Cannabis smoking

This article is about smoking practices . For drug information, see Cannabis (drug). For other uses, see Cannabis (disambiguation).

Sebsi, a Moroccan one-hitter.

Mary Lane (Dorothy Short) exhaling smoke in the propaganda film Reefer Madness (1936).

Cannabis smoking is the inhalation of vapors released by heating the flowers, leaves, or extracts of Cannabis plants, known as marijuana. Smoking releases the main psychoactive chemical in cannabis, Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is absorbed into the bloodstream via the lungs.

Cannabis can be smoked, vaporized, consumed orally or applied to the skin; the bioavailability characteristics and effects of smoking and vaporizing cannabis differ from other consumption methods in having a more rapid onset of effect.

Smoking methods

Cannabis can be smoked in a variety of pipe-like implements made in different shapes and of different materials ("bowls"), water pipes ("bongs"), cigarettes ("joints"), or cigars ("blunts").

Joint

Main article: Joint (cannabis)

A thin, slow-burning joint.

Joint is a slang term for a cigarette rolled using cannabis. Rolling papers are the most common rolling medium among industrialized countries; however, brown paper, cigarettes with the tobacco removed, and newspaper are commonly used in the developing world. Modern papers are now made from a wide variety of materials including rice, hemp, and flax. A joint can range in size, typically containing between 250–750 mg net weight of cannabis and/or fillers.

Blunt

Main article: Blunt (marijuana cigar)

A blunt is cannabis rolled with a cigar wrapper (tobacco leaf).

Pipe

Glass pipes.

Pipes made for smoking cannabis, sometimes called pieces or bowls, are made of a variety of materials, including blown glass, metal fittings (except aluminum), ceramic, borosilicate, stone, wood, bamboo and other materials. Subtypes of pipes include one-hitters, bubblers, chillums, glass blunts, corn cob pipes, and standard hand pipes. Pipes vary greatly in shape and materials, and most are handmade. The common thread between them is having a screened receptacle of some sort, a "stem" (which may be a long flexible tube as on hookahs and vaporizers), and a "mouthpiece". The smoking material is placed in the receptacle and affected with a heat source while air is drawn through the bowl and stem to the user.

Blown-glass pipes and bongs are often intricately and colorfully designed. In India and Jamaica, the most commonly used pipe is the chillum.; in the UAE, midwakh; in Morocco, sebsi.

Bong

Main article: Bong

A hand-blown glass bong.

A bong, is similar to a pipe, only it has a water-chamber through which cannabis smoke passes prior to inhalation and a wide "mouth" typically around 3.8–5.1 cm (1.5–2.0 in) in diameter. Users fill the bong with water, sometimes also adding ice or other substances in place of water in order to cool the smoke. Until recently it was widely believed that using a bong was healthier than a pipe or joint, while studies have shown the opposite, that the amount of psychoactive chemical filtered is greater than the harmful particles. Some bongs have a "choke" or "carb", a small hole usually located on the side of the bowl above water level, used to clear the pipe of smoke or to conserve material by stopping burning when enough smoke has been created.

Gravity Bong

A gravity bong (also known as a grav, a bucket, or submarine) is a hydropneumatic accumulator used for smoking cannabis. It is best suited to hashish smoking, but can be used for smoking small cannabis nugs as efficiently as well. It has the advantage that all the smoke from a small amount of cannabis is concentrated into a small volume which is less than the inspiratory capacity of the lungs, thereby providing a powerful "hit".^{[citation needed]}

