Medical marijuana

April 2005     View PDF     En español

Safety concerns

There are many possibly harmful effects from smoking marijuana, just as there would be from inhaling almost any other form of smoke. Most of the studies citing these effects were conducted many years ago, and conflicting reports can often be found among all of them. Many people question whether political motives may have influenced early studies of marijuana. For people living with HIV, the largest safety concerns when using marijuana are the affects on:

• immune function,
• lung complications (particularly with smoked marijuana),
• hormones, and
• mental state.