Which is the worst for your health?

[Fred]

Smoking Pot
Smoking cigarettes
Drinking Alcohol

I thought I would focus this question specifically on health rather than as a social phenomena or whatever. I don't know the answer, although I have heard that drinking alcohol is the worst for your health because of the damage it does to your liver. What do you think?

[TLab3000]

Hm, you could have made this a poll.

Definitely not smoking pot.
Smoking cigarettes - I guess so, because I don't think there's anything really positive about it.
Alcohol - depends on the amounts. Your liver can handle certain amounts of alcohol fairly well, and little amounts of alcohol can even be healthy, because, for example, it thins your blood, just like having an Aspirin a day. Rumor has it that that's the reason why the French live so long although the eat fatty foog, too ;)

Depends on the person and health situation, too, but I think smoking is the worst.

[Sock Full of Boiled Dimes]

Actually Pot is more harmful to your lungs than cigarettes are, but less addictive. The only problem is that people find that pot is less harmful and smoke it anyway to enjoy their oh so great high.

I have never heard of people getting lung cancer from pot though most likely because people (hopefully) grow out of it as they mature.

Or they die a burnout.

[TLab3000]

Actually Pot is more harmful to your lungs than cigarettes are, but less addictive. The only problem is that people find that pot is less harmful and smoke it anyway to enjoy their oh so great high.

Maybe it's about the amounts, too.
I smoke about 30 cigarettes a day (damn!). Just trying to imagine a person smoking 30 joints/bongs/pipes/whatever a day makes me giggle :) I guess, such a person has other stuff than their (physical) health to worry about.

[Urban~Ninja]

I would say smoking, most of the other in lower doses wont lead to any death or serious problems whereas if you smoke durries every day (5+ per day) its bound to lead to something.

[Angelyne]

Maybe it's about the amounts, too.
I smoke about 30 cigarettes a day (damn!). Just trying to imagine a person smoking 30 joints/bongs/pipes/whatever a day makes me giggle :) I guess, such a person has other stuff than their (physical) health to worry about.


I agree, this all depends on the amount of each drug consumed. One joint is probably healthier than a 2-3 pack a day addiction.

I'd probably still say alcohol is the unhealthiest, only because of its short term danger. You can die from drinking too much alcohol in one night, and it's easy for some people to drink way beyond their limit in a party setting. While you might develop health problems from long term use of tobacco or marijuana, you won't die or have serious health problems from using too much in one night.

[Fred]

I reckon the addictive quality of the substance also affects how harmful the substance is likely to be.

edit: I thought about doing a poll, but it seemed like reading people's opinions would be more interesting.

[Kass]

You know. This is a lot like asking which is the worst way to die, being stabbed, shot or beaten to death. No matter which one you choose, your dead.

Pick an organ to destroy. Pot and cigarettes will destroy your lungs. Alcohol will destroy your liver.

[Psychochink]

Well, obviously in excess all of them are bad for you. After that, it all depends on how you look at it.

If we're talking really excessive use - alcohol will kill you the fastest through serosis of the liver [Note: This is a general rule and not necessarily true in all cases - you'd be amazed at how healthy the livers of alcoholics can be sometimes. Ditto for some smokers' lungs.]

Likewise, marijuana has more tar than cigarettes (and is typically smoked unfiltered) so cigarettes appear to be the winner here.

If minor/irregular use - pot is probably the worst, due to the extremely high levels of tar. In small, regular amounts, there is even some evidence that alcohol can be beneficial.

Of course, the argument can be made that alcohol and nicotine are both physically addictive, lend themselves to heavier use for that reason, and therefore they are the worst. That then brings up the psychological addictiveness of all drugs and the (currently not well-documented) possibility of enhanced susceptibility to schizophrenia in marijuana users.

Pick your argument.

[Pierrot le Fou]

Alcohol abuse, with 4 cups of coffee a day, will result in drastically fewer liver problems recent studies show.

