Health Dangers of Cannabis Underestimated by Young

Doctors are warning that young people are unaware of the potential health risks of cannabis.
According to the British Lung Foundation (BLF), smoking the drug poses a 20-times greater risk of lung cancer per cigarette than tobacco smoking.
The findings say the drug is used by more than a third of people under 24, but the vast majority, more than 80 per cent, think it is less of a cancer risk than tobacco.
A further one in three were unaware that research has linked smoking cannabis to a range of other problems including complications with respiratory and circulatory systems and even  psychiatric problems.
The BLF  said the findings were "alarming". "New research continues to reveal the multiple health consequences of smoking cannabis. There is still a dangerous lack of public awareness of quite how harmful this drug can be," said Dame Helena Shovelton, BLF chief executive.
"Young people in particular are smoking cannabis unaware that each cannabis cigarette they smoke increases their chances of developing lung cancer by as much as an entire packet of 20 tobacco cigarettes."
She called for a public health campaign to "dispel the myth that smoking cannabis is somehow a safe pastime".
It is believed that cannabis smoking is more harmful because drug smokers inhale more deeply and hold it longer than tobacco smokers. Some research has found that the average puff on a cannabis joint is two-thirds larger and is held four times longer than the average puff of a tobacco cigarette.

This means cannabis users inhales four times as much tar and five times as much carbon monoxide. The smoke particles become more concentrated and more harmful.
According to police officials the modern day drug is more powerful than ever before. The concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) has been linked to an increased heart disease and suppression of the immune system.
Concern has also focused on the drug's impact on mental health, particularly on a small group of vulnerable users with an inherited predisposition to schizophrenia.
An important mitigating factor is that most cannabis users give up in their 30s which has a big role factor in cigarette-induced lung cancer. Studies in Sweden and the US found no increase in deaths.