Smoking Pot Occasionally Won't Hurt Your Lungs, May Make You Better at Lung Tests

According to a new paper released by the Journal of the American Medical Association, contrary to the beliefs of some, smoking pot is actually cool, healthwise, so long as you do it in moderation. Moderation means "one marijuana cigarette a week for 49 years, or one joint a day for 7 years." In either case, in a 20-year study analyzing the effects of pot smoking in 5,000 people, lung function remained the same in the moderate marijuana smoker. (Moderate tobacco smokers do not experience this reprieve.)

Prior to this study, the lung-damaging potential of regular pot smoking had not been clear. Now, it is more so:

At more than 10 years of smoking a daily joint, lung function seemed to decline although not to a degree that was statistically significant, the study found.

Further, according to lung function tests,

Patients who smoked only tobacco had 24 fewer milliliters of volume in the first second of an exhalation than an average nonsmoker; marijuana smokers who didn't smoke tobacco had 0.7 more milliliters. The pot-only smokers also had 8.2 milliliters more air exhaled after a full inhalation, compared with those who smoked nothing, and the tobacco-only smokers had 19 milliliters less.

Most intriguingly, the whole process of smoking pot -- with a deep breath that is held briefly and then expelled -- may actually make people better at the lung function tests, say scientists.

Well, whaddya know about that? As for how one joint a day for 7 years impacts aspects of your life aside from blowing out your birthday candles, let us know! We care.

Joint a Week Doesn't Harm Lungs: Study [Bloomberg]

[JDoll / @thisisjendoll]

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