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Tobacco – No better than Marijuana

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It is well known that nicotine and tobacco usage are injurious to health and that they are carcinogens. The fact that tobacco and nicotine usage is not illegal but marijuana usage is. It gives us an apparent notion that marijuana is more deleterious.

Perhaps we’ve got a wrong picture. Moreover, it’s not as much a taboo in the society to use nicotine or tobacco as it is to use drugs like marijuana. So, it is generally believed that tobacco smoking isn’t as harmful as marijuana.

But, studies show that tobacco smoking is equally or more lethal as marijuana is. A study had been conducted on more than 5,000 youngsters in Switzerland and the findings revealed that those who smoked marijuana do as well or better in some areas as those who don’t. The study, published in the November issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, was based on a 2002 survey of 5,263 Swiss students age 16 to 20, of whom 455 smoked marijuana only, 1,703 who used both marijuana and tobacco and 3,105 who abstained from both.

Dr. J.C. Suris and colleagues at the University of Lausanne, project yet another interesting fact that those who used both tobacco and marijuana used more of marijuana and were predisposed to addiction to marijuana. In addition, the study did not confirm that those subjects that abstained themselves from tobacco and marijuana did well or better than those that used them.

Those who used only marijuana seemed to be more gregarious, more indulging and seemed to fair well in sports. There was not enough evidence to say that they are more susceptible to depression. Though they tend to miss classes, their grades were as good as of those who abstained from the drug usage.

When compared with the marijuana and tobacco users group, half of them had used 10 times or more of marijuana in the previous month, while half of the only marijuana-users group had used it only once or twice.

The study further reveals that the subjects started using tobacco before the age of 15, marijuana only after the age of 15 and those that used both abused alcohol. Sadly, as marijuana use in the US among adolescents has declined to a great extent, it has increased in European countries, especially Switzerland.

Tobacco, marijuana or both which is better, is an irrelevant question. It is important to know the facts for the sake of awareness but our body tissues sure can not distinguish between the three and function exactly according to what the studies reveal. Health is wealth and I am sure that you won’t like to sell for a triviality.

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via : Yahoonews

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