Smoking Pot Rots Your Teeth

Smoking pot might give you the munchies—and then take away the pearly whites you need to satisfy them, a new study finds. New Zealand researchers have found that regularly smoking marijuana causes increasingly severe gum disease, with one in four heavy smokers with chronic periodontal disease by the age of 32, reports Australia's The Age.

Periodontal disease was present in 11% of occasional tokers, as opposed to 6.5% in the general population. Earlier studies have shown that smoking tobacco causes gum disease, but this is the first research to link the condition with marijuana use, The Age reports. "Long-term smoking of cannabis is detrimental to the periodontal tissues," says one researcher. (More marijuana stories.)