by Zachariah Langley

Created on: July 10, 2008

If you don't think tobacco is more toxic than cannabis, do me a favor.. slap yourself. Don't worry, I'll wait. Tobacco is more toxic for more reasons than just Carbon Dioxide and Ammonia. What about radioactivity? Bet I got your attention now. In 1990, C. Everette Koop, the U.S. Surgeon General at that time, went on television and said that radioactivity, not tar, accounts for at least 90% of all smoking related lung cancer. You might wonder how? You should be wondering why this knowledge isn't more heavily circulated. Most know about nicotine, but did you know that because of the ammonia present, when inhailed, the nicotine gets to your brain in six seconds. Nicotine is highly addictive, but is nothing compared to the radioactive properties in tobacco.

Tobacco crops grown in the United States are fertilized by law with phosphates rich in radium 226. Now, if you don't know, Radium is over one million times more radioactive than the same ammount of uranium. In water it mainly causes kidney injury, while the airborne forms produce fibrosis and cancer of the lung. Because of its similarity to calcium, radium-226 is stored mainly in the bone, and it produces abnormal changes in the bone marrow, including anemia and leukemia, cancers of the bone, and paranasal sinuses. Radium has a half life of about 1600 years, and when it does break down creates two other long lived elements.. lead 210 and polonium 210. These radioactive particles become airborne, and attach themselves to the fine hairs on tobacco leaves.
Little known fact, or you might already know, is that cannabis doesn't contain any radioactive properties or chemicals. They do both contain about the same ammount of like chemicals. In spite of this, a recent large-scale study found no correlation between heavy marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the THC present may have a "protective effect" by causing aging cells to die before they become cancerous. Other recent research suggest the cannabinoid CBD may stop certain cancers from spreading, although not in concentrations consumed during smoking. Also, when you do, if you ever have, smoked cannabis.. you're smoking the buds, not the leaves which do give off more tar.
I've listen to people spouting out that smoking a joint is like smoking ten cigarettes, which is pure fantasy and more reefer madness propagated by an industry and system that saw hemp as a threat. Plus, tobacco is physically addictive, cannabis is not. Read that as many times as you need to.

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