Well thank heavens that completely wrong brain study that got so much publicity here in the NYT back in 2014 is no longer mentioned.
Harvard researchers brought the reputation of Harvard down a notch when they tried to study the effect of marijuana use on the brain and chose not to control for alcohol use by participants.
They found some scary news -- a shrinkage in white matter volume supposedly afflicting the marijuana users.
People protested this, because the researchers at Harvard did not control for alcohol.
After a spate of new studies that did control for alcohol, the dust settled. It was agreed based on all of the accumulated research that the white matter shrinkage can be attributed 100% to alcohol, and zero percent to marijuana.
So if you're a drinker, well, those wrong studies about pot ought to make you think twice about alcohol.
19
LED's esp of the blue spectrum are what we need to be having a new discussion about. Its not the joint you need to put down, but maybe your Kindle, Smart Phone, iPad . . . .
12
Clearly vaping with any substance is an unnatural mechanism to deliver known and unknown toxins to one's respiratory system, to what end, who really knows? People who toke on pot in various ways are unemployable in many areas due to the underlying Federal sovereignty doctrine that says the Federal government in all its branches may test for THC in its employees, and terminate those with cause who test positive. Regardless of what groovy legalizations have taken place, cannabis is still a schedule 1 controlled substance. We have all experienced dopehead behaviors because of the widespread use of cannabis, but are they something we want to make a societal norm in lieu of more sober ways of acting?
10
The government has been lying for over 100 years when it comes to marijuana. Our marijuana prohibition came with the repeal of prohibition. The prohibition agents saved their jobs by creating a marijuana hysteria. The prohibition of pot was fueled by race hatred of Mexicans and of African Americans, a hatred that continues to this very day, indeed seems to be metatasizing.
The argument for scientific studies is absurd given the antiscience nature of the Republican Party and the money grubbing denial of reality by the Trump Administration.
America would not need recreational drugs but for its lack of Universal Health Care. But we cannot have Universal Health Care because of race hatred.
With articles like these that ignore the real underlying problems the New York Times is part of the problem.
15
"First let's focus on the harms."
Cancer:
Uhh, umm, well, uhh .... nothing.
Heart disease:
Well, uhh, ahem, uhh ... uh, yeah, nothing.
Lung disease:
Gee, um, I know there's something but, wait, uh ... OK, nothing.
And so on and so forth.
Disclosure: I have not used marijuana in 45 years and have no interest in doing so now. I remain disgusted, however, by the straw-grasping that has gone on non-stop since that time to claim there is something, ANYTHING, seriously harmful about moderate use.
(OK, one thing: perhaps they will find that 45 years post-use a person is unable to establish paragraph breaks in this idiotic new comments format. Anyone out there who's never touched the stuff and can explain to me how it's done?)
27
In a paragraph regarding effect on children, which should have had its own heading, the author states, "Although this issue has not been studied widely, it’s possible that pot — the THC and the metabolites from smoke — could have an effect on the developing brains of children. These concerns are more applicable to adolescents who use pot regularly, however, not the accidental ingestion reported in the news once in a while."
The above issue is one of the highest profile health issues debated over pot use, yet it's left completely dangling like this. Such an egregious oversight leaves the credibility of the rest of the article dubious. "Is there an editor in the house?!"
16
Marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. – Francis Young Administrative Law Judge, Drug Enforcement Agency September 1988
For more than 3,500 years marijuana has been, depending on the culture or nation, either the most used or one of the most widely used plants for medicines.
Marijuana was America’s number one analgesic for 60 years before the (re)discovery of aspirin around 1900. From 1842 to 1900 cannabis made up half of all medicine sold.
From 1850 to 1937 cannabis was prescribed as the prime medicine for more than 100 separate illnesses in American U.S. Pharmacopeia.
The American Medical Association and drug companies testified against the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act because cannabis was known to have so much medical potential.
The Committee on Cannabis Indica for the Ohio State Medical Society concluded that, High Biblical commentators [scholars] believe that the gall and vinegar, or myrrhed wine offered to our Savior immediately before his crucifixion was in all probability a preparation of Indian hemp (marijuana).
65% of hemp seed’s protein content is in the form of globulin edestin, (edible).
Source: Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy: The Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer, Hemp Publishing 1990
9
Haha... comment #420 from here in Colorado.
14
First thing NYT, let's set this straight, I've been reading you for thirty five years and by now the THC levels in cannabis must be 500 times what they were in the eighties! OMG and tongue in cheek, what shall we do? Legalize it, that's what and save lives.
11
If you can.....don't get into any kind of substance abuse....alcohol, drugs, cigs whatever....they all mess with the mind and general well being to some degree...lets promote living clean and green!
14
Law enforcement absolutely has tests to determine impairment by marijuana and other drugs. To start, the standardized field sobriety tests work fine with drugs other than alcohol. Then there are Drug Recognition Experts, officers who are trained in advanced detection techniques using things like blood pressure, pupil dilation, and other medical techniques. Last, urine and blood analysis can detect the presence of THC et al, and while we can argue until we are blue in the face about how long it stays in your system, it still plays a key role in enforcement if you combine the results with all the other evidence collected by the officers.
Not to mention, MJ isn't called skunk for no reason.
Enforcement of impairment by MJ works just fine.
Don't drive impaired!
9
I'm a Jewish Rastafarian since 1968. I believe Barbara Streisand is God and that marijuana is a religous sacrament.
10
Why don't you do an article on PTSD and the benefits of cannabis?
Is there one death on record anywhere of pot overdose?
20
How about the mental health of the millions incarcerated for the use of this substance, not to speak of the cost for this incarceration.
16
An area that seems to be missing in the research is the association between heavy pot use and motivation. I've noticed for myself that smoking too much too often leads me disorganized and less disciplined/motivated (I'm also more creative and "in the moment"). The subset of people who are buzzed too often and too much is a real public health/mental health issue, or as my daughter once said; "Dad, I'm just sitting on the couch all day eating! I gotta stop smoking pot!" Designing studies to sort out these issues of motivation and discipline would be tricky but worthwhile.
16
This article de-emphasizes the risks for the fetus. You only have to look elsewhere in the NY times
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/health/marijuana-and-pregnancy.html
6
Ok. Do I know someone who had marijuana seizures???
At least two of them, and one of them put him in the emergency room. It all ended after he stopped using. He said he didn’t like anymore??!!!
4
Well my own extensive clinical trials proves beyond doubt that unless you're unusually brilliant, pot makes you stupid, & dysfunctional.
Eating a very strong dose of it can cause you to feel positively psychotic, followed by miserably stoned for literally days.
That was all back in the day before 'homegrown' became 'hydro' & strong strains were only beginning to repopulate the west.
Cannabis has been mutated into one potent plant people! Have some serious respect for those scary-looking crusty green buds.
That said, & to the extent that I actually remember much from my decades of potheaded haze, I can say that I was likely considerably happier, more gleefully creative & less politically bitter & angry as a pothead. But that was also before Bush jr.
So, now that Reagan's feds are less likely to seize the property over a patch of pot-plants, & a baggy of buds might be a bit less likely to get you locked up for life by Republicans & their war on weed (& the paraquat scare seems to have passed...) it might be time to try the risk-benefit analysis again.
But honestly more interested in the non-psychoactive formula, there's too little left of this brain to waste being wasted.
But whatever happened to the big medical risk of marijuana: It was proven to cause a crash in testosterone, basically inhalable hypogonadism.
That was the big terror of smoking pot, whole books were dispensed to teens full of scientific findings proving the testosterone-lowering hazard of marijuana.
4
Wow - you’d have to look hard to find a less risky fun thing to do. If you analyzed skiing so carefully it would probably come out worse.
19
It’s been quite remarkable to see how it’s helping people since it’s become legal in my state. It’s medicine first and foremost. The “high” one feels is not only one of the side effects but for folks looking to deal with the post trauma, the “forgetfulness” is the very thing that helps one heal. It helps to sidetrack your thoughts so you don’t focus on them and over as veterans seem to do.
And it is one of the most studied as you will see by typing in Cannabis on Pubmed. With one in three getting cancer, it would seem like chemo and radiation has failed us. And now they are pushing immuneatherapy.
Cannabis is thousands of years old. Smoking it kills pain, taking the concentrated oil is killing tumors, and juicing is great for over all health. Even the National Institute of Health says it kills cancerous tumors in mice.
7
There's a lack of evidence, yeah. That's the point, isn't it?
Get evidence, and we can talk about evidence. Without that, it's just anecdotal, and weed is great.
10
First, this really is an article about the dangers of smoking....anything.
Second, I use medical marijuana daily, not smoke, for my spine pain and it's the best thing I've ever done. No more pain killers or anti inflammatories and the stomach/intestinal problems that go along with it. The interesting 'side' effect of usage is that it has HELPED my bi-polar/A.D.D tremendously. This is witnessed by not just me but my DR. All in all a great product.
10
The risks for marijuana will be for cancers of the brain and nervous systems. The alkaloids in marijuana are psychoactive because they readily bond to receptors on brain and nervous tissue. When those substances are heated or oxidised in the presence of complex organic material they will form compounds binding them to benzene rings and other carcinogenic formations. These aromatized compounds will carry these carcinogens to the brain and nervous system where the psychotropic substances in marijuana will cause them to attach to those brain and nerve receptors. That is how tobacco works vis a vis epithelial tissue. We should expect marijuana to act the same way mutatis mutandi. It took 35 years to establish statistical significance for tobacco. Expect the same wait for marijuana.
3
I've smoked weed every day since I was 14. I turned 30 this year and I am the Chief Scientific Officer of a major marijuana producer in the state of California. I was educated at MIT and I think marijuana is the reason I'm not hopped up on psych meds like all my fellow 30 year olds.
Marijuana changed my life and I've seen it change the lives of hundreds of other people. As. transgender woman who makes six figures and is invited to speak at conferences and appear in documentarys (Mary Jane's, the Women of Weed is premiering across the nation right now to sold out shows), I can say that marijuana is my life. As an MIT educated biologist and organic chemist with 15 years of heavy use under my belt. I know marijuana is safe.
Try it. You will like it better than booze. Here is something interesting. Everyone I know in the industry barely drinks alcohol. I haven't personally drank alcohol in 5 years. So marijuana seems to promote not using an actually dangerous drug that actually kills thousands of people every year. Huh?
16
As usual, this article is equating "marijuana use" with smoking it. Although I have never used marijuana, I know people who do, and according to them, it's "passé" to smoke it (and unhealthy), and people vape it, consume it in edible products, or other ways. So what people really need to know, are what are the negative effects of consuming it in ways other than smoking.
1
This article is very misleading with conclusions that Marijuana is a safe drug after all. It is not! Other articles in the NYTimes have stated some of the dangers. And doctors are beginning to notice the negative side effects when patients admit more openly now they smoke this drug. This kind of reporting is very irresponsible. Marijuana does have very serious negative side effects that must be reported on a front page.
4
I have personally been conducting on ongoing study of the effects of Marijuana on the body and brain, the study started in 1977.
I have smoked Marijuana every day (several timed a day) almost every day since then.
I will let you know if I ever find any problems with it. But so far it's all good.
6
The health issues of smoking marihuana are the same as smoking anything. Smoking exposes the smoker to concentrated products of combustion. Products of combustion primarily polycyclic hydrocarbons irritate the the airways and are carcinogenic. One thing that amuses me is that some of the biggest proponents of pot are hysterical anti tobaccoists, a ridiculous stance!!! Smoking weed is as much of a health issue as smoking tobacco. Furthermore to add to the smoking issue you have toconsider that pot makes you high thus adding all the issues of inebriation regarding accidents while driving, etc. Im all for pot legalization, however, I'm far from blind as to its obviously deleterious health effects.
2
Assessing health pros and cons can be a tricky enterprise and in my opinion very much depends on frequency and location of consumption…which could also be said about ice cream and pizza. For example: At any age, but especially late middle age, if you consume too often you will probably end up having a hard time dragging yourself to the gym…or the office, not a good thing for health. At the same time, targeted consumption can be a great libido enhancer, good thing for health, which in late middle age really cannot be said of food or alcohol.
My advice: don’t consume with alcohol, consume in moderation, leave time to enjoy the experience without it impacting negatively on life’s necessary activities…basically…know thyself. Legalization at least creates a wider range of consumption modes and some form of nominal THC level product consistency.
1
Where is the discussion about Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome? As an ER nurse, I can testify that these patients receive numerous lab tests, as well as abdominal ultrasounds, X-rays and CT scans. They will inevitably storm out complaining we can't figure out what's wrong with them because they refuse to believe their symptoms could be caused by marijuana use. Many of these patients are seen at numerous medical facilities for the same symptoms and will receive the same tests. Aside from the gastrointestinal consequences, we know radiation from numerous tests can cause cancer later in life, so it's arguable that this should be considered in the cancer-causing aspect of marijuana use.
4
I was a pot smoker, regularly, in the 1970s, but for a relatively short time. I forget the state now (it's been 50 years) but, of course, we smoked because it was fun and enjoyable.
But we were also all serious students--of philosophy, in our case, as well of spiritual systems in general, including meditations, all of which produced altered states of mind.
The only negative thing I could detect about marijuana was in the most potent strains I tried at the time. That was "Sensimilla" which I suppose is very common now. Maybe it was because I tried it for such a short time, but it did impair thinking and memory. I don't think it should be used by young people.
2
It seems that the new discussion of marijuana's risks are that we havent found much. Alcohol's risks are obvious and well-knownl; if marijuana had similar effects, they would have been easily documentable and already documented. We know that the original classification of marijuana by the government arose out of fear, ignorance, racism, and empire-building, and that if these decisions were made on evidence, the classification would have been changed long ago.
Any discussion of marijuana's risks should begin with how people came to believe it was so bad and are therefore predisposed to look for and believe bad things about it. It should then go on to point out that people have been exposed to anti-pot propaganda and should try to get rid of its effects before deciding they are competent to judge how dangerous it is.
The potential harms enumerated in this article have not been validated by any substantial amount of research despite considerable effort. So the article should discuss why many people are predisposed to believe in the potential harms in spite of the lack of evidence. One could take the same list of ailments and announce that no connection between them and eating meat or masturbating or living in air-conditioned buildings or using a cell phone or cooking on teflon-coated pans or taking male enhancement drugs has been validated so far; if properly worded, the announcement would be sinister.
4
I wish we had accessible research on medical uses of marijuana -- or THC -- in various forms. Does inhaling vapor containing THC harm the delicate tissues that line the respiratory tract? Or is it heat and smoke from burning the plant matter and/or cigarette paper that does harm?
Is THC vapor safe to use as a remedy for occasional insomnia? How often?
Is CBD without THC of any use? How and for what?
The many years the Federal government has refused to allow medical research has put America back to where we depend on anecdotal evidence and use this potential remedy at our risk. It's time for Congress to act, to allow and promote real medical research on this herbal drug and to make the results public.
9
There is research on CBD use and it's quite informative. You can buy CBD items legally in all 50 states.
4
I have been a nurse for over 40 years:( How did those years fly by??) I have seen a terrible increase in intractable vomiting in many long term pot smokers. This is a fairly recent phenomenon, something I never saw in the '70's or 80's, but is very debilitating. Please pass this along.
11
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0214730/
I don't smoke pot but I found this documentary very interesting. You might understand the "risks" a little better afterwards.
4
Lets promote a few more good studies. If the results are positive , legalise it.
There are other issues to spend out time thinking about.
1
For the record, I don’t care whether people smoke weed. However, this article completely neglected to mention cyclical vomiting as a potential issue. Having been an ER nurse since 2002, we’ve seen a definite increase in the number of patients who present with this. (A surprisingly number return over and over because they won’t accept it’s the weed or can’t stop smoking it.) In fact, I read an NYT article about that very thing not long ago. And one more thing.. we see a lot of older people who insist that it wasn’t the weed that caused them to come to the ER altered or caused them to pass out. But it’s a lot stronger than it used to be back in the day, so.. oops! You can’t necessarily smoke a doob and then have that glass of wine, too.
12
I live in California and am accustomed to walking streets where the smell of pot is present. Now it's more common, which is challenging to me because it seems to be good for all sorts of health reasons for others - but I'm allergic to it and am constantly walking through clouds of it. People don't drink alcohol in public this way and I hope that law and custom will change this, but I see no likelihood of that.
7
I do think it is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco. But this article is cursory and clearly slanted. While there may be little evidence, a lack of proper studies and or accounting for the myriad ways people use the drug does not mean one should jump to a conclusion that it's "nil" or harmless. We have a cultural problem in which a drug (alcohol for example) is assumed to be desirable unless one can prove it is harmful. I have known regular users and they end up having real problems, including paranoia, incoherence, and anger issues. And I don't believe that it doesn't affect academic performance.
18
As stated in the article, there is "limited evidence" that it affects academic performance. I believe that diet, amount of sleep, and adequate exercise are much greater factors in mental acuity than whether someone uses recreational marijuana. I know a pot smoker who graduated first in his class from an Ivy league school at age 19, went on to earn a doctorate, and started a successful business. The man is brilliant. Those who apply themselves and don't tend to lay around watching T.V. and eating junk food tend to do better than those who do, whether they smoke pot or not.
2
I wholeheartedly support its legalization and free use/free to grow, but personally, common sense tells me that inhaling smoke OF ANY KIND is just not so great for one's lungs.
15
To say that there is no relation in pot smoking to asthma is misleading.
The paper you roll it in and matches you possibly burn it with can and do irritate asthma. Take it from an asthma sufferer.
I can't even have one cigarette without wheezing. Pot is o.k. with me - but no paper or matches.
5
Besides drunk drivers, and cell phone users, we cyclists now have to contend with people high on marijuana.
Thanks America.
17
Seems to me like your anger is misplaced. You should be directing your anger at your city for not providing the proper infrastructure to safely separate bike lanes from the road/sidewalk - not pot users...
4
You’ve never seen cyclists smoking weed? You’re obviously not from Cali.
7
Tried it a couple times and don’t like the smell, the taste or the smoke that hurts my throat. Regardless of any study that says it’s not bad for me, I still believe I’m better off without it.
14
Try vaping weed - the is smell nonexistent & the taste is much better. Also, it doesn’t burn your throat.
3
One word to you: edibles
3
"People who choose to use marijuana... will need to weigh the pros and cons for themselves." With no help from this article, whatsoever.
39
For balance, you're going to do a piece about the thousands of deaths every year from totally legal, socially promoted alcohol, not to mention the various agonies of alcoholism, and of course you will point out that ALCOHOL is the actual "gateway" to addiction, and of course you will mention that weed has LITERALLY NEVER KILLED ANYONE EVER. And naturally, you will point out that the pharmaceutical industry is actively involved in trying to maintain cannabis prohibition. I mean, you're going to write a comapnaion piece like that...aren't you?
