In this opinion piece, Fernanda Alonso, an Associate at the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, discusses Mexico’s marijuana policy changes.
In the United States, prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is the most common preventable cause of developmental delay. Animal studies have shown some of the adverse effects of PAE on placental development, but few studies have examined these effects in humans. This is the first study to examine the effects of prenatal exposure to methamphetamine, marijuana, and cigarette smoking on human placental development.
A study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers finds that the brains of young adult marijuana users react differently to social exclusion than do those of non-users. In a report published in the March issue of Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, the team reports that activation of the insula, a region of the brain that is usually active during social rejection, was reduced in young marijuana users when they were being excluded from participation in virtual game of catch.
As more states decriminalize recreational use of marijuana and expand its medical applications, concern is growing about inaccurate dosage information listed on edible products. So, scientists have developed a technique that can more precisely measure cannabis compounds in gummy bears, chocolates and other foods made with marijuana. They say this new method could help ensure product safety. The researchers present their research today at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
A Colorado State University study suggests that cannabis use significantly affects the ability to recognize, process and empathize with human emotions like happiness, sadness and anger.
Out-of-towners using marijuana in Colorado -- which has legally allowed sales of the drug in retail dispensaries since 2014 -- are ending up in the emergency room for marijuana-related symptoms at an increasing rate, reports a new study from Northwestern Medicine and the University of Colorado.
Washington University School of Medicine researchers report an estimated 12.5 percent of adults living in the United States use marijuana, but their research also shows that the rate of pot use did not double from 2002 to 2013 — as had been reported in the fall — but instead increased by about 20 percent. Meanwhile, the rate of problems related to the drug has remained steady.
Desperate for relief, parents are taking unusual steps to help children plagued with seizures. The relief, however, comes in a most unlikely form: marijuana.
How has new legislation affected marijuana use in the United States? The best available data suggest that marijuana use is increasing in adults but not teens, with a decrease in marijuana-related arrests but an increase in treatment admissions, according to an update in the January/February Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.
A Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health analysis of registered medical marijuana users found that a hodgepodge of law and policy changes since 2001 had varying effects on the number of people consuming what in many states remains an otherwise illegal drug for its purported health benefits.
Combining the drug topiramate with psychological counseling curbed marijuana use among young smokers significantly more than did counseling alone, according to newly published results of a small randomized, controlled trial at Brown University. The results come with a caveat, however: many study volunteers couldn't tolerate the medicine's side effects.
Children and young adults with severe forms of epilepsy that does not respond to standard antiepileptic drugs have fewer seizures when treated with purified cannabinoid, according to a multi-center study led by researchers from UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco.
Several studies have demonstrated that the primary active constituent of cannabis, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (∆9-THC), induces transient psychosis-like effects in healthy subjects similar to those observed in schizophrenia. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects are not clear.
Article Body 2010 Genetic variation within the endocannabinoid system may explain why some survivors of childhood adversity go on to become dependent on marijuana, while others are able to use marijuana without problems, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis. “We have long known that childhood adversity, and in particular sexual abuse, is associated with the development of cannabis dependence.
Medical marijuana needs to be studied like any other drug. No one is opposed to the active ingredients in it, but we need to have some data. That is what we would expect from any other drug, Bednarczyk says.
With increased legalization of marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes, interest is growing in the potential health effects of its secondhand smoke. A team now reports in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry the development of a urine screening method that is sensitive enough to detect even small amounts of chemicals that result from this exposure.
Ohio could be the largest state in the country, and the first in the Midwest, to legalize marijuana when voters go to the polls on Nov. 3. But according to a new Bowling Green State University statewide poll of likely voters, the issue is too close to call.
A new group at the University of Washington School of Law will spend the 2015-16 academic year studying existing and emerging markets for marijuana, to assist and inform the state as it prepares to blend current medical and recreational markets for cannabis.
The marijuana extract tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) isn't effective in preventing nausea and vomiting after surgery in patients at high risk of this common complication, reports a study in Anesthesia & Analgesia.
Marijuana use among American high school students is significantly lower today than it was 15 years ago, despite the legalization in many states of marijuana for medical purposes, a move toward decriminalization of the drug and the approval of its recreational use in a handful of places, new research suggests.