Pot smoked through a vaporizer will cause minimal lung damage, as you aren't actually inhaling smoke.

Cigarettes greatly increase the risk of various diseases, but it's a crapshoot, as there are plenty of non-cancerous 80 year-old smokers who've been smoking a pack a day since they were a teenager.

Socially, drinking is a larger problem. Mental-health-wise, alcohol and pot are both big negatives in my mind. Health-wise, hardcore alcohol use and cigarette smoking are probably equal.

Alcohol is the least healthy, all-around, but cigarettes pull in a close second. Thankfully they go together like miso soup and white rice, so I don't have to pass one of them over for the other, and can double my flavor, and double my fun.

possibility of enhanced susceptibility to schizophrenia in marijuana users.
To clarify, pot does not cause schizophrenia, it simply has, like most other psychotropic substances, a chance to make a latent case of schizophrenia come to the surface and stop being latent. A person without latent schizophrenia will not develop it through smoking pot alone.

[delen]

Since alcohol impairs your senses if you are doing things that are hazardous (driving, climbing, swordfighting, etc) in drasticly increases your chances of getting hurt.

Although this depends on the amount of alcohol.

With any of these three things doing them very rarely will probably not have any detrimental long term effects.

[Rear Admiral Grapefruit]

Cigs aren't just about lung cancer, they also increase chances of CHD(coronary heart disease) aswell which means heart attacks, angina, blood clots etc, the nicotine aswell as being addictive causes blood vessels to become constricted in the extremities, ie hand, feet, penis, and can often lead to impotence in men.

Alcohol is fine within the legal limit, it only becomes an issue when it comes to binge drinking and alcohol abuse. As most know, it's about the liver damage, but also it's killing brain cells and excess alcohol = alcohol poisoning. There's also other issues like drink driving, random injuries when drunk, even drowning after falling into a lake etc (which does happen). One thing to note, is that liver damage IS reversable, i think it only kills once liver function falls below 40-50%, but if a person who abuses alcohol completely quits, their liver can recover from the damage they have done to it after a certain period of time.

Pot however, i don't know much about, i've never tried it, probably never will, can't comment much on this.

i'd likely say that in the long term, cigarettes are the biggest issue, the damage they do is not reversable so once it's done, you can only hope to minimise the damage done by completely quiting, while alcohol you can do something about, and there are better treatments to deal with alcohol abusers, such as using emetics and such.

[Kass]

Actually, driving under the influence of marijuana is becoming a major problem now too. There are significantly higher numbers of DUIs (marijuana) now. One case in this area a few years ago involved a girl who was stoned like all her friends in the car, drove it into a tree and killed all four of her friends.

Your reaction times while under the influence of marijuana are crap.

Damage to internal organs from alcohol is also irreversible. You liver and kidneys don't spontaneously regenerate if you quit drinking.

[chad mullet]

I read in the British Medical Journal a few years ago that dope, if smoked in sufficient quantities, was more likely to cause emphysema than a similar amount of tobacco.

Cigarettes are great - they prevent old age.

[Kaji]

I've never seen a pot smoker who didn't also smoke cigarettes, so I'm going to argue pot to be the worst on the basis that it rides piggyback with something else, thus compounding.

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

There are plenty of pot smokers who don't smoke cigarettes, trust me.

Also of note: Due to new indoor growing techniques cannabis is becoming more potent (ie. more THC). Politicians are quick to call this a big problem, however, it actually makes pot smoking less dangerous to your health because the amount one needs to smoke to reach the desired effect is now less thus less damage is done to one's lungs.

I couldn't say which habit I believe is more dangerous. I believe all three habits can be very bad for your health but when done in moderation are actually not that bad.

[Nebosuke]

Pot is a huge issue in Hawaii, so a term project of one summer school session I attended at UH was a paper on the subject. It turns out that pot smoked as a joint is more damaging to your lungs than a cigarette, but pot smoked through a multi-stage water bong is perfectly fine.