23
"For balance, you're going to do a piece about the thousands of deaths every year from totally legal, socially promoted alcohol,"....The argument that because alcohol is bad therefore marijuana must be good makes no logical sense at all. Maybe you should get off the weed before you lose all your rational thought process.
9
If you actually read the article Renee, you would see that the author referenced the available data which generally finds no statistical link between cannabis use and most maladies one might thing to associate with such use.
4
comparisons to alcohol are irrelevant to the discussion. Sniffing glue is worse for you too.
3
I’m glad they’re legalizing it, for many reasons, but my 3 teenagers all developed serious mental illness as a direct result of smoking (a lot of) pot. The damage is cumulative, so they have stopped, I’m relieved to say. (At least they say they’ve stopped; they’re all adults now.)
If you have any family history of mood disorders, put the fear of god in your kids and hope they abstain. You don’t want a mood disorder triggered.
You really don’t.
21
how about do an article on the many, many risks of widely prescribed drugs like SSRIs, instead of this fearmongering garbage? the 25% of women are on SSRI's and they hardly work, yet at a minimum kill one's sex drive over time. Surprise us.
5
What a ridiculous article. Back in the 70s, when pot was mild compared to today, my brother and his friends were habitual pot-smokers, and it definitely led them to try LSD and other drugs, too. My brother needed an extra year to finish high school, and his friend needed two extra years! Try and tell me pot wasn't responsible. If the study didn't consider daily use, it was useless and not worth reporting. Pot stinks! Dr. Drew, if he knows anything, said years ago that it was addictive for many people. Pot smoking also generates certain ways of thinking ("laid-back") that are unhealthy. Legalizing pot is the worst thing this country can do, encouraging people to get high instead of sober. If we have to prohibit alcohol to ban drugs, then ban alcohol too. At least it will all be illicit, then. And weren't speakeasies more fun than bars?
7
There has always been pot of varying grades. Back in the 70s in addition to low-grade Mexican there was also strong pot from Thailand and other countries.
I suspect that the reason your brother needed an extra year to finish high school is that he didn't apply himself, not that he was somehow incapacitated. Can you honestly say that your brother attended classes regularly and made it a priority to do his homework? Or did he get stoned and watch Beavis and Butthead?
4
MJ is not legal in any US state. How did the author get that wrong, I wonder.
Oh but it is legal in several states, mostly medical marijuana but a few with recreational use (e.g. Colorado and California). Not legal under federal laws.
2
The reason marijuana is still illegal in so many states is because Black people tend to prefer it to alcohol because it is less problematic. Criminalizing marijuana is a great strategy for incarcerating Black people in "For Profit" prisons. Alcohol is legal because it tends to be preferred by White people. Law enforcement in America has always been systemically racist.
15
You also have the history of puritanism in this country which seems to have been carried over into the political 'elite'. Someone somewhere may be having a good time, must stomp that out. The German immigrants with their biergartens and families all together, drinking beer in public. How dare they? Today we have MADD, which has probably led to the binge drinking scourge in colleges, instead of letting kids have a beer once in awhile and learn how to drink socially. Habitual drunk drivers? Still a problem. I have no doubt racism is also involved. Not just jails, but the DEA and the police, homeland security. They all get money!
Marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug in America (behind only alcohol and tobacco), and has been used by nearly 100 million Americans. According to government surveys, some 25 million Americans have smoked marijuana in the past year, and more than 14 million do so regularly despite laws against its use.
The first recorded use of marijuana as a medicinal drug occurred in 2737 BC by the Chinese emperor Shen Nung. He documented the drug’s effectiveness in treating the pains of rheumatism and gout.
It has been Legal Medicinal for over 22yrs. CA.
4yrs. Recreational in CO. 3yrs. Rec. in WA.
Cannabis use has been all around you since...ever.
From your presidents to the old couple next door.
We are your doctors and your plumbers. We do playdates with your children. And grocery shop along side you.
The sky has not fallen in.
Reefer Madness is a movie. Prohibition has been politicized and weaponized. It is not about harm reduction.
Yes, there is risks and harm for some individuals. Just as some folk cant cross a street or play lawn darts. For the vast majority of those that partake, law enforcement and the legal system are by far the largest detriments to use.
The sky hasn't and wont fall!
Those that choose to partake pretty much already do. Availability has been widespread and many times easier to score than alcohol. (as your teen can tell you)
Remove cannabis from the Schedule 1 designation and legalize it across the nation.
We are your neighbors.
22
Regarding the risk of auto accidents, it would be interesting to see if the ratio of accidents causing injury or death vs other accidents is different in cannabis users.
We might hypothesise that inattention under the influence causes a higher accident rate, but that slower driving and more caution ("paranoia") in general makes this less lethal.
Under the influence is the critical factor - blood tests don't tell us this, and self-reporting is a pretty poor way to get data.
Similarly, some of the psychosis papers seem to rely on self-reporting of symptoms that are often considered desirable by users; just because they're not normal events for the norms writing the papers doesn't mean that they're evidence of a true psychosis, any more than religious or artistic experiences are.
See, I've been saying this for years, what was I talking about again.
7
I have suffered decades of deep depression from seeing great people needlessly criminalized, jailed, killed, ridiculed, and denied basic rights because of lies and ignorance about pot, while at the same time major corporations sold the actually deadly and addictive hard drug alcohol to anyone with cash.
15
I'll be 60 the day after tomorrow. I've been smoking weed daily since I was 13. And a pack of cigarettes a day since I was 14.
Not an exercise freak but I can ride a bike 20 miles or walk 18 holes without breaking much of a sweat. And it's pretty hilly around here.
The weed is good. The cigarettes are bad. That's a given.
My hunch is that the weed is so good that it might make the cigarettes not as bad. Study that.
6
Smoke is a colloidal suspension of a small solid particles in a gas. Inhaling smoke of any kind is a bad idea.
8
I have smoked pot from morning to night for years and have seen no negative effects.
Darn. I had something else I wanted to say, but I forgot.
But it was really good.
12
You know, having used marijauana a really long time ago and not used it since 1968, I have learned that I really really want to hold onto every IQ point I can. I have witnessed friends who continued to use this well into their 50's and beyond. I won't say it ruined their lives, but I will say that did not help them to push their careers in the arts and excel.
8
So, to date, the extant research finds:
No association between smoking marijuana and lung, head, or neck cancers, heart attacks, asthma, changes in birth length, head circumference or congenital malformations,
Limited evidence of a statistically significant link between heavier pot smoking and one type of testicular cancer, COPD, esophageal cancer, prostate cancer, cervical cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, penile cancer or bladder cancer…(nor) that pot has any effect on sperm or egg, pregnancy complications for mothers, worse outcomes in academic achievement, employment, income or social functioning.
Moderate evidence…that learning, memory and attention can be impaired in the 24 hours after marijuana use.
Pot smoking may be a trigger for a heart attack in the hour after smoking.
For people who reported marijuana use, or had THC detected through testing, their odds of being involved in a motor vehicle accident increased by 20 to 30 percent.
Babies born to women who smoke pot during pregnancy are more likely to be underweight, delivered premature and admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit. Also, it’s possible that the THC and the metabolites from smoke could have an effect on the developing brains of children.
Evidence (in rats) pot smoke impaired how vessels responded to blood flow for at least 90 minutes, a greater impairment than from tobacco.
All of which cries out for more research to accompany widening use.
And IMMEDIATE decriminalization.
4
Here is a cogent fact: No attributed deaths from cannabis (THC or CBD) has ever been recorded in human history. Today, at least 100 Americans will die from an opioid overdose. Opioids are still the number one treatment for the diagnosis of chronic pain, and remain a multi billion dollar industry. Addiction rates (10 years after 1st use) for opioids are 15.8%, nicotine 15.6%, alcohol 11%, and cannabis as the lowest at 5.9%. In descending order of dependence, we can see cannabis is remarkably safe (nicotine, heroin, cocaine, alcohol, caffeine, cannabis). As a pain physician, I emphatically believe cannabis and FDA approved THC agonists, are a safer alternative to opioids. The evolving debate on whether its use is acceptable is politically motivated, and not based in medical logic or fact.
21
Cannabis is not physically addictive. Referring to it as "addictive" is misleading. Users of physically addictive drugs will pimp out their own children and steal from their own families to get a "fix." The withdrawal symptoms are so severe that they can result in death. Pot is only "addictive" in the sense that watching T.V. is "addictive."
4
Two or three patients per year enter my psychology practice with psychotic symptoms triggered by marijuana use. This risk deserves more attention.
18
From personal experiences, only risks I noticed were staring at a wall all day long and going to a fast food restaurant at 2:00am due to the munchies. Complete waste of time.
6
I walk a bike path that has benches dedicated to young people who died of opiate overdose. I sit on the benches and think if this kid would have used marijuana he would still be alive. The key is lethal dose. I've lost friends to alcohol and opiate overdoses never have lost one to marijuana because there is no lethal dose.
13
Well, that's a whole lot of nothing. Still, it's good to be on the safe side, and engage in moderation in all things.
5
Nice article. But for me the the essential point about marijuana is 'less is more'. Smoking as a consumer, as something that 'one does', is a waste. Because marijuana can be a peak experience and should be special. In fact, for me it is great, like Christmas. And like Christmas, once a year is sufficient, more or less. So marijuana as big business, Big Marijuana, sends a chill down my spine; and I hope this point of view will get traction once federal legalization occurs-- if it ever does -- and the conversation about marijuana can be held on the merits, and not as ideology or economics.
5
I'm a pharmacist and I am familiar with almost all the narcotics. Marijuana should never have been placed on the schedule One list. "SCHEDULE 1 (CLASS I) DRUGS are illegal because they have high abuse potential, no medical use, and severe safety concerns; for example, narcotics such as Heroin, LSD, and cocaine. Marijuana is also included as a Class 1 drug despite it being legal in some states and it being used as a medicinal drug in some states."
Marijuana does not fit this schedule.
30
As a pot smoke in my 50th year of use, and who races bicycles as a hobby, I applaud the findings of little to no adverse health effects that I see demonstrated in my life.
I would like to suggest a small addition to this article: data on how much alcohol effects the accident rate. For most readers, the 20% (relative) increase will seem large. So what is it for someone at a blood alcohol level of 0.05% and 0.07 % to provide a comparison on the risks.
Thanks.
11
"There's something happening here, but you don't know what it is, do you Mr. Jones!"
For those who haven't noticed, marijuana has become a big industry, and politicians like John Boehner are jumping in with both feet.
In November of 2015, an initiative to legalize medical marijuana in Ohio was defeated 65% to 35%. Less than 2 years later, the state legislature and governor signed a bill legalizing medical marijuana. This was done without the approval or involvement of the state medical board, and without the involvement of the medical community. It was obviously done against the will of the people. Meanwhile the state of Ohio struggles with opiate addiction, and employers are hard pressed to find potential employees who can pass a pre-employment drug test! Forty percent of pre-employment drug tests in Ohio are positive!
There is a paucity of evidence to support medical marijuana, but this hasn't stopped the politicians and marijuana supporters. The big reason seems to be the money.
It is unconscionable that this movement should continue while the country struggles with opiate addiction and substance abuse. Marijuana is a gateway drug, and it has caused far more harm than good.
5
There is evidence sufficient to backup the use of medical marijuana ( MM) for the effective relief of high levels of physical pain experienced by chronic users of prescription
opiates. MM in its varied blends is good medicine that will eat into Big Pharma $$$$. Will the lobbys win out on this one too??
4
Micheal, your statement that "Marijuana is a gateway drug, and it has caused far more harm than good," is not based on any facts that I have seen. If you have evidence, your should post it. In Colorado, the evidence is exactly the opposite:
Marijuana legalization in Colorado led to a “reversal” of opiate overdose deaths in that state, according to new research published in the American Journal of Public Health.
“After Colorado’s legalization of recreational cannabis sale and use, opioid-related deaths decreased more than 6% in the following 2 years,” write authors Melvin D. Livingston, Tracey E. Barnett, Chris Delcher and Alexander C. Wagenaar.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/10/16/legal-marijuana-i...
6
Not sure what the point of this was. Has someone written a similar analysis about the 'pros and cons' of alcohol?
Alcohol is not only widely accepted, but actually promoted and expected to be readily available, at all social events, sporting events, cultural events, bars and restaurants. Why is alcohol consumption, in small amounts, considered 'normal' or acceptable, whereas the same levels of use for pot, is so villified by society as a whole, along with those who choose to partake of it? Clearly someone...some group...has something to gain by this.
5
No, nobody has ever, ever discussed the pros and cons of alcohol. It's never been mentioned. There's no MADD, or SADD, or AA. There are no warnings on bottles of alcohol, and it's sure never discussed in schools, where they never have speakers come and talk about drunk driving or binge drinking. In fact, I didn't even realize alcohol might have bad effects until I read this post.
12
As a psychiatrist, I have seen many people both previously and newly diagnosed with mental illness in the throes of acute psychosis due to cannabis. Dabs, concentrated cannabis oil, is especially concerning. Many of my young adult patients name marijuana as their gateway drug. It can also cause hyperemesis and profound anxiety. So no, I don’t buy the argument that it’s ok because it’s natural. That is not to say that it should be criminalized. There are also compounds in cannabis that may be beneficial. I also wish we had agricultural hemp so our communities left bereft by the end of big tobacco could become productive again
22
Dr Green, if you have studies to support your claims you should refer to them. As a psychiatrist you should know that anecdotes are not evidence, and correlation is not causation.
As to "Gateway Drugs," did you inquire how many of your young patients first used tobacco or alcohol?
10
Back in the seventies when I was in graduate school, marijuana was a commonly used intoxicant among my friends. For me the effect was more like an amphetamine than calming. Experienced a remarkable acuity, and it was good for performing music. Unfortunately my sensitivity to THC only increase the speeding effect taking my heart rate well past comfortable to somewhere around 160. Hardly relaxing and downright scary, making it was easy to stop using and have not to this day. Not sure how widespread this effect actually is. I've heard people refer to "panic attacks," which might be what it ultimately was. Panic attack or rapid heart beat, doesn't matter. Wish everyone well who can enjoy the experience.
6
No matter how you consider the data the long term effects are unknown. I just don't understand why folks don't take a non-drug approach they know to be healthy, 30 minutes a day of power walking or running, about 5 days a week. This should raise their endorphin levels/happiness. Isn't that enough? In addition pot smokers are usually aware that THC ingested or inhaled does give one the munchies for things that may well work against a cardio-healthy diet. That said, Prohibition demonstrated, the human desire to slowly self destruct is difficult to outlaw. And it seems to be getting worse.
15
You acknowledged how we cannot yet establish cause and effect between marijuana use and psychiatric disorders; but you neglected the same point with the low birth weight question. In my experience, most women stop or significantly cut down on recreational marijuana use during pregnancy. But those suffering hyperemesis sometimes turn to pot for relief whether or not they used it much or even at all before pregnancy. Hyperemesis itself is associated with preterm births and low birth weights (and worse.)
The most apparent risks you described were for heavy users. But I think we can confidently hypothesize that people who are likely to be heavy users are going to be heavy users whether or not it is against the law. Legalization is going to bring the occasional weekend and party smokers out of the closet. I'm really not worried about or for them.
8
It's a political issue at best. A famous study proved:
Liberals prefer to be continually stoned, attend their poetry slams and drum circles - While Conservatives choose cocaine and prostitutes. ALL OF THIS ha been scientifically proven. .. Unfortunately I can't recall which study it was - but I know it's there. BTW- I'm a liberal :)
9
What was it we were talking about, oh, Oreo Cookies, is the cream center really cream or something else, talk amongst yourselves.
I don't care what you smoke, drink, ingest or snort, as long as you don't jeopardize my safety on the roadways, or steal from me to support your habit. I'm all for people being able to do whatever they want in the privacy of their home.
38
First of all, due to the inordinate amount of bad press that marijuana has received in the past century, there are NO real concrete studies on it because it was illegal to do so. Not sure that the author can really point to any links between marijuana and cancer, etc. In fact it’s irresponsible to do so. However we do know that marijuana has many benefits and we are sure to find more. The argument for the legalization of pot is simple: if alcohol is legal then it is ridiculous for marijuana not to be. CBD oil is known to cure epilepsy and yet numerous States still outlaw it. Why? Because those States are run by conservatives who still believe in the bogus stigma that marijuana has. In the meantime citizens of those States suffer needlessly or have to move to another State. But they’ll be glad to shove some Big Pharma drugs into you and make you pay an outrageous price for them. It’s sad and pathetic. And articles like this do nothing to help those who need it.
9
Actually the studies adequate well done and robust, looking at not just the rates, but also mechanisms. You can start here:http://www.laweekly.com/music/ucla-professor-finds-marijuana-is-safer-to...
While it's true that cannabis research has been severley restricted in the U.S., that's not true everywhere. Israelis have, and continue to do, extensive cannabis research. As a result, it is widely used in nursing homes there.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2017-04-11/israel-is...
Geez, this article makes it sound like there is virtually no risk to smoking pot. Ask any 60’s parent about the affects of long term use of THC on their kids and they will tell you it has had hu
5
Unfortunately for your suggestion, the conservative parents of "60s kids", are still too drunk to answer.
The 60's kids, now in their 60s and 70s, can answer for themselves. And they are none the worse for wear.
3
With rights, come responsibilities.
I live in Colorado and supported the decriminalization of marijuana use, but exposure to the odor makes me want to remind users to be considerate and not force your smoking on the rest of us: the smoke may not be cancerous, but it's just as obnoxious to smell as cigarette smoke.
And stop smoking and driving or risk losing voters' support. I often drive smelling the odor for several blocks at a time (much too far to be from roadkill), leading me to assume I'm following a toker. Traffic deaths are up here, knock it off.
(That goes double for the Domino's pizza delivery driver who left me in fumes of the stuff one night, as he left to make deliveries.)
36
Same if not worse here in Oakland. Uber & Lyft vehicles usually reek of the stuff. I take taxis instead.
2
Agree. I’ve nothing against marijuana use but the smell literally makes me want to vomit. And I’ve got a very strong stomach.
2
Let’s ask 85 year old Willie Nelson who has out survived many of his musical peers only to recently come out with his new album, ‘Last Man Standing’.
12
Contrary to assumptions made by some commenters, there is no evidence that legalized pot reduces alcohol consumption, especially for drivers. In addition, there already seems to be some evidence -- as well as it being intuitively likely -- that a substantial number of drivers are mixing pot with other drugs, not to mention electronic gadgets. Doing such can only mean many more deaths. Most of the 40,000 driving deaths each year stem from avoidable behavior. Therein lies the bigger health risk, not the second-hand smoke from a joint but being the second-hand victim of an impaired driver.
The pernicious and discriminatory effects of the so-called War On Drugs is a separate issue from the possible individual health effects of smoking or eating pot, or its derivatives.
