I don’t smoke at all – but folks around me do. Californians, being Californians, often opt for what is believed to be a “healthier” alternative to tobacco. A new study puts that belief to smoke – Mary Jane, sweet as her name sounds, is far from innocuous, causing more lung damage than its evil cousin, tobbaco.

In the study researchers from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, Wakefield Hospital and the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, studied 339 volunteers, and found cannabis damaged the large airways in the lungs causing symptoms such as coughing and wheezing. It also damaged the ability of the lungs to get oxygen to, and remove waste products from tissues.

Bottomline, lighting up is never the smart way to lighten up!