Feature Channels: Marijuana

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In the past few decades, societal acceptance and legalization of marijuana have increased. Despite centuries of cannabis use for both recreational and medicinal purposes, scientific knowledge of marijuana is limited. In this changing environment, anesthesia providers need preoperative guidelines to assess patients who are medicinal, recreational, or chronic cannabis users and up-to-date information about potential interaction with anesthesia.

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Researchers at University of California School of Medicine are preparing to launch a novel clinical trial to examine the safety, efficacy and pharmacological properties of cannabis as a potential treatment for adults with essential tremor (ET). Currently, ET is treated using repurposed medications originally developed for high blood pressure or seizures.

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The risks of alcohol consumption differ by the presence or absence of simultaneous use of other substances, the most common one being marijuana. Simultaneous alcohol and marijuana use may increase alcohol-related risks and societal costs. This paper examined historical changes in simultaneous alcohol/marijuana use among young adult alcohol users from 1977 – 2016.

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Marijuana use is becoming more prevalent among middle-aged and older adults, with 9 percent of adults aged 50-64 and nearly 3 percent of adults 65 and older reporting marijuana use in the past year, according to a study by researchers at NYU School of Medicine and the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing.

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To better understand how much marijuana or constituent compounds actually get into breast milk and how long it remains, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine conducted a study, publishing online August 27 in Pediatrics.

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At a time when drug overdoses are becoming more prevalent and lethal, a new report provides a snapshot of regional illicit drug use and, for the first time, highlights the complexity of detecting and treating patients at hospital emergency departments for a severe drug-related event.

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It’s been used for medicinal purposes for more than 4,000 years and was the basis for one of the newest epilepsy drugs on the market. Does medical marijuana have a place in epilepsy treatment?

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The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, a 4-year, $9 million grant aimed at determining the long-term impact of cannabis exposure on the adolescent brain.

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Inhaled vaporized cannabis does not appear to improve or worsen exercise performance and activity-related breathlessness in patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a randomized controlled trial published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

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In this issue, find research on Prop. 47 and drug arrests, teen self-injury, LGBQ substance abuse, women’s tobacco use, public housing and asthma

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Systematic review of task-related neuroimaging studies found addicted individuals demonstrate increased activity in these networks during drug-related processing but decreases across all other functions

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The American Pain Society (APS) today endorsed compromise legislation in the U.S. Senate amending provisions of the Marijuana Effective Studies Act of 2016, which removes excessive regulatory barriers inhibiting researchers from obtaining marijuana plants for studies to assess the drug’s medical effectiveness and safety.

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Canadian researchers find that boys who start smoking pot before 15 are much more likely to have a drug problem at 28 than those who start at 15 or after.

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With the 2018 election six months away, Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research released findings from its latest State of the State Survey, or SOSS, revealing that many voters still are undecided on candidates but have strong opinions on controversial ballot issues.

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While a wide majority of oncologists do not feel informed enough about medical marijuana’s utility to make clinical recommendations, most do in fact conduct discussions on medical marijuana in the clinic and nearly half recommend it to their patients, say researchers who surveyed a population-based sample of medical oncologists.

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Researchers at the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions have found that prenatal marijuana use also can have consequences on infants’ weight and can influence behavior problems, especially when combined with tobacco use.

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Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that affects an estimated 1 in 68 children in the United States, yet treatment options are limited. Could cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis, hold clues for developing effective therapies? Thanks to a major gift from the Ray and Tye Noorda Foundation, researchers at the University of California San Diego will embark on a multidisciplinary study to investigate the potential of cannabidiol as a treatment for severe autism.

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Researchers have developed a prototype app called ‘Am I Stoned’ that could help cannabis users understand how the drug is affecting them through a series of phone-based tasks.

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There's never been a market as big for legal recreational marijuana as California. CSU experts weigh in on what it will mean for the state, now and in the years to come.

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The Latest News On Marijuana Research

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A new technology developed by Stony Brook University researchers affiliated with the Institute of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery (ICB & DD) that has identified Fatty Acid Binding Proteins (FABPs) as drug targets of the body’s endocannabinoid system is licensed to Artelo Biosciences, Inc.

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Can medical marijuana help to fight the opioid epidemic? Many believe that it can. But a new study finds that people who use medical marijuana actually have higher rates of medical and non-medical prescription drug use—including pain relievers. The study appears in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), published by Wolters Kluwer.

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A Poison Control Center expert at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School discusses the health implications of legalized recreational marijuana

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Few older adults use medical marijuana, a new national poll finds, but the majority support its use if a doctor recommends it, and might talk to their own doctor about it if they developed a serious health condition. And two-thirds say the government should do more to study the drug’s health effects.

