A Blunt cigar - Positive or negative? What is Inside?

What are "Blunts?"

The name, "Blunts," is a street name used to describe a marijuana and tobacco cigar.
Other street names include "el-pees" (LP's), According to one source,
Blunts originated among Jamaicans in New York City in the early 1980's.
Blunts take their name from "Phillies Blunt" brand cigars, although other brands of similar make (such as El Producto, White Owl, and Dutch Masters) are also used for this purpose.
Tobacco is removed from the inside of the cigar, and replaced with marijuana.
Blunts vs. Joints Smoking marijuana inside the leaf or paper wrapper of a cigar offers several advantages to the user:

- The tobacco wrapper slows down the burning rate of the joint. This allows a greater number of users to share the same joint.

- A blunt holds more marijuana than a joint, and is convenient to use and store. A single user can smoke it, extinguish it, and easily relight it.

- It looks like a legal drug. Even though it is illegal for adolescents to use tobacco products, blunts appear to be commercial tobacco cigars. Policemen, teachers, and parents who ignore cigarette possession in minors are likely to ignore blunts as well.

- Nicotine from the tobacco content may add to the effects of the marijuana in a blunt. Nicotine is a stimulant, and marijuana is a minor hallucinogen with some depressant properties. Other stimulant and depressant combinations include cocaine and heroin, cocaine and alcohol, amphetamines and alcohol. At this writing, there appears to be no medical literature evaluating the psychoactive effects of using marijuana and tobacco together vs. individually. However, some of the comments made in one magazine interview are intriguing and may indicate synergistic effects: "The blunt is more effective =FC than smoking marijuana alone..." "When you smoke a blunt, you get twice as high..." "At first, I didn't like it, 'cause it made me dizzy. ..


Why are Phillies Blunt cigars used?

Many other cigar brands are still being used to make blunts.
Users say that the Phillies Blunt brand produces less harsh- tasting or sweeter smoke.
The leaf wrapper of a Phillies Blunt=FC is strong enough to hold together through the manipulations of making a blunt. Other brands fall apart.

How to roll a Blunt:

The first thing you have to know to roll a blunt, is practice, practice, and practice.
It takes several tries before you can get it right.
You need a razor blade, to cut it open to take all the tobacco out.
All the process is the same like a real tobacco handmade cigar, so at the end roll it up, and lick the edge thoroughly. It takes a lot of saliva to make these things stick. At the end if you light it, and test it...is your responsability.

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What is inside of a "good Blunt"? Second part of the article, with references.

The Marijuana, which is a mixture of the fried and shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the hemp plant. The mixture can be green, brown, or gray. Hemp's scientific name is Cannabis sativa.

A bunch of leaves seems harmless, right? But think again. Marijuana has a chemical in it called tetrahydrocannabinol. Better known as THC. A lot of other chemicals are found in marijuana too - about 400 of them, some of which can cause lung cancer. But the THC is the main active ingredient (*1).

How is it used?

Marijuana is used in many ways. Some users brew it as tea or mix it with food. Others smoke "Blunts" - cigars hollowed out and filled with the drug. And sometimes marijuana is smoked through a water pipe called a bong. The most common method is smoking loose marijuana rolled into a cigarette called a joint or nail (*2).

Short-term effects of using Marijuana as the blunt ingredient:

* Memory Problems
* Impaired Coordination
* Distortions in senses of sight, hearing, touch, time and depth

Long-term Effects of using the Marijuana (smoking).

* Increasing tolerance - The need for increasing amounts to feel effects
* Permanent damage to thinking and reasoning ability
* Chronic bronchitis, frequent chest colds, and pneumonia
* Increased risk of lung or oral cancer
* Weakened immune system
* Damage to the reproductive system and infertility in both sexes
* Miscarriage or brain damage to fetuses

Addiction

Here's the thing. Once dopamine starts flowing, a user feels the urge to smoke marijuana again. and then again, and then again. Repeated use could lead to addiction, and addiction is a brain disease.

Smoking Marijuana can make driving dangerous:

The cerebellum is the section of our brain that does most of the work on balance and coordination. When THC finds its way into the cerebellum, it makes scoring a goal in soccer or hitting a homerun pretty tough.

THC also does a number on the basal ganglia, another part of the brain that's involved in movement control.

These THC effects can spell disaster on the highway. Research shows that drivers on marijuana have slow reaction times, impaired judgement, and problems responding to signals and sounds on the road. In one study of 150 reckless drivers, 33 tested positive for marijuana,(*4).

Smoking Marijuana may lead to lung cancer:

The list of negative effects goes on and on. Smoking marijuana may increase the risk of heart attack. Smoking marijuana may cause lung cancer-causing substances as tobacco. Plus, marijuana smokers tend to inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than cigarette smokers do. So more smoke enters the lungs. Puff for puff, smoking marijuana may increase the risk of cancer even more than smoking cigarettes does.

What about medical Marijuana?

THC, the main active ingredient in marijuana, produces effects that potentially can be useful for treating a variety of medical conditions. It is the main ingredient in a pill that is currently used to treat nausea in cancer. It is the main ingredient in a pill that is currently used to treat nausea in cancer chemotherapy patients and to stimulate appetite in patients with wasting due to AIDS. Scientists are continuing to investigate other potential medical uses for cannabinoids.

However, smoking marijuana is difficult to justify medically because the amount of THC in marijuana is not always consistent. It would be difficult - if not impossible - to come up with a safe and effective use of the drug because you could never be sure how much THC you were getting. Moreover, the negative effects of marijuana smoke on the lungs will offset the helpfulness of smoked marijuana for some patients.


References (second part):

- Pa. Department of Health, Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Programs

- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

- National Institute on Drug Abuse:
(*1) National Institute on Drug Abuse; Marijuana: Facts for Teens, NIH Pub.No. 98-4037,. Bethesda, MD, NIDA, NIH, DHHS, Revised Mar. 2003

(*2) National Institute on Drug Abuse, Marijuana: Facts parents need to Know, NIH Pub. No. 02-4036, Bethesda, MD, NIDA, NIH,DHHS, Revised Nov. 2002

(*3) National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIDA Info-Facts; High School and Youth Trends, Bethesda, MD, NIDA, NIH, DHHS, Revised June 2003

(*4) National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIDA Research Report-Marijuana Abuse, NIH Pub.No. 00-3859, Bethesda, MD, NIDA, NIH, DHHS, Printed Oct. 2002.
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