The two most damaging aspects of pot smoking are the tar and the heat, both of which can be just about completely eliminated through the use of well-designed multi-stage water filters. It works for pot, but not for cigarettes, because nicotine is water soluble and THC is not. A single stage water bong can be (and, in parts of, e.g., the middle east, is) used for smoking tobacco, but an effective multi-stage filter will remove too much of the nicotine.

Every study has also shown that THC is not physically addictive. The reason for that is that it is expelled from the body at an exceedingly slow rate, so there are none of the physical symptoms of withdrawal that are common to other drugs. The downside to this is that there are measurable effects on your reaction time, short-term memory, etc., from 3 days to up to a week after the last time you smoked.

All that being said, I think that in the end, of the three, you're probably best off drinking responsibly. Drinking to the point that it seriously impacts your health is abnormal, and few people (cancer patients, people suffering from glaucoma, etc.) have a reason to smoke pot that is compelling enough to risk the legal consequences.

[harper]

I've never seen a pot smoker who didn't also smoke cigarettes, so I'm going to argue pot to be the worst on the basis that it rides piggyback with something else, thus compounding.

I have. I used to work with a guy who smoked marijuana on a fairly regular basis, but never smoked cigarettes. I've never smoked either myself.

[Overkongen]

Smoking.

Only one of these things I do myself if drinking, maybe once every month. But as it has been stated, drinking won't harm ya unless you do it at a really regular basis.

Sometimes though, people I know smoke around me. Other times, people that I don't know smoke around me, too. They insist on breathing their poison down my throat. I don't much socialize with smokers, though, so the damage I'll be suffering is minimal, thankfully.

[Duke Luke of Juke]

I've never seen a pot smoker who didn't also smoke cigarettes, so I'm going to argue pot to be the worst on the basis that it rides piggyback with something else, thus compounding.

I have. I used to work with a guy who smoked marijuana on a fairly regular basis, but never smoked cigarettes. I've never smoked either myself.

Yeah, I agree with Harper. I have quite a few people I know that smoke pot but have never smoked cigarettes, nor have any interest in doing so from what I've observed. They also have no interest in doing any other drugs, so it's not always the case that pot use leads to the use of other substances. I think like anything else, it depends on the person. I know from a personal standpoint that a few of my friends are under the impression that smoking a cigarette immediately after smoking pot increases the high, although I've never found that to be conclusively true.

_________________

As far as what's most dangerous, I have no idea. I think anything's dangerous when not used sensibly, in moderation.

[Matt W]

PLF broke it down perfectly.

Pot is easily the least bad for your health, and most pot smokers I know don't smoke cigs, so I don't they are correlated.

[Alphonse v.2]

Cigarettes are definitly worse for you then the others because you can become addicted. Pot and Alcohol are probably about the same because under careful use niether substance really causes long term damage. Like mentioned before me, if pot is filtered properly through water bongs and the like, it is not that dangerous to your health. Just like if alcohol is taken with moderation, it can even be good for you. It is simply easier to abuse alcohol because in most cases it is easier to obtain, and you can keep drinking, where as if you are smoking pot, you are most likely to simply pass out and there is no lethal dose of it.

[sushi]

if its over a long period of time cigarettes would be more harmfull because they are addictive although it depends on how many you smoke!
For short period of time alcohol would probably be more harmfull because you can die of alcohol poisoning if you drink too much in one go or do some thing stupid when you're drunk and hurt yourself that way. I've never heard smoking pot is that harmfull :eyepop:

[Fred]

How would you compare the harmful/beneficial effects of pot, cigarettes, and alcohol to sugar? In a way, sugar seems to be the most subtly devastating. For myself, smoking has no attraction and I rarely drink alcohol, but I love sweet things and can easily eat them to excess were I not eternally vigilant and had a will or iron. Given the level of obesity in the US and other industrial nations, and the health risks associated with obesity, as well as the pervasiveness of sugar in our processed foods, I think it is reasonable to make a comparison between sugar and theses other recreational drugs. What do you think?

