The Pill & Smoking Pot

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-25-2004
The Pill & Smoking Pot
5
Mon, 08-02-2004 - 3:41pm
I just started taking the pill (Yasmin) about 2 weeks ago. I don't smoke cigarettes on a regular basis---I'll have a couple when I'm in a club which is like once or twice a month. However, I smoke marijuana almost daily...only once a day though and like 2-10 hits. Will this cause a problem since I am taking bc pills? I read the entire pamphlet and there is no info on this.. and I realize that pot is illegal (STILL!!!) but some people still smoke it regardless so those who write up these pamphlets should include info on this matter. Any answers would be of much help. Thank you.
Avatar for lucy4980
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 08-02-2004 - 7:25pm
I've never heard anything about marijuana affecting BCPs. With cigarettes, it's not the nicotine or the tobacco itself that causes the risk, it's the other things, like restricting the blood vessels making people more susceptible to blood clots, and that type of thing. Cigarettes don't affect the efectiveness of the BCPs. I know plenty of women who are on the pill and smoke cigarettes - it's a calculated risk for them.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 8:30am
Actually, women who smoke cigarettes are more likely to have breakthrough bleeding (not pill failure, just inconvenient). I think it's the nicotine that changes how estrogen is metabolized.

As far as marijuana goes, I don't see the FDA requiring the testing of illegal drugs on people (yes, still illegal, whether it's right or wrong, it's still illegal) to see how they affect prescription medications. It's hard enough to know what legal herbal supplements do in combination with prescription medications, I think I'd talk to my doctor or pharmacist and do some more research!

From the NIH:

"Effects on the Brain

Scientists have learned a great deal about how THC acts in the brain to produce its many effects. When someone smokes marijuana, THC rapidly passes from the lungs into the bloodstream, which carries the chemical to organs throughout the body, including the brain.

In the brain, THC connects to specific sites called cannabinoid receptors on nerve cells and influences the activity of those cells. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or none. Many cannabinoid receptors are found in the parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thought, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement(5).

The short-term effects of marijuana can include problems with memory and learning; distorted perception; difficulty in thinking and problem solving; loss of coordination; and increased heart rate. Research findings for long-term marijuana use indicate some changes in the brain similar to those seen after long-term use of other major drugs of abuse. For example, cannabinoid (THC or synthetic forms of THC) withdrawal in chronically exposed animals leads to an increase in the activation of the stress-response system(6) and changes in the activity of nerve cells containing dopamine(7). Dopamine neurons are involved in the regulation of motivation and reward, and are directly or indirectly affected by all drugs of abuse.

Effects on the Heart

One study has indicated that a user’s risk of heart attack more than quadruples in the first hour after smoking marijuana(8). The researchers suggest that such an effect might occur from marijuana’s effects on blood pressure and heart rate and reduced oxygen-carrying capacity of blood.

Effects on the Lungs

A study of 450 individuals found that people who smoke marijuana frequently but do not smoke tobacco have more health problems and miss more days of work than nonsmokers(9). Many of the extra sick days among the marijuana smokers in the study were for respiratory illnesses.

Even infrequent use can cause burning and stinging of the mouth and throat, often accompanied by a heavy cough. Someone who smokes marijuana regularly may have many of the same respiratory problems that tobacco smokers do, such as daily cough and phlegm production, more frequent acute chest illness, a heightened risk of lung infections, and a greater tendency to obstructed airways(10). Smoking marijuana increases the likelihood of developing cancer of the head or neck, and the more marijuana smoked the greater the increase(11). A study comparing 173 cancer patients and 176 healthy individuals produced strong evidence that marijuana smoking doubled or tripled the risk of these cancers.

Marijuana use also has the potential to promote cancer of the lungs and other parts of the respiratory tract because it contains irritants and carcinogens(12, 13). In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50 to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke(14). It also produces high levels of an enzyme that converts certain hydrocarbons into their carcinogenic form—levels that may accelerate the changes that ultimately produce malignant cells(15). Marijuana users usually inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than tobacco smokers do, which increases the lungs’ exposure to carcinogenic smoke. These facts suggest that, puff for puff, smoking marijuana may increase the risk of cancer more than smoking tobacco.

Other Health Effects

Some of marijuana’s adverse health effects may occur because THC impairs the immune system’s ability to fight off infectious diseases and cancer. In laboratory experiments that exposed animal and human cells to THC or other marijuana ingredients, the normal disease-preventing reactions of many of the key types of immune cells were inhibited(16). In other studies, mice exposed to THC or related substances were more likely than unexposed mice to develop bacterial infections and tumors(17, 18).

Effects of Heavy Marijuana Use on Learning and Social Behavior

Depression(19), anxiety(20), and personality disturbances(21) have been associated with marijuana use. Research clearly demonstrates that marijuana has potential to cause problems in daily life or make a person’s existing problems worse. Because marijuana compromises the ability to learn and remember information, the more a person uses marijuana the more he or she is likely to fall behind in accumulating intellectual, job, or social skills. Moreover, research has shown that marijuana’s adverse impact on memory and learning can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off(22, 23).

Students who smoke marijuana get lower grades and are less likely to graduate from high school, compared with their non-smoking peers(24, 25, 26, 27). A study of 129 college students found that, for heavy users of marijuana (those who smoked the drug at least 27 of the preceding 30 days), critical skills related to attention, memory, and learning were significantly impaired even after they had not used the drug for at least 24 hours(28). The heavy marijuana users in the study had more trouble sustaining and shifting their attention and in registering, organizing, and using information than did the study participants who had used marijuana no more than 3 of the previous 30 days. As a result, someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a reduced intellectual level all of the time.

More recently, the same researchers showed that the ability of a group of long-term heavy marijuana users to recall words from a list remained impaired for a week after quitting, but returned to normal within 4 weeks(29). Thus, it is possible that some cognitive abilities may be restored in individuals who quit smoking marijuana, even after long-term heavy use.

Workers who smoke marijuana are more likely than their coworkers to have problems on the job. Several studies associate workers’ marijuana smoking with increased absences, tardiness, accidents, workers’ compensation claims, and job turnover. A study of municipal workers found that those who used marijuana on or off the job reported more “withdrawal behaviors”—such as leaving work without permission, daydreaming, spending work time on personal matters, and shirking tasks—that adversely affect productivity and morale(30). In another study, marijuana users reported that use of the drug impaired several important measures of life achievement including cognitive abilities, career status, social life, and physical and mental health(31)."

Judie
Co-cl for Birth Control
Judie Cl for Birth Control 
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-25-2004
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 9:59am
Hey thanks for the research results but I prefer to stick to INDEPENDANT research as they are not funded or hazed by the government which WANTS and NEEDS only results that support their ideaology.
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-30-2003
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 10:19am
You might try searching Medline http://www4.infotrieve.com/newmedline/search.asp to see if some researcher has come up with anything one way or another. Given available resources there is no valid reason or incentive for companies to test their products for interaction with illegal substances.

      Jill

    

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 11:28am
The internet is a big place, I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for. Note that all of those numbers in parentheses are citations from studies performed by researchers, it's not an editorial piece. Research is funded by people who have money, how the results of any study are presented is going to be skewed by the motives of the people paying for it, regardless of whose side they're on. The facts, however, don't change.

My advice would be to spend a lot of time looking at the different perspectives on the issue so that you can develop your own collection of _facts_ gleaned from a variety of independent researchers without the skew.

Judie
Co-cl for Birth Control
Judie Cl for Birth Control