4
It would be helpful and interesting to extend research comparing the effects of smoking pot vs. using edibles.
4
Alcohol is conclusively associated with several types of cancer, particularly breast cancer. Marijuana is not. Overdosing on alcohol can be fatal and heavy use is clearly associated with liver disease. Marijuana has no fatal dose. This list could go on and on. The public policy implications are obvious to anybody who wants to look at the evidence.
14
Adverse effects on cognitive function and brain development in adolescents recently documented. Particularly adverse effects on myelin ization of frontal lobes.
Clinically I’ve learned of adverse effects on cognitive functioning and motivation in young adults.
21
... yup... and the NIDA studies linking MJ use triggering schizophrenia in some with a genetic predisposition are real. Why minimize that? It's a side effect to seriously consider. In CO there are plenty of guns and MJ. This dangerous combo should at least have research attached to it.
2
There has not been enough research done on marijuana because scientists could not obtain material due to prohibition. Studies have relied on surveys of incarcerated, institutionalized or otherwise not "normal" populations who have multiple substance abuse problems, psychological problems, medical problems and associated lifestyle problems such as poor nutrition. We won't really have adequate data until there have been long term studies in ordinary populations.
5
I got an ok from a doctor to use medical marijuana for terrible fibromyalgia. I tried both smoking it and using edibles. After about 2 months, my hair started falling out and I got a large patch of vitiligo on one side of my face. Unfortunately, both these conditions turned out to be permanent. A friend, who is a physician, researched it, as did I. We found studies that proved causation regarding the hair loss, and there's all kinds of online, anecdotal, vallidation attesting to people's loss of hair. We couldn't find much about the vitiligo, although everything happened at the same time, so I strongly believe there's a connection. Even though marijuana did help with the pain of fibromyalgia, those side effects were not acceptable to me, so I discontinued using it immediately. People should know about these potential side-effects. Even the dispensary argued with me and said they'd never heard of this. Once I printed out the studies, they apologized and agreed that this was a possibility of which they were not aware. It's simply NOT a benign substance. It's a drug. Helpful for some conditions I'm sure, but patients and recreational users should know what they're getting into.
9
It is my understanding that Vitiligo is sometimes brought on by stress. Is is possible that the Vitiligo was brought on by the stress of the fibromyalgia rather than from the marijuana itself? I have just never heard of marijuana causing Vitiligo.
6
Hey Toby - anything's possible. I was eating small portions of very strong (to me) edibles, and maybe that stressed my body out. I only know that I lost a ton of hair, which sadly never grew back AND that I got a rather large pigment-free patch on my face, which still remains. And, all that happened at the same time. Concurrent with taking medicinal cannabis. I never had either of those conditions before cannabis and I have had fibromyalgia for 14 years. If you go on the internet, quite a lot of blogs talk about hair loss. That's anecdotal, I know, but it is there. And, there are scientific studies about hair loss. Anyway, no more marijuana for me. I'm sad every morning when I comb my hair. The white patch I can mask with makeup. It's too risky in my opinion to try the cannabis approach again, although it did help some with my muscle pain.
Strongly believing something is far different from empirical evidence.
1
I've worked at the intersections of tech and entertainment for many years, and most of the people I know either use marijuana frequently or occasionally, or they refrain from judging those of us who use it.
Which leaves me wondering, why isn't there a stronger movement to just outright legalize it? If Congress acted, I could even see Sessions going along with it.
And as someone who lives in a city that recently decriminalized it, and who travels frequently to Seattle and D.C. for work and who used to live in SoCal, I can't find a single community or type of community that seems like it would be opposed. Even in rural GA, I can easily imagine people being okay with this. It really does seem to have support in every community; black, white, Hispanic, liberal, conservative, etc.
But maybe this is the problem. It's become so ubiquitous that people figure legacy laws against can be safely ignored.
1
When you have Sessions spouting anti-marijuana policies, is it really a surprise? I was shocked when marijuana was not recategorized from a Schedule 1 back in 2016 (I believe it was.) Incredible. I agree that marijuana is more main stream and more accepted than many would think and not just limited to tech/entertainment industries but other professions, such as law.
2
And that's the hypocrisy of it all, Boehner was all against it when he was in congress. Once out of his cushy job where votes counted, he's now on the board of a weed business. Which by the way, that market if going to mint millionaires, so I'm.
3 words: War On Drugs.
Just to be clear, I am fully in favor of legalization of marijuana. We can't seem to learn the lessons of Prohibition.
However, because it has been and is very difficult, if not illegal, to conduct scientific studies of marijuana, we can be reasonably certain that what studies exist are unreliable.
Still, my guess is that marijuana is significantly less dangerous that alcohol.
5
It really sounds like moderate effects, if any, and most of those effects appear linked to smoking marijuana, which can also be consumed in edible form. In any event, few people smoke marijuana any where near the same rate as tobacco, which must also be considered.
2
People can get addicted to marijuana - I have seen numbers similar to alcohol addiction. So a fraction of the people who use it will end up in trouble and it'll be a pain to get the monkey off their back.
But overall, I think it is less harmful than alcohol which we allow and marijuana addiction is likely much more preferable to alcohol or even tobacco addiction.
2
are you serious? been seeing folks smoke in CA for decades - no addiction!! where did you get that old canard?
8
"People can get addicted to marijuana - I have seen numbers similar to alcohol addiction."
I think that you need to provide us with those numbers if you can even find them.
1
That is untrue, I've been a smoker for many years, and I Alaska for many years it was legal. When I've ran out, or just didn't take the time to go get a bag of bud, I didn't jones for it, I didn't think of stealing anything to get more, so your assertion of addiction, is false, pure and simple. This is what happens, when you drink the cool aid of false information, because you won't find one study that supports what you say.
1
If we really want to stop people from using canabas, major investment in police force and healthcare need to be made. The drug distribution network needs to be cracked down and junkies need to get proper treatment. Merely "banning" them without any further move makes no sense.
The distribution network for weed is better than Coke's distribution network.
This is, unintentionally I'm sure, absolutely hilarious. The "risks" are all statistical, which is to say not proof of much of anything except correlation, but the author desperately includes them or the narrative of his article seeking "balance" is broken.
Also, for every correlative study he mentions there are dozens of studies that prove causative links between alcohol, prescription drugs and tobacco, and debilitating, often fatal, problems like cancer, emphysema, heart disease, impaired driving and the like. Plus there also are no tests for prescription drug impairment for police to use either and that may actually be a bigger problem than even alcohol.
So in a desperate attempt to sound reasonable the author throws out a lot of misleading information as if it were proof and essentially ignores the benefits and/or lack of harm, from use of cannabis.
A waste of column inches IMO.
4
I was surprised at how low-key and objective the author was. He cited studies, including those that showed no cause for concern, and included information about their limitations.
Describing his piece as "desperate" undermines your credibility, not his.
5
A side by side comparison of the health benefits and drawbacks of alcohol and cannbis would be informative.
4
So, it would seem, marijuana is safer than alcohol.
4
Many drugs cause dry mouth and marijuana is notorious for it. As a dental hygienist I can’t stress enough how important saliva is as a first line of defense from bacteria, viruses, and toxins. A dry mouth is a sponge for everything and the human mouth hosts a very diverse community. Use biotene (make your own: glycerin, xylitol, water) and drink water.
4
Drinking water is usually what I do for a dry mouth, whether it's from weed or something else, like being thirsty.
Why would cigarette smoking result in lung cancer but Smoking pot does not?
3
Given that all smoke produces carcinogenic poly-aromatic compounds one would have to assume that the difference would be the dosage. Commercial cigarettes contain maybe 2-3 times more material than your average joint and unless you're a committed stoner, 20 joints a day seems unlikely.
3
Added chemicals in cigarettes. Most people vaporize marijuana. Though I’d think the repeated damage and healing of any smoke on the lungs would increase the risk of abnormal growths.
3
Are you asking us to Google it for you? Here you go:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1277837/
3
I don't care if people want to smoke pot. I care that they are smoking in public parks in Colorado, that I have to inhale their smoke.
I do not believe for a second that smoke from something burning isn't harmful in the long term.
Also it's stinky. It's like forcing people to smell your strong perfume all the time. You may like the smell but not everyone does.
11
Smoking marijuana in public in Colorado is illegal. If you don't like it you can always call the Cops.
I don't like pot, never have, never will. I'm dumb enough without smoking it - but the CBD oil sure takes the arthritic pain away without side effects with the exception of occasional paranoia ( but that is due to the THC).
2
have you used pot on a regular basis for an extended amount of time, more than just a couple of years? if so, you know this article is a propaganda piece. talk about "fake news". and as a gateway drug, I've seen it 1st hand. as a group of 7 friends, I watched all 6 of them allow pot to lead them to other drugs. all 6 of my friends dropped out of HS. a couple went back, another 2 got equivalency diplomas, and 2 never did anything. and 1 of those is dead now.
11
Yes... I have been smoking medical marijuana every day for the last seven years with no problematic consequences.
So no... I do not know that this article is a propaganda piece much less "fake news."
2
I've used pot for 50 years. Most pot users lead successful, happy lives. Why did you hang out with such losers?
3
It's legal in my state, and I wish it wasn't. I have intimate knowledge of the effects of pot on a person, having been in a few-years-long relationship with someone who smoked it daily. I will never again accept that in a relationship. I am also extremely uncomfortable knowing that people are driving under its influence, having seen first-hand what it's influence can be.
10
Pot doesn’t relieve inhibitions the way alcohol does. All risks are heightened while high so you’re less likely to want to drive. Pretty much ruins a high. My point is non-potsmokers are currently exaggerating this fear b/c we don’t have a pot breathalyzer (yet). Alcohol is the real danger with driving. It diminishes your fear of getting caught, pot increases your fear of getting caught.
Regarding some of the Most Recommended comments:
1/ The pernicious and discriminatory effects of the so-called War On Drugs is a separate issue from the possible individual health effects of smoking or eating pot, or its derivatives.
2/ So far there is no evidence I am aware of that legalized pot reduces alcohol consumption, especially for drivers. In addition, there already seems to be some evidence -- as well as it being intuitively likely -- that a substantial number of drivers are mixing pot with other drugs, not to mention electronic gadgets. Doing such can only mean many more deaths. Most of the 40,000 driving deaths each year stem from avoidable behavior. Therein lies the bigger health risk, not second-hand smoke but second-hand victim of an impaired driver.
6
So, the jury's out as far as significant health issues unless there is a concerted effort to study in-depth.
The states where it is currently legal should take the lead as the present federal administration is not interested in science or medical research that doesn't lead us to their pre-conceived, backward opinions.
1
I have carpal tunnel and arthritis. I am 70 years old. Marijuana would help me greatly. Medical marijuana is a joke. But I can't get the more potent stuff. My doctor actually told me to take a stiff drink. I hate alcohol. This government is ridiculous. I smoked in my 20's. I don't drive now. And would never drive under the influence anyhow. The government's problem is that they would have trouble taxing it. And that is what they are afraid of. Tax revenue loss.
3
Perhaps you could grow your own. Millions of people do.
2
The article doesn't discuss the possibility that mental downsides of cannabis include reduced drive and motivation. During periods when I 'm not smoking my productivity goes way up, the next morning after smoking I just want to be left alone to drink coffee.
9
um...did you actually read the article? There's an entire section on mental health.
1
But have they yet studied the possible weight gain due to increased consumption of ice cream and pbj?
7
Marijuana is far safer and less costly to society than alcohol. I’d argue, it’s likely safer than sugar, which has been definitely linked to numerous health problems and is marketed to children. Right now, the real question revolves around the safety of edibles, which too many commentators assume is safer than smoking even though the science has yet to be determined. Unlike smoking, edible marijuana is processed by the liver and could likely damage it for regular users. Same goes for the vape pens, which have harmful chemicals added. Marijuana use is only going to expand no matter anyone’s personal feelings, so we need more studies to be certain of its effects.
6
In my opinion this article is seriously downplaying the risk of consistent cannabis use. There is no information about the cited studies. How old are the studies, what population was observed, was there a control group and what was the size of the sample ? For one, today‘s Cannabis has a THC content which is far above the material which was available, say 10 years ago, so I would already dismiss for that reason all studies which are older than 10 years. Secondly, we are confronted now with sudden unfettered access of millions and millions of people to a drug, which - because of its illegal status - hasn’t been subjected to systematic long term studies with large samples representing all age and ethnic groups. In particular, the observed and corroborated causal relationship between adolescent cannabis use and psychosis should really give reason for concern. Did anybody of those happy folks who contributed here and cite Paul McCartney and others as evidence for „healthy cannabis“ ever dealt with a psychotic young man or women ? I guess not. I really don’t get it why people who otherwise ponder around for half a day as to whether or not it is OK to take one Aspirin have no qualms against the regular intake of a highly effective psychoactive mind altering drug. I am afraid that there will be a day when we look at this development with the same disbelief as we look now on the Coca Cola company mixing cocaine into “recreational” drinks in the late 19th / early 20th century.
11
I deal with psychotic people every day. I don't know any who are psychotic because of marijuana.
3
Marijuana is no more a "drug" than coffee, tobacco or alcohol. I am schizo-affective and I have been using medical marijuana every day for the last seven years and it does not make me symptomatic in any way. My guess is that you have never used marijuana and that your hysteria regarding marijuana is delusional.
1
The problem with Mr. Carroll's opinion piece is that it is based on shabby science. In order to do a medical study on marijuana, one has to get permission from the Federal Government and use Federally grown marijuana. The Federal Government purposely delays and refuses most requests. The quality of the Government marijuana is poor and erratic. So, valid studies are almost impossible to complete. That is the goal of the US Government. After all Marijuana is listed in the same drug category as Heroin, Methamphetamine, LSD and PCP, all of which are many, many times more dangerous that marijuana.
I don't recreational use marijuana because. for me it is wasted space just like tobacco and other recreational drugs. But we must have quality studies of its positive and negative effects.
We don't really know the pros and cons since we have no quality scientific research on it. I do know as a retired criminal defense attorney, that, unlike alcohol users, marijuana users do not commit violent crimes when under the influence while alcohol users cause horrific damage to themselves and other people. The only crimes I have ever seen marijuana uses prosecuted for were possession for personal use or possession for sale.
8
After reading this I would be more frightened by the drug company ads on TV you know the ones that warn using their drug may lead to kidney or liver failure, impaired judgment, heart attacks, depression, suicidal tendencies and so on. All drugs have adverse consequences.
7
I have seen increased hostility and bitterness, when not high, in four people who smoked pot long term in pretty substantial (but not unusual) amounts. Then it seems like the only solution is to smoke more, because that is the only time they are relaxed. I also saw another situation in my youth where someone struggling with various issues had even more trouble because of the impaired judgement pot was regularly contributing.
I have seen so much "Marijuana is safer than alcohol! And I'm not going to think about it any more than that" mentality. Even if the consequences of excessive use are less dire than that of alcohol, moderation is still important.
7
And what about vaping or edibles? This just seems to be about the effects of smoking.
1
There is no way that inhaling the smoke of ANY burning plant materials into your (very sensitive) lungs cannot be harmful. They were not evolved for that (ab)use.
11
It would be good, of course, to have more research. Unfortunately, the federal government, perhaps afraid of results, has limited best-practices studies by categorizing marijuana as a drug with no legitimate purpose. And so, we must go with what we've got, and what we've got suggests pot should be legalized. The story speaks for itself. Beyond academia, we have common sense and common experience. A large percentage of the population has tried marijuana, and people have decided for themselves whether they like it or not. Almost everyone, if they don't smoke, knows someone who does. And if reefer truly was dangerous, we would know it already.
Spare us tales of the wake-and-bake smoker who does nothing else. We already know that, and the phenomenon of lazy is nothing new. Legalize it and let's move on.
3
This article uses a lack of research to imply that marijuana is less dangerous than one might think. What about the social costs? I know a young man who lost his job as a truck driver after a positive test for marijuana (which is a reasonable policy, by the way). Being fired was so upsetting that he attempted suicide two weeks later. Medical effects are not the only harms of addictive substances.
4
Yes, we need some real, long term studies of the effects of marijuana. What we really need is federal legislation that changes it's classification as a drug. It needs to come down in scale, if not legalized. To have marijuana legalized in some states for recreational use, but still federally listed as a class 1 drug, like heroin or cocaine, makes a dangerous gray zone where producers don't have access to legal protections and commercial banking. They also don't have the legal obligations to environmental protection, labor laws and product safety.
I live in the heart of pot growing country and we are the only ones down our small mountain road, not growing. This legal limbo is worse than fully illegal, or fully legal. There are many of the same elements of criminal behavior with pot growing as was found in the Prohibition era.
My personal observation, and I don't care if someone smokes pot, is that the 24/7 pot smokers often have difficulty maintaining productive healthy lives. They tend to be lazy and self absorbed.
7
My son was hospitalized for EIGHT days with intractable hiccups (day and night, drugs, acupuncture, hypnosis), NOTHING worked.
Then an article in The Lancet, the British medical journal, saved him, stating that the only cure for intractable “hiccoughs” marijuana.
My son’s doctor read the article, checked him out of the hospital, and I gave my son two joints (that I had to walk approximately 50 feet to acquire).
One joint, and the hiccups disappeared.
7
Its great that you discovered a cure for a symptom that is troubling your son.
I personally use pot for GI issues.
However, just double check journal articles with a 2nd or 3rd source. Especially with treatment and controversial issues. The British of Medicine originally published the fraud research that led to the anti vaccine movement.
It almost seems like the article is trying to defend using pot. It is putting up studies that are small and not much statistical significance. I can see a similar article in 1950s defending cigarette smoking. Or in current literature about e smoking being OK. it compares smoking pot to using medicines with side affects. Common man, nobody uses medicine if they dont need to. People use pot because they want to, and hardly because they need to. It seems like a biased article, pretending to say its ok to use pot. I understand legitimate uses of pot but lets not place pot at the same level as coke or candy.
5
This article seems like a prelude to the resurrection of the war on drugs, is it sponsored by the alcohol industry who wants to sell more addictive booze? Of course there is no mention that any scientific institution connected in any way to the federal government can not undertake any research into marijuana since it is classified as an illegal drug.
This article made me smile. Written like a teenager trying to prove that pot is good. Just rename the article, it had nothing to do with cons.
5
Perhaps the most troubling side-effect is really for our corrupted politicians. The legalization of marijuana will result in less campaign funding from the private prison industry as prisons start to empty.
6
Retired MD here.
What is the purity of the marijuana? Strength?
Some pot has nasty additives, e.g. Methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, etc. The buyer cannot be assured of what they are consuming.
Let us have properly conducted pharmacologic evaluation, before the product is sold, presuming legality.
Think of the 1906 Pure Food &Drug act.
