For more than a decade, medical marijuana has been at the forefront of the marijuana policy debate in the United States. Fourteen states allow physicians to recommend marijuana or provide a legal defense for patients and physicians if prosecuted in state courts; however, little is known about those individuals using marijuana for medicinal purposes and the symptoms they use it for. This study p...

This study adapted and extended M. L. Cooper's (1994) Drinking Motives Measure to examine marijuana motives among 299 college students. An exploratory factor analysis supported the hypothesized 5-factor marijuana motives model, resulting in enhancement, conformity, expansion, coping, and social motives. Analyses supported the internal consistency and concurrent validity of the 5 marijuana motiv...

OBJECTIVE To examine the relative prevalence of marijuana and tobacco use among low-income post-partum women, using self-report, urine, and hair testing data; and to further explore perceptions of the substances among postpartum women by evaluating perceived risk and monetary cost of prenatal marijuana versus tobacco use. METHODS Data from two studies were available for a total of 100 (Study ...

BACKGROUND The rise of authorized marijuana use in the U.S. means that many individuals are using cannabis as they concurrently engage in other forms of treatment, such as substance abuse counseling and psychotherapy. Clinical and legal decisions may be influenced by findings that suggest marijuana use during treatment serves as an obstacle to treatment success, compromises treatment integrity,...

BACKGROUND The prevalence and perceived effectiveness of marijuana use has not been well studied in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) despite increasing legal permission for its use in Crohn's disease. Health care providers have little guidance about the IBD symptoms that may improve with marijuana use. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence, sociodemographic characteristics, and per...

BACKGROUND Our aim was to determine the combined and independent effects of tobacco and marijuana smoking on respiratory symptoms and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the general population. METHOD We surveyed a random sample of 878 people aged 40 years or older living in Vancouver, Canada, about their respiratory history and their history of tobacco and marijuana smoking. We p...

BACKGROUND The relationship between marijuana smoking and pulmonary function or respiratory complications is poorly understood; therefore, we conducted a systematic review of the impact of marijuana smoking on pulmonary function and respiratory complications. METHODS Studies that evaluated the effect of marijuana smoking on pulmonary function and respiratory complications were selected from t...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between marijuana use and health outcomes among hospitalized patients, including those hospitalized with a diagnosis of cancer. A total of 387,608 current marijuana users were identified based on ICD-9 codes for marijuana use among hospitalized patients in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database between 2007 and 2011. Logistic regression...

BACKGROUND There are indications that marijuana is increasingly used to alleviate symptoms and for the treatment of a variety of medical conditions both physical and psychological. The purpose of this study was to describe the health concerns and problems that prompt some adolescents to use marijuana for therapeutic reasons, and their beliefs about the risks and benefits of the therapeutic use ...

MARIJUANA HAS BEEN THE most common illicit substance used in the United States for several decades. Understanding changes in the use of marijuana over time is important for a number of reasons. Marijuana use is associated with impaired educational attainment, reduced workplace productivity, and increased risk of use of other substances. Marijuana use plays a major role in motor vehicle crashes ...