I hear this from many, "Smoke is Smoke." It is so wrong.
Tobacco smoke is especially harmful in many ways. Including the highly addictive properties (it is far more addictive than even cocaine) which ultimately demand continuous usage.
Tobacco is a very fussy needy plant and requires intensive fertilization, and some say the best fertilizer for marijuana comes from mines and is slightly radioactive, and some of that radioactivity gets into the product.
Marijuana need only be grown in plain soil. It's a weed that grows anywhere without assistance. It can be grown completely organically--completely free of toxic "nutrients." Marijuana smoke is not physically habituating and works best when very little is used infrequently.
Jack Herer claimed in his famous book "The Emperor Has No Clothes" that no one had ever died from smoking marijuana. Most lifetime well known users like Jack Herer did not die from lung disease. A famously big eater and endless high risk performer, it's a wonder Jack Herer lived as long as he did. A friend of mine who was always immensely overweight and diabetic died from complications of diabetes when he was over 70, again, a wonder he lived that long. Some studies have shown smoking marijuana to be associated with longer lives, even better job performance and fewer fatal accidents.
One thing is certain, when tobacco smoke gets into electronics, houses, cars, whatever, it never gets out. It sticks like glue so well it often cannot even be washed away. I have not been able to remove the smell from electronic circuit boards and I'm not even sure what removes it.
Marijuana smoke dissipates, does not stick to electronics, houses, cars, whatever. You may smell it in the air far away for awhile then it is 100% gone. Where it does stick to metal and glass in the actual pipe (iterfaces which are far cooler than the smoke surface so causing condensation) hardenend marijuana smoke can be removed by fruit acids similar to those in the body--the kind the body basically runs on. Cannabinoid byproducts circulate endlessly BECAUSE they don't stick to anything. Slowly the liver pulls them out.
Due to chemical affinities, tobacco smoke especially sticks to the lungs. Marijuana smoke is the reverse: it does not stick to the lungs, it needs to be held in. One qualification: Marijuana smoke DOES stick to the throat. It can quickly become irritable to the throat, and could lead to throat disorders if improper use continues. Proper smoking technique and quantity will avoid this issue.
I say the bottom line is what is the overall result. Even if marijuana were harmful in itself (which has never been proven fairly sticking to the usage I describe below) that harm might be offset by reducing other harmful behaviors and/or effects. (Sadly, it is true that tobacco, a very harmful and addictive drug, is a gateway to marijuana, and there are many who have used both marijuana and tobacco, as I did for 15 years of early adulthood. If anything the marijuana may have spared me from greater tobacco use, and I knew very well which one I liked better. I kept using tobacco because whenever I stopped my life became intolerable quickly. OTOH, I smoked marijuana because it made me feel better, better than I had before I started using marijuana.)
But the possibility exists, that Marijuana used properly (as I will describe below) is not only by itself not harmful to the lungs and other organs, it is actually (as some studies have shown) life extending overall because:
1) Smoke is not "just smoke." Different smokes are entirely different in their tendency to stick to biological surfaces and affect their operation. And they are also biologically cleaned and degraded in different ways. Smoke is just particulates. We are constantly exposed to particulates and particulates vary widely, and the lung is designed to deal with particulates of many kinds pretty well (though, not so well for tobacco smoke and mineral dusts).
2) With some smokes, you become addicted to constantly use the substance, as with Tobacco. A desireable Marijuana effect is usually achieved with very limited use...excess use does not enhance the experience.
3) Marijuana smoking, done properly, is exercise for the lungs and chest muscles.
4) The downstream influences may have either beneficial or harmful effects. With tobacco, the downstream processes are harmful to normal body operation. With proper marijuana use, the downsteam processes have negligible effects on the body, and operate mainly through the mind. Whether the mind is enhanced or retarded is a matter of perspective, and other influences.
5) Cannabinoids may have cancer retarding and other biologically beneficial effects.
6) Marijuana is mentally soothing (reducing anxiety, stress, and depression--three major causes of illness) and can reduce addiction to more harmful drugs and activities.
