Many Americans wrongly believe exposure to marijuana smoke is safer than tobacco (cnn.com)

This reads like an article from 2004. All the same propaganda. Hasn’t changed.

Smoking a J is not the same as smoking a pack of 20 cigarettes

>I do not believe that comparing the health risks of marijuana smoking and tobacco smoking is useful any more than asking, ‘Are eating cookies healthier than eating cake?’

Then why do we have nutrition facts on both to directly compare their contents?

It’s pretty clear to me that any smoke (including wood burning fires), is bad for you.

However, most smoke doesn’t include nicotine and other ingredients that risk addiction.

I had always heard that part of the problem with tobacco smoke is that it's radioactive. Whereas marijuana smoke isn't. So it's still smoke but not nearly as carcinogenic?

Awhile ago I tried to prove to my pothead friends that marijuana smoke from joints would cause cancer too, due to breathing combusted plant material. However, at the time I couldn’t find and academic or medical studies which showed smoking marijuana alone leads to higher cancer rates. This shocked me and seemed very counter intuitive. I’m not sure if maybe that research is now perhaps easy to find many years later or if it’s still not proven.

Burning plant material at the very least still has nasty hydrocarbons and soot in it, and generally cannabis smoke is held longer than cigarette smoke. So even if it doesn't have additives like the tobacco in cigarettes, it's still bad for you. HOW bad likely depends on a number of factors. Flower vaporizers are likely on the less harmful end while vaping THC oil cartridges are likely on the more harmful side, so even among "vaping" the risk could be variable.

Straight up burning flower though? It's probably as good for you as it makes your breath smell afterwards.