Smoking pot to kick away pandemic blues? You might wanna rethink that idea!

Smoking during a pandemic? You might wanna rethink that idea!

Turns out if you’re smoking marijuana, or as it isgenerally referred to as “weed”, it could cause severe complications in case a user catches COVID-19, CNN reported.

Not just chronic users, even occasional smokers are at risk of contracting the virus.

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The inflammation caused by smoking weed in one’s lungs is akin to bronchitis.

Daily usage of marijuana causes lung damage over time and resembles chronic bronchitis, or Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COPD).

People who smoke and those who have other chronic lung diseases, alongside asthma are at a higher risk for severe illness due to COVID-19.

Most of these cases need ventilators to continue breathing.

Diagnosing the patients with the virus could also prove to be harder if they’re smokers. Most chronic smokers develop what’s called a “smoker’s cough”, which could look similar to dry cough, one of the key symptoms of the virus.

Increasing death toll

The coronavirus pandemic has now killed over 100,000 around the world, AFP reported.

This coincided with the festival of Easter whereby churches remained empty across the world as people were advised to stay at home to practice social distancing.

A few days ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) had claimed how lifting lockdowns too early could lead to a second wave and would be a catastrophe.

As of now, the number of infections stand at roughly 1.6 million. The pandemic has taken the lives of over 100,859 people. Europe remains the hardest hit with 70 per cent deaths recorded there.

The epicentre of the pandemic has shifted twice, first from China to Europe, and then from Europe to North America.