[sushi]

I think sugar can be as harmful to you as the other recreational drugs, if not more harmful. There is an awareness for how bad the other drugs are for your body and what not, but sugar is still pretty much not known about although thats starting to change. plus a lots more people like sweets and foods with high sugar too alcohol and cigarettes (especially children).

[Kass]

No one has ever OD on sugar or killed someone with their car because they were driving under the influence of sugar. Alcohol and pot are intoxicants, so the risks are significantly different.

You also don't get addicted to sugar. Cigarettes and alcohol are addictive. General consensus on pot is still split.

[OblivionLost]

It all depends on the amounts ingested. Period. End of story.

[Fred]

I agree that tobacco, pot, alcohol, and sugar are difficult to compare for many reasons. However, I am not doing a doctoral dissertation. I am just curious about people’s opinions. Of course, one opinion might be that these items are too different to make a meaningful comparison. I guess that’s fine. I am still interested in what people think.

I looked up on-line some of the health effects of these different substances. Here is what I found:

Sugar can do the following: suppress the immune system, upset the body's mineral balance, contribute to hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, concentration difficulties, and crankiness in children, produce a significant rise in triglycerides, cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children, reduce helpful high density cholesterol, promote an elevation of harmful cholesterol, cause hypoglycemia, contribute to a weakened defense against bacterial infection, cause kidney damage, increase the risk of coronary heart disease, lead to chromium deficiency, cause copper deficiency, interfere with the absorption of calcium and magnesium, increase fasting levels of blood glucose, promote tooth decay, produce an acidic stomach, raise adrenaline levels in children, lead to periodontal disease, speed the aging process, causing wrinkles and grey hair, increase total cholesterol, contribute to weight gain and obesity, increase the risk of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, contribute to diabetes, contribute to osteoporosis, cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity, lead to decreased glucose tolerance, cause cardiovascular disease, increase systolic blood pressure, cause food allergies, cause free radical formation in the bloodstream, cause toxemia during pregnancy, contribute to eczema in children, overstress the pancreas, causing damage, cause atherosclerosis, compromise the lining of the capillaries, cause liver cells to divide, increasing the size of the liver, increase the amount of fat in the liver, increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney, cause depression, increase the body's fluid retention, cause hormonal imbalance cause hypertension, cause headaches, including migraines, cause an increase in delat, alpha and theta brain waves, which can alter the mind's ability to think clearly, increase blood platelet adhesiveness which increases risk of blood clots and strokes, increase insulin responses in those consuming high-sugar diets compared to low sugar diets, and increases bacterial fermentation in the colon. (http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/sugar.htm)

Smoking puts people at extra risk for the following: Coronary heart disease, Peripheral vascular disease, Aortic aneurysm, High cholesterol, Lung cancer, Cancer of the mouth, throat and voice box, Cancer of the pancreas, Cancer of the kidney, and urinary bladder, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Chronic bronchitis, Emphysema, Pneumonia, Influenza, The common cold, Peptic ulcers, Chronic bowel disease (Crohn’s disease), Tooth decay, Gum disease, Osteoporosis, Sleep problems, Cataracts, and Thyroid disease. (http://www.health.gov.sk.ca/rr_smoking_effects.html)

Pot can cause the following: Lung damage, Eye, throat and mouth irritation, Cancer, Memory lapses and inability to concentrate, Temporary increase in heart rate and blood pressure, which can lead to more serious circulatory problems over time, decreased resistance to diseases, decreased sexual drive and decreased sperm count in men. (http://www.health.org/govpubs/rpo884/)

Alcohol can lead to Arthritis, Cancer, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Heart Disease, Hyperglycermia, Hypoglycemia, Kidney disease, Liver disease, Malnutrition, Neuropathy and Dementia; impairs balance and memory, Obesity, Depression, Anxiety and Insomnia. (http://www.healthchecksystems.com/alcohol.htm)