Why is smoking weed “better” than smoking cigarettes or vaping? Aren’t you inhaling harmful foreign substances in all cases?
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As no one has really answered this from the vape side of things – being a long-time vaper and ex vape-shop employee, I’ll throw my hat in the ring:
1. With cigarettes, what damages your lungs is the fact that you are combusting the tobacco. Tobacco that has so many additives to it, it might as well be a different plant. Not to mention that in “premades” (your typical pack of 20), there’s also thousands of other chemicals, which will eventually destroy your lungs (tar being one of the most notorious). Smoking rolling tobacco is better, but still not great, again due to combustion.
2. Weed. The issue with weed is that a lot of the people who smoke it, usually like to cut it with tobacco to make their supply last longer. On its own, as a “pure smoke” so-to-speak, it’s far better than smoking cigarettes or tobacco, but again, you are still combusting a product and inhaling it. Another reason that weed is “better than cigarettes”, is that most people aren’t smoking 20 joints a day, so the overall consumption is far less.
3. Vaping. With vaping there is no combustion, so it’s far better than the other 2 for your lungs. Also, especially in the UK/EU, most vape juices will be an extremely simple mix of VG (vegetable glycerine), PG (propylene glycol) and food-grade flavourings (so lab-tested safe for consumption). There might also be small additives such as menthol-crystal or sweetener, but not a lot else. Obviously, if you use nicotine (because you can get nic-free juices), include that as well. All of the base components are found in food and general medicine, with the exception of nicotine – which, based on recent studies, is actually no worse for you (in real terms) than caffeine.
Now, it’s common sense that inhaling anything other than air will come with risks, however, vaping, at least currently, is a lot safer than any other alternative and is one of the best proven methods to get people off of cigarettes/to stop smoking.
I’d also like to see studies done comparing a vaper’s lungs compared to a non-vaper who lives in a polluted city – which would be more damaging?
P.S: To anyone who replies with “but people died of vaping in the US!” – that story from a couple of years back was due to people vaping black-market (illegal) THC cartridges that were laden with vitamin-E acetate, which, when vaped, basically caused you to drown by lining your lungs with oil.
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