Proper use of marijuana is like this:
1) Not smoking all day long, but 2-5 times per day. 3 seems to be about the optimum if you have the whole day available. If you need to go to work: then it's 2--about all you can usefully squeeze in after work. Most of my life I've done more, regardless of knowing better, often falsely making up for days "lost" (you can't do that, only add to them).
2) Smoking the highest grade marijuana for the purpose intended, and thereby reducing the quantity of smoking required. I think the "mental" and "energetic" supposedly THC oritented (more correctly low CBD) actually accomplish everything best in my experience. All experience, when it comes right down to it, is in the head.
3) Smoking approximately 0.02-0.03g per occasion, very finely ground. This is a tiny pinch which can at most cover half of a 5/8 inch screen to the depth of a few mm at the maximum. This is smoked in 3-6 hits in a medium to small water pipe.
Alternating with hits take a drink of water or other watery beverage. I drink sweet lime mixed with Perrier which has a mild cleansing effect on the throat. However it also makes tooth brushing mandatory, especially if additional sweetener is used (as I used to do, but no longer, as I use sweet Nellie and Joe's Key Lime Juice which is sweet without artificial sweeteners just like freshly squeezed key limes). I make the last glass of fluid I drink every day clear reverse osmosis filtered water (should probably be the last two glasses).
Excess smoking detracts, rather than adds, to the experience.
With lower grade, you may have to increase the numbers up to 10 fold, but usually less than 3 fold. Most Marijuana nowadays IS very good. It hasn't gotten enormously better since the exotic grades of the 1970's. I was there. What has happened is that the crap marijuana unloaded on unsuspecting newbies has gone away. Marijuana for smoking should be made from the flowering parts of the plant, never leaves or stems. Traditionally made from those same parts, hash is actually not as potent as the very best marijuana.
It's helpful to smoke outside if possible, beceause re-inhaling smoke increases the pickup of undesirable (IMO for most purposes) CBD type cannabinoids. Smoking outside increases the mental effects from all breeds of marijuana in the same way that "energetic" marijuana breeds are different from high CBD "pain relief" varieties.
4) Smoke is held in as much as possible, at least for a fraction of a minute. There is no reason to systematically exhale in any unnatural form. It is generally harmful, and especially to the vulnerable throat, to exhale through the mouth. It is best to smoke in through the mouth, then only exhale softly and bit by bit, through the nose. After holding in as much as possible for awhile, gradually relax into something like normal breathing through the nose. This minimizes the participation of the throat, and any tendency toward getting nasal congestion--which is harmful.
5) If you cough or have other symptoms, that is generally indication you are doing it wrong, have already had too much, and should quit until the next daily interval. As a friend once said to me, "If you cough, get off."
6) Generally, this results in bursts of smoke from the nose. As a friend once said to me "smoke expands in the lungs." One big inhale will produce several bursts of smoke in exhales (barely visible in most light) through the nose, gradually becoming increasingly transparent.
7) Generally there needs to be one long daily period without smoking, in order to have ordinary bowel movements. So, if you smoke at night, wait until the bowels are cleared again before resuming smoking, such as, by late morning. (Or, for some, after work.) Marijuana is like opiates in this regards, but much less, and not necessarily like opiates in other ways. It has no physical habituation. There is probably no mental habituation either, one can drop smoking for any length of time, but after awhile the axiety reduction is sorely missed.
8) Maintain exercise, diet, ,and other beneficial programs, as a matter of course. Like wine, marijuana can help you appreciate food which is better for you (as well as the other kind). Marijuana
makes exercise, especially outdoor exercise, more interesting.
9) Smoked properly, you can small the special sweet smell of each variety. If you don't smell the smell anymore, it is past time to quit and you should do something other than smoke. The smell builds up slightly in the throat to become a "taste." The taste and smell may be part of the magic of marijuana, just as they are for fine alcohols like red wine.
10) Besides the throat, marijuana can also irritate the eyes. The important thing is to clean below and around the lower surface of the nose, and perhaps up where the face meets the sides, as this is where the irritating parts of marijuana smoke tend to stick to the skin, and be further ejected up into the eyes. Cleaning around the eyes may also be done, but in my experience it's best to use purified water (I have my own Reverse Osmosis source) in all such cleaning, as well as using clean cotton washcloth.
