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Cannabis and the lung

Correspondence to:
Dr Peter Lange, Department of Cardiology and Respiratory Medicine, Hvidovre Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark; plange@dadlnet.dk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Cannabis (or marijuana) is not only the most widely used illegal drug in the western world but, after tobacco, also the most commonly smoked substance. In the UK almost 50% of young adults have tried to smoke cannabis at some time.¹ Among people aged 16–30 years of age there is a substantial number of frequent users, in some populations in the range of about 5%. The active substance responsible for the psychostimulating effect of cannabis is delta⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). However, as with tobacco smoke, cannabis smoke consists of a large mixture of compounds including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, cyanide, benzene and many others.

Cannabis is prepared from the hemp plant which—especially in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century—was grown for industrial purposes in order to produce fibres, but it has gradually been replaced by other coarse-fibre plants. Archaeological findings show that cannabis . . . [Full text of this article]

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Effects of cannabis on pulmonary structure, function and symptoms

Sarah Aldington, Mathew Williams, Mike Nowitz, Mark Weatherall, Alison Pritchard, Amanda McNaughton, Geoffrey Robinson, and Richard Beasley
Thorax 2007 62: 1058-1063. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]