5
Visit a dispensary in CO, CA, NM, etc. and there is no concern about adulteration.
You must be thinking about illegal marijuana. Here is Denver when you buy legal marijuana you know exactly what you are getting because the information is all listed on the package in which it comes.
1
"Some pot has nasty additives, e.g. Methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, etc. The buyer cannot be assured of what they are consuming."
Most people who don't live in a state where it's legal buy it from friends, not on the street. If what you were saying were true, I'm sure there would be some evidence of people being harmed by inadvertently consuming those drugs. I've never heard of it and it is counter-intuitive. Nobody is going to spike marijuana with a relatively expensive drug such as cocaine, nor would any of those drugs adhere and not be noticeable.
Another entry: Libido - indulging in cannabis will cause a surge of libido with side effects of excessive vinyl listening sessions, snacking on whatever healthy tidbits that can be found, herbal tea pleasures - a touch of honey? ok, or maybe a cool g&t instead; and soon leaving off of all external garments to stretch out and reconnect with the one you love. Done with well planned absolution of any need to be away from home, full privacy, and cell phones silenced. Pure therapy.
4
Are teenagers who smoke marijuana more likely to try heroin or cocaine later in life?
Only if they tend to consume coffee and twinkies.
1
Dear Sir: If you really want a discussion about marijuana, you have to give the same amount of column space to edibles as you do to smoking. Your article is exclusively about smoking and yes, it’s been determined that smoking is bad for your health. This article is too one sided to be valuable.
3
Nicotine and ethyl alcohol, both of which are known to cause cancer and cause extreme harm to the body, are legal, while cannabis which is relatively harmless has been used to incarcerate hundreds of thousands of Americans, destroy our civil liberties and grow the law enforcement bureaucracy to the level of police states.
Alcohol is involved in over half the cases of assault, domestic violence and criminal cases. It dampens the judgment of the frontal lobe, makes people stupid and prone to vomiting and incontinence. Frat boys ply girls with it to make them easier to rape and assault. Drunk drivers cause 15,000 traffic deaths a year and millions of disabling injuries, but consumption of this dangerous drug is normalized.
Fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effect destroy the brains of children before they are even born, yet alcohol flows freely available everywhere. Yet children born to mothers who used marijuana manage to graduate from college with honors. Some might be surprised how many doctors, lawyers, scientists and other professionals have used marijuana since college, with no negative effects on functioning, health or career.
Paul McCartney, Maya Angelou, Willie Nelson, Ted Turner, Bill Gates, John Kerrey, Jon Stewart, Carl Sagan, Rick Steves, Margaret Mead, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Dumas, Shakespeare ---- all used marijuana.
8
It's unclear if nicotine causes cancer - tar in cigarettes is what has been shown to be responsible for cancer. As far as I know, there have been no reliable studies in humans of the effects of pure nicotine (i.e., gum). Nicotine by itself does have some nondesirable properties but IMO no more than caffeine.
Alcohol is a terrible drug.
All of these, including caffeine, can be addictive and in some cases, the addiction can be bad enough to affect a healthy life.
This list of users would be great for one of those shows that puts actors playing famous historical personages from different eras around a table for conversation: This week on "Don't Bogart That Joint": William Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, Margaret Mead, and Carl Sagan get ripped and discuss a billion topics!
Give us a similar article on alcohol, please.
2
Wait a minute? You post a headline about risks, start off with cancer in big bold letters...and then tell us actually, there doesn't appear to be any risk at all?
This headline should say "studies show little evidence for major risks of marijuana use".
Come on NYTIMES
7
my god, the new drug warriors are back, fighting a rearguard position so they can seem relevant. get over weed, let folks smoke it, and stay out of their lives. hypocrites.
5
A lot of this article boils down to the fact that there is very little research with significant sample sizes on many of the potential effects of marijuana. Saying there is "limited evidence" that pot smoking causes something is no different than saying there is "limited evidence" that it doesn't, if there's simply little evidence one way or the other. The stampede to legalize a psychogenic drug, especially one that in its most common (smoked) form can be ingested by nonconsenting bystanders whose medical status may be different from the smoker's, will come back to bite us.
5
I am neither for or against marijuana legalization. I am concerned however that regardless of your position US blood donors who consume or are exposed to marijuana will inadvertently allow marijuana to enter the US blood supply (red blood cells, platelets, and plasma). The downstream consequences of intravenous marijuana exposure during a transfusion are not fully understood.
2
Will people please stop dreaming up new excuses to waste taxpayer money fighting pot smoking? As for marijuana's risks, I've been hearing about them ad nauseum since I was in high school, a few decades ago, and so has everyone else. It's hardly a new topic.
5
I recommend reading the brief summary/conclusion section (pp. 13-21) of the comprehensive report that Dr. Carroll cites as a main source in his second paragraph. Don’t be put off by the 487-page length and the $70.20 hard-copy price. A pdf can be downloaded absolutely free at https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24625/the-health-effects-of-cannabis-and-can... . Samples:
“There is conclusive or substantial evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective…for the treatment of chronic pain in adult [and] as antiemetics in the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting [and] for improving patient-reported multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms…”
“There is no or insufficient evidence to support or refute the conclusion that cannabis or cannabinoids are an effective treatment for…achieving abstinence in the use of addictive substances…”
“There is moderate evidence of no statistical association between cannabis use and…incidence of lung cancer (cannabis smoking)…incidence of head and neck cancers…”
“There is substantial evidence of a statistical association between cannabis smoking and…worse respiratory symptoms and more frequent chronic bronchitis episodes (long-term cannabis smoking).”
“There is substantial evidence of a statistical association between cannabis use and…increased risk of motor vehicle crashes.”
3
It didn't make the list, but clearly the most significant potential harm is hyperventilation!
Cancer is listed as a risk but the evidence provided shows no link to cannabis. Same with heart disease.
Yes, it's time for a new discussion of marijuana. However, 'Risks' should be deleted from the title of this article. Until cannabis is rescheduled at the federal level, the findings of health experts are totally incomplete.
3
I am a non-smoker that lives in Hawaii where marijuana is more common than lava. I’ve come to accept that prohibition will never work, has never worked. So the best we can do is teach people what the risks are.
5
Although I have no interest in smoking pot, if I did, thinking of the foggy gazes and words of the chronic smokers I know would certainly drive me to demand one of the more compelling reasons - which do exist.
If someone can prove that pot is more dangerous than beer than I think it should be illegal. But as long as beer and alcohol are legal, pot should be also.
Prohibition should have taught us that trying to change the way that people act and feel are expensive and stupid. It doesn't work and it wastes tax payer money. Imagine if we made pot legal and took the amount of money that the DEA spends trying to stop people from selling pot and getting high and we put the money into education or fixing our infrastructure. How revolutionary...
14
My oft-repeated plea ... research, research, research.
And again, thank you for bringing these questions to your readers, but please use cannabis in place of marijuana.
1
I believe this article really minimizes the risks of marijuana use in general, and contact exposure in particular. My personal experience is that a contact high can be very dangerous. On April 20, 2015, I went to the hardware store before heading to Kaiser for a depression group. While I was in the hardware store, the environment on the street had changed completely. I exited the store into a cloud of smoke - the hardware store was on Haight Street. I had to walk 2 1/2 block to get the bus, which was now detouring around the area. The bus ride to Kaiser was about 20 minutes, but before I got there, I started feeling anxious and nauseous. Everyone had a good laugh at my lack of awareness of 4/20 being a major event in San Francisco and said not to worry, I would be fine the next day. The next morning I woke up feeling paranoid. The day after that I was suicidal, hardly a benign experience.
The other issue with this article and, for that matter, the studies themselves, is they do not identify the type of marijuana used. As my psychiatrist explained to me, pot today is not the generic stuff we smoked in high school, but has been cultivated to produce different effects. You can now customize your high. I will never know what was in that toxic cloud, and until large studies exist which clearly identify the strain of marijuana and the method of administration, I think all pot and pot products should carry a warning that the health effects have not been studied enough.
4
As a 60-year old man who used marijuana freely during my younger years, it is fully my intent to use again as I get older and begin to experience more of the associated ailments of aging. My experience is that there are few other medications that can provide relief from general aches and pains, and sometimes severe aches and pains, than THC. And I much prefer a toke (or a brownie or carmel) to a drink (with the possible exception of a glass of red).
7
What about the throwing up syndrome (don't remember the name) associated with heavy use? Why is that missing from here?
2
My take, you should use when you are pregnant or driving which not worse than alcohol consumption which is legal. The other probable effect is from the smoke, this can be easily solved by offering the product in pills, candies, capsules, liquid,or vapor and many other delivery systems.
This article seriously downplays potential risks of using marijuana during pregnancy. In addition to growth restriction and preterm birth there is also evidence that it causes some long term cognitive changes affecting memory and academic performance. Infants exposed in uterus can also go through withdrawal after they are born. Marijuana passes into breastmilk so it isn’t recommended that’s these women nurse their babies. And there is some question as to whether marijuana increases risk off stillbirth or neural tube defects. More studies are needed but this data supports not consuming any marijuana in pregnancy.
7
can't a study be done on people who have been smoking pot for 40 years. Two obvious examples are Sir Paul McCartney and the American singer Willie Nelson, two famous pot smokers who have been indulging for decades, both men are now in their 70s and not only are totally healthy but can still get up on stage and do 2 hour concerts. if you ask me, there is more proof that Pot may be healthy, then there is evidence that it is harmful. And there is no doubt at all, that substituting pot for cigarettes is ten times healthier, substituting pot for Alcohol is ten times healthier. Why pot is illegal, and has been illegal for all this time, was even kept from cancer patients even though it eased nausea from chemo, all of that is the true crime .
7
We can't conflate these two examples with causation, though. While I share your fondness for the benefits of THC, my guess is that the artists you mention happen to
be gifted in areas that are the reasons why they're still so active.
It sounds like you have researched this subject thoroughly, and your results have undergone intensive peer review.
Unfortunately it also sounds like your results might have been slightly influenced by the amount of marijuana you and your peers used during your "research".
4
It is long past time to take marijuana off the DEA’s Schedule 1 drug list. This will allow more research into the drug’s possible harmful effects and may well provide insights into some potential benefits.
12
This is the crux of it - lies flourish in darkness and the inability to do comprehensive tests on the effects of marijuana has led to weak and anecdotal evidence for the negative cognitive effects of marijuana.
5
Exactly right.
I've practiced Chinese medicine for 33 years and my experience is that chronic frequent pot smoking for years compromises liver function. Here is part I of an article much of which is true in my clinical experience. I wholly support the legalization of pot for many reasons, but it's daily use simply isn't healthy.
http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=33026
5
We already know smoking is bad for you.
I'm not seeing much of a downside to consuming edible cannabis, however. It seems to me like it would make more sense to disambiguate the risks of smoking from the risks of cannabis, as they are not necessarily the same thing.
5
The downside to edibles is that, unlike smoking, they are processed by the liver. Similiar to alcohol, overuse could lead to liver damage. The science is not in yet. Just be careful and don’t assume the risks aren’t present.
4
Pot, alcohol, opium, heroine, meth, coke, abused prescription drugs all represent escape from reality not to mention that they are health hazard as well expensive. The human destruction is egregious. Understanding the human waste caused by the use of these mind bending anodynes is to look at human weakness for avoiding the slings and arrows of our existence. Reality is more satisfying.
3
Actually, smoking pot is a good way to break through the conditioning, programming, defense mechanisms, and beliefs that shield us from reality, and force yourself to actually confront reality. The idea that people who dont use drugs are somehow automatically living "in reality" flies in the face of 150 years of psychology and psychiatry.
Dont knock it til you try it.
3
Lumping cannabis in with the others is absurd. You can't die from a pot overdose. And while there may be more or less safer ways to enjoy it, to suggest it has the lethal ramifications of meth or coke is as insane as claiming it is some sort of gateway drug. In addition, humans have been lent to altering their reality from the dawn of time. Indians, Incas, and other populations have all used some sort of medicine to add either relief or meaning to their lives. For many many people, Reality is not "more satisfying". That is also an absurd conclusion.
2
It's an absolute sin that the Federal government made it so hard for so long to do desparately needed research on the health effects of pot.
11
The article is not well written and most of the studies cited are not statistically reliable. Further, there is no mention of edible Cannabis. There could easily be more people eating Cannabis in cookies, candy, chocolate bars or drinking it in soda pop like drinks actually smoking or vaping it. Yes, more studies are needed but let's keep in mind this is just a plant.
9
You seemed to have missed this: "The medical literature focuses on the potential harms involving smoked cannabis, but we know little to nothing about edibles."
It's wrong to say that there was no mention of edibles.
2
Studies on 9 people, 12 people or even 100 people are not definitive. Until the US government releases marijuana to be fully studied in adequate clinical trials, I will continue to believe that its benefits outweigh the risk. Articles like this do a disservice to thousands of patients who have found marijuana, in various forms, to be a life saver.
11
What's missing from this collection is that these are generally very small studies, conducted when marajuana was much more expensive and consumed in much smaller quantities. Their relevance today is largely in informing larger scale studies, not as answers themselves.
5
What if I'm 16? The author is a pediatrician. What is he saying or not saying about health effects of pot on teens?
2
No one knows the health effect on children because the Federal Government (DEA) refuse to allow reputable scientific studies.
Marijuana should not be used by minors, see some European studies. Until around age 25 your brain is still developing and marijuana can interfere with that.
How about a real discussion of the impact of the legal and very destructive drug alcohol!? Gimme a break cannabis is to alcohol as flowers are to ak-47's.
6
According to the CDC website of facts on alcohol, excessive alcohol use led to approx. 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of of potential like lost in the U.S. in 2010. The economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption in 2010 were estimated at 249 BILLION dollars.
Cannabis is not the problem here.
11
What about the stench? I happen to have a fairly acute sense of smell and find it extremely overwhelming on the streets.
I’m hypersensitive to most drugs and gave up smoking in the 1960s after a crazy experience with pot. Was having rushes for 24 hours—while trying to do my job in a hospital.
With age, I’ve learned to get high on life itself, so I consider myself very lucky!!
5
How could inhalation of particulate smoke be anything but bad? Nothing "natural" about it.
9
Just jumping in real quickly to say that almost ALL of these downsides are downsides of inhaling burning leaves.
Which means that if you vaporize your cannabis most of these problems go away.
And, by the way, there are MANY ways to vaporize your cannabis.
3
I’d advise against vape pens using prepacked oils. Lots of additives that still haven’t been studied yet. Best to vape using actual flower in a device like a Pax.
3
As a proud Pax user, I can't agree more.
I'm with Dr. Sanjay Gupta on this. Cannabis is valuable to many people suffering from a host of conditions -- from PTSD to forms of epilepsy. Studies even suggest it is a good way to wean addicts off of opioids.
Further, I believe it is much less dangerous than alcohol. I've never seen someone eat a pot brownie and start a bar fight.
6
Sanjay Gupta is a neurosurgeon so it is unlikely he has had a day of education on PTSD or chronic pain since he left medical school. Just because he plays an expert on TV doesn't mean he is one.
Paranoia. What about people who, like my former self, get so paranoid that the intoxicated state from smoking marijuana is one of fear and terror. Really, really terrible. Why doesn't this article mention this phenomenon? Insofar as my usage goes, I am talking about "60s pot." Milder. Today's pot? Many of my fellow pot -induced paranoiacs would land in an e.r., according to my friends who still smoke. The rule seems to be: one "hit" good and stoned, two "hits" wrecked, too high. Why no mention, in general, of those who are badly effected by marijuana and the huge potency increase in the modern version of pot?
6
Kerryman -- I've suffered from the paranoia, too, though not in quite some time. Despite cannabis being very potent today, the problem with a panic response from cannabis use stems from ingesting too much; its called an "overdose." In other words, it's not the fault of the cannabis; it's caused by the fault of the user.
I'm using the word overdose in a very limited sense. One can't die from a cannabis overdose; but one suffering from such an overdose will feel as though they're dying. They won't, though; the one who has overdosed will eventually fall asleep. The way to avoid an overdose is to micro-dose cannabis. Use very little.
If one has an overdose there's two quick, practical ways to reverse it: Grind some peppercorns and deeply inhale the smell--five times or more. (Don't inhale the pepper itself.) Do that again at least once. Or, smoke or vape a very high CBD strain such as AC/DC or Charlotte's Web. Both of these remedies will decrease the feelings of panic in the user.
8
Legalized cannabis does not mean the government will enforce a daily toke for all citizens. If it makes you paranoid, don't use it. But your personal sensitivities should not impede my rights to use a medicinal herb.
12
Yes I tried a cookie made with marijuana oil. I felt fine for about one hour but then experienced feelings of paranoia and vertigo for the next hour or so. I agree -- be careful; you wouldn't want to be driving or doing anything that requires concentration. Best to try 1/4 of a cookie or a very small amount if you are so inclined. However, I don't think I'll try it again. It is certainly not the pot that was around in the 60's.
1
If enough studies are done on any substance, risks will be found. As someone who has used marijuana off and on for over 40 years, I take exception to this article. One size does not fit all.
4
You are correct. If studied, Rice Krispie square treats are equally hazardous.
4
Marijuana is a complicated herb, do a lot of reading.
One thing I'm sure of, from personal and observational experience, it's FAR less bad than the casually accepted alcohol. But so what.
My advice -- short of valid medical use, for which there are several very well documented applications -- is to keep recreational use to a minimum (definitely not every day) and use an ingestion method (tincture or edibles) that keeps it out of your lungs; even vaping has an impact.
1
No mention of any possible connection to dementia.
3
Right because no longitudinal study has been conducted nor found a link between the two. Why raise a non issue?
Marijuana smoke is listed under CA's Prop. 65 as a carcinogen. The notes on the vote by the relevant panel noted that the smoke contains the same carcinogens addressed in other listings, as one would expect of the combustion of any vegetative matter. It is a risk, although probably modest. So, if you go into a dispensary or shop in CA you will see a Prop. 65 warning posted because of the carcinogen designation. Again, the listing is based on the chemical nature of the smoke. The purpose of Prop. 65 is to give notice of potential risks. So, do not smoke, eat, if you choose to ingest. It will reduce some of the risk.
3
Dr. Carroll's piece is remarkable for its grasping-at-straws inability to find anything much in the way of harm (everyone knows not to get smoked up and drive).
Conspicuously absent from the discussion is any mention of the considerable body of evidence that cannabinoids have ANTICANCER effects in a number of animal models, inhibiting tumor growth, metastasis, etc. - see this review - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4791144/
Also missing - a little perspective on relative risk, i.e. some numbers for health effects of alcohol alongside the stats cited herein for marijuana.
Please, more of the big picture next time.
10
How many people get killed on the road by pot smokers? To what extent does the the use of pot lead to the taking of other drugs? Does America really need a big increase in pot smoking in the era of the opioid crisis? What is the college dropout rate among pot smokers? There are plenty of questions that still need answering.
