Weed smoking may be worse for your lungs than smoking cigarettes, study suggests

A new research has showed marijuana smokers are more likely than cigarette smokers to have airway inflammation and emphysema.

According to researchers, the difference could be due to the way marijuana is smoked and the fact that marijuana smoke enters the lungs unfiltered.

The research study was published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) on November 15.

The study compared the chest CT results of 56 marijuana smokers to those of 57 non-smoking controls and 33 tobacco-only smokers to learn more.

Three-quarters of marijuana smokers had emphysema, a lung disease that makes breathing difficult, compared to 67% of tobacco smokers.

Emphysema affected only 5% of nonsmokers. When compared to the tobacco-only group, marijuana smokers had the highest rate of paraseptal emphysema, which affects the tiny ducts that connect to the air sacs in the lungs.

Marijuana is the second most commonly smoked substance after tobacco and one of the world’s most widely used psychoactive substances.

With the legalization of recreational marijuana across many nations, its use has skyrocketed in recent years.

“The fact that our marijuana smokers—some of whom also smoked tobacco—had additional findings of airway inflammation/chronic bronchitis suggests that marijuana has additional synergistic effects on the lungs above tobacco,” the researchers said.