Smoking Marijuana Is Bad for Your Lungs

I say this after some 50 years of smoking pot. I kidded myself through all those years: sure tobacco is deadly, but not pot.

I could feel it in my lungs about 5 years ago, and I switched to vaping, ending up with an ice-filled water pipe bong, with herb activated by a German heat gun (no flames). But even that started to feel not so good.

A couple of things I realized after I made the break:

  1. You know the tar you have to clean out of water pipes? Where do you think that tar is going when you smoke a joint?
  2. Igniting pipes with Bic Lighters? What was I thinking? Inhaling butane.

I’ll bet these oils people are smoking are full of tar.

I got my lungs checked and they seem to be OK, but I think I’ve done a little damage. (Although a doctor once told me that if I quit smoking for 2 years, my lungs would clear.)

I know one thing: my lungs are telling me to back off on all heat-produced cannabis vapors.

Edibles. Sprayables.

Just sayin

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

2 Responses to Smoking Marijuana Is Bad for Your Lungs

  1. remember oh so well that double hold down, trying to remain calm,
    and a voice said “I wish there was something I could do to give myself
    just a few more seconds of air” and another voice answered:
    “you know what you can do”
    and i did it
    that was long ago and since then there have been a couple times
    when i was recovering from surgery/injury (knee replacement, 7 broken ribs)
    when a little bit was a big help

  2. Yeah, I had to stop about five years ago for similar reasons: I’m 83 and damaged my bronchia (heavy ammonia fumes) when in my early 20’s – stuff adds up over time. Like you my lungs have been diagnosed as healthy, all things considered, but still…

    Since legalization here in Oregon I switched to edibles but I find it difficult to control dosage that way, so I’ve pretty much let it go.

Leave a Reply