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Some cannabis-derived treatments are now being tested for their ability to help certain skin diseases in a new story from nonprofit journalism news service Inside Science (ISNS)

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It’s well known that a morning cup of joe jolts you awake. But scientists have discovered coffee affects your metabolism in dozens of other ways, including your metabolism of steroids and the neurotransmitters typically linked to cannabis, reports a new study from Northwestern Medicine. In a study of coffee consumption, Northwestern scientists were surprised to discover coffee changed many more metabolites in the blood than previously known.

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A majority of pediatric cancer providers endorse the use of medical marijuana for children with advanced cancer, according to results of a multicenter survey published in Pediatrics.

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As states legalize medical or recreational marijuana, employers, employees and unions are asking how to keep people safe in the workplace.

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Exercise has numerous, well-documented health benefits. Could it also play a role in preventing and reducing substance misuse and abuse in adolescents? This is the intriguing question that a team of investigators from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Cleveland Clinic seeks to answer. In a review article recently published in Birth Defects Research, the trio of researchers supplies a rationale for the use of exercise, particularly assisted exercise, in the prevention and adjunctive treatment of substance-use disorders – including alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, opioids, and heroin.

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A study of four medical marijuana outlets in California suggests that many of their customers don’t fit the profile expected for businesses focused on sick patients.

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House Speaker Beth Harwell led a delegation of Tennessee legislators to campus Monday, Feb. 5, to learn more about Middle Tennessee State University’s Tennessee Center for Botanical Medicine Research and its ongoing studies with nonpsychotropic cannabinoids, which are derived from hemp.

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A new study, led by researchers at RTI International, surveyed more than 1,900 adults in Oregon prior to the legalization of marijuana in the state and found that more than half (52.5%) consider alcohol to be more harmful than marijuana while few (7.5%) believe marijuana is more harmful to a person’s health.

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Binge or heavy episodic drinking (HED) – defined as four or more drinks in a two-hour period – among U.S. university women has increased by 40 percent during the past 30 years. This dramatic development suggests that women are “closing the gender gap” by drinking at rates similar to those of men. Feminine norms – beliefs and expectations about what it means to be a woman – may play a role in altering drinking patterns among this group. This study examined trajectories of HED among young adult women and the gender-relevant factors that may predict these trajectories.

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The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) announced that resources related to opioid prescribing and telemedicine are currently the most important regulatory issues to state medical boards. The announcement comes after analyzing responses from 51 state medical boards as part of the FSMB’s 2017 annual survey to its member boards.

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Tobacco shops, also known as smoke shops, may represent potential “nuisance properties” in urban communities of color, a study led by a researcher at the University of California, Riverside has found. Nuisance properties are properties where unsafe activities affecting public health and safety occur repeatedly. Past research has shown that alcohol outlets such as liquor or corner stores may promote nuisance activities like robberies, drug use, or other crimes in urban communities, rendering them unsafe for residents to walk by or visit. Other examples of nuisance properties are motels, payday lenders, and vacant homes and lots. Add to this list now tobacco shops.

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United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions this week made it easier for federal marijuana laws to be enforced in states that had legalized its use, a move that may backfire, says a legal expert at Washington University in St. Louis.“Legalization of medical marijuana is favored by most voters even in swing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, which now permit medical marijuana,” said Peter Joy, the Henry Hitchcock Professor of Law and director of the School of Law’s Criminal Justice Clinic.

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A chemical found in marijuana, known as tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, has been found to potentially slow the process in which mental decline can occur in up to 50 percent of HIV patients, says a new Michigan State University study.

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A study published in Pediatrics examined interdisciplinary provider perspectives on legal medical marijuana use in children with cancer. It found that 92 percent of providers were willing to help children with cancer access medical marijuana. However, providers who are legally eligible to certify for medical marijuana were less open to endorsing its use. While nearly a third of providers received one or more requests for medical marijuana, the lack of standards on formulations, dosing and potency was identified as the greatest barrier to recommending it. These findings reflect survey responses from 288 providers in Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington.

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New research by Yale Cancer Center (YCC) researchers shows a majority of pediatric cancer providers endorse the potential use of medical marijuana for children with advanced cancer, although providers who are legally eligible to certify its use are more cautious than those who aren’t.

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Cannabis use in youth is linked to bipolar symptoms in young adults, finds new research by the University of Warwick.

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A synthetic cannabis-like drug in a pill was safe and effective in treating obstructive sleep apnea in the first large multi-site study of a drug for apnea funded by the National Institutes of Health.

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In this month’s release, find new embargoed research on age and the opioid epidemic, anogenital warts and the HPV vaccine, meeting US life expectancy goals, effectiveness of sexual health program for adolescent girls, and measuring the prevalence of marijuana advertising in Oregon