Modern high grade marijuana is the ultimate drug for humanity, just as Jack Herer said. It hits the spot, fixing exactly what seems to be wrong with the human psyche, with less collateral damage than any other psychoactive drug.* It paradoxically adapts up or down just as needed to each person. (Alcohol is also paradoxical like this--nominally a CNS depressant it often enlivens people who are low for awhile, while others who are too high are mellowed.) Generally, however, marijuana reduces anxiety--our main weakness--by weakening bad thoughts and memories compared with the better ones, so you can focus on the good. By the same token, good for depression, even schizophrenia.
Alcohol can also be used daily, such as half a glass of red wine daily, is good for health, including mental, too, and has a similar mild anxiety reducing effect, which becomes a full on blast if overdone. Marijuana doesn't ramp up like alcohol (or physically habituate), instead, an overdose of marijuana is likely to make sleep irresistible if you are near enough to a bed. Smoked marijuana especially is self-limiting--if you've really smoked too much you just can't get yourself to smoke anymore, depending on what else you are doing. Then if you need to concentrate, all the fog can be instantly cleared away, but at the expense of the high. It's messing with probability instead of necessity.
Marijuana can possibly alter your sense of time, however it doesn't necessarily affect muscle control or reflexes as alcohol does in most people.
Some studies have shown minimal effect on driving for adults well enough experienced with both driving and with marijuana. Insignificantly better in some ways, insignificnatly worse in others, when all other factors are controlled for. Back in the day, I remember friends always having one for the road, not to mention smoking all the way. However, if you are not experienced with the combination, or out of practice, or otherwise impaired, a 3 hour lag time works, best in combination with some nap time and a full washup.
If you want it do, a mild reduction in anxiety can produce "visions" or whatever, if you meditate on those sorts of things, you can get quasi hallucinations or whatever. It takes enough effort to make in not a problem if you don't want it. There's no need to clobber your mind so you can't prevent visions, as with LSD. Marijuana is far safer and does it all. (When I have more experience with LSD, I'll write a how-to, but the short guide is this--a special occasion like a nature trip with mentors works best. LSD is far stronger than marijuana, but also less flexible and perhaps ultimately less interesting and useful. Dumb daily use of LSD results mainly in paranoia rather than blissful glow.)
(*Many have opined the cannibis plant has co-evolved with humanity, and continues so co-evolving. The plant seeks to be our mental ally, much as catnip seeks to be the ally of cats.)
Honestly I have not much followed these rules until recently, finally being more concerned about my health than I was before, and more discriminating. But regardless, I do not feel any lung loss from 46 years of using marijuana at age 63. I now walk 2 miles a day with no sweat, and I'm overweight and should have exercised more when I was younger, but I hope to be catching up with more exercise now that I am retired.
I do not trust "vaporizers" and especially chemically vaporized products. I have never gotten the same enlivening effect from vaporized marijuana. One just keeps on inhaling more and more vapor in the hope it will finally hit the spot but somehow it keeps missing. There is just something magical about marijuana smoke, possibly including the CO2 and other "byproducts" of burning. Marijuana smoke just hits the spot.
Pill form THC is almost unnoticeable mentally for me, at least up to 10 mg Drabinol. It is processed through the liver instead of going straight into the bloodstream. By all accounts it is not good for getting high. It gives me all the constipation without getting high. I suspect this largely applies to edibles as well. Marijuana smoke works not just because of one chemical, but because of many chemicals that have complex interactions.
So go ahead, smoke marijuana. Don't listen to Nancy Reagan. It is better to be high than low.
There has been endless propaganda and misinformation for decades against marijuana to justify the enormously costly War on Drugs, which has enriched the Prison Industrial Complex, as well and criminal organizations, all part of the evil deep state. Anti-Marijuana "experts" are fools and shills caught up in all the propaganda who have never understood what I am describing here.
And one little piece of the endless propaganda they have deployed to justify making money by making people suffer in more ways than one is "Smoke is Smoke."
Unlike all the harder drugs, which are hard to harness, and may do lots of weird stuff before doing any good, including those you "swallow," which seems natural, but your liver might not think the drug is so natural. Drugs are drugs--NOT. Nevertheless, I would like to see all drugs freed from prohibition, however, which itself always has been the most harm inducing part of drug usage.
