VAPORIZERS CAN CUT MARIJUANA SMOKE, RETAIN SIMILAR MEDICAL EFFECTS

Smoking anything is perceived as bad these days, says Dr. Donald
Abrams, chief of hematology and oncology at San Francisco General
Hospital and professor of clinical medicine at UC San Francisco. So
he devised a pilot study to evaluate a novel inhalation method
conducted in 18 otherwise-healthy subjects. "We used a device that
heated cannabis below the point of combustion -- basically, a heating
element and a fan. The fan filled up a balloon from which the
patients could inhale," he says.

The findings, published in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics in
2007, showed that levels of THC were "virtually identical," as were
patients' reports of subjective "high." No increase in exhaled carbon
monoxide was observed with vaporized marijuana, as was the case with
smoked marijuana, and patients preferred vaporization to smoking.

"The fact is that whole marijuana, particularly when vaporized and
not smoked, is a safe and effective delivery system," says
psychiatrist Dr. Igor Grant, director of the UC Center for Medicinal
Cannabis Research in San Diego.