On Tuesday, The Epoch Times posted an article about the consequences of regular use of marijuana.

The article reports:

Unlike alcohol or caffeine, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive compound found in cannabis, doesn’t clear from the bloodstream in a few hours; it accumulates in fat and organs, where it can continue influencing inflammation and immunity long after the high fades.

With today’s high-potency products and increasingly frequent recreational use, researchers are discovering that the body’s relationship with cannabis has fundamentally changed—and the long-term effects of accumulation are only beginning to come into focus.

THC behaves unlike most substances the body encounters. While many drugs are processed and eliminated within hours, THC takes a different path. After inhalation or ingestion, THC enters the bloodstream quickly and is distributed to the organs.

“Regular cannabis use leads to accumulation of lipophilic substances in fat stores and highly vascularized organs such as the brain and liver,” Dr. Ella Fedonenko, an internal medicine physician, told The Epoch Times. “These substances are released back into the bloodstream very slowly, even when standard screening tests are negative.”

In other words, standard drug tests measure THC metabolites in blood or urine, not what remains stored in tissues. A negative test doesn’t mean the substance—or its effects—are gone.

A widely cited review by Marilyn Huestis, who has a doctorate in toxicology and is a former chief of chemistry and drug metabolism at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, found that THC spreads quickly into tissues throughout the body rather than staying in the bloodstream, where it can be detected and measured.

The article notes that in the past the THC level of marijuana was considerably lower than it is at present.

The article notes:

With short-term or occasional use, cannabis can have a calming effect on the immune system, which is why its compounds have been studied for pain and related conditions. Inflammation is meant to turn on, do its job, and then turn off.

However, with regular exposure to stored THC, that process may not work as smoothly. When something repeatedly interferes with that process, the immune system can remain partially activated rather than fully resolving.

The article concludes:

For occasional users, these factors may not matter much.

There is also the risk of buying marijuana illegally and not knowing what is in it. Even legal marijuana has risks. It is smart to avoid those risks.