By Sade Oguntola

Copyright tribuneonlineng

Experts, in a new study, had said that daily marijuana use is linked to a 44 per cent higher risk of acquiring asthma.

Additionally, the study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine declared that it can also increase the likelihood of getting chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by 27 per cent.

The researchers at the University of California – San Francisco found an association between elevated risks to a person’s lungs and doing any of those things with cannabis, even for those who had never smoked cigarettes.

In defining the concept of inhaling, the researchers included smoking, vaping, and so-called “dabbing”, which involves breathing in the vapours of concentrated marijuana.

The study found an association between elevated risks to a person’s lungs and doing any of those things with cannabis, even for those who had never smoked cigarettes.

For this group, inhaling marijuana every day was linked to a 51 per cent increased likelihood of developing asthma. The association with COPD was also elevated, but it was not statistically significant.

The study is the largest yet to examine the association between inhaling cannabis and risks to respiratory health among people who have not smoked cigarettes. Of the 380,000 adult participants, nearly 222,000 had never smoked tobacco. The data comes from the Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System, a national survey by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As the frequency of cannabis use increases from 0 to 30 of the past 30 days, the odds of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease increase significantly.

When separated (stratified) by age, cannabis inhalation was associated with asthma among adults less than 35 years and similarly among adults older than 35 years.

Inhaled cannabis was associated with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease after adjusting for tobacco cigarette use. Among those with no lifetime tobacco cigarette use, the association with asthma persisted.

Experts say the broad legalisation of marijuana across much of the country and the perception that it is healthier than tobacco have led people to minimise the risks.

Alison Rustagi, MD, PhD, assistant professor at UCSF and first author of the paper, declared that the message about smoking tobacco being bad for you has gotten out there, but for cannabis, it’s much less clear.

He stated, “If people are looking to reduce their likelihood of developing a chronic lung disease, they should not start using cannabis. And if they already smoke cannabis, they should do it less often.”

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