Smoke is just particles, and all particles are different. We breath particles all the time and our respiratory system and lungs are designed to handle them. Many particles should be avoided far better than we do (diesel smoke has been one of the worst I've experienced, but friends have been killed by illnesses caused by rock dust of various kinds--I wear a respirator whenever cutting tile or handling insulation), and we should save our lungs for the magic smoke of Marijuana, which may do far more good than harm.
Used properly, Marijuana will not make you cough. You may cough less than most people, as a lot of coughing is nervous coughing, and you will be less nervous. If you get a cough from marijuana you are doing it at least a little wrong.
If you are properly using only Marijuana, and still coughing, check for a lung infection, such as mycoplasma (a degraded almost virus-like category of bacteria). I have picked that up several times (typically from people who smoke both tobacco and marijuana). Such a cough persists for weeks after incubation whether you continue smoking marijuana or not. For me it goes away with a regimen of Augmentin, I need that because of many previous infections I have had treated (mostly oral infections resulting from inadequate oral hygene), in others it may recede with a less intense penicillin derivative. Mycoplasma infections seem amazingly widespread in USA, perhaps aided by the fact there is litte financial incentive for drug companies or providers to fix them--they are easily fixed with one short course of antibiotics. Untreated mycoplasma infections can lead to COPD or Lung Cancer. It may well be that many tobacco smokers die from from the effect of such infections rather than from the direct effects of the tobacco itself. Fortunately, I have had excellent primary physicians who have correctly diagnosed and prescribed adequate treatments for minor lung infections. But I can imagine people with more tenuous relationship to their physicians who might never get such treatment because minor illnesses are often not seen as "important" even when minor illnesses might be the cause of major illnesses. I don't have to imagine very hard, because I've known people with "healthcare" identical to mine who clearly weren't getting treated for lung infections which in turn infected me. Meanwhile, such people might well talk about all the expensive specialists they were seeing. It's a sick, sick world, and that's a big part of why we need marijuana. Peace must begin from within.
Tobacco smoke is especially harmful in many ways. Including the highly addictive properties (it is far more addictive than even cocaine) which ultimately demand continuous usage.
Tobacco is a very fussy needy plant and requires intensive fertilization, and some say the best fertilizer for marijuana comes from mines and is slightly radioactive, and some of that radioactivity gets into the product.
Marijuana need only be grown in plain soil. It's a weed that grows anywhere without assistance. It can be grown completely organically--completely free of toxic "nutrients." Marijuana smoke is not physically habituating and works best when very little is used infrequently.
Jack Herer claimed in his famous book "The Emperor Has No Clothes" that no one had ever died from smoking marijuana. Most lifetime well known users like Jack Herer did not die from lung disease. A famously big eater and endless high risk performer, it's a wonder Jack Herer lived as long as he did. A friend of mine who was always immensely overweight and diabetic died from complications of diabetes when he was over 70, again, a wonder he lived that long. Some studies have shown smoking marijuana to be associated with longer lives, even better job performance and fewer fatal accidents.
One thing is certain, when tobacco smoke gets into electronics, houses, cars, whatever, it never gets out. It sticks like glue so well it often cannot even be washed away. I have not been able to remove the smell from electronic circuit boards and I'm not even sure what removes it.
Marijuana smoke dissipates, does not stick to electronics, houses, cars, whatever. You may smell it in the air far away for awhile then it is 100% gone. Where it does stick to metal and glass in the actual pipe (iterfaces which are far cooler than the smoke surface so causing condensation) hardenend marijuana smoke can be removed by fruit acids similar to those in the body--the kind the body basically runs on. Cannabinoid byproducts circulate endlessly BECAUSE they don't stick to anything. Slowly the liver pulls them out.
Due to chemical affinities, tobacco smoke especially sticks to the lungs. Marijuana smoke is the reverse: it does not stick to the lungs, it needs to be held in. One qualification: Marijuana smoke DOES stick to the throat. It can quickly become irritable to the throat, and could lead to throat disorders if improper use continues. Proper smoking technique and quantity will avoid this issue.
