BACKGROUND In November 2012, Washington State and Colorado became the first states in the United States to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults, and Uruguay became the first country to allow the cultivation, distribution, possession, and use of marijuana. One possible consequence of these changes is increased adolescent marijuana use. Parents may mitigate this adverse consequence; how...

Marijuana has been proposed as treatment for a widening spectrum of medical conditions. Marijuana is a substance with many properties that may be applicable to the management of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). These include analgesia, muscle relaxation, bronchodilation, saliva reduction, appetite stimulation, and sleep induction. In addition, marijuana has now been shown to have strong ant...

Increasing use of synthetic cannabinoids has been noted in the recent years across the United States of America. The cardiovascular effects of synthetic cannabinoids are not well established. Bradycardia, tachycardia and postural hypotension following synthetic marijuana use have been reported. Various mechanisms are attributed in myocardial infarctions associated with the use of marijuana. Cas...

The purpose of this study was to examine the patterns of marijuana and tobacco use and their associations with suboptimal self-rated health (SRH) among US adults who reported "ever, even once, using marijuana or hashish." Data came from the 2009-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, restricting to respondents aged 20 years and older who reported using marijuana at least once in...

BACKGROUND California may vote on marijuana legalization in 2016. Young adults have the highest rates of marijuana use, but little is known about the correlates of use in this age group, including factors that may be affected by policy change. We investigated whether there are differences in marijuana use by sociodemographic characteristics, psychological distress, loneliness and social support...

PURPOSE The state-level legalization of medical marijuana has raised concerns about increased accessibility and appeal of the drug to youth. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of medical marijuana legalization across the United States by comparing trends in adolescent marijuana use between states with and without legalization of medical marijuana. METHODS The study utilized ...

www.thoracic.org C LI P A N D C O P Y The harmful effects of tobacco smoke are well known, but we have less information about the health effects of marijuana. Few research studies have been done since marijuana remains illegal in most countries, and since marijuana can be inhaled in many ways (e.g. water pipes, joints, vaping etc). It is likely that in frequent users (and some less frequent use...

Robert C. Randall is the president of the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics and a legal medicinal marijuana patient. Marijuana can make the difference between years of functional vision or blindness for people afflicted with glaucoma. I know this firsthand. Marijuana has given me nearly 20 years of vision. Despite marijuana's therapeutic value in the treatment of glaucoma, only three glaucoma ...

Background Marijuana is a widely used recreational substance. Few cases have been reported of acute myocardial infarction following marijuana use. To our knowledge, this is the first ever study analyzing the lifetime odds of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) with marijuana use and the outcomes in AMI patients with versus without marijuana use. Methods We queried the 2010-2014 National Inpatient...

This study examined sleep changes following cessation of marijuana and alcohol use during late adolescence. Twenty-nine heavy marijuana and alcohol users and 20 matched controls were studied during a 28-day monitored abstinence period. Sleep was examined as a function of prior substance use during Nights 1-2 and Nights 27-28. On Night 2, percent rapid eye movement sleep was predicted by past mo...