So reading this thread it kind of seems there still lies some bias towards smoking and the health implications surrounding it. I'm an American who works for the Medical Marijuana industry so all I can refer to is my country and the industry that I know first hand.
Right off the bat I will never disagree to the argument of how we inhale Carbon Monoxide and also if you smoke by a lighter you are also inhaling fumes through that as well and of course none of those things are good for your lungs.
So with that being said we need to look at the history of weed and what was being tested back in the day as far as medical research. Originally the research put into weed was designed to strengthen the war on drugs and the government needed to justify their stance towards placing Weed in the same category as say Cocaine.
They would not test people on the positive impacts of marijuana but instead they would only search for reasons of why it is bad for you, and they even went as far as to pull funding from any doctor that tried to prove that marijuana was not bad for you.
So sometime around the 70's I believe one doctor held a study where they tested the lung function of 3 groups of people. Group A did not smoke anything, Group B only smoked marijuana and Group C only smoked cigarettes. Also group B and C were required to smoke on a daily basis.
They waited until 10, 15 and 20 years had passed and ran their tests and when they did it was found that Group C's lung function was terrible obviously. But Group B had very interesting results as either the subject's lungs had not shown any negative effect or in some cases they had better function than Group A. The reason behind this was because deep inhalation and the act of holding one's breath for absorption had in fact made the lungs stronger over time.
Now in states such as Colorado, Washington and California they are able to run new tests and we will begin to see new, trustworthy research being released to the public in the next few years. But as of right now they have found that certain compounds found in Marijuana can even influence cells to heal themselves (thus where the idea that Marijuana can cure cancer comes from). Though regeneration and the "cure" does not apply to everyone so it is a tough argument to make on that bit but it should still be discussed nonetheless.
In conclusion I wouldn't say it's great for your lungs but I will also argue that in moderatio
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