35
You really should ask what is the advanced degree ratio in cannabis users compared to the general population.
19
Who’s out driving after using? Aren’t most people in the kitchen staring into the refrigerator?
11
I have a Ph.D. in Microbiology and work as a high-level scientist in a biotech company making cancer drugs. I've been smoking marijuana almost daily for over 20 years. If you're smart about smoking, smoke in moderation and are responsible (the same considerations that should be applied to drinking alcohol) there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to make the choice to do so.
Abuse of any substance is bad and can lead to negative consequences. Any discussion correlating marijuana use with lower intelligence or less productivity is promoting a false idea, completely lacking in evidence.
Perhaps you should take a closer look at the personality traits and inherent motivation levels of individuals before blaming marijuana for their lack of success.
4
This is a softball article with the purpose of adding more people onto the pot is o.k. parade that is sweeping our nation. Pot is not o.k. Pot is a drug that addles the brain in time, causes psychotic episodes in many (me, for one) and loosens the barriers to deeper drug experimentation. Broad legalization of marijuana use is not the answer or an answer to what ails us. It heaps other problems on top of what we have.
49
Just because you can't handle it doesn't mean that others can not. I have a strong intolerance to alcohol and therefore choose not to drink. Does this mean everyone else must not drink?
41
I think the question you need to be answering are "how does this compare to alcohol and tobacco use"? Neither of those are healthy habits, yet it seems to me that marijuana is much healthier than drinking or smoking cigarettes.
15
My brother died from alcohol at age 33. Alcohol has far worse effects than marijuana. Would you support bringing back Prohibition?
15
I thought it was funny that John Boehner is now "for" cannabis. After having been a staunch "against".
"Boehner joined the board of tobacco company Reynolds American on September 15, 2016.
In 2018, John Boehner announced his joining the board of Acreage Holdings, a cannabis corporation, to "promote the use of medical marijuana" and to advocate for federal decriminalization of it, a shift in his previously adamant opposition to cannabis legalization."
It appears that Big Tobacco is also now "for". And all in.
6
Strange! I have read numerous articles in this journal celebrating the consumption of alcoholic drinks: the wonders of single malt whiskies, the glories of vintage wines and so forth, with nary a word on the dangers of alcohol addiction or brain or liver damage consuming these products causes.
21
Or the carnage on our roads, or the domestic violence or the 66,000 annual deaths or....
5
Red -- Excellent point! The bias for alcohol is so acute in our culture it can be funny--in a macabre "Oh my God!" pound the table, "What the ....!" kind of way. But cannabis users, even while medicated, can't seem to laugh about it. Their chosen form of medication is vilified in the oddest of ways, while--as you say--alcohol is in every home, in every grocery store, advertised on every TV in the nation. Things are changing. Someday alcohol will be seen from within the culture for what it is: A slow death from self-poisoning. There should be a skull and cross-bones on every bottle.
7
If first hand smoke causes so little harm why should we worry about second hand smoke as a medical issue?
“Reasonably decide” no. This administration wants to take critcal thinking out of the schools.
1
I can't be the only person who thinks that something about this articlegives it a Jekyll/Hyde character, by which I mean that there seems to be FEAR sown ... while the concluding paragraph is what most of us want to hear when we visit a doctor.
While the author (PROPERLY) says that - especially with a substance free of any "smoking guns" - consumers should weigh the pros & cons and decide how much or none at all ... he certainly doesn't (well, the data doesn't) provide all that much help.
Of course, one recognizes that the old "liberty vs. ?" issue is front and center. My takeaway was that 20-30% increase in the likelihood of a serious motor accident is/was "the scariest" element.
And while the author appears not to be the variety of scientist who gives much thought or space to "ethics," I was brought up to think that "life" was one of the few things that was ill-suited to statistical analysis.
Were my kid or yours a fatality in an accident where a pot-impaired driver was at fault, ...
And - I think this IS a failing of the author and his article - it doesn't really cut it to say that texting, say, looks like it's responsible for even more fatalities.
It's easier to say that in NYC, this is likely to be less of a problem than in Colorado, but NJ looks like it may put this to the test REAL SOON. I hate to play Cassandra, but legalization there is going to put thousands of NJ vehicles on NYC roads, and 1-5% of NJ-drivers-driving-buzzed sure will have some "downside."
11
anyone who will drive on pot already has/is
5
I'm wondering if this is a hit-job by the NY Times based on information that's older (and biased) than most cannabis users nowadays.
Did big pharma somehow play a role in this getting published? The reason I ask is because NO deaths have been linked to overdosing on THC; this, of course, is the reverse when it comes to alcohol and tobacco use, as well as harder drugs.
Who exactly authorized this article and has this person even smoked pot before? This article reads less like a reasonably written presentation of pros and cons and more like "Reefer Madness" for the 2000s.
7
The recent wave of cannabis legalisation across the United States and the mainstream media's embrace of an irrational topic such as UFO cover-ups point to a greater agenda on the part of policy makers in America. It is all about creating a climate of distraction and forgetfulness -- the better to pacify an American population with tremendous potential for upheaval and violence in the face of plummeting standards of living dating back decades. Just join MUFON and light up a blunt, don't worry about climate change, the evaporation of jobs, perennial terrorist threats, etc.
1
Remember the 1990s, when marketing led everyone to believe that opioids were safe, that no one would be come an addict, that pain was the Fifth vital Sign to be treated liberally with opioids? Here we are with marijuana. Marijuana has potential benefit for some medical conditions, but by and large is a means to get high and escape life's difficulties. Just like opioids. So, based on hearsay, aggressive marketing & little science, the genie is being unleashed from the bottle...again. What could go wrong?
5
Then can we discuss the risks of alcohol? Never see much about the enormous downsides to alcohol, do we.
7
Work is the curse of the drinking class. Or so said Oscar Wilde-- valid back in the day when there was abundant work for all to go around.
1
Why does cannabis need to have medicinal properties? We allow alcohol to exist on the market as purely an intoxicant. Why can't cannabis have the same leeway?
6
For decades we have been greatly oversold on the risks of Marijuana.
The earliest campaigns against it were overtly racist (senators citing Mexicans high on pot raping white women, etc). False - people of all creeds and colors smoke it at equal rates, and those high on pot tend to be less violent, as opposed to alcohol (legal) which often makes people more violent.
Then we were told it was a gateway drug to harder substances. False - the correlation runs the other way (those who use hard drugs are more likely to have started with Marijuana - no surprise there - but the vast majority of pot smokers never move on to anything harder).
We were told it was addictive. False - no more than chocolate; There is no physical dependency syndrome.
We were told it had no medical value. False - every neural cell in the body has endocannabinoid receptors. Any substance that mediates or alters neuronal functioning has SOME medical value.
Smoking ANYTHING increases your risk of Lung cancer, not because of the cognitive effects, but because you in inhaling smoke. There are a million ways to remediate this, including inhalation administration that doesn't involve combustion, or topical or oral routes of administration. Cannabis per se is not cancer-causing.
All of the opprobrium that is left is over the cognitive effects, and I'm sorry, but people who are not endangering anyone else (driving etc) should be allowed to alter their brain chemistry in ways they enjoy.
8
I'm for legalization but with caveats:
You can't smoke or vape it in public or in apartment buildings; you can drink it as a tincture.
You have your rights, but we non-users also have rights to clean air. Asthma and other ailments aren't a choice; smoking marijuana is a choice.
3
Like anything else, recreational marijuana use requires some trial and error experiences, that the flower children can tell you about. First, you don't want to overindulge. Second, today's commercial product will strongly alter cognition, so don't drive or operate machinery. Third, a good buzz will last 3-4 h, and you'll be tired afterwards, so don't get high on a daily basis or your work will suffer. Fourth, smoking produces a more cerebral effect than edibles; if it becomes too intense a cup of strong coffee or tea will bring you back to a manageable state. Fifth, correct dosage of edibles require more practice than smoking, because their effects take an hour or more to reach maximal levels. Last, all the pleasures of life become more pleasurable when stoned, and you won't have a hangover the next day. So if you have a block of free time you might want to get high in a safe, comfortable environment and indulge yourself in the things that you enjoy.
5
I have a friend who is a Cardiologist who said that studies are going on right now to test the effect of marijuana on the heart.
I have never been comfortable operating a car even with one drink in my system. Whenever i have tried weed in the past i never thought i was ok to drive.
Why not just enjoy these products and stay away from your car altogether?
Why not call uber?
3
Cannabis has a major negative effect on gumption. Attach to this whatever moral weight you want.
1
To JeffB
I fully agree. I have memories of dysfunctional heavy pot smokers from high school who completely screwed up their passage to adulthood. That's why they were called 'burnouts', those of the eternal munchies and red eyes.
Yep. It’s really hard to stay away from the cookies when high, and the fresh flowers, and laughing
1
Jeff -- Very American of you. We don't want the nation, especially our precious youth, destroying their gumption. Now do we?
As to moral weight, I'd like to thank you for giving me the right to weigh in.
Nice job scarring the oldsters who primarily make up The Times subscribers. I’m sure they can lecture their grandkids during summer break. Maybe they can have Jeff Sessions over for brunch?
This article perpetuates myths without context. Pretty sure the biggest danger from Cannabis from a health perspective are the roughly 40,000 inmates of state and federal prisons who have a current conviction involving marijuana and the other roughly 750,000 people arrested every year for marijuana offenses. Others can comment on how the ethnic make up on these stats skews disproportionately to black and brown people. Shameful.
6
No mention of Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome? This is a well-known phenomenon of severe nausea and vomiting associated with prolonged use of high-potency cannabis. People often self-treat with hot showers. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5330965/
As an ER doctor in Portland, Oregon, I've treated many cases--young people doubled over, retching and dehydrated. These patients often get admitted to the hospital when they're still vomiting after extensive treatment in the ER.
6
Two things in particular I recall from having smoked pot very often in high school...after about a month it seemed to dull my thinking...a malaise like feeling. The other was depression after coming down from a high. I got tired of feeling like this so I just stopped and all of that went away. For some to say there is no harm is just stupid. I have no problem for its use for medical issues.
64
liz, the plural of anecdote is not data. If you want some more anecdotal evidence. I know that some of the greatest mathematicians of the 29th century used pot on a regular basis. Didn't seem to dull their thinking.
9
Of course, I meant 20th century.
I was taught in school that brain cells are not easily replaced.
It took me a while to completely accept this, but when I did, I abandoned all use of stimulants except for chocolate milk and hot pastrami sandwiches on rye, and I have never regretted it.
2
Chocolate milk leads to diabetes and pastrami sandwiches can cause heart disease. Back to school for you.
4
A. S.= the consumption of red meat and dairy are
bad for your health. Good job eliminating stimulants, now you can focus on replacing toxic dairy and meat with plants!
My experience in smoking pot as a college student 30 years ago lead me to the following conclusions. Most of us who smoked pot in our college days suffered no ill effects and moved on with our lives. However, a small minority became addicted and abused the drug and their lives came spiraling down with failing grades, health problems and a shattered life. Pot seems to mirror the public experiences with Alcoholism and Gambling, that though most people are able to handle them well, a minority do end up getting addicted and destroying their lives.
3
And let's not forget the psychological effects. I'm not talking about the high, which is why people smoke, but the paranoia that often sets in afterwards as the elevated pleasure decays.
My personal theory, not backed by any serious scientific research, is that this paranoid feeling is responsible for much of the killing terrorizing cities. When people are paranoid, they imagine threats and when people are threatened they lash out in what they think is defense.
There's a real correlation between the reduction of policing of marijuana and the growth of violence in cities. I'm not claiming there's enough evidence to be certain. But if I were to bet...
3
I'd take that bet.
2
Where do you get your data? Hunches based in racism? Did you know crime is significantly down? Have you read anything to back up your hunch? A post like this one sows seeds of fear and distrust based on nothing.
A couple of points here...
First, your anecdotal experience is not data. Pro or con, it's just your experience. As such, it has tremendous weight in your decision making, but of little value otherwise.
Next, the problem with a meta analysis is the lumping together of data from sources of variable quality. While useful, some variables are poorly or not controlled at all.
Third, there is the problem with the direction of the causality arrow. Does pot smoking cause mental problems or do people with mental problems try to self medicate with pot (or alcohol)?
Finally, controlling MJ at the same level as heroin is patently silly. There is no rational reason to do so. The comparison with alcohol is apt. Legalization has not led to a swarm of stoned people aimlessly wandering the street, pan handling to get their next dime bag. It has led to a large intake of cash in the form of taxes. It has removed the "smell of MJ" as an excuse for tossing someone's car in a search.
Bottom line MJ is a drug of choice for many and an alternative to alcohol for most. he problems are similar but the benefits might actually land on the side of MJ.
3
Marijuana seems more and more like a useful tool than a forbidden drug. It would seem to be a lot more useful to society than an AK-47 yet....
88
Too much emphasis on smoking marijuana. You don’t have to smoke it to use it, and if you don’t smoke it there are no concerns about second-hand smoke.
3
Take it off Schedule 1 and study it. Schedule 1 means it has absolutely no medical value. Based on facts, this is absurd. Not only are there possible medical benefits over a very wide range of medical conditions, but there are many, many economic benefits. Less law enforcement efforts on arrests, legal system and costs of incarceration. Tons of jobs growing, refining and studying it and the pharmceuticals. Pot is everywhere and not going away. Ignorance is not productive. Pretending we are handling it now is ridiculous.
6
Wow. This appears more like propaganda than information. It appears no institution, not even the NYT, is free from influence and bias.
These "harms" are either greatly exaggerated or outright false.
Marijuana is not alcohol. The preponderance of the research shows marijuana consumption is NOT a significant cause of auto accidents. In 2015, the Drug and Alcohol Crash Risk report, produced by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, found that while drunken driving dramatically increased the risk of getting into an accident, there was no evidence that using marijuana heightened that risk.
In fact, after adjusting for age, gender, race and alcohol use, the report found that drivers who had recently consumed marijuana were no more likely to crash than drivers who were not under the influence of any alcohol or drugs.
The opponents to legalization are pushing this false idea hard. It's a non-issue that can gum up the works of legalization.
The DEA's own administrative law judge, Francis Young, concluded after an exhaustive review of the evidence.
"Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man."
5
... did you read the article? In reviewing each harm, it basically says that almost none bear up under study. The only ones that do are:
1) impaired driving, (though I appreciate your point that one study suggests no effect, but a systematic review MIGHT be able to spot an effect if the underlying data is good)
2) short-term passing impacts on memory & attention,
3) pregnancy effects (though the causality might not be clear here), and
4) mental health - where there are substantial studies that at least call into question whether it might be not the greatest idea for people under 25 to consume, while the brain is developing. (By the way, I agree it's worth pointing out that alcohol and tobacco are both worse!)
In short - I believe the article essentially agrees with you? Though it doesn't say that as clearly as it could.
2
These studies always focus on smoking pot but never seem to discuss vaporizing or edibles. The health consequences are probably very different.
5
Nothing much new here, and what is reported is fairly benign - but with extreme caution about exposing children, and cautions against heavy, constant use of cannabis products with THC.
I lean towards thinking that people who are in emotional turmoil, and those who have an innate potential for developing certain severe "mental" disorders ( in actuality, every bit as physical as measles) will tend to overuse drugs that relieve their p anxiety or pain, and this then leads to more rather than fewer problems.
But the substance must be recategorized federally to allow for full research and proper use.And - from what I have also heard - to bring prices to a reasonable level as well.
4
"It's Time for a New Discussion of Marijuana's SAFETY"
That should have been the deadline. To wit:
"A 2005 systematic review in the International Journal of Cancer pooled the results of six case-control studies. No association was found between smoking marijuana and lung cancer. Another 2015 systematic review pooled nine case-control studies and could find no link to head and neck cancers."
"Another major risk with cigarettes, heart disease, isn’t clearly seen with pot smoking. "
And, though not mentioned in the article, it should be noted that Pot is not addictive, and has not lethal overdose potential.
30
Actually what’s needed is for the government to fund (or allow) proper studies on the effects of all forms of cannabis, good and bad. We haven’t had a real, comprehensive study of this by the CDC or other qualified labs because of the illegal status of the drug in the federal level. Very few labs are allowed to work with it legally.
7
For your information, the government did fund studies on it. I know because when I was in medical school, one of my professors told us about how in the 1970s, he did a federal government sponsored study on marijuana for cancer patients. It supplied the joints to him. He remembered that the major difficulty of the study was that he had to keep track of all the joints handed out and that they were supplied in a large can with several hundred in it and he and his staff had to count them without removing them.
He did find it useful for nausea and vomiting in these patients but nothing else like pain.
3 years ago I started to use marijuana to treat chronic gastrointestinal issues. It worked like magic.
Constant use over this period of time has earned me a raging physical addiction, similar to smoking (a habit I kicked a decade ago). It's inflamed mental health issues that weren't prominent before and I've recently been diagnosed bipolar. There's not a good causal relationship established but there is evidence as the author points out that marijuana can potentially provoke or cause mood disorders.
I also have what an earlier Times article describes as "CHS." I'd like to thank the paper for the tip about showers!
I'm in a prison and I've been told my entire life that marijuana doesn't come with these risks/problems. Thank you for attempting to set the record straight.
I do not believe in prohibiting marijuana use but we should walk into this with eyes open.
4
In the late '60's as a high school student, my first drug was LSD. It was months later that I smoked pot for the first time. I liked it, which I continued to do until graduation. Stopped for the first 6 months of military service. Became part of a group of pot smokers. Performed assigned duties with no problem. At discharge after 5 years, moved on. Settled in Fl, over the next 4 decades smoked pot on and off. Didn't for many years due to job having random testing. For the last 18 years I have been medically retired.Dealing with many pain management protocols when I am able to get pot, it is the best treatment for me. But until it is better managed I will not seek it as treatment. As for driving, for me compared to drinking I cannot drive after drinking, but after smoking it has not caused me to drive "badly". Smoked a little while pregnant, helped me eat. Did not do it after I stopped vomiting. Our child was not affected in any way. Have not eaten pot infused items since high school but would like to try. I did okay in school. C student. My initial reasoning for smoking was to defuse the horrible childhood I had. Beyond that it was social as in how people drink socially. There will always be those that will not accept there is a place for pot. They will keep doing all they can to keep it demonized. Too bad.
7
My recollection of the 1975 book "Marijuana: Deceptive Weed" is that it cites numerous studies about the effects of cannabis, including studies on impairment of driving comparing alcohol and cannabis intoxication. Both groups of subjects showed impairment, but of different kinds (alcohol speeding, risk-taking, cannabis, driving too slow, stopping too early at stop lights). Interestingly, before engaging with driving simulators, the cannabis group were observed to declare that they were too high to drive and asked to be allowed to delay their driving test.
