Fig 1 Marijuana cannabinoids
When marijuana is smoked, these compounds find their way into the
smokers’ body system where they cause a series of disruptive effects
among various organs including the pulmonary, respiratory and the
central nervous systems.1 Even though there are
minimal reported mortality cases arising from marijuana use among
consumers, its increased illegal trading in black markets and
consumption patterns precipitate concerns on its potential hazardous
effects on human health especially because they are precursors for
cancer development, and efforts made towards its abuse cessation has
been made by a push to legalize its use, basically for medicinal
concerns. Nonetheless, marijuana smoking has been recognized as a risk
factor for a pulmonary function and respiratory complications by a
number of systematic and epidemiological studies.6 The
motivation behind this review is to examine the apparent harm and
psychotic impacts arising from repeated use of this psychoactive drug
substance and the scientific efforts advanced towards its cessation from
a review of selected published articles from different journals and
databases. The emerging chemicals from cannabis cigarette smoke and
their cancer potency is the primary focus of this work. On the other
hand, scientific efforts taken in order to reduce marijuana toxicity
have also been evaluated. Moreover, marijuana legalization for medicinal
purposes as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, neuroprotective and
anticonvulsant characteristics has grown in a number of states and
nations in the world upon the assumption that it contains chemical
compounds that have potency toward treating a number of illness and
symptoms regardless of associated risks.7 Therefore,
the application of marijuana as a pharmaceutical drug has also been
reviewed in this study especially its use in the management of the
severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus-2
(SARs-Cov-2).8, 9 These research findings may direct
further research in promoting methods that can enhance cessation and
control marijuana use and thereby promoting a healthy livelihood of the
human race. The literature considered for this study is only published
in English language. After the search on the multidisciplinary databases
and google scholar, a number of published reports on the subjects of
interest especially on marijuana smoking, toxicity and carcinogenicity
were the main search terms.
From the surveyed literature, it can be predicted that in the
pharmaceutical industry, cannabis is a potential drug agent in pain
relieving medications that are required by cancer patients under
chemotherapy, neurological issues and even HIV and AIDS patients to aid
in appetite restoration. In line with these characteristics, cannabis is
likely to offer more benefits in the medical field if clear handling
rules and control measures are outlined by more countries across the
world to provide room for extensive scientific research based on its
medical benefits.