UK Doc Tries to Blame Cannabis for Poor Lung Health

In true sensationalist, let’s-sell-adspace fashion, the UK news magazine Daily Mail recently released this attention grabbing headline: “Cannabis users ‘have lungs of 80-year-olds’: Doctors warn people are turning up at A&E with new form of emphysema after using drug for less than ten years.”

A&E is shorthand for “accident and emergency.” It’s the British equivalent of the ER.

The claims in the article appear, on the patina, to be fairly damning of cannabis. Among them are statements reporting that people in their 30’s have the lungs of 80 year olds, are recieving long-term oxygen therapy, they are coming in with very advanced forms of emphysema, and even awaiting lung transplants.

I was legitimately concerned for about 5 seconds. What if we had all been miserably wrong and cannabis was killing us? Luckily, I kept reading and discovered that these cases all involved joints being smoked that were a mixture of cannabis and tobacco. Since they apparently only smoke joints, that also means that they are smoking tobacco with no filter.

That little tidbit about the joints also including tobacco was conveniently buried a few paragraphs into the article. Why? I suspect it’s because the headline “tobacco linked to poor lung health” would garner more yawns and decrees of “no shit” than ad views.

The article also makes an offhanded remark that, perhaps, because cannabis is much stronger today than in the past, more lung issues are arising. That doesn’t even make sense. If it’s stronger, you tend to need less of it, hence, smoke less of it.

And can I just ask what is going on with the UK and cannabis? Nearly every ludicrous claim I’ve heard about cannabis ODs and bodily harm caused by weed have their source in the UK. There is actual science to back up the lung healing and anti-cancer properties of cannabis, but we’re supposed to just gobble down this yellow journalism as fact? How dumb do they think we are?

My own personal history shows just the opposite. After being a heavy cannabis smoker for 5 years, I had a physical. The doctor actually remarked how robust my lungs were and how, considering where I lived in the Pacific Northwest, he was shocked not to see more congestion. (Apparently, it’s pretty common in damp climates to have congested lungs/sinuses). And, just this last August, I had another physical, this time with over a decade of heavy cannabis smoking under my belt. Once again, I received a clean bill of health.

So, breath deep fellow cannabis smokers, all the “news” coming out of this headline boils down to this: tobacco is bad for you. Something tells me that if cannabis really turned your lungs into swiss cheese, Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson might have a portable iron lung following them around on tour.