Chronic marijuana use by teenage boys does not appear to be linked to later physical or mental health issues such as depression, psychotic symptoms or asthma, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association.
The Mount Sinai Health System will work with Columbia Care LLC, a provider of medical marijuana, on research projects that evaluate the potential of related, experimental treatments.
A new University of Michigan study finds that teens using marijuana for medical reasons are 10 times more likely to say they are hooked on marijuana than youth who get marijuana illegally.
New research reported in The Journal of Pain, published by the American Pain Society (www.americanpainsociety.org, shows that inhaled cannabis reduces diabetic neuropathy and the analgesic effect is dose-dependent.
While cannabis alters the functions of neurobiological circuits controlling appetite, its effect on weight gain is complex since several factors appear to be involved, says Didier Jutras-Aswad, University of Montreal professor and researcher at the CHUM Research Centre.
A new study, published in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse by researchers affiliated with New York University's Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR), examines how reasons for illicit marijuana use relates to the use of other drugs individually, rather than grouping them into a single “illicit drug” group.
A new study conducted at the University of Iowa’s National Advanced Driving Simulator has found drivers who use alcohol and marijuana together weave more on a virtual roadway than drivers who use either substance independently. However, the cocktail of alcohol and marijuana does not double the effect of the impairment.
In an analysis of the findings of nearly 80 randomized trials that included about 6,500 participants, there was moderate-quality evidence to support the use of cannabinoids (chemical compounds that are the active principles in cannabis or marijuana) for the treatment of chronic pain and lower-quality evidence suggesting that cannabinoids were associated with improvements in nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, sleep disorders, and Tourette syndrome, according to a study in the June 23/30 issue of JAMA.
An analysis of edible medical marijuana products from 3 major metropolitan areas found that many had lower amounts of key substances than labeled, which may not produce the desired medical benefit, while others contained significantly more of a certain substance than labeled, placing patients at risk of experiencing adverse effects, according to a study in the June 23/30 issue of JAMA.
In a proof-of-concept study, a team led by a Johns Hopkins researcher reports that the vast majority of edible cannabis products sold in a small sample of medical marijuana dispensaries carried labels that overstated or understated the amount of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Though the scope of the study was small, the researchers say, the results of the study suggest some medical cannabis patients could be unintentionally overdosing or are being cheated by mislabeled products.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have teamed up with several other institutions and pharmaceutical companies, to publish the first 3D structures of a receptor implicated in many diseases of the brain and in normal physiology throughout the body.
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Debates about legalizing marijuana have focused on crime rates, economic benefits, and health effects among adults. But a study published today from researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital shows that the risk to young children of swallowing, breathing in or otherwise being exposed to marijuana also needs to be considered.
Cannabis plus alcohol is one of the most frequently detected drug combinations in car accidents, yet the interaction of these two compounds is still poorly understood. A study appearing online today in Clinical Chemistry, the journal of AACC, shows for the first time that the simultaneous use of alcohol and cannabis produces significantly higher blood concentrations of cannabis’s main psychoactive constituent, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), as well as THC’s primary active metabolite, 11-hydroxy-THC (11-OH-THC), than cannabis use alone.
With increasing numbers of chronic pain patients experimenting with marijuana to get relief, physicians need to learn more about the plant and its constituents to counsel patients appropriately about its safety and possible analgesic benefits, according to a leading medical marijuana researcher speaking today in a plenary session at the American Pain Society Annual Scientific Meeting, www.americanpainsociety.org.
Secondhand exposure to cannabis smoke under “extreme conditions,” such as an unventilated room or enclosed vehicle, can cause nonsmokers to feel the effects of the drug, have minor problems with memory and coordination, and in some cases test positive for the drug in a urinalysis. Those are the findings of a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine study, reported online this month in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
MINNEAPOLIS – A new study suggests that medical marijuana pills may not help treat behavioral symptoms of dementia, such as aggression, pacing and wandering. The research is published in the May 13, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. However, researchers did find that the drug dosage used in the clinical trial was safe and well-tolerated.
As the realities of legalized marijuana take hold in four states and the District of Columbia, legislators and regulators could learn a lot from the successes – and failures – of the tobacco and alcohol industries in keeping their harmful products out of the hands of children and adolescents.