I say the bottom line is what is the overall result. Even if marijuana were harmful in itself (which has never been proven fairly sticking to the usage I describe below) that harm might be offset by reducing other harmful behaviors and/or effects. (Sadly, it is true that tobacco, a very harmful and addictive drug, is a gateway to marijuana, and there are many who have used both marijuana and tobacco, as I did for 15 years of early adulthood. If anything the marijuana may have spared me from greater tobacco use, and I knew very well which one I liked better. I kept using tobacco because whenever I stopped my life became intolerable quickly. OTOH, I smoked marijuana because it made me feel better, better than I had before I started using marijuana.)
But the possibility exists, that Marijuana used properly (as I will describe below) is not only by itself not harmful to the lungs and other organs, it is actually (as some studies have shown) life extending overall because:
1) Smoke is not "just smoke." Different smokes are entirely different in their tendency to stick to biological surfaces and affect their operation. And they are also biologically cleaned and degraded in different ways. Smoke is just particulates. We are constantly exposed to particulates and particulates vary widely, and the lung is designed to deal with particulates of many kinds pretty well (though, not so well for tobacco smoke and mineral dusts).
2) With some smokes, you become addicted to constantly use the substance, as with Tobacco. A desireable Marijuana effect is usually achieved with very limited use...excess use does not enhance the experience.
3) Marijuana smoking, done properly, is exercise for the lungs and chest muscles.
4) The downstream influences may have either beneficial or harmful effects. With tobacco, the downstream processes are harmful to normal body operation. With proper marijuana use, the downsteam processes have negligible effects on the body, and operate mainly through the mind. Whether the mind is enhanced or retarded is a matter of perspective, and other influences.
5) Cannabinoids may have cancer retarding and other biologically beneficial effects.
6) Marijuana is mentally soothing (reducing anxiety, stress, and depression--three major causes of illness) and can reduce addiction to more harmful drugs and activities.
Proper use of marijuana is like this:
1) Not smoking all day long, but 2-5 times per day. 3 seems to be about the optimum if you have the whole day available. If you need to go to work: then it's 2--about all you can usefully squeeze in after work. Most of my life I've done more, regardless of knowing better, often falsely making up for days "lost" (you can't do that, only add to them).
2) Smoking the highest grade marijuana for the purpose intended, and thereby reducing the quantity of smoking required. I think the "mental" and "energetic" supposedly THC oritented (more correctly low CBD) actually accomplish everything best in my experience. All experience, when it comes right down to it, is in the head.
3) Smoking approximately 0.02-0.03g per occasion, very finely ground. This is a tiny pinch which can at most cover half of a 5/8 inch screen to the depth of a few mm at the maximum. This is smoked in 3-6 hits in a medium to small water pipe.
Alternating with hits take a drink of water or other watery beverage. I drink sweet lime mixed with Perrier which has a mild cleansing effect on the throat. However it also makes tooth brushing mandatory, especially if additional sweetener is used (as I used to do, but no longer, as I use sweet Nellie and Joe's Key Lime Juice which is sweet without artificial sweeteners just like freshly squeezed key limes). I make the last glass of fluid I drink every day clear reverse osmosis filtered water (should probably be the last two glasses).
Excess smoking detracts, rather than adds, to the experience.
With lower grade, you may have to increase the numbers up to 10 fold, but usually less than 3 fold. Most Marijuana nowadays IS very good. It hasn't gotten enormously better since the exotic grades of the 1970's. I was there. What has happened is that the crap marijuana unloaded on unsuspecting newbies has gone away. Marijuana for smoking should be made from the flowering parts of the plant, never leaves or stems. Traditionally made from those same parts, hash is actually not as potent as the very best marijuana.
It's helpful to smoke outside if possible, beceause re-inhaling smoke increases the pickup of undesirable (IMO for most purposes) CBD type cannabinoids. Smoking outside increases the mental effects from all breeds of marijuana in the same way that "energetic" marijuana breeds are different from high CBD "pain relief" varieties.