It consists of a bucket of water in which is placed typically a 2-litre PET soft drink bottle with the bottom cut off. A small socket, typically 1/4 inch, with a metal screen mesh (sold at any tobacco outlet) pressed partway down inside the socket to keep any cannabis from falling through, is then tightly fastened inside an airtight hole in the bottle cap; or if a socket or sliding bowl cannot be found, a simple joint or blunt can be stuck inside a 3/16-inch hole. Once the cannabis is placed in the bowl, a flame is held near enough to heat the herb several seconds before allowing to burn slowly, meanwhile the bottle is slowly raised out of the water, creating a negative gauge pressure inside the bottle which draws smoke and vapor from the smoldering cannabis down through the cap. The cap is removed once the bottle is almost full, and the user's mouth is placed over the mouth of the bottle and the bottle pushed back down into the water, causing the pressure to rise and forcing the smoke into the lungs.^{[citation needed]} Alternatively, the user can inhale slowly and carefully while holding the bottle still and draw a small amount of extra water into it. The bottle can then slowly be raised out of the water maintaining a balance between the gravitational force on water within and the force of suction applied by the user. When the bottle is pulled out far enough to bring its base clear of the surface of the water in the bucket the remaining water will fall out of the bottle and smoke in the bottle will shoot rapidly into the user's lungs as the force of suction will no longer be balanced against the opposing force generated by the pull of the water.

A similar system using a plastic bag or zipper storage bag sealed around the cut-off bottom in lieu of water, which is drawn out with an attached handle as the cannabis is heated, is called a "chute", a "lung" or a "cloud".^{[citation needed]}

Nargila

See main article Vaporizer (cannabis).

Also see Nargila.

Health effects of smoking

Main article: Effects of cannabis

Studies regarding cancer risk

Marijuana smoke was listed as a cancer agent in California in 2009. Cannabis smoke contains many of the same carcinogens as tar from tobacco smoke.

A 2012 literature review by the British Lung Foundation identified cannabis smoke as a carcinogen and also found awareness of the danger was low compared with the high awareness of the dangers of smoking tobacco particularly among younger users. Other observations include increased risk from each cigarette due to drawing in large puffs of smoke and holding them; lack of research on the effect of cannabis smoke alone due to common mixing of cannabis and tobacco and frequent cigarette smoking by cannabis users; low rate of addiction compared to tobacco; and episodic nature of cannabis use compared to steady frequent smoking of tobacco.

Professor David Nutt, a UK drug expert, points out that the study cited by the British Lung Foundation has been accused of both "false reasoning" and "incorrect methodology". Further, he notes that other studies have failed to connect cannabis with lung cancer, and accuses the BLF of "scaremongering over cannabis".

As of 2012, there is conflicting data on the correlation of an increase in the incidence of lung cancer and cannabis smoking. A systematic review evaluating 19 studies from 1966 to 2006 found no significant tobacco-adjusted association between cannabis smoking and lung cancer development despite evidence of precancerous histopathologic changes of the respiratory mucosa. Some studies indicate increased rates of cancer and others do not. The studies do indicate increased prevalence of pre-cancerous changes in the user's airways.

In the largest study of its kind, researchers found no cancer-cannabis connection. Donald Tashkin, a pulmonologist at University of California, Los Angeles who studied marijuana for 30 years, "hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use". Instead, the study found "no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect". The study, which involved a large population sample (1,200 people with lung, neck, or head cancer, and a matching group of 1,040 without cancer) found no correlation between marijuana smoking and increased lung cancer risk, with the same being true for head and neck cancers as well. The results indicated no correlation between long and short-term cannabis use and cancer, indicating a possible therapeutic effect. Extensive cellular studies and some studies in animal models suggest that THC or cannabidiol has antitumor properties, either by encouraging programmed cell death of genetically damaged cells that can become cancerous, or by restricting the development of the blood supply that feeds tumors, or both.

Pulmonary function

In 2012, a 20 year study of pulmonary function and marijuana exposure concluded that "occasional use (1 joint a day for 7 years or 1 joint/week for 49 years) of marijuana for these or other purposes may not be associated with adverse consequences on pulmonary function". It also concluded that the findings do suggest an accelerated decline in pulmonary function with heavy use and a resulting need for caution and moderation when marijuana use is considered."

A 2008 study found that asymmetrical bullous lung disease occurs in marijuana smokers approximately 20 years earlier than tobacco smokers. Although the study concluded marijuana caused the bullous disease, they failed to account for confounding variables (as all 10 participants have a history of cigarette smoking) so the notion that cannabis use caused is far from conclusive.

See also

• Cannabis consumption