1
I am an idiot. Recreational drugs make me act like more of an idiot. Who can afford to act like more of an idiot?
11
LOL. Sometimes, it's not a bad thing, but your point is well taken. If it doesn't work for you, then by all means, abstain. I limit my drinking for a similar reason.
3
Apparently you are among the population that should not indulge in any "recreational drugs". Alcohol among the drugs that make some "idiots". At least you recognize it and refrain from it.
3
Ben -- You're funny. Thank you.
And, of course, human idiocy is not dependent on drugs -- of any kind. Idiocy seems to be a large and unvariable aspect of the human condition. Cannabis, if used judiciously, can make that condition more self evident.
Let's all have a good laugh at ourselves. If we do we'll all be just a little bit less the idiot we were before.
2
Any evidence that THC improves urinary function in men with benign prostate enlargement?
1
This would be great for men that need it. Hope there are studies to prove it so.
I'm not sure a "new discussion" is rated until cannabis is legalized at the federal level. In spite of no substantive medical or scientific evidence, cannabis is still appallingly labeled as a Schedule One drug with no medical value and an apparent threat to human health on the order of heroin, a crude distraction from truthseeking.
A measured and thoughtful conversation is difficult when it's already dominated by legal bullies who continue to sustain this ridiculous Schedule One status. Far too many otherwise credible voices stumble over this stupidity and therefore will be ignored by the over 2/3 of the public who have figured out their government is more in love with lying about cannabis than in having a "new discussion."
It's also important to acknowledge that, while scientific study of cannabis is still running a deficit, its widespread use and general lack of dramatic ill effects that are so apparent with drugs that are in fact dangerous enough to be Schedule One substances (alcohol and tobacco) but which remain legal suggest there is far more smoke than fire when it comes to significant health risks.
One thing is certain. Continuing Schedule One status works AGAINST creating better knowledge about cannabis.
We need to face the fact that cannabis is here to stay, in large part b/c people find it a healthier substitute. The pretense that some health effect will be found to justify its continued Schedule One status at this late date is a ludicrous stalling tactic.
16
I wasn't sure where I came down on legalized marijuana until my teenage son was hospitalized for over a week for a severe manic episode induced by marijuana use. This one not on your list of dangers! It was terrifying! Good news ... it cured him of drug use!
13
There is a logical fallacy called "Post hoc ergo propter hoc". This is a conclusion that assumes that if 'A' occurred after 'B' then 'B' must have caused 'A.
EX: My son had a manic episode after smoking marijuana so marijuana caused it.
2
perhaps it was laced with something?
2
Obviously you son is among the population that would probably become manic due to any drug. I am suspicious of his break down being due to only marijuana. Something is missing from this. How old was he when this happened? What were the circumstances of his indulging in it? Was it his first time?
My greatest fear about the legalization of marijuana is that there will be more folks on the roads driving while high. Obviously, it impairs a person's ability to pay attention to all that a driver needs to pay attention to. Also, the article says that memory is impaired for 24 hours after smoking pot. Well, if a student smokes pot every day (every 24 hours) then his/her memory would be impaired most of the time. Would this cause learning problems? There definitely are risks to marijuana use.
On the other hand, maybe some people who are addicted to opioids will be able to wean themselves on to less-destructive pot instead. Also, it makes no sense to put people in prison for using pot - they are unlikely to harm anyone except themselves.
5
My dad was completely disabled as a result of shingles-related neuropathy. The pain was continuous and excruciating. He was in bed for over a month, and even fairly nasty opioids didn't really put a dent in it. We were able to get him into a medical marijuana program, and as a result he's consuming fairly mild doses of marijuana extracts and is able to get up out of bed, sit in a chair, hold a real conversation, go out on walks, and pretty much has his life back. I was honestly afraid that the neuropathy was going to end his life because it was so debilitating.
So it absolutely breaks my heart to see people using vague what-ifs to justify continuing to keep it illegal. This is a matter of living in constant, debilitating agony, or not, for my father, and for many, many older folks.
Yes, of course we should study its effects, like any drug. We should prescribe it carefully, like any drug. But if you are concerned about someone under the influence of dope getting into an accident, you should really read this study done by the NIH: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2722956/
23
Ed, I'm sorry to hear about your Dad's pain, and I was not suggesting that marijuana should be kept illegal - medical marijuana is already legal in Maine and I read that it is great for treating some kinds of pain and also epilepsy. Recreational marijuana is about to come online here and I am concerned that some people are pretending it is all good and this is simply not true. People need to be cautious with its use and it needs to be studied more.
1
Legal alcohol= drunk drivers
Legal texting=many accidents, many fatal ones
Legal cannabis=? the evidence
Actually, it's time for a new discussion about cannabis laws, which do vastly greater damage to society than the plant itself. Note that all of these anti-cannabis articles cite "studies that suggest..." That is because there is ZERO scientific research which empirically proves that the active ingredients in cannabis, THC and CBD, have any negative health impact on the human body, the neurological development of adolescents, memory loss, or any of the other claims made in articles such as these. There has never been a single purely cannabis related death in the 1,000 year written history of its use in western culture. 88,000 Americans go to the stars annually from specifically alcohol related deaths. And there is a plethora of scientific data PROVING the damage that alcohol causes in the human body. That is fact. This article however, is fake news. It needs to be regulated, monetized and incorporated into our culture like whiskey and apple pie, just like it was when the founding fathers drew up the Constitution on its genetic cousin.
8
Nothing whatsoever mentioned in this article about the benefits of marijuana for those who suffer from PTSD, benefits essential for the healing of our troops who return to their families in a heightened trauma state, unable to successfully cope with the transition from a 24/7 environment of imminent threat to a less threatening but still complicated existence here at home. And our troops are not alone in suffering from PTSD--70% of Americans have experienced a traumatic event in their lives; of those, 20% will go on to develop PTSD--24.4 million at any given time. "The annual cost to society of anxiety disorders is estimated to be significantly over $42.3 billion, often due to misdiagnosis and under treatment. This includes psychiatric and non-psychiatric medical treatment costs, indirect workplace costs, mortality costs, and prescription drug costs." http://www.ptsdunited.org/ptsd-statistics-2/. This doesn't include the societal costs when sufferers choose to use alcohol to self-medicate; if it did, and a true comparison were made, there would be no question that marijuana is a much safer, healthier, and less dangerous treatment modality, whether it's medically prescribed or simply available recreationally. Women are also twice as likely to suffer from PTSD as men. In an age when the high costs of abuse of alcohol and nicotine are well documented, it's amazing to me that NYT is publishing a piece with a "gotcha" headline about marijuana's alleged "risks."
7
One major risk was missing from Dr. Carroll's list. Dr. Carroll, I don't know if you have ever treated patients with marijuana addiction, but it is a real phenomenon, affecting up to one in six who start in their teens (https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/mariju.... So you might be correct when you say that the cognitive effects are limited to the 24 hours after last use, but for an addict, that means impairment several days out of the week. My patients with marijuana addiction frequently tell me that it makes them "stupid" and unmotivated. There is also the rebound effect on people's moods when the marijuana wears off. This is a classic problem seen in virtually all addictions--what goes up must come down. Many addicts know this, but addiction has a way of making people disregard these risks when they feel that they need something to feel good. When will some expert writing for the New York Times or other major newspaper finally say what needs to be said about this very important risk and its implications for public policy? Addiction specialists have been silent for too long. It's long past time for us to wake up to what's happening and spread the word before it's too late.
17
I have known many people that smoked pot on a regular basis. None of them are addicted, none of them have withdrawn symptoms, which is a sign of addiction. Pot is HABIT FORMING, but that is not the same as addiction.
Canna Oil is works great for joint pain. That, I can attest to myself, along with many others I know of.
Most pot smokers are content to stay home on weekends and watch TV or make love. It's the boozers that go out and get drunk and have accidents that kill and maim people because they think they "can handle it", which of course they can not.
If you need a Crusade, try taking on the Pharmaceutical industry and leave us alone.
2
One in six? So that one that is diagnosed as "addicted" to pot needs studied. Is it just those that start smoking in their teens? Your patients say makes them "stupid" and unmotivated, what were they before it? Yes there is an effect when one stops smoking pot. But it is not physical~know this first hand. As with all medications/mind altering drugs there is that group~your one in six~that cannot tolerate any of it. Alcohol included. This is your vocation. You do what you do for a living. Of course you will do what you have to for your business. "Addiction specialist" have found their place. Yes some need you, but not as many as your chosen profession says.
2
Let's not confuse habit forming with addiction.
2
There's a considerable risk of losing your job and not being able to get another job and a risk of having to buy drug free urine. It's only really safe for the person who owns the company.
2
So will those in favor of marijuana legalization tell me why you are accepting an inevitable higher death rate from under-the-influence driving?
I really don't understand why people must die for your pleasure.
7
Seriously? I really don't understand why people must die for the pleasure of people who like to shoot guns. I've been smoking weed on and off for over 50 years. Never been in an accident and no tickets. Still married to the same wonderful man after 35 years, productive member of the community, mother to a well adjusted daughter who has chosen not to indulge. It's been a blessing alleviating menopausal symptoms and well as making exercise more fun. Drunks and phone users are far and away more dangerous than driving stoned.
30
so then, ban alcohol...
We've passed the point of no return on alcohol. You can't put that genie back in the bottle; it was tried in the 20's and failed. Society and the whole world just simply accept the death rate.
If alcohol had always been illegal we would be having a similar discussion.
How many people die each year from cannabis poisoning? Zero. Yet approximately 2200 Americans die each year or 6 per day from alcohol poisoning. Hmmm.....easy choice when it comes to picking my poison.
13
The most dangerous aspect of cannabis consumption is running into lazy cops looking for soft targets instead of fighting real crime. Data from the Center for Disease Control makes it absolutely clear that cannabis is far safer to consume than booze or tobacco.
It is about time for Jeff Sessions and our government to get over “Reefer Madness” and remove cannabis from the DEA drug schedule.
Cannabis is now COMPLETELY LEGAL in 9 states in the US including Vermont, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Alaska plus Washington DC!
29 US states have legalized cannabis for “medical use”. Uruguay, Peru, Colombia, and Jamaica are now completely legal, Canada will go fully legal this year and Mexico is moving toward full legalization.
Cannabis prohibition criminalizes people for selecting a product that is much safer than alcoholic beverages or tobacco products. Cannabis prohibition is a ridiculous waste of police, court resources and taxpayer funds!!
13
Billions of dollars were spent and hundreds of thousands of people suffered pointlessly because of marijuana hysteria. Legalize it and tax it.
11
The biggest harm from any drug is the question of its legality. So many lives are ruined by “drug laws”, legalize everything, tax it heavily as alcohol should be and let people make their own decisions. “Gateway drugs” are nonsense if people want to cook their brains they will, if they are rich they are just young people having a good time, if they are poor they are felons.
4
There are ways other than smoking cannabis to use it. Edibles and tinctures right off the top of my head. In states where recreational use is legal you'll have no trouble finding either.
If using edibles, please, please, follow the dose information. It's never eat the entire thing. I forget which of the columnists went to Colorado a year or so after it was legalized. She bought an edible and then ate the whole thing and wrote a piece on how horrible it was. Dosage information would have been available, and you should always ask the store employees as well.
4
I smoked dope for 28 years and developed squamous cell carcinoma on the base of my tongue that required 9 weeks of radiation.
Was given a 50-50 chance.
I don't trust studies as much as personal experience and certain truths I know to be self-evident.
Smoke and heat are not good for skin cells. And if you turn your mouth into a wood stove, bad things happen.
And now I'm dealing with Leukemia from the radiation treatments.
My advice is to not smoke marijuana except in a water pipe and to never chew the roaches.
5
Smoking, smoking, smoking. There are oils and edibles. What are the effects of those?
4
No differentiation is made for use of medical marijuana (CBD, less hallucinogenic) and recreational (THC, more hallucinogenic). It should be obvious that smoking anything is going to be more dangerous than oral ingestion. Federal regulations against marijuana of any kind need to be downgraded, Cannabis is not a Section 1 drug.
4
I wish to differ with your definition of rec vs med. I survived for 9 years on dronabinol (ONLY pure synthetic THC) while the state took its time developing a med program. THC was absolutely essential to controlling intraspinal pain and thereffects from a rare condition that is now covered for me under IL med access law.
Opioids don't really do this well at all, b/c the blood/brain barrier limits their movement into the nervous system. I estimate it cost the state about a quarter million to prove its point I shouldn't be so impatient with their footdragging by making my own provisions.
For many, pain relief is why they choose to use cannabis and THC does it best.
I couldn't get CBD at all during that 9 years. Yet it does help with pain, too, but in different ways than THC does. It's become essential to treating my condition as age takes a further toll on me.
Please don't classify patients by what works for them. Legalize is all and let the patients and doctors decide. You're potentially making the same kind of unwarranted assumptions about what works best and should be legal for often very different people that are only slightly less dangerous than those that got us into this mess.
2
As a psychologist, I have been treating someone in their mid-40's for depression and anxiety secondary to a history of child abuse and an ugly divorce. This person began using medical marijuana for chronic pain about 18 months ago. After no previous history of psychosis, they have now developed a paranoid delusion and have begun retreating from the world to escape "the syndicate following them". They are currently refusing to give consent for me to contact their family doctor and, as they are not a danger to self or others, my hands are tied. This is terrible to watch. Marijuana is not a benign substance. It is a drug that apparently has some real benefits (e.g., controlling some intractable seizures), but like any drug can have really serious consequences if not used carefully. To pretend otherwise is to swing the pendulum too far the other way.
10
The US is pretending that MJ has no benefits at all. I get that it is a strong drug, but there is so much anecdotal evidence of benefits, that it absolutely needs to be studied. As will all strong drugs, there are pluses and minuses. But study cannot happen until it is off Schedule 1.
1
The article should have mentioned that the reason there isn't more and better research is that the US government makes it virtually impossible for such research to happen in this country.
15
Ashamed to admit I’ve driven while high. The only effect is that I drive much more slowly and carefully. Not that it should be legal. But I’m guessing the drunk driving statistic is much, much higher.
6
Do Not do that. You are not helping.
1
There was recently an article that stated that the great majority of NFL players use cannabis as an alternative to Big Pharma's dangerous opioids. It is more effective and non addictive. And although banned by the NFL, the league no longer cares because they only administer the blood test during the off season.
Anecdotal evidence counts. There is no need for a double blind FDA approved study (and how could you administer placebo smokable cannabis). Other than a threat to Big Pharma, I don't see any issues.
4
Not just the NFL. The NBA also.
Along with running, cycling, snowboarding, skating etc...
2
Fine, anecdotal evidence counts. Then why require pharmaceutical companies to perform expensive studies to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of their products before they are approved by the FDA. Why not allow them to present anecdotal evidence to demonstrate these?
2
"...studies of testicular cancer found a statistically significant link between heavier pot smoking and one type of testicular cancer. "
My stepson has never been a pot smoker, or a drug user for that matter. Yet he has testicular cancer...and now smokes cannabis. But other to control nausea after his chemo treatments.
1
Lots of studies that associate cancer with cannabis are performed on laboratory animals where massive doses of cannabis are given far beyond that which an average consumer would use. U.S. government has done everything possible to try and vilify cannabis but there is not a shred of scientific peer-reviewed evidence that shows cannabis responsible for lung disease or cancer in any way shape or form under normal use.
5
I don't think marajuana should be banned but I don't really approve of it. I think people are much too confused already, so I don't like drugs that lead them to see things that aren't there. There are other drugs that have the effect of heightening your sense of reality, and I think their use should be encouraged.
5
Smoking pot allows one to see things that aren’t there?!?
2
Smoking pot allows one to see things that aren't there? Sounds like I need to find a source for better pot...
There is no doubt that cannabis, like alcohol and other drugs, is more dangerous for young people whose brains are still developing. However, there are already laws the prohibit access to tobacco, alcohol and cannabis. There is only so much society can do to protect young people. However, it is a fact that the criminal justice system destroys many people, and for what? Because the person has some pot? Incarcerating a pot smoker is a ridiculously counterproductive measure in most instances.
11
First of all, you do not have to smoke, there are other methods of use. Then compare to the risks of using alcohol and that's all I need to decide!
2
Because one thing is bad, it's ok for another potentially bad thing?
Impaired driving is probably the greatest concern right now. Police need tools to rapidly evaluate impaired people. However, ask a cop which drug is the biggest killer...and the answer is almost always alcohol. Plus, alcohol criminalization was a major disaster. Because 1919 and 1933, the number of persons who died from alcohol was much greater than it was before 1919, even though death from alcohol was the reason alcohol was prohibited.
Recreational intoxication should be a public health concern. While I recognize marijuana can provide relief for health (physical and mental) issues that might be preferable to pharmaceuticals, use of substances to become inebriated and escape reality is not generally a healthy thing. Would love to see more discussion about people who stopped using pot to improve their mental health.
2
One never “escapes” reality, but experiences it differently.
2
Have no problem escaping reality. What’s wrong with that?
1
Any smoked product probably introduces tar into the lungs. And tar contains carcinogens. However, nicotine is what causes cardiovascular disease, and cannabis does not contain nicotine.
In neurology, pot is a fairly non-controversial cause of stroke. The mechanism is vasoconstriction and perhaps cardioembolism. I've seen several cases of stroke in the young which were associated with pot use and no other risk factors.
9
Amazing, seeing as Cannabis is a vasodilator. Ever look at a stoners eyes?! C'mon. Try again.
By contrast, cannabinoid administration in animals is typically associated with vasodilation, transient bradycardia and hypotension. The administration of synthetic cannabinoids has also been shown to lower blood pressure in animals and has not been associated with cardiotoxicity in humans.
http://norml.org/news/2006/08/10/heavy-cannabis-use-not-independently-as...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-science...
https://www.marijuanadoctors.com/resources/ailment-resources/medical-mar...
3
This makes me feel world-weary.
As with any addiction, and also with people that have joined a cult, I find it much more interesting to hear why and how people succeeded in quitting.
Substance abuse and cult membership are rather boorish and sad. The arguments are repetitive.
3
"People who choose to use marijuana — now that it’s easier to do legally — will need to weigh the pros and cons for themselves.". and it is the individual's right to decide whether to use it or not, without government interference.
9
I gather it's time for a discussion of marijuana's lack of risks. Excepting of course those malnourished mothers and already diagnosed psychotics.
For years I used to smoke in the studio, come up to the house, and get the sniff test from my wife. "You've been smoking again!" she'd smirk. Then, medical issues got her to try a tincture for pain and sleep. She became a convert. She suggested it to my ninetysomething mother for her muscle pain and sleep, and my mom became a convert. My dad railed against drugs and talked about how longshoremen used to "break knees" of drug dealers on the waterfront. He tried it for his restless leg and neuropathic pain, and he's a convert.