4) Smoke is held in as much as possible, at least for a fraction of a minute. There is no reason to systematically exhale in any unnatural form. It is generally harmful, and especially to the vulnerable throat, to exhale through the mouth. It is best to smoke in through the mouth, then only exhale softly and bit by bit, through the nose. After holding in as much as possible for awhile, gradually relax into something like normal breathing through the nose. This minimizes the participation of the throat, and any tendency toward getting nasal congestion--which is harmful.
5) If you cough or have other symptoms, that is generally indication you are doing it wrong, have already had too much, and should quit until the next daily interval. As a friend once said to me, "If you cough, get off."
6) Generally, this results in bursts of smoke from the nose. As a friend once said to me "smoke expands in the lungs." One big inhale will produce several bursts of smoke in exhales (barely visible in most light) through the nose, gradually becoming increasingly transparent.
7) Generally there needs to be one long daily period without smoking, in order to have ordinary bowel movements. So, if you smoke at night, wait until the bowels are cleared again before resuming smoking, such as, by late morning. (Or, for some, after work.) Marijuana is like opiates in this regards, but much less, and not necessarily like opiates in other ways. It has no physical habituation. There is probably no mental habituation either, one can drop smoking for any length of time, but after awhile the axiety reduction is sorely missed.
8) Maintain exercise, diet, ,and other beneficial programs, as a matter of course. Like wine, marijuana can help you appreciate food which is better for you (as well as the other kind). Marijuana
makes exercise, especially outdoor exercise, more interesting.
9) Smoked properly, you can small the special sweet smell of each variety. If you don't smell the smell anymore, it is past time to quit and you should do something other than smoke. The smell builds up slightly in the throat to become a "taste." The taste and smell may be part of the magic of marijuana, just as they are for fine alcohols like red wine.
10) Besides the throat, marijuana can also irritate the eyes. The important thing is to clean below and around the lower surface of the nose, and perhaps up where the face meets the sides, as this is where the irritating parts of marijuana smoke tend to stick to the skin, and be further ejected up into the eyes. Cleaning around the eyes may also be done, but in my experience it's best to use purified water (I have my own Reverse Osmosis source) in all such cleaning, as well as using clean cotton washcloth.
Modern high grade marijuana is the ultimate drug for humanity, just as Jack Herer said. It hits the spot, fixing exactly what seems to be wrong with the human psyche, with less collateral damage than any other psychoactive drug.* It paradoxically adapts up or down just as needed to each person. (Alcohol is also paradoxical like this--nominally a CNS depressant it often enlivens people who are low for awhile, while others who are too high are mellowed.) Generally, however, marijuana reduces anxiety--our main weakness--by weakening bad thoughts and memories compared with the better ones, so you can focus on the good. By the same token, good for depression, even schizophrenia.
Alcohol can also be used daily, such as half a glass of red wine daily, is good for health, including mental, too, and has a similar mild anxiety reducing effect, which becomes a full on blast if overdone. Marijuana doesn't ramp up like alcohol (or physically habituate), instead, an overdose of marijuana is likely to make sleep irresistible if you are near enough to a bed. Smoked marijuana especially is self-limiting--if you've really smoked too much you just can't get yourself to smoke anymore, depending on what else you are doing. Then if you need to concentrate, all the fog can be instantly cleared away, but at the expense of the high. It's messing with probability instead of necessity.
Marijuana can possibly alter your sense of time, however it doesn't necessarily affect muscle control or reflexes as alcohol does in most people.
Some studies have shown minimal effect on driving for adults well enough experienced with both driving and with marijuana. Insignificantly better in some ways, insignificnatly worse in others, when all other factors are controlled for. Back in the day, I remember friends always having one for the road, not to mention smoking all the way. However, if you are not experienced with the combination, or out of practice, or otherwise impaired, a 3 hour lag time works, best in combination with some nap time and a full washup.
If you want it do, a mild reduction in anxiety can produce "visions" or whatever, if you meditate on those sorts of things, you can get quasi hallucinations or whatever. It takes enough effort to make in not a problem if you don't want it. There's no need to clobber your mind so you can't prevent visions, as with LSD. Marijuana is far safer and does it all. (When I have more experience with LSD, I'll write a how-to, but the short guide is this--a special occasion like a nature trip with mentors works best. LSD is far stronger than marijuana, but also less flexible and perhaps ultimately less interesting and useful. Dumb daily use of LSD results mainly in paranoia rather than blissful glow.)
