According to medical professionals and pulmonary experts,
marijuana/weed smokers, people with Chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease (COPD) and other chronic lung diseases, as well as people with
moderate to severe asthma are among those at high risk for severe
complications after contracting Coronavirus.
According to medical experts, even occasional smoking of marijuana
can increase your risk for more severe complications from Covid-19.
“What happens to your airways when you smoke cannabis is that it causes
some degree of inflammation, very similar to bronchitis, very similar to
the type of inflammation that cigarette smoking can cause,” said
pulmonologist Dr. Albert Rizzo, chief medical officer for the American
Lung Association to CNN.
“Now you have some airway inflammation and you get an infection on top
of it. So, yes, your chance of getting more complications is there.”
According to Dr. Mitchell Glass, a spokesperson for the American Lung
Association, making it more difficult for a doctor to diagnose your
symptoms is not what someone will wish on himself during a pandemic.
.
“Covid-19 is a pulmonary disease,” Glass said. “Do you really want to
have a confounding variable if you need to see a doctor or a healthcare
worker by saying, ‘Oh, and by the way, I’m not a regular user of
cannabis, but I decided to use cannabis to calm myself down.’
“You don’t want to do anything that’s going to confound the ability of
healthcare workers to make a rapid, accurate assessment of what’s going
on with you,” he added.
According to Dr Glass smokers should think of what happens to a
cigarette when lit and left in an ashtray;it burns quickly all the way
down to the filter, with nothing left but ash.
“It’s surrounded by paper. It’s completely dried out. It is made to burn at a very high temperature,” Glass said.
“Marijuana burns at a much, much lower temperature than a commercially made cigarette,” said Glass.
“Because of that, the person is inhaling a certain amount of unburnt plant material.”
“So right off the bat there are those patients who would be
increasingly susceptible to having a bronchospasm or cough because they
have a more sensitive airway.”