Moral here is that people who are against cannabis need to take a factual look at people who are actually benefiting from it. And maybe try it themselves.
24
This article is amusing. So it's time now to discuss the 'risks' of cannabis? SMH! Prohibitionists like the author have unsuccessfully tried to demonize the plant at least since the 1930s. Alcohol and tobacco are associated with many documented deaths and diseases. Marijuana has caused no deaths and it's not carcinogenic like the above (legal) drugs.
Yet arrests for small amount of cannabis EXCEEDED all arrests for violent crimes in 2015* thanks to prohibitionists like the author of this article.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/us/marijuana-arrests.html?ref=todaysp...
4
What! Cannibas isn't the first drug ever discovered that not only didn't have any side-effects but also was efficacious for about just about any medical condition you can think of?
In fact, we know far more about the adverse effects of cannibas use than we do of its benefits. Apart from its benefits for controlling the nausea and vomiting experienced by cancer patients as a result of treatments, the cachexia experienced by AIDS patients, patients with multiple sclerosis, and children with a rare form of epilepsy, there is virtually no quality research supporting its use. With regard to pain, the studies that have been done are considered of a poor quality as the results were based on asking patients if they felt better rather than studying the gold standard for evaluating treatments for chronic pain: whether there was an objective finding that the treatment actually improved the person's functioning. I challenge anyone to cite a single controlled, double blind study, again how studies are supposed to be done, that demonstrate that cannibas has this effect. Other commenters are welcome to call me an idiot and uninformed but it's easy for them to show that I am by citing any such studies.
We should debate whether marijuana should be legalized but we shouldn't prostitute medicine as a way to subvert the debate.
1
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/33/1/128
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1526590012008644
https://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/pain/cancer/bone/medical-cannabi...
https://www.jpsmjournal.com/article/S0885-3924(09)00787-8/pdf
In trial...
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03337503
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02892591
https://www.colorado.edu/lab/amtl/2017/03/20/co-cdphe-double-blind-place...
2
Not a single one of the studies you cite meet the criteria I cited. Perhaps you didn't bother to read them. I still challenge anyone to find any double blind studies demonstrating that there are objective improvements in functioning in patients using cannabis for chronic pain. And, by the way, several of the studies you cite say cannabis is no more effective than placebo for management of pain, hardly proof of its efficacy.
And if it's already been proven then why are further clinical trials being done? And, you might like to know, performing a clinical trial is no evidence that the drug is effective or safe. That's why clinical trials are performed.
1
Yes, studies as you describe are non-existent. Because pot is Schedule 1 and tests are extremely difficult for any institution to perform. Schedule 1 means absolutely no medical uses, which seems opposed to reality.
You missed one biggie, cannabanoid hyperemesis... a rare but real and debilitating side effect of regular marijuana smoking...
4
A shower alleviates symptoms.
Stopping use ends issue.
By regular, you mean heavy usage. Yet still rare then too.
1
California legalized “medical” cannabis in 1996 over 22 years ago. In truth “recreational” consumers have never had trouble getting a cannabis card and have been able to obtain herb easily. California officially legalized “recreational” cannabis November 2016. Retail sales of “recreational cannabis” went LEGAL January 1st 2018!!
Over 22 years of cannabis legalization and lo and behold California is the largest economic engine in the U.S. and is the 5th largest economy on the planet. California leads the world in aerospace, high technology, agriculture, video and musical entertainment media and tourism. We host headquarters for numerous international corporate giants like Apple, Intel, Netflix, Lockheed, Paypal, Tesla, Oracle, Google, TRW, Rockwell International, Unisys, Yahoo, Disney, and AMD to name just a few. An average of over 250 million tourists visit California annually spending upwards of 100 billion dollars providing over a millions jobs. Other than that, in California we're just stoned slow and lazy!
The madness is over! Legalize, regulate and tax recreational cannabis!
11
The pursuit of happiness is defined as a fundamental right mentioned in the Declaration of Independence to freely pursue joy and live life in a way that makes you happy, as long as you don't do anything illegal or violate the rights of others.
With a documented use for over 4000yrs. and over 22yrs. as Legal Medicinal use here in Ca. If the sky was going to fall we would have been clobbered by now.
NYT stop this fear and hysteria propaganda. Enough with the what aboutism. #basta
Remove it from the Federal drug schedule and legalize Cannabis nation wide.
The most dangerous/harmful effect from Cannabis, is law enforcement and the legal system.
6
Why did The Times publish this column about the "risks" of marijuana, and about its "potential harms" when columnist Carroll in the text of his column admits that there is virtually no harm?
When marijuana has been found to help reduce opioid overdose deaths in states in which it is legal, when it doesn't cause cancer, when it is prescribed to tens of thousands of patients across the country by licensed physicians, why in the world does The times publish such a twisted and misleading column?
Some explanations from Times management are in order.
6
I use to smoke dope once a week or so and always coughed in a spot where a tumor was later found to be, on the base of my tongue.
While I did not use marijuana much -- as a redhead -- I was more susceptible.
I suffered these morbid impacts from my 9 weeks of radiation:
*It eliminated my saliva glands,
*Walloped my taste buds --
*Created digestive problems
*Destroyed my beautiful teeth requiring implants. (I have not kissed a woman since)
I also presume the radiation gave me the leukemia I developed 5 years ago
But I survived, ONLY thanks to modern medicine, and my Lance Armstrong approach -- which was no sure thing when I was down 70 pounds, couldn't eat and looked like an inmate at Auschwitz.
Ironically, surviving cancer is a wonderful gift that allows one to cherish just how precious life is and it eliminated a lot of inhibitions.
But if I were to get a groundhog redux, next time I would use a water pipe and not chew my roaches.
Marijuana lifted me out of my cultural niche and allowed me to see myself and America for what they were, as did LSD. They also gave me 20 years of enjoyable and free psychoanalysis.
The political and financial insights I took away from the experience allow me to be mostly happy and healthy now.
Live and learn. Eyes open.
2
Remember that it is the Federal Schedule 1 status that prevents research, making it harder to answer these questions. The ostrich approach to making public policy.
17
I trust Dr Carroll reads his readers' comments.
Without knowing a lot about it, there are other ways of getting the psychoactive drug into the body, say, by ingestion. It would be useful to have more discussion regarding efficacy , say, in pain remediation as well as the medical risks.
1
A number of issues merit raising and perhaps further exploration in one or more columns.What are the potential benefits? Under what necessary conditions; both internal and external ones?Long term as well as short terms ones?Temporary or more permanent ones? Using what criteria? By whom, and what might their agendas be? Is the exploration to be about a plant? Its leaves? Extracts (THC) with a range of potencies? Is what will be measured targeting the "pharmacological actions" of specific active components of cannabis influenced by a range of interacting known, currently unknown,-because of gaps in knowledge and or technology- and perhaps even unknowable factors?Or will the person's reported "drug experience" -the outcome of the interactions between that user-person's total being (physical, psychological,social, spiritual, etc.), the type of cannabis and its potency and manner of use, and the actual site of where it is being injested, smoked, etc.- be the focus? Many questions to ask.Many issues need to be considered. Including what the agendas- transparent and hidden ones- of the "asker" are? And lastly, what is necessary as one moves from collecting relevant, generalizable-data,over enough times, in suitable places,analyzed appropriately and being replicable, results in needed usable knowledge. Which can be, and is, transmuted into creating meanings, levels and qualities of understanding/insights which are used, for example, to achieve equitable well being.
The greatest risk of pot is being busted for possession. "Good people don't smoke marijuana." - thanks "top cop".
9
America has a long and unpleasant history of attempts at prohibition. It took a constitutional amendment to end our ridiculous prohibition of alcohol consumption, and the "war" on drugs has been a blatant racist failure since its inauguration in the 1930s.
Prohibiting adults from putting substances in their own bodies makes those substances appear even more desirable. Unfortunately, it's also a way to make the sale of those substances worth billions of dollars, with some of that fortune finding its way to political campaigns.
Legalizing and taxing cannabis and other recreational drugs the same way as alcohol would provide a huge new source of revenue to the government. Any health concerns should be left to the discretion of the individual user and their physician.
5
As a cannabis patient and activist I take great offense to this article.
A study just came out that was conducted in 3 countries , US one of them , that cannabis has zero.impact on brain morphology. Yet the "mushsy brain" conspiracy exists. The substances that cause harm tonour brains are the legal ones: alcohol ,pharmacueticals and opiates.
Cannabis has totally eliminated my chronic joint and nerve pain 100%, unlike any dangerous opiate.
I use a very small amount and I imbibed it orally, and smoke free.
Please refrain from adding to the many lies and misunderstanding around the life giving plant Cannabis.
12
A lot of these problems with Marijuana these days come from people who have rarely if ever smoked pot...Smoking really really good pot, that seasoned smokers would take one hit and put down... These newbies smokers will smoke the whole thing and then say it was the pot...
2
This was a well written article, its short and gets some points across. Obviously, it is missing a ton of stats and opposing views, but in a short piece still good. Now lets talk about the beneficial side of cannabis (doctorpauls.co) . Also, more studies need to be performed especially with all the new forms of cannabis ingestion.
One of my close friends' brother was a regular pot smoker, for like 30 years. He contracted cancer, the face, checks, throat. A terrible way to die. It was brutal. The doctors took out a good portion of his jaw, which did nothing but give him a few more miserable months to live in agony. There are risks.
2
I am sorry to hear about your brother's friend, that truly is awful.
It makes me think, though, about the discussion that needs to happen regarding pesticides, fungicides, and other toxic chemicals that are used when immorally producing cannabis which is very common in black market product.
Raising quality, clean, responsible- and eco-friendly cannabis is very important to a lot of growers and consumers these days and the only way this will continue to be the standard is to legalize and regulate.
Take cannabis out of Schedule I, and we will start getting "more research" as the author rightfully says is needed. It is long, long overdue.
6
What's considered normal behavior in a society is a major influence on public health. Images of marijuana use in mainstream media will convince many people that everyone is smoking the dope. And it may nudge users trying to quit like myself into thinking that mindless self indulgence is in fact okay - because it's normal behavior.
Its hypocritical that the same media group against direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ads regularly exposes society to marijuana use. Why, because its organic and Big Pharma is not in it yet? No drug use should be promoted in the media.
1
No one should go to jail for marijuana, and what has happened in the U.S. with incarceration is rascist and unforgivable and must end. Decriminalization is important, and legalization in some form probably necessary, but it needs to be much more cautious. Though marijuana has some medical benefits too, this is not the best thing since sliced bread. The new and shiny cannabis industry is starting to act more like the tobacco and alcohol industry, selling strawberry banana pre-rolls and cannabis orange soda to attract youth. False claims abound. Potency has increased 4-7 fold here, just as the tobacco industry did with nicotine. In addition to the literature Carroll cites, a growing body of evidence on heart disease is emerging since the National Academies review came out. Similarly, findings on long term intellectual development and graduation rates of youth, especially those who use daily, are of deepest concern. About 5-10 of high school kids use daily or near daily here now in CA. Use in pregnancy, associated with low birth weight, has almost doubled in California. So we need to go slower, and if legalizing, do so with far more constraints on product types, stores, marketing and shameless profiteering then are currently being used. See www.gettingitrightfromthestart.org
5
Thank you. The pro-cannabis propaganda is getting to be as ridiculous as its counterparts have been. A different take on "reefer madness".
Smoking anything is bad for you. There are much better (and safer) ways to consume cannabis. As it says in the "New questions" paragraph: We know little to nothing about edibles and other means of administration.
For years (long before legalization), I always asked: What is the health risk for people who ate it and then treated it as if it was any other intoxicant?" I'm still waiting for a good answer to that question...
This article summarizes a misleading, simply-formulated question-"marijuana's risks-" about a complex, multidimensional issue.Consider:Which of this plant's active chemical substances, or many interacting ones, are being explored re potential temporary or more permanent "harms?"Can the study's design result in generalizable conclusions about cause and effect? Outcomes which are associated with, but not demonstrated to be causes of?Or, although occuring, the reasons are unknown due to gaps in needed knowledge and/or technology; the necessary conditions for the outcome?If we don't adequately know and understand what we need to, any of our intervention plans, efforts and their outcome evaluations will be misusing limited human and non-human resources. Additionally, consider the range of documented unexpected, harmful, outcomes from the Rockefeller drug laws, and the Nixon racist faux "War on Drugs" ( a "war" on selected people) to individuals, families and communities. What have been and what are the "risks" of marijuana drug laws for individuals,their families, neighborhoods,communities? All "drugs," including "pot"are part of man's history.A reality in which the availability, accessibility and use of ANY natural or manmade psychoactive substance (tea,alcohol, coffee, tobacco,a range of prescribed and OC meds,etc) relates to their many functions.Rarely to harms.Being framed by:For whom is it Permitted... Forbidden...An Obligation (sacramental tools)... a Need...a Choice.Risk?
1
Why does the Times continue to carry water for Big Pharma when it comes to giving patients choices between non-addictive and non-fatal cannabis-derived treatments and addictive and often-fatal (RIP Prince Rogers Nelson) opioids and opiates like fentanyl?
Naturally-occurring cannabis products can provide significant relief to epileptic children, PTSD-afflicted military veterans, cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, and those suffering from post-surgery pain. Most of these treatments can be administered WITHOUT "lighting up" and WITHOUT ingesting THC.
The Times is doing nothing less than aiding and abetting addiction, suffering, and even death when it exhumes Reefer Madness-era scare tactics from the dustbin of history.
2
The discussion should include the addictive potential of marijuana and the special problems of use by adolescents, whose brains are not fully developed.
5
Yes. The causality may not be confirmed, but the association is worrisome. It shouldn't be illegal, but kids need to be kept away from it for as long as possible.
The Tests are mostly ancient but even testing with the available material is not suitable for human consumption. Tests with modern cannabis will have to wait due to the Sessions' effect he has road blocked allowing other sites for production of cannabis sample material.
Most of the problem is with the federal government's lies and obstruction of studies.
Jeffy just doesn't want to you to know that it is the safest recreational drug in the world.
2
Sounds like a report dug out of an old dusty file box. Pot is a miracle herb. And I completely agree that the only harm that weed does is to the poor men and women of color sitting in prisons. Smoking weed is good for you. Less stress, anxiety and often an opening of one's heart to the joy and pain of others. Takes the edge off.
My arthritis vanishes when I smoke. Grown ups don't get fat from munchies. A high school /college depression issue. Driving ten miles under the speed limit is the usual traffic violation.
Hemp produces delicious bud to smoke, eat and the softest most dyeable fabric on earth. Like a cotton silk. Hemp production will increase business opportunities. Tax revenue!
Grow like a weed...
1
A discussion of risks vs. benefits of marijuana would benefit from consideration of the effects of criminalization on use and users. The law has failed spectacularly in discouraging use, perhaps inadvertently encouraged it, and most certainly has damaged the lives of many.
4
To have a stable experiment results the study must find the same results. So the heart disease and connection to cannabis is at this moment bogus because the experiment could not be recreated. Is pot addicting probably no more than caffeine chocolate Cigarettes & Alcohol. Cannabis has never killed anybody. 29 people die a day on average from alcohol-related causes. Cigarettes killing about a thousand people a day. But both of them are legal cannabis has never harmed anybody. This is another Reefer Madness article to stir up conflict. Genesis 1 29 states that God give me every fruit bearing seed for my consumption. Therefore constitutional standards state that I cannot be prosecuted for religious beliefs. Making cannabis illegal is a violation of our rights as American citizens. Politicians spit all over the Constitution and the right to practice religious beliefs. This is racial Injustice against religious beliefs.
1
I'm surprised there is no mention in the article of the effects of pot use on the endocrine system. I don't know enough about the different ways pot affects males and females, however, I read it can increase estrogen and suppress growth hormones in men. Most guys 18 and up would want to know about that. And for women, the long term affects of MJ on hormone system would seem to be very much complicated if they are using hormonal birth control.
There's a link in the article to an earlier one by same author. In it he writes:
"It can harm memory, it’s associated with lower academic achievement, and its use is linked to less success later in life."
This article contradicts those statements. And on the whole, both articles reduce complex subjects down to simplistic advice.
I
1
This article--and too many like them--begin with a false premise, born of what today can only be called "willful ignorance."
The picture shows a (person) using a vaporizor.
The article begins with the issue of cancer and "smoking."
Many or even most people who use cannabis as a medication, use a vaporizor.
Perhaps in ten or twenty years this hurdle of prejudice and misleading "ledes" will e-vaporate, hopefully, or, to some extent, cease fouling the discourse from the start.
However, learning processes about cannabis medication can only be facilitated if text media include some basic education about vaporizing.
Then the articles will begin from a perspective that perhaps the writer has been informed about a few factors and the rest of the article may proceed from some more enlightened perspective. Or that the publisher actually wants an open discussion on this subject, and comprehensive reporting from the start.
Too much else, for now.
As someone who has worked many years in the health care industry, often seeing patients with very unfortunate, chronic and devastating neurological diseases, I have a great respect for our nervous system in all its intricate delicacy. To intentionally and repeatedly expose ones own own brain to a substance that alters normal functioning seems to me a form of idiocy. Absent some urgent need (absolute and truly proven medical use) to use this for simple recreation is just beyond my understanding. There have to be only so many times you can insult these delicate tissues until they will be harmed. Unless someone has done microscopic exams of the brains of heavy users--you don't really know, do you?
7
Recently I was watching a basketball games with the Cleveland Cavaliers. They showed JR Smith. It looked like he had a smoker's mouth from the brief time he was on the screen (blue tinged gums and lips). So I googled NBA players who smoke cigarettes and up popped NBA players who smoke pot, and his name was seemingly on every list.
In the discussion of secondhand marijuana smoke, I suspect that the author is referring to (and misrepresenting) the study of Wang et al
(http://jaha.ahajournals.org/content/5/8/e003858.full), which reports an adverse effect in rats, not on lung function but on endothelial function, at least as bad as tobacco, implying a threat to cardiovascular health. Marijuana smoke contains many of the same toxins as tobacco smoke, including known carcinogens and other chemicals implicated in respiratory diseases (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/tx700275p). I suspect that we simply do not have enough data on the harms of marijuana smoke compared with what we know about tobacco. Not enough to blithely dismiss it as harmless.
2
I guess you didn't read the article. There have been careful, peer reviewed studies of the links between *smoking* marijuana and a variety of health consequences. All of them, save two (infants and diagnosed psychotics), show no signifiant effect.
There's also the plain fact that many people are using cannabis in a form that does not require inhalation, and my generation has been smoking for five decades with no adverse consequences.
1
I read the article. It took a lot of data to prove the harm of tobacco smoke. Same here.