(*Many have opined the cannibis plant has co-evolved with humanity, and continues so co-evolving. The plant seeks to be our mental ally, much as catnip seeks to be the ally of cats.)
Honestly I have not much followed these rules until recently, finally being more concerned about my health than I was before, and more discriminating. But regardless, I do not feel any lung loss from 46 years of using marijuana at age 63. I now walk 2 miles a day with no sweat, and I'm overweight and should have exercised more when I was younger, but I hope to be catching up with more exercise now that I am retired.
I do not trust "vaporizers" and especially chemically vaporized products. I have never gotten the same enlivening effect from vaporized marijuana. One just keeps on inhaling more and more vapor in the hope it will finally hit the spot but somehow it keeps missing. There is just something magical about marijuana smoke, possibly including the CO2 and other "byproducts" of burning. Marijuana smoke just hits the spot.
Pill form THC is almost unnoticeable mentally for me, at least up to 10 mg Drabinol. It is processed through the liver instead of going straight into the bloodstream. By all accounts it is not good for getting high. It gives me all the constipation without getting high. I suspect this largely applies to edibles as well. Marijuana smoke works not just because of one chemical, but because of many chemicals that have complex interactions.
So go ahead, smoke marijuana. Don't listen to Nancy Reagan. It is better to be high than low.
There has been endless propaganda and misinformation for decades against marijuana to justify the enormously costly War on Drugs, which has enriched the Prison Industrial Complex, as well and criminal organizations, all part of the evil deep state. Anti-Marijuana "experts" are fools and shills caught up in all the propaganda who have never understood what I am describing here.
And one little piece of the endless propaganda they have deployed to justify making money by making people suffer in more ways than one is "Smoke is Smoke."
Unlike all the harder drugs, which are hard to harness, and may do lots of weird stuff before doing any good, including those you "swallow," which seems natural, but your liver might not think the drug is so natural. Drugs are drugs--NOT. Nevertheless, I would like to see all drugs freed from prohibition, however, which itself always has been the most harm inducing part of drug usage.
Smoke is just particles, and all particles are different. We breath particles all the time and our respiratory system and lungs are designed to handle them. Many particles should be avoided far better than we do (diesel smoke has been one of the worst I've experienced, but friends have been killed by illnesses caused by rock dust of various kinds--I wear a respirator whenever cutting tile or handling insulation), and we should save our lungs for the magic smoke of Marijuana, which may do far more good than harm.
Used properly, Marijuana will not make you cough. You may cough less than most people, as a lot of coughing is nervous coughing, and you will be less nervous. If you get a cough from marijuana you are doing it at least a little wrong.
If you are properly using only Marijuana, and still coughing, check for a lung infection, such as mycoplasma (a degraded almost virus-like category of bacteria). I have picked that up several times (typically from people who smoke both tobacco and marijuana). Such a cough persists for weeks after incubation whether you continue smoking marijuana or not. For me it goes away with a regimen of Augmentin, I need that because of many previous infections I have had treated (mostly oral infections resulting from inadequate oral hygene), in others it may recede with a less intense penicillin derivative. Mycoplasma infections seem amazingly widespread in USA, perhaps aided by the fact there is litte financial incentive for drug companies or providers to fix them--they are easily fixed with one short course of antibiotics. Untreated mycoplasma infections can lead to COPD or Lung Cancer. It may well be that many tobacco smokers die from from the effect of such infections rather than from the direct effects of the tobacco itself. Fortunately, I have had excellent primary physicians who have correctly diagnosed and prescribed adequate treatments for minor lung infections. But I can imagine people with more tenuous relationship to their physicians who might never get such treatment because minor illnesses are often not seen as "important" even when minor illnesses might be the cause of major illnesses. I don't have to imagine very hard, because I've known people with "healthcare" identical to mine who clearly weren't getting treated for lung infections which in turn infected me. Meanwhile, such people might well talk about all the expensive specialists they were seeing. It's a sick, sick world, and that's a big part of why we need marijuana. Peace must begin from within.
