Public Comment

“Concerning tobacco's harmful effects, the argument doesn't hold water that pot smoke is just as bad for your lungs as tobacco smoke. This is because marijuana can be put in olive oil, baked in brownies and so on. While the only way of getting tobacco, in a manner that "does the trick" for us, is to smoke it.” – Jack Bragen

Jack Bragen should do a little research before he writes such nonsense. Both tobacco and marijuana smoke is extremely harmful to lungs, and both substances are listed as carcinogens on the California Department of Health’s website. Both substances can also be used in non-smoke-producing ways; patches, lozenges, chewables, edibles, the list goes on.  

The “help” Bragen implies nicotine is to people with schizophrenia has been long since debunked; non-tobacco-funded studies repeatedly show that people with mental illness are no less capable of quitting smoking, no less interested in quitting smoking, and quit smoking at approximately the same rates and in the same ways as anybody else. 

I hope Jack Bragen will take a look at several very good UCSF studies on this subject.