data reported by medical examiners show that out of 664 marijuana-related deaths, there were 187 deaths where marijuana was the only drug reported.

I am so sorry but I have to call total BS on this.
The amount of marijuana it would take to be a lethal dose is way more than anyone could even come close to consuming.
This is nothing more than propaganda designed to put fear in then people who dont know how to think for themselves.

Marijuana will make you sick and pass out/fall asleep long before you have had enough to give you an overdose.

However, you are wrong to call it BS, as some people will die as a result of smoking it. Like if it makes you unaware you are about to be run over by a bus. The statement you referred to said marijuana RELATED deaths, not overdoses.

One Cannabis Joint Equals Smoking Up to Five Cigarettes
By Judith Groch, Senior Writer, MedPage Today
Published: July 31, 2007
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Earn CME/CE credit
for reading medical news


WELLINGTON, New Zealand, July 31 -- For heavy-duty users of marijuana, the joint is tough on the lungs, researchers here found.
2007
Explain to patients that for heavy users, that because of long inhaling smoking a single marijuana joint causes chronic bronchitis with lung damage similar to that of smoking up to five cigarettes.

Point out that the pulmonary effects of marijuana smoking do not include the emphysema associated with cigarette smoking.
In fact, a single marijuana joint for such patients can cause more lung damage than 2.5 to five cigarettes, Richard Beasley, MBChB, FRACP, of the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand here, and colleagues, reported online in Thorax.

Cannabis, the plant source of marijuana, was associated with a dose-related impairment of the large airways, causing airflow obstruction and hyperinflation, the researchers said. But unlike cigarette smoking, cannabis was rarely associated with macroscopic emphysema,

Cannabis is the most widely used illegal drug worldwide. Long-term use is known to cause chronic bronchitis and airflow obstruction, but the prevalence of macroscopic emphysema, the dose-response, and the dose equivalence of cannabis with tobacco had not been determined, Dr. Beasley said.

A sample of 339 adults, ages 18 to 70, was recruited from the Wellington region and put into four groups: cannabis only (75 people), tobacco only (92 people), combined cannabis and tobacco (91), and non-smokers of either substance (81).

Because of the small number of individuals who smoked cannabis in the original random population sample, the investigators used a convenience sample through newspaper and radio advertisements.

Respiratory status was assessed with high-resolution CT scans, pulmonary function tests, and a respiratory and smoking questionnaire. Associations between respiratory status and cannabis use were analyzed with covariance and logistic regression.

Inclusion criteria were a lifetime exposure of at least five joint-years of cannabis or at least one pack-year of tobacco. A joint-year of cannabis was defined as smoking one joint a day for one year and a pack-year of tobacco was equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes a day for a year.

A dose-response relationship was found between cannabis smoking and reduced forced expiratory volume (FEV1) to forced vital capacity ratio and specific airways conductance, and increased total lung capacity.

For measures of airflow obstruction, one cannabis joint had a similar effect to 2.5 to five cigarettes, the researchers reported.

Airflow obstruction and hyperinflation are a consequence of the large airway impairment, probably due to inflammation and edema in the tracheobronchial mucosa of cannabis smokers, the researchers said.

Cannabis smoking was also associated with decreased lung density on high-resolution CT scans.

Wheezing was linked to both cannabis (OR 1.3) and tobacco smoking (OR 1.4), with no evidence of an interaction.

Chest tightness was associated with cannabis (OR 1.4) but not with tobacco smoking (OR 1.1).

Cough was associated with both cannabis (OR 1.5) and tobacco (1.9).

Chronic bronchitis was likelier with cannabis than with tobacco use (OR 2.0 versus 1.6).

The combined effects of smoking both cannabis and tobacco was to attenuate all these associations, the researchers reported.

On the other hand, macroscopic emphysema was seen in only those who smoked tobacco, either alone or in combination with cannabis.

Emphysema was detected in only one of the cannabis smokers (1.3%), in 15 (16.3%) of the cigarette smokers, in 17 (18.9%) of the combination smokers, and in none of the non-smoking groups.

This suggests that cannabis does not cause emphysema when smoked in sufficient quantities to cause airflow obstruction, hyperinflation, and chronic bronchitis, the researchers said.

The dose equivalence found in this study, the researchers said, is consistent with the reported three- to five-fold greater levels of carboxyhemoglobin and tar inhaled when smoking a cannabis joint compared with a tobacco cigarette of the same size.

This pattern is likely to relate to the different characteristics of the cannabis joint and the way it is smoked. Cannabis is usually smoked without a filter and to a shorter butt length, while the smoke temperature is higher.

Furthermore, the investigators said, cannabis smokers inhale more deeply, hold their breath longer, and perform the Valsalva maneuver at maximal breath hold.

No conflicts of interest were reported. Support for the study was provided by the New Zealand Ministry of Health, the Hawke's Bay Medical Research Foundation, and GlaxoSmithKline (UK).
and logistic regression.

Results: A total of 339 subjects were recruited into the four groups. A dose-response relationship was found between cannabis smoking and reduced FEV1/FVC and sGaw, and increased TLC. For measures of airflow obstruction, one cannabis joint had a similar effect to between 2.5 and 6 tobacco cigarettes. Cannabis smoking was associated with decreased lung density on HRCT scans. Macroscopic emphysema was detected in 1/75 (1.3%), 15/92 (16.3%), 17/91 (18.9%) and 0/81 subjects in the cannabis only, combined cannabis and tobacco, tobacco alone and non-smoking groups respectively.

