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Smoking pot is as serious of a health hazard as drinking or smoking cigarettes. In fact, when you burn and inhale pretty much anything you can assume that it's probably not overly good for you. There are carcinogens present in marijuana, some of them are the same as those in tobacco We all know what carcinogens are known for: causing cancer. A study done by the UCLA cancer center and endorsed by the American Cancer Society linked smoking pot with head and neck cancers. Suggesting that smoking pot is benign, especially after the lessons we learned from cigarettes, is more than a little ignorant.

There are other things to consider here though. If we are comparing pot to cigarettes and alcohol, pot definitely comes in third on the risk list. Not a whole lot of people smoke pot like chain smokers smoke cigarettes. The major downfall of people who smoke (health wise that is) is the sheer volume of crap they inhale every day. And heavy drinkers have similar risks with liver disease and such (not to mention the other hazards they pose such as drunk driving and violent behavior). Smoking pot in moderation (even say once a month) probably won't put you at severe risk for any sort of health problem, they key to anything like that is moderation. And I'm not sure I know anyone (even when I was in college) who smokes pot in the quantity that amounts to a pack of cigarettes a day.

So while I definitely can't go ahead and state that pot is benign, I also will say that the perceived notions that it is somehow worse than the legalized drugs like alcohol is ridiculous.

Learn more about this author, Michael Sheppard.
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