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Comment by mfkp | Hacker News Reader

THC-oils are dangerous? Source?

There was an outbreak of lung injury over the last year that became associated with black market THC products that were cut with chemicals that are not safe to inhale, such as vitamin E oil.

https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/s...

Yeah, I thought that was limited to black market products only though (filled with cutting agents and heavy metals). They basically deemed it safe if you're buying lab-tested products from licensed dispensaries. Seems like overkill to say "THC is dangerous" since THC is not the part that's causing the side effects?

> Seems like overkill to say "THC is dangerous"

Sure, THC itself (at least in reasonable doses, taken by a mentally stable person) is not dangerous, vaping [black market] THC oils is. We don't vape anything but nicotine here in Europe, we just smoke weed occasionally when we want THC so we have no vaping-related deaths here.

THC vape cartridges are very common in Spain and UK.

Nicotine probably doesn't affect the brain in a permanent negative way.

THC probably does affect the brain in a permanent negative way.

Although they said "THC-oils" which implies they are talking about the black-market issue, I think unlike vaping nicotine which is probably mostly safe. Vaping THC-oils should only be seen as safer than smoking THC.

This is a bold statement that Nicotine is perfectly safe while THC causes permanent brain damage.

The studies are far from conclusive (and mostly lean to the opposite of what you're suggesting). I'd advise against making such strong statements such as these since the science simply isn't on your side here.

The parent said “probably”, while you misrepresent them suggesting they made a bold statement dealing with a absolutes.

"probably does" mixed with the phrase "permanent negative" does indeed make it a bold statement.

If the comment had said "may or may not cause damage", that's a different thing. But the resulting phrase "probably causes permanent brain damage" is definitely a loaded statement to not back up with evidence.

I assume you are arguing THC does not cause long term effects on the brain (not nicotine does)

It's not hard to find many journal articles that conclude it might -

DOI: 10.3233/JAD-160833 or https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6182105/

What journal articles conclude it might not?

That would change my opinion to "may or may not cause damage"

Sources for the long term effects on the brain mentioned in the above journal quote the following "While changes in the hippocampus and parahippocampus were frequently identified, the findings were inconsistent across studies."

And the above journal also makes an effort to mention how "low to moderate quality" the data is.

For what is the world's most popular recreational drug, it's astonishing to see the lack of research committed.

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