincture since I work around pesticides and my lung cancer risk is already high
Pound-for-pound, it probably isn’t. I’m not sure there’s a definitive enough study that compares them directly. The problem is people who smoke cigarettes tend to smoke a lot of them so the lifelong cumulative effect is worse. For example, “a pack a day” used to be considered pretty standard for a regular smoker. That’s 20 cigarettes. There are very few cannabis users that smoke the equivalent of 20 cigarettes because of the potency and half-life of cannabis.
The Nicotine (edit. I’m not claiming it’s carcinogenic, but it is a cancer tumor growth promoter, and it is harmful). 100%. Not only does it increase the chances your cells mess up cell death, apoptosis, thus increasing cancer rates. It also increases blood flow to cancerous tumors asking for new pathways, angiogenesis, like VEGF and cannabis has been found to do the opposite. It helps that nicotine receptors are found in our lungs epithelial lining, so while Cannabis tends to have more tar since it’s not full of nicotine it’s not causing as much damage. Also it should be said that the smoke itself behaves differently. Weed smoke is actually a bronchodilator, even once used as a treatment for asthma as it could stop a full blown attack in it’s tracks. With tobacco smoke being a bronchoconstrictor, each cough you have makes all the little bits more likely to lodge themselves in your lungs. There are other smaller things at work as well, I’m not too versed in it but Cannabis can create an anti-inflammatory state which inhibits a cytokine storm. Edit (Does it need to be carcinogenic, to be harmful? I felt like the original question wasn’t limited to just carcinogens but other substances and mechanisms as well that amplified it. If it’s presence promotes cancer growth is that not bad enough. I would think that if cancer started developing, it’s a race against time. By the time you find it, it may be too late. Nicotine gives cancer a head start with all the little ways it interacts with our epithelial system. And not just that but it reduces the efficiency of chemotherapy drugs. These are all things you don’t have to worry about if you just smoke weed. Even just acknowledging that nicotine is tobacco’s natural pesticide, it’s a neurotoxin meant to keep it from being eaten. Horrible eli5 answer but whatever.)
Point well taken. Remember that cannabis is smoked without a filter, and usually has higher oil content than tobacco, which often shows as higher “tar” collections in the lungs of regular cannabis smokers. (Autopsy studies) Much like the lungs of old, before filtered cigarettes, or those who just preferred to roll their own smokes. Direct inhalation is always pulling in more of everything; tough trade offs.
Much more research coming out with the more accepted status of cannabis.
Nothing- because the premise is not true. Smoke inhalation is unhealthy. Full stop. Burning leaves of any kind produces carbon monoxide and a myriad of chemicals of various toxicity and carcinogenicity.
The difference is likely the dose. A cigarette smoker can smoke a pack or more a day, from the time he is 14 or so, to that point in life where it catches up to him. A marijuana smoker will typically smoke orders of magnitude less than that, possibly one puff on Friday night, or one joint or bowl a day. There are some who will inhale the same amount of smoke as a pack-a-day cigarette smoker, but most of us would agree that is dysfunctional use and it is likely just a phase, but an amount like that is disabling and if it doesn’t end soon that person will be running out of luck in some other way before he develops lung or throat cancer.
Nicotine is basically a cause of heart and circulation problems.
It’s the tars. Burning any dried plant produces tars, but as NormalTehcnology said, tobacco has a particularly nasty set of them
It could be added (if it wasn’t already), that tabacco plants have compounds they use to kill insects. We’re basically smoking the extermination juices to get high lol.
The answer is nobody is really sure, there are tons of compounds you could point to and say that’s the culprit. The tsna definitely plays a role, but have you ever dragged a cigarette? The smoke burns your lungs like immediately, and as a whole tobacco smoke is very harsh and hot to the lungs which are delicate.
Because tobacco contains radioactive lead 210, polonium 210, as well as radium. These are all radioactive elements that can cause cancer to the user and those around them.
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/smoking.htm
https://www.epa.gov/radtown/radioactivity-tobacco
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