Prompted by “Marijuana vs. Tobacco: Not All Smoke Is Created Equal”: http://www.thedailychronic.net/2016/52027/marijuana-vs-tobacco-not-all-smoke-is-created-equal/
Long-term exposure to tobacco smoke is demonstrably harmful to health. According to the United States Center for Disease Control, tobacco smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, and chronic exposure to tobacco smoke is linked to increased incidences of cancer as well as vascular disease. Inhaling tobacco smoke is also associated with a variety of adverse pulmonary effects, such as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).
Does smoking cannabis pose similar dangers to lung health? According to a number of recent scientific findings, marijuana smoke and tobacco smoke vary considerably in their health effects. So then why are lawmakers in various states, such a Minnesota and New York, imposing new restrictions prohibiting the inhalation of herbal preparations of cannabis?
The answer to that last question is law abuse is rampant excessively with public approval (i.e. outrageous refusal by the public at large to recognize the most serious risk of abusive law with its mainly broad scope of destruction, so publicly demand that only conclusive science — the only leverage logically strong enough against that risk — is lawfully allowable to define harm (i.e. embrace scientific constitutionalism) to negate the wild subjectivity rapidly deteriorating our society.
The prompting piece is worth reading, and it goes into more details about each main facet of the ‘tobacco versus cannabis smoke’ issue. Instead of replicating that here, I want to focus on vaporization, because it’s a seriously important part of cannabis use.
By contrast, vaporization heats herbal cannabis to a point where cannabinoid vapors form, but below the point of combustion – thereby reducing the intake of combustive smoke or other pollutants, such as carbon monoxide and tar. Observational studies show that vaporization allows consumers to experience the rapid onset of effect while avoiding many of the associated respiratory hazards associated with smoking – such as coughing, wheezing, or chronic bronchitis. Clinical trials also report that vaporization results in the delivery of higher plasma concentrations of THC (and likely other cannabinoids) compared to smoked cannabis. As a result, the authors affiliated with the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research and elsewhere now acknowledge that vaporizers provide a “safe and effective” way to for consumers to inhale herbal cannabis.
Vaporization is excessively publicly ignored for no good reason, and (btw) dangerously falls under the category of “prohibiting the inhalation of herbal preparations of cannabis” in relevantly aforementioned states.
I believe vaporization will soon overtake smoking upon mainstream cannabis legality. That’s not due to the health benefit, but the serious financial one.
Vaporization is highly efficient, so allows the user (especially casual one) to find reasonably powerful satisfaction from just a very small pinch. That roughly translates into a quarter ounce (about $100) lasting a year — to the likely shock and perhaps envy by smokers.
Smoking cannabis is terribly wasteful, but likely remains preferable to generations of users raised on that intake method, because adapting to vaporization is roughly on par with adapting to skim milk from whole milk.
Vaporization will logically dominate the new generations of users, because they will love the intense effects possible from such a tiny pinch of leafy material.
They will also love the powerful control over vapor intake by electronic temperature control (allowing smoothest and mildest possible effects, if desirable).
As electronic vaporizers continue to improve, they will eventually (years from now) reach an inexpensive price point (e.g. $5) basically like the calculator did decades ago (starting at hundreds of dollars each and then eventually becoming less than $1 at your nearest drug store) — assuming reasonably similar market forces occur.
That economic benefit leads to another very powerful societal benefit. I’ll let our Respect Cannabis informational roots explain…
Capable of sufficiently strong impact by a mere pinch of leafy cannabis material leaves vaporized cannabis as an amazingly affordable stress management solution for people dealing with the harsh stressors involving poverty. Instead of turning to the nastily crude (excessive risk of stupidity-enhancing, and even reckless-violence-inducing) drug alcohol to manage unhealthy stress due to poverty, financially challenged folks can find their favorite strain(s) and leverage the vastly superior stress-managing properties of cannabis – perhaps including the apparently beneficial mental health effect from the early-scientifically suggested neuroprotecting and neurogenerating properties of cannabinoids – so naturally encouraging stronger communities better able to remedy the poverty stressor (i.e. sufficiently opposing whatever form of thuggery, sanctioned or otherwise, keeping communities from their desired civility).
I am an honest freak (or reasonably responsibly balanced "misfit", if you prefer) of an artist working and resting to best carefully contribute towards helping society. Too many people abuse reasoning (e.g. 'partial truth = whole truth' scam), while I exercise reason to explore and express whole truth without any conflict-of-interest -- all within a sometimes offbeat style of psychedelic artistry.
Spirit Wave Journal 
Leave a Reply