We\u2019ve all seen it before. The second a joint starts getting passed around the room, there is that one hanger-on in the crowd, the one who\u2019s never smoked weed a day in his life, who starts complaining that he\u2019s getting high just from being in the room. This is something referred to as a \u201ccontact high,\u201d and there is some controversy over whether it is real or not. If you ask the non-chiefers, catching a buzz simply from sitting around in a room full of pot smoke is legit. Some of the most paranoid of the breed, those who get very uncomfortable in this environment because \u201cI\u2019ve got a good job, bro, that I can\u2019t afford to lose,\u201d will sometimes create a scene. They believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that inhaling somebody else\u2019s good time ganja will cause them to fail a whiz quiz. There are even those who take this social conniption up a notch, and even though they don\u2019t give two squirts about catching a contact buzz or failing a drug test, they do not want to end up with lung cancer or some bizarre brain disease later down the road because of secondhand pot smoke.<\/p>\n
So, we here at Cannabis Now dug into the research surrounding this subject to answer the question: Will secondhand marijuana smoke ruin my life?<\/p>\n
Some of the\u00a0earliest studies<\/a>\u00a0we have on second-hand marijuana smoke suggest that it\u2019s kinda-sorta possible to catch a buzz from this exposure, but not really.<\/p>\n In 1985, researchers stuck five non-marijuana users in a car with five other volunteers who did smoke weed. In order to get the bottom of all of this \u201ccontact buzz\u201d business, they essentially \u201chotboxed\u201d the vehicle \u2013 a process in which marijuana smoke fills up a vehicle that is entirely sealed shut \u2013 for 30 minutes and then tested to non-smokers to see whether they had any traces of pot coursing through their veins.<\/p>\n Researchers found only small amounts of\u00a0THC<\/a>, the high-producing compound of the cannabis plant, in their system. But there wasn\u2019t enough THC in their system to get them high, the study concluded.<\/p>\n Thirty years later, another\u00a0study<\/a>, this one conducted by Johns Hopkins University, uncovered slightly different results. This time the subjects \u2013 six pot users and six non-users \u2014 were put in an unventilated room where the users smoked \u201c10 high potency joints\u201d for a solid hour and then let the scientists do their thing. Following the examination, non-smokers reported effects of marijuana consumption (happy, tired) and \u201ccontinued to test positive [for THC] for two to 22 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n But, as researchers concluded, this doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that people who breathe in secondhand marijuana smoke are getting high. The study found that only under extreme unventilated conditions would a non-smoker indeed be at risk of a slight contact buzz. Yet, maybe not.<\/p>\n Separate studies have shown that most of the THC consumed by pot smokers is absorbed into their bloodstream before exhaling, so there really isn\u2019t much of the stoner compound floating around the room to contribute to secondhand highs. John Hopkins researchers said that it was possible that any secondhand effects felt by the non-smokers could have been the result of a \u201cplacebo effect.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, just being around the average smoke circle is not going to produce a contact buzz.<\/p>\n Researchers with the John Hopkins\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0concluded that it\u2019s not likely that a person would fail a drug test from exposure to secondhand marijuana smoke. \u201cCannabis potency and room ventilation\u201d were the two deciding factors. But even if both of these factors came into play, the study found that the amount of THC that could be uncovered in accordance to SAMHSA\u2019s Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs would not show enough to produce a failed test.<\/p>\n This means even if a person was riding around in a car for hours, breathing in Cheech & Chong levels of secondhand pot smoke, they\u2019re probably not going to have any problems passing a drug test.<\/p>\n Need more proof?<\/p>\n A recent\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0from Dr. Keith Roach, who provides health advice via his column To Your Good Health, finds that secondhand marijuana smoke is not a problem for people worried about failing a drug test.<\/p>\n \u201cSeveral studies have shown that a person sitting in a car or a closed room where cannabis is being smoked can result in low, but detectable, levels in a person\u2019s urine, even if they were not using the cannabis themselves,\u201d\u00a0he wrote<\/a>. \u201cHowever, most laboratories choose a threshold for calling a sample positive that is higher than was shown to be possible in the passive smoke experiments.\u201d<\/p>\n Since marijuana remains an outlaw substance in the eyes of the federal government, studies over the ill effects of secondhand marijuana smoke are limited. But there is some evidence that this kind of exposure may increase the risk of blood vessel damage. This conclusion was made after a small study back in 2016 showed that secondhand pot smoke seems to have this effect on rats. But the results appear to have less to do with marijuana and more with the harmful effects of burning plant matter.<\/p>\n Matthew Springer, a biologist and professor in the division of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco, who oversaw the study, told media outlets last year that toxic chemicals, including carbon monoxide and formaldehyde, are produced when all plant materials are burned. If a person encounters this smoke, regardless of whether it is pot, tobacco or leaves from a tree, there is a good chance they will be exposed to those chemicals. Therefore, \u201cpeople should think of this not as an anti-THC conclusion, \u201cbut an anti-smoke conclusion,\u201d Springer\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the folks at National Public Radio.<\/p>\n A\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supports this claim. But it admits that more research is needed before science has an accurate understanding of the effects of secondhand pot smoke on humans.<\/p>\n \u201cSmoked marijuana has many of the same cancer-causing substances as smoked tobacco,\u201d the agency said, \u201cbut there are still a lot of unanswered questions around secondhand marijuana smoke exposure and its impact on chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and lung diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s like classic rocker Meatloaf once said, \u201cTwo out of three ain\u2019t bad.\u201d We concur. Although secondhand marijuana smoke is not likely to get someone high or jam them up because of a failed drug test, it could present some health hazards. So if you coexist with a non-smoker, limiting their exposure might be the classy thing to do. We feel like cannabis edibles are the great equalizer in this situation. No smoke, everyone is high. This is the purest definition of a win, win.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/b>, have you ever hotboxed a vehicle?<\/p>\n The post Secondhand Marijuana Smoke Will Not Ruin Your Life<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve all seen it before. The second a joint starts getting passed around the room, there is that one hanger-on in the crowd, the one who\u2019s never smoked weed a day in his life, who starts complaining that he\u2019s getting high just from being in the room. This is somethingContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,4937,7503,99,7504,7505,7506,420],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32692,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32691\/revisions\/32692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}But Will Secondhand Pot Smoke Cause Me to Fail a Drug Test?<\/h4>\n
Okay, But Is Secondhand Marijuana Smoke Harmful to My Health?<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Secondhand Marijuana Smoke Will Not Ruin Your Life<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"