The street slang for cannabis is pot, weed or joints. Latest reseach proved the damage to the lungs from smoking, weed, hash, hash oil, or joints. I smoked cannabis for several years and was highly addicted, smoking joints of weed hourly, ignoring the health damage. I could feel the damage to my lungs. Recently, science has discovered what Cannabis is doing to the body, and it is not good. If you thought cigarettes are bad for your health, pot is worse. Smoking a joint is equivalent to 20 cigarettes in the risk of lung cancer state, scientists in New Zealand that are warning pot smokers of an “epidemic” of lung cancers linked to cannabis. There have been very few past studies demonstrating that cannabis can cause cancer. However, those few studies have established a clear connection between cannabis use and incidence of lung cancer. The European Respiratory Journal stated, “Cannabis could be expected to harm the airways more than tobacco as its smoke contained twice the level of carcinogens, such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons, compared with tobacco cigarettes”. Whereas cigarettes are filtered, joints are typically smoked without a filter and usually to very tip, to increases the amount of smoke inhaled. The cannabis smoker also inhales deeply and holds the smoke in the lungs, increasing the deposition of carcinogens in the airways. “Cannabis smokers end up with five times more carbon monoxide in their bloodstream (than tobacco smokers),” team leader Richard Beasley, at the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, said in a telephone interview. “There are higher concentrations of carcinogens in cannabis smoke … what is intriguing to us is there is so little work done on cannabis when there is so much done on tobacco.” The researchers interviewed 79 lung cancer patients and sought to identify the main risk factors for the disease, such as smoking, family history and occupation. The patients were questioned about alcohol and cannabis consumption. In this high-exposure group, lung cancer risk rose by 5.7 times for patients who smoked more than a joint a day for 10 years, or two joints a day for 5 years, after adjusting for other variables, including cigarette smoking. “While our study covers a relatively small group, it shows clearly that long-term cannabis smoking increases lung cancer risk,” wrote Beaseley. “Cannabis use could already be responsible for one in 20 lung cancers diagnosed in New Zealand,” he added. “In the near future we may see an ‘epidemic’ of lung cancers connected with this new carcinogen. And the future risk probably applies to many other countries, where increasing use of cannabis among young adults and adolescents is becoming a major public health problem.” If you have damage to your lungs due to smoking cannabis, you will need a longer fast over 20 days as the tar deposits are sticky and do not break down easily and resist the cleansing power of fasting. Juice fasting is one of the most powerful ways to clean the lungs of built up toxins and tar from pot smoking.