I have been smoking cannabis almost daily for around 10 years.What damage have I done to myself?

Question

Can you refer me to a good,medically sound website?

Is it ALL irreversible,or can I redeem any of the health damage I have done to myself?

Answer 1

I believe u may have bought a one way ticket to shrivelled testicles-ville!

In all seriousness, different websites will tell u different things but the general concensus is that it affects sperm count, damages brain cells and has been implicated in parkinsons.

Easy to understand:
http://www.thegooddrugsguide.com/cannabis/effects.htm

Long term effects:
http://www.drugscope.org.uk/druginfo/evidence-select/cannabishealth.htm

Answer 2

It would have done consideral damage, even if it is not noticeable.

I was the same until quite recently when i just stopped for no real reason (my friends and I all kinda just stopped).

If you speak to someone who does not smoke at all you'll (or they'll) probably start to notice the difference between the two of you. You sounding lathargic, forgetful and slow.

If you stop you will soon begin to see (and feel) a vast improvement in your mental state and awareness.

As for getting back to normal, it differs, some people suffer psychosis from hardly any time smoking and some smoke all their lives and are fine. In the same way some people will find it easier to repair the damage done by smoking.

You shouldn't look into the medical websites, they are often not written by people who have any first hand knowledge of the drug and talk about things like 'a person who has smoked is more likely to go out and kill their family' which is bollocks.

If you want to stop just stop and you'll be OK, if you've been smoking every day for 10 years and havn't suffered serious psychosis yet, chances are you're pretty resilient to the long term effects.

Answer 3

No, it's not all irreversible. stop smoking and in a while your lungs will be working better again. Your risk of Lung cancer int he future may have been increased but nobody is sure about that one. Your brain is still there and working fine, I'm not exactly sure what damage (if any) has been done. I'm pretty sure it's negligable.

The main thing to do is get out of the habit. It'll take a while, but you've probably got to get rid of some of your friends, maybe moving would help.

Answer 4

You need to have a medical check out to find what damage has actually occurred. Most medical matters are handled statistically. Individual peoples minds and bodies respond differently and have different strengths and weaknesses. Some damage has almost certainly taken place, but it will be greater or less according to your constitution. It may well be reversible in time, certainly you could prevent more damage occurring.
There is no point in finding a medically good website, as it can only talk about likelihoods; I expect you want to know about actualities, what has personally happened to you. For that you must be examined and tested as an individual.

Answer 5

This would be a good time to visit your doctor and talk about your concerns. If you are intending to stop you should cut down first, to minimize withdrawal effects. Once you have stopped you will get benefits immediately, you may find it difficult to see at first, as recovery is a slow process. You will get all the benefits associated with becoming a none smoker; i.e.; more money, better health, loss of the aroma that identifies you as a smoker, (in the case of cannabis this is very distinctive). You will enjoy your food properly & no longer crave for that long put off smoke. I know people who have made a good recovery from smoking, both tobacco smokers and cannabis smokers. It is not all gloom and doom you will be amazed at how much better you feel as time passes. Good luck.

Answer 6

Smoking any drugs might lead to similar health problems that you may get from smoking ordinary baccy/ciggies. It has been said that doing drugs esp hash leads to schizophrenia it doesn't exactly. If your family has a predisposition for mental ill health problems (including deppression, schiz etc) it is more likely that these problems may develop over time even if you stop smoking the hash now the last 10 years will have had some effect on your body. Smoking hash to reduce the associated problems of MS still has the pro/cons argument so you could try looking up one of those websites or similar.

Answer 7

How do you feel yourself?

brain cells will die off naturally anyway whether you smoke or not so there's not a whole lot you can do about that.

i have friends who have smoked dope daily for 20+ years and report no negative effects mentally or physically, i'm sure a lot of it is just scaremongering.


\\The original basis of this claim was a report that, upon postmortem examinations, structural changes in several brain regions were found in two rhesus monkeys exposed to THC. Because these changes primarily involved the hippocampus, a cortical brain region known to play an important role in learning and memory, this finding suggested possible negative consequences for human marijuana users.

Additional studies, employing rodents, reported similar brain changes.
However, to achieve these results, massive doses of THC - up to 200 times the psychoactive dose in humans - had to be given in fact, studies employing 100 times the human dose have failed to reveal any damage

While there is general agreement that, while under the influence of marijuana, learning is less efficient, there is no evidence that marijuana users - even longterm users - suffer permanent impairment. Indeed, numerous studies comparing chronic marijuana users with non-user controls have found no significant differences in learning, memory recall or other cognitive functions//

read this article and decide for yourself.....
http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_myth.shtml

Answer 8

People keep saying that it damages the brain! I don't think this is true of Cannabis users or smokers in general. With the dire warnings that are now widely known about in this day and age - I doubt that anyone still abusing their bodies in this way have much of an active brain in the first place.

Answer 9

I've heard that it takes about two years for every puff to leave your system so you'd have to detox for that long in order to see a dramatic change.
A lot of people smoke cannabis though and there does not seem to be any epidemic out there. I know people who have smoked a lot more then you will ever (and I mean that) and they are in bad condition but can live a normal life they ride bikes, run and even lift a lot of stuff at work. I'd cut back though because they look worse then they feel, you'll start to see and feel it the more you age. But I wouldn't fuss too much about it as no one else is and there are a lot of worse cases out there then yours and they seem to be quite fine.

Answer 10

The factors which cause illnesses are many. To isolate one source of a cause of an illness or damage, requires many years of testing with the factor present and not present. Also it requires you to eliminate all other factors which could cause the same effect.

The most likely damage I suspect would be that from the tobacco you have smoked over the last 10 years. This damage would have been exaggerated due to the non-use of filters or other ways of removing most of the harmful tar from entering your lungs.

Most medical research appears to focus on the psychiatric effects of cannabis. I have not seen any papers that prove that subjective psychiatric opinion on a person's health is related to cannabis more than say the other factors which might be affecting that person's psychiatric health at the same time (eg. persecution by government, lack of prospects, isolation from society, etc)

Some doctors may make a link between cannabis and these other factors which affect down and outs, however the reality is that the factors are generally inextricably linked. (in other words the factors are interactive and so cannot be separated)

Therefore, I would say that until you test the effects of cannabis on the upper echelons of society (for example use doctors as a study group) and compare the effect that it has relative to the lower echelons of society you will not be able to eliminate the multi-factorial effect of the study. The analysis will be confounded by too many factors.

My suspicion personally is that psychiatric disorders are highly linked to family issues, and governmental persecution.

Cannabis is used as a scape goat sometimes, for what is essentially political and financial persecution of a person.

You will note that there is very limited mental health care in the private sector. The government has a monopoly on determining the cause of mental illness on those being persecuted by the government. One can only conclude from this that any conclusions which you arrive at will be inconclusive.

Answer 11

The body does heal itself, just like the liver does when you give up drinking so can the lungs if you give up smoking. The cannabis you smoke however could consist of anything, unless you are growing it yourself - otherwise skunk weed is being proven more and more to cause mental health issues such as psychoses and paranoia - if you are not already suffering from such then quit while you are ahead. You are playing Russian Roulette if you are prone to mental illness or it runs in your family.