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. And 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," Abrams 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.

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Jill U. Adams