It does have the same, or even better effectiveness, which is why people use medical cannabis.
As T0ribush alluded to, it's quite common for people to only be needing to take 2 or so pills but the side-effects of those pills need another pill to counteract them. Before you know it, you're eating 10 pills a day.
That's why people look to medical cannabis.
You're beating beating a dead horse with that line of argument.
Oh, also, back on to you Cow, when I woke up this morning I did some extra research on your smoking and stroke theory. The link I sent to you a few pages back where it said smoking contributed to half was talking about cigarette smoking, not marijuana.
Further research into the topic led me to this. Smoking marijuana heavily (2-7 OZ a week) increases the amount of a protein called apolipoprotein C3. This protein is a triglyceride. Now, if you have high levels of triglycerides in your body then your arteries tend to thicken. This means you're going to have increases chances of developing blood-flow related problems, like a stroke.
info-links:
Triglycerides. ApoC3 and marijuana usage.
This effect only occurs oncethe triglycerides are at that very high level. As I mentioned, you'd have to be smoking incredibly heavily for that to occur. 2 ounces a week - at least! I stuggle to get through 1/8th of that, and I've actually never met anyone that cosumes bud at that unholy rate.
A quote I came across in my research,
We’re talking about the marijuana equivalent of the guy in the alley clutching a bottle of cheap wine. If you do anything to that level of excess, it might well have some untoward effects, whether it’s marijuana or wine or broccoli.
Overeating, drinking alcohol, and smoking tobacco are proven to have deleterious effects on the heart and on health. I doubt we’re going to see any major effort to arrest the users of those substances, though.