"Marijuana" and the Body

"Every time a user smokes a marijuana cigarette or ingests marijuana in some other form, THC and other chemicals enter the user's body. The chemicals make their way through the bloodstream to the brain and then to the rest of the body. The most powerful chemical in marijuana is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), which is primarily responsible for the "high" associated with the drug.

The most common way of using marijuana is smoking. Smoking is also the most expedient way to get the THC and other chemicals into the bloodstream. When the smoke from marijuana is inhaled, the THC goes directly to the lungs. Your lungs are lined with millions of alveoli, the tiny air sacs where gas exchange occurs. These alveoli have an enormous surface area -- 90 times greater than that of your skin -- so they make it easy for THC and other compounds to enter the body. The smoke is absorbed by the lungs just seconds after inhaling.


After inhaling marijuana smoke, its chemicals are distributed throughout the body.

You can also eat marijuana. In this case, the marijuana enters the stomach and the blood absorbs it there. The blood then carries it to the liver and the rest of the body. The stomach absorbs THC more slowly than the lungs. When marijuana is eaten, the levels of THC in the body are lower, but the effects last longer."