Conclusions: Smoking cannabis was associated with a dose-related impairment of large airways function resulting in airflow obstruction and hyperinflation. In contrast, cannabis smoking was seldom associated with macroscopic emphysema. The 1:2.5 to 6 dose equivalence between cannabis joints and tobacco cigarettes for adverse effects on lung function is of major public health significance.

The active substance responsible for the psychostimulating effect of cannabis is delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). However, as with tobacco smoke, cannabis smoke consists of a large mixture of compounds including

((polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons)),"PAHs" are a class of very stable organic molecules made up of only carbon and hydrogen. These molecules are flat, with each carbon having three neighboring atoms much like graphite. These molecules are highly carcinogenic but they are also very common. They are a standard product of combustion from automobiles and airplanes and some (such as benzo[a]pyrene) are present in charcoal broiled hamburgers." Eating not breathing.

"carbon monoxide",(highly toxic because it interferes with the body's ability to transport oxygen through the blood to the body's cells.Exposure to carbon monoxide can result in a variety of symptoms from headaches, weakness, lethargy, nausea, confusion, disorientation and seizure to fatality. Persons with existing heart conditions may experience increased chest pain.

"cyanide"Well, we all know what that is.

"benzene and many others."
Numerous medical studies have confirmed that exposure to benzene causes leukaemia (blood cancer), depending on the dose and exposure levels.

Nevertheless numerous studies have recommended that exposure to benzene should be kept as low as possible and that ideally people should not be exposed to the chemical at all.

Safe, huh?

Kat

Myth: Marijuana's Harms Have Been Proved Scientifically. In the 1960s and 1970s, many people believed that marijuana was harmless. Today we know that marijuana is much more dangerous than previously believed.

Fact: In 1972, after reviewing the scientific evidence, the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse concluded that while marijuana was not entirely safe, its dangers had been grossly overstated. Since then, researchers have conducted thousands of studies of humans, animals, and cell cultures. None reveal any findings dramatically different from those described by the National Commission in 1972. In 1995, based on thirty years of scientific research editors of the British medical journal Lancet concluded that "the smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health."

United States. National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. Marihuana: A signal of misunderstanding. Shafer Commission Report. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972.
“Deglamorising Cannabis.” Editorial. The Lancet 356:11(1995): 1241.

Myth?? That is just stupid to argue. It is fact. I am one who lives with it daily. I have pot lung. It is a bad thing. It is as a fungus. I was diagnosed with it in the mid nineties. It isn't anything associated with tobacco. It is from smoking pot to much too long.

Carry on soon to be sickly's. It's your lungs. But for me; I will fight any law as far as I have too...to keep it away from my family.
Not thinking I will if they want to find it; but they will know how it affected me and what I know about it.

Go ahead and try to legalize it...wait til you see your kids high and out there among the other druggies. Just you wait til you have to sit and worry over them.

Any parent who wants to see their kids get anywhere in this world will not want to see them high and wasting away on the couch or scouring the streets for a bag or joint. They need their brains. Not mushed up silly thoughts.

Kat

Wait, you're a cigarette smoker, with bad lungs, but you're blaming it on pot?



Regardless of whether or not it's legal, there is the big risk that my kids could end up on these things, However, when legalized and regulated, the guy at the 7-11 is far more likely to card my kid and refuse to sell to him than say, the scumbag gang member dealing off the street corner.

Winx, I'm supposed to take the word of the DEA, whose very existance is completely dependant on the drug war, which in turn is dependant on Marijuana being illegal, to justify their arrest numbers so that they can continue to have budget increases. Tax dollars feeding a real addiction. It's like green paper heroin.

Taking the DEA's word... not likely for me.

Meanwhile, the New Tax on the poor, known as the Cigarette tax, ( numbers indicate that smokers by and large are poor and lower middle class) have increased the vast numbers of people being forced, by economic warfare, to quit. This is going to hugely effect yet another of our industries, destructive maybe, but an industry nonetheless, causing more unemployement, more market instability and our flat broke Central Government is going to lose more revenue all because they wanted to take advantage of someone's addiction.

Do you really think that Prohibition is effective, whether done out in the open or implied, as with the overwhelming cigarette tax?

Marijuana related, but not the cause of death. If I have too many coffee's, get jittery and cause a car wreck. I happen to die... is that a coffee related or caffiene related death?

You can argue all you want too. It is a medical record.

Ihave smoked for so many years.

I have had three anxiety attacks. I had no clue where they came from. First one I just kinda said "what the hell?" Why? The second one..kinda the same. The third one...well, I have been to the emergency room three times with these. Last two by ambulance. It wasn't til the third one that it was painfully obvious. I had smoked a little wit my sister and about half an hour later I was in an ambulance. They asked me straight up had I been smoking pot. I told them no, but it happened right after. It finally became clear to me these very scarey episodes were a direct response to smoking pot. That was some scarey sh-t. I thought I was having a heart attack. I couldn't breathe. They kept me in the hospital the last time. I have not had an episode since then. Now; I cannot say what killed any of these pot smikers...but I have seen people that went waaay off their cookie on pot. If this drug was so simple and safe for everyone...legality would be fine with me. But, it isn't. It affects people differently. I have seen it.

Why do you see a need to legalize it? You obviously smoke it now.

By the way....glad you can afford it.

I think one day and if you have kids and love them...you will see a new face on yourself. No good parent wants to see their kids grow up to be potheads. Nor do they want their kids to have that memory of them high while growing up. Because they do you know. They remember.

Kat