Feature Channels: Marijuana

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Rural counties continue to rank lowest among counties across the U.S., in terms of health outcomes. A group of national organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National 4-H Council are leading the way to close the rural health gap.

• share
• favorite_border

Study findings highlight need for manufacturing and testing standards and federal government oversight.

• share
• favorite_border

The multidisciplinary Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR) will focus on conducting research, sharing evidence-based information and creating a network of professionals interested in further understanding medicinal cannabis.

• share
• favorite_border

Business experts estimate that the market for Cannabidiol (CBD) products will grow to more than $2 billion in consumer sales within the next three years. While interest in this area continues to grow, little has been done to ensure regulation and oversight of the sale of products containing CBD.