This article was originally published on Flowertown, and appears here with permission.
Smoking is one of our oldest pastimes, whether it’s cigarettes, pipes, cannabis or any other assortment of flora. It feels good and we’ve been doing it forever. But regardless of how cool you look (or feel) smoke is bad for your lungs.
Without sounding too much like a health PSA, the negative effects of smoking are true of smoke from cannabis, tobacco, barbeques, and summer brush fires.
When you inhale smoke, you’re inhaling a variety bag of organic and inorganic chemicals that, when condensed, form a sticky brown substance called tar. Some of that tar is exhaled or coughed back out, but some of it collects in your lungs, where it can cause lung cells to die.
In every frightening photograph you’ve ever seen of smokers’ lungs, that’s where those ugly black and brown colors come from: dead lung cells. And, according to the American Lung Association, marijuana smoke deposits four times more tar into your lungs than cigarettes do.
The ALA hypothesizes that this is because of the way cannabis is generally smoked; …