Cigarettes vs Weed

cigarettes vs weed In today’s society there are plenty of smokers. Some choose to smoke cigarettes, a legal substance, and many choose to smoke marijuana, which is a illegal drug. People who choose to smoke are aware of the health risks an continue to do so any way at their own free will. Cigarettes come with warning labels on the box an clearly states how bad they actually are for you, as to marijuana comes with no warnings at all. Marijuana unlike cigarettes gives you a high, that people like to enjoy, and can be used for medicinal reasons. Many people try to compare the two, an say that smoking weed is just as bad as cigarettes for you, but this is only some what true. Cigarettes are a legal tobacco product that has been around for many years. Tobacco comes from the tobacco plant leaves, that are dried, an then smoked. One ingredient in cigarettes is nicotine, which makes them highly addictive. Tobacco smoke produces other harmful chemicals, such as ammonia, formaldehyde, and arsenic. These chemicals are very harmful to the body if consumed an that’s just a few chemicals tobacco produces when smoked. In today’s cigarettes there are more chemicals than ever and it’s still legal, and smokers of all ages have made cigarettes more popular. Becoming dependent on these dangerous chemicals is a huge health problem, one of the most common being cancer. Tobacco smoke can potentially cause cancer in not only the lungs, but mouth, and throat. Although these cancers will most likely occur after a long period of time, there are some immediate affects. Smokers who inhale tobacco smoke into their lungs along with the other harmful poisons, make their lungs work harder than normal bringing in air to the blood stream, which can make it harder to breath. Smoking can also raise blood pressure, which for some with high pressure can result in strokes or heart attacks. Tobacco use has also killed millions of people throughout the world, an is the number one most preventable cause of death. With all these health issues caused by tobacco, you would think people would just stop. It’s not that easy for smokers to quit because they are so addictive. Smokers also turn to them for many different reasons, such as stress relief, and after eating. Bringing it into their daily routine smokers go about their day with the dangers of tobacco in the back of their minds, and a cigarette in their mouth. Many want to quit but just cant. Although tobacco is a legal substance some states are passing a law, that says you cannot work in a hospital if you smoke. That’s a big deal for any smoker who smokes legally. Not only will they be tested for drugs, but will be tested for tobacco use as well. Testing for tobacco says that an employee can’t smoke on break, or even in their spare time at home. Smokers who work at hospitals are outraged by this, because it can lead to the loss of their job, and feel what they do at home is up to them. Since tobacco smoke is so bad for your health, an extremely addictive why is it not treated like other drugs? If cigarettes were illegal, the number of tobacco related deaths, and cancer patients would decrease dramatically. Unlike marijuana most people don’t have access to tobacco seeds because its controlled by the ATF (Alcohol Tobacco, and Firearms). Making tobacco illegal would benefit the population health wise. If people could not buy cigarettes less kids would see parents do it an pick up the habit, in time getting rid of tobacco entirely. Marijuana is a illegal substance that many people choose to smoke even though it can land them a fine, or even in jail. The drug has many other names like, weed, bud, chronic, an so on. Marijuana is a natural plant that grows like any other plant we know. When the plant reaches its flowering stage its starts to grow buds, which is the part of the plant that is smoked. Marijuana’s main ingredient is THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol), which gives a marijuana smoker a feeling of being ‘high’. People who smoke marijuana smoke it for some of the same reasons people smoke tobacco. The marijuana high gives the user a relaxed feeling, and a sense of calm, which is why most people use after a hard days work. Smoking weed can also make you feel very happy an can find yourself laughing at things that aren’t that funny. This high feeling can last for a few hours at a time depending on the person, an quality of bud their smoking. Along with the perks of getting high there are some cons that some may not like. Smoking marijuana can make the user feel a sense of paranoia an panic, which can be too much for some, but that mostly happens within their first few times smoking weed. Marijuana is mainly smoked, an some would say that its just as bad as cigarettes. This may be true because bud, when smoked produces a tar like substance similar to tobacco tar. When people smoke weed they inhale burnt plant particles, which some say can hurt an damage the respiratory system. Doctors have done test on chronic chronic smokers, although they said there was no long term, or life threatening damage. Smoking bud may not be good for your health for some of the same reasons as cigarettes, but there are other ways to get marijuana into the system. Marijuana can be used in ways other than smoking. One of the most common secondary ways of getting marijuana in the system is eating it. Most people who rather not smoke weed like to grind up the buds and add the ground weed to a brownie mixture, then bake an eat. When weed is eaten, the affect takes longer to kick in than smoking, but the high last longer. Another way of getting high with out actually smoking is by using a vaporizer. Vaporizers heat up the weed enough so that it produces a vapor, the vapor is then caught in a bag on top of the vaporizer its self. The bag holds in the vapor until the user is ready to inhale the THC. Since the weed was never burnt this vapor is clean of any debris, and your mouth never comes in contact with the weed. Marijuana is also used for medical purposes. THC is a natural pain reliever, smoking bud has been proven to relieve pain, treat cancer and glaucoma. Medical marijuana has been made legal in some states an patients can go to dispensary’s to pick up their meds legally. Patients aren’t kids who are trying to score bud, they are people in pain people with mental conditions, PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) etc. People who receive medical marijuana can smoke if they choose vaporize, eat, or even take a pill form of THC. Although medical marijuana is legal in some states its not legal according to the US government. The DEA (drug enforcement agency) raids these dispensary’s, an arrest the owners like criminals an leave patients to get the meds from a street dealer. If it has medicinal properties why is it illegal? There are no reports of a single marijuana related death to this day, as to alcohol an cigarettes are the cause of millions of deaths a year. Prescription drugs cause more damage than weed as well. Some popular prescription drugs that are used, like vicodin, an valium are legal drugs that have more harmful side effects than good results. Marijuana only having few minor side affects like paranoia, short term memory loss, and dry mouth. Weed is a healthier form of treatment for some conditions. Lately on tv there have been many bad prescription drug commercials that, some are scared to take any drug made by man. Some fear that prescription drugs will damage there liver, or even die from taking them. Alcohol can potentially kill you in a car crash before it can do any long term damage to your body. Since most people like to drive to the bar, or stop there after work the chances of that person getting behind the wheel are great. Marijuana may affect the ability to drive for some, but many say they are more focused on the road when stoned This may be true as there is no reports of any marijuana related accidents fatal or non-fatal.  Overall it appears that smoking is bad for you whether its marijuana, or cigarettes. This being said it is a fact that cigarettes are doing more damage to people than marijuana, an cigarettes being legal doesn’t help the situation. With all the stop smoking ads, campaigns, an explicit stop smoking commercials for cigarettes one would think they would be banned for the health of the people. Yet the government still allows the company’s to make big money from killing millions of people, an spend twice as much trying to eradicate a plant that has medical value an the potential to bring the US out of the recession. The man made products like alcohol, prescription drugs, an the chemicals put in cigarettes remain legal an killing people left an right, but no one seems to do anything about it. All that is done is DUI stops, bad drug lawsuits, an stop smoking ads. Marijuana on the other hand is the number one suspect in the all out war on drugs, and winning. The DEA cant possibly raid every grow there is, or stop the amount of seeds that will be grown, although they spend millions of tax payer dollars fighting. So why keep fighting a losing battle? As long as there is man there will be weed. Many feel as its time for weed to be legalized, an cigarettes outlawed.