1
I'm all for legalizing pot. Makes excellent sense on a lot of levels. However, pot can trigger a heart attack in some who use it. My girlfriend is a nurse practitioner in cardiology and we argue all the time about risks vs. benefits. She thinks it's dangerous, I do not. She has seen several patients who smoked pot and then had a MI. I'm also fairly certain those patients were not included in the study referenced in this article. Legalize it? Sure, but I think we need to regulate the toxicity. That's a win win for both sides.
20
While the endless debate around cannabis continues with prohibitionists losing ground study by study, city by city and state by state, we see the corrupt pharmaceutical industry continuing to pay doctors millions to get them to prescribe deadly opiates and opiods (they are not the same and should not be used interchangeably), while their paid politicians continue to penalize their victims. In my state the people dependent on or addicted to these substances are denied effective rehabilitative care by their state funded medical insurance but given open ended free access to methadone, which is addictive and bigly abused. In the meantime the agency responsible for providing care expands the number of its employees and contractors paid to deny the care and deny reimbursement to those of us engaged in providing effective rehab support. It's a very very sick system. So yeah keep your focus on the cannabis because it is of no real health concern.
3
My life has undoubtedly and immeasurably improved since, a few years ago, I started (recreationally) using medical-grade cannabis edibles and vape nearly daily.
5
Go ahead and legalize it in your state - then you, too, will have the joy of smelling it everywhere you go. Do so knowing that laws against getting high public will not be enforced.
50
The laws on getting high in public weren't enforced on many places during the 21st century (before Washington and Colorado legalized recreational) use IF you were white and middle to upper middle class.
I don't smell it everywhere I go and I travel in areas where I would expect to do so.
18
Denial - the bottom line of marijuana use.
1
It is a very pleasant smell usually. Just in its raw plant form, the bud of really excellent sinsemilla is heavenly.
3
Being illegal hasn't stopped it's use and never will (like, remember prohibition?). Jeff Sessions stated that good people don't smoke it. He's correct, I don't smoke it, I vape it to get as much THC as I can. As far as it's medical benefits or impact, please...do some real research and get back to me in 20 years.
5
Speaking of "harms," the author fails to mention cannabis ingestion alone cannot shut down your respiratory system. Something that alcohol and synthetic opioids can and will do, taken separately or mixed together.
6
I enjoy the Upshot for its orientation towards things that can be measured. This article does not mention any measures of marijuana usage. Instead it uses terms like 'heavy users'. Numbers and measures would help.
MJ needs to be taken off Schedule 1 so it can be studied. The idea that it has absolutely no medical benefits is clearly nonsense at this point. It can be regulated under other rules, like alcohol, but most of all, it needs to be studied.
18
As someone with asthma, I can attest to the effects of second hand pot smoke. It's terrible - my throat closes up, my ears and eyes itch - it takes hours to stop reacting. As with tobacco cigarettes, I have no trouble with informed adults smoking - I just wish that marijuana smokers would display the same level of courtesy towards non-smokers that tobacco smokers now do.
92
I have a friend who has had asthma for 68 years. He smokes a lot of pot, but it does not affect his asthma.
5
Going to prison for possession of marijuana causes serious harm to individuals and their family members. It puts an unnecessary burden on the tax payers to be paying for this prosecution.
The only ones who benefit from marijuana being illegal are the cartels and the politicians who are bought by them to keep marijuana illegal.
12
Smoking marijuana increases the likelihood of psychotic episodes in vulnerable individuals. Such people do not take it to calm their nerves.
The great statistician, R.A. Fisher, once hypothesized that cancer may cause smoking, because it relieved the soreness and pain in their throats.
6
This is true. My son, who started daily use at 15 and continued for many years developed drug induced psychosis. He was hospitalized several times after being removed in a stupor from home. He is 27 now, living at home and dysfunctional in many ways. He is still on anti-psychotics. A real tragedy since he was a wonderful child until 15. We never had a problem with him. He was a beautiful, athletic little boy and preteen. Everyone always tells me he must have been using stronger drugs. He was not. He was tested many times and only marijuana was detected.
4
Maybe you missed the “do people prone to psych disorders tend to smoke pot? Or do people who smoke pot tend to develop psych disorders?” part?
2
It is interesting that Sir Ronald, author of the important Fisher Exact Test in statistics, was a consultant to a committee of the British tobacco companies—and a smoker himself. His hypothesis was soundly disproved. I guess we always have to be alert to potential biases and conflicts of interest.
1
Parents at risk for child neglect and abuse can now easily obtain medical cannabis for chronic anxiety and often drive impaired. Imagine the fear of the kids sitting in the back seat of such cars who suffer terror of a parent losing control. Due to legalization a growing number of pot dependent parents won't get a hand slap in Family Court these days - judges are fearful of taking a stand. I hope NYT will take a deeper look at this issue.
4
There have been multiple articles about marijuana and the developing brain/marijuana use in adolescents that indicate negative outcomes. There have also been studies indicating that children of pregnant users have behavioral problems in school. The link to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder has been raised multiple times. This is a serious red flag.
Clearly there is a lot of support for legalization, and there are multiple advantages, including: Cleaner product, taxable industry, elimination of misguided jail time. Legalize it, but clearly we need to do a better job of ensuring that there are appropriate studies that are not funded by the industry. We need to be prepared when the time comes that there is a need for mental health treatment. Insurance is severely lacking right now when it comes to long-term mental health care. Let's not lose sight of this in our eagerness to advance the legalization of this natural drug - it is, after all, a drug in spite of its organic origins.
9
Seems like the article ought to be titled It's Time for a New Discussion of the Apparently Few Risks of Marijuana.
253
I don't think anyone disagrees that we need more research—pro-cannabis camp included. But can we all get on the same page and agree to stop calling it 'marijuana' and 'pot' in professional contexts such as the NYT? Those are loaded words with long histories of racism and counterculture stigma, and I think it would be more helpful for us to all engage in adult discussions about cannabis use and regulation. Would you put 'booze' or 'the sauce' in a headline about the potential harms of alcohol? It would be kinda tacky, huh.
69
I think you're overstating the stigmatized significance of "marijuana." Nobody calls it "cannabis," and doing so would only make the article less clear to a reader. It would be like referring to alcohol as "ethanol." If anything, using marijuana in this context would destigmatize it
6
Almost twenty percent of teenagers who use weed get ADDICTED to it with tragic results. Would you want your surgeon, your lawyer, your bus driver, your teacher, your babysitter to be users? Wake up, Americans, and smell the stench of money.
7
Can you support that statement about ADDICTION? (At least cite a source?) I don’t want my lawyer, doctor, bus driver, teacher, or babysitter to perform their jobs while under the influence of marijuana, but I have no problem at all with them having a pot brownie for dessert after their evening meal or winding down for the night by lighting up, if that’s what those responsible adults choose to do.
11
Waiting for the next article in the series, It’s Time for a New Discussion of the Risks of Crossing the Street.
22
1. It’s called cannabis. “Pot” is something you cook soup in.
2. It’s “adult use”, my 92 year old mother is not using cannabis for “recreational” anything. She’s using it for pain relief.
130
Moderation in all things including moderation.
15
I lived through the 70's and saw a lot of people smoking a lot of pot.
Someone below posted that they saw "Brilliant minds dulled into sullen or goofy mush"???
I think that person overstates what weed can do. Sure...if the user is always stoned...then they are maybe not going to achieve what they could have.
You cannot take any sort of permanent vacation and expect to reap the rewards of hard work and focus.
But a person who stays stoned.... has something else going on that makes them seek out whatever it is that wed does for them.
If weed appears to have ruined their life....it is just that weed got there first... and I would guess that in a world without weed they would have found some other way to medicate.
57
Opioids, alcohol, tobacco, obesity, texting while driving, firearms, lack of exercise - bigger fish to fry than ganja, folks, Time to move on. Legalize it!
139
While I wholeheartedly support tearing down the barriers preventing more thorough research into the health effects of marijuana use, both positive and negative, I will make a prediction.
Not a single negative health factor will come close to stealing the life, liberty, and prosperity that has already been taken from Americans, especially the poor and persons of color, through the decades-long war on drugs. Millions have wasted away in state and federal prisons. This has broken households, reinforced a cycle of poverty, strained public welfare systems, and shortened countless lives. Any research into the health effects of marijuana use is incomplete without a comprehensive accounting of the true cost of the barbaric war on drugs.
536
As I formulated my reply to this ridiculous article I found your comment. I agree with you 100%. Why do we choose to ignore this elephant in the room? Cannabis has caused devastation it's true; but not from the product itself; as this article concludes.
33
Thank you. The analysis always leaves this out, as if we haven’t intentionally harmed millions of people over the last 70 years to save the rest of us from the demon weed.
32
Finally! Reality seeps into NYTimes! Thank you, Dr. Carroll!
Reality: the medical doctors whom I know, they do not care about the pro-pot crowd.
Their concern: trial lawyers. That is: 'script MJ, if there's a negative interaction with existing meds -- hello, lawsuit and potential bankruptcy. The real kind of BK, not the fantasy ones constructed by E. Warren.
Want medical MJ? OK -- call off the trial lawyers, put a cap on any potential money damages. That would be a Hulk-size step forward.
We're waiting ..
6
The demonstrated correlation between heavy weed use and mental disease is a red flag regardless of the direction in which the arrow of causality is pointed.
14
So, if heavy pot use is bad for schizophrenics no one should use pot heavily for fear of becoming schizophrenic? No. The direction of the arrow definitely matters.
4
I would say that until the direction of that arrow is determined, heeding the red flag would be smart.
I support medical marijuana and legalized recreational use. The research shows that moderate use, like alcohol, has no negative effects. However, chronic use is a different story. I'm surprised no mention was made in this article of marijuana's potential for addiction and the research-established harm it does to adolescent brains. The rate of addiction is approximately 9%, and a longitudinal study in New Zealand shows that permanent brain damage is experienced by chronic marijuana smokers under 18 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22927402 which does not reverse after stopping. Also, one of the effects of chronic pot smoking, amotivational syndrome (apathy, lethargy, etc.), caused by pot's effect on brain neurohormone receptors, is not addressed. Not a health effect but clearly life-changing, apathy leads to education, career, relationship, and other decisions that can be detrimental to people's long term trajectory. Many chronic pot smokers are self-medicating mood disorders, and while producing short term relief, over the long term marijuana use exacerbated depression and anxiety and impairs the effectiveness of prescription med treatment.
16
That description sounds a lot like alcohol, minus the violence. Perhaps thet should be treated similarly.
1
"There’s moderate evidence, from many studies, that learning, memory and attention can be impaired in the 24 hours after marijuana use. There’s limited evidence, however, that this translates into worse outcomes in academic achievement, employment, income or social functioning, or that these effects linger after the pot has “worn off.”"
Shouldn't we be accumulating data on the effects of recreational marijuana use BEFORE states legalize (vs decriminalize) it? Seems especially imperative as it affects academic achievement and social functioning in adolescents and young adults whose exposure and access would increase. The ability to measure impairment would also be "helpful." What say teachers unions and law enforcement?
7
Why?
We don't seem to care about gathering, or as in some cases allowing MDs to discuss in private with their patients, the health risks of gun ownership.
5
Does increased access (which may or may not be true) lead to increased usage of marijuana?
What's happened in CO and WA since legalization?
3
Excellent questions. Also, FDA, NIH, CDC looking at this?
In Oregon (and I assume in other states where cannabis is either completely legal or legal for medical use) cannabis products (extracts for vaping, edibles, etc.) are analyzed for the two major active pharmaceutical ingredients, THC and CBD so you know how much you are getting per dose. That said, there is no product insert describing proper doses based on age, illness being treated or desired effect (getting high or anti-inflammatory). More GCP studies are sorely needed but things are getting better, at least in some states.
3
There are downsides to anything. Nothing proven offered here, but that doesn't mean that over-use for instance may be a problem (or that some have a negative reaction...look at alcoholism, which no one knows they are going to deal with when they take that first drink).
On the list of drugs used by people...seems to me that alcohol and opioids pose more of a danger than marijuana.
11
I have used weed for a very long time purely for recreational purposes. It is mildly addictive. It does lower inhibitions and I find that it makes me lazy as a snail. I was very much a stoner and spent my college years as one and as a result can't remember much of it. Yes it is relaxing and many fun and crazy times were had whilst smoking.
However I find that as I enter later life that I want to have full control of my senses and enjoy my remaining years fully cognizant of the world around me. I think that the lesson to be learned here is that there is always a trade off when one uses drugs or alcohol. I have heard all of the arguments in favor of pot and I am the last person to judge. I have chosen to face life head on, to taste the bitter with the sweet and I am happy knowing that my choices are my own.
175
"...happy knowing that my choices are my own." Now if the U.S. gov't would quit kowtowing to the alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical industries to protect their profits over our right to choose, perhaps we all could have that freedom without fear of incarceration. It's well past time to end the failed drug war and legalize marijuana.
16
I find it very strange that this article does not cover cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, one of the biggest issues with chronic pot use.
4
Maybe cause it is extremely rare amongst heavy smokers and a simple warm shower stops the reaction. Plus if ya stop partaking, then you don't suffer from it. Simple.
4
Yes, I am a RN and I have seen this. People are told it is what they have and I have yet to see them believe it. Good point.
Just be careful jumping to conclusions with patients. As a lifelong migraine sufferer I used to get cyclical vomiting with my worst migraines.
The last time I had CV was six years ago and the ER Dr. was grilling me about marijuana use. Although I hadn't smoked it in well over 12 years since college, he and the nurses seemed totally and utterly convinced I was lying.
Thankfully my brother showed up and was able to advocate for me since I wasn't in much of a position to do so. To be honest, as a heavily tattooed person, I felt unjustly judged during what was already an awful experience. Looking back it almost seemed like he was looking for an example of something he had read about in a med journal or second hand.
That said, I don't doubt CHS is an issue for a very small percentage of heavy users, but from what I've read it sounds like a rare risk. Ironically I started vaping and consuming cannabis not long after that ER visit and it has helped immensely with my migraines, nausea and vomiting. I'm now on far fewer pharmaceuticals (I still keep a script for imitrex and fioricet on hand as a back-up) and haven't had a bout of uncontrollable vomiting since then.
Amen to cannabis. While its not a magic bullet and sometimes only brings a 9 or 10 migraine down to a 5, it sure has made my life much more bearable. #notallpotheads
"Last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Medicine and Engineering released a comprehensive report on cannabis use. At almost 400 pages long, it reviewed both potential benefits and harms."
@Snip:
So whats is going to take for "the evidence [to be] all in..."?
This article is but an extremely brief summary of a reportedly exhaustive 400 PAGE "comprehensive report". Comparatively speaking, virtually all of the evidence is indeed in! And as many people are coming to realize, it has 'been in' for decades.
Again comparatively speaking, weed is basically harmless when used responsibly!
Fear, on the other hand, can and does present myriad harms to closed minds.
37
The report was comprehensive in that it looked at a lot of different studies. However, many of the studies had very small numbers of subjects and were not exhaustive - or even scientific.
The reality is very little is known about the true medical benefits and associated risks since it has been so hard to perform studies.
Make it easily available for those that see a medical benefit but let's make it easier to study so we know the true cost health-wise of complete legalization.
4
Of course we should discuss it.
They should be treated like ready cigs., ie. subject to legality, regulation, responsibility and non promotion.
We struck gold with this formula with cigs., lowering rates from as high as 40% to as low as 15%.
If we do this, we would not only free our prisons from countless criminals and stop drug cartels peddling this and also limit the bad effects, ie increased smoking etc.
Just like cigs., if pot smokers want to smoke, have them smoke it on their roof tops or in caves.
2
I have six kids, two weighed 11 pounds at birth, none were born underweight. People have been smoking for over fifty years, since it is still illegal in places no one is volunteering for research done on them. Do know that your school teacher, surgeon, lawyer, mom, dad have been smoking pot for a long long time.
10
The gov has no business restricting adult activities that involve no harm to anyone else.
Concerning risk: let's try outlawing alcohol again. I hear the risks of that recreational drug are much greater than the risks of marijuana use.
Wait--Prohibition was tried already? And it was the main reason the Mafia grew so much?
Oh, does that mean the current Prohibition is the reason behind drug violence, just as it was at the time of alcohol Prohibition?
Oh,... let me think more about this issue...
11
There is a possible harm to someone else - driving while under the influence. That’s one place where I see a restriction being imposed. Another is the second-hand smoke issue, similar to tobacco use. Otherwise I agree with you.
One of the challenges - once something is legal it is very hard to undo if it turns out to be a mistake.
Performing some real studies of the impact before making it legal for recreational use is the responsible approach.
2
I am surprised no mention is made of cannabinoid hypermesis syndrome, which we are now seeing a lot more of since legalization in some states:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/11/30/564993538/rare-and-...
2
Could be because it is extremely rare and only amongst heavy smokers?! Plus, a simple warm shower eases symptoms and stopping use, ends affliction.?!
4
This article completely disregards the possibility of cannabis withdrawal and cannabis use disorder. As defined by DSM-5 and reflected in recent national surveys (as reported in highly-respected scientific journals), this occurs in about 20% of cannabis users and can be associated with considerably impairment, as is the case for any substance use disorder
15
I have smoked Marijuana for fifty years. But I have never ingested an edible. Initially it was just the caprice of happenstance that kept me away from that experience. (despite my use of what was for a very long time an illegal drug, my life style has been pretty bland for a long time) Now--over the past couple of years--I read about the potential chaos available through edibles and I'm horrified. Generally, marijuana--and alcohol--provide the user with immediate clues to over use and when to stop. But, sweets shock full (emphasis on Shock) of hallucinagins is really dangerous. Count me out.
As far as leaving edibles about, available for children to discover, is concerned... That is a crime, like mindlessly leaving a child in a car seat in an overheated car.
6
Edibles aren't just candy+THC. They include pills and lozenges that people take for chronic pain and other ailments. Alternatives should be available to those who prefer to not smoke or inhale.
7
A recap of the conclusion at the very end of a longish article: "marijuana’s effects are clearly less harmful than those associated with tobacco or alcohol abuse." We should remember that the public soundly rejected loss of control over their right to choose to use traditional stimulants when prohibition was repealed after a spectacular failure. We should remember that the original purpose of the marijuana ban was to enable the FBI to arrest black jazz musicians, who were common users, rather than protecting the public from the effect of the substance. And we should note that the reasonably anticipated overall statistical effect of substituting marijuana for alcohol on weekends in America will be millions of lives saved over the coming century...
13
There are lead and toxins in our water, air and almost every object around us, even that new car smell, so good luck avoiding cancer. As for concentration, impaired driving and mental health, I'd wager that heavy use of alcohol does all those things too, but no one is writing articles about polishing off a bottle of wine every night.
Moderation is obviously the key in any indulgence or medication. A lot of this backlash is coming from the anti-anxiety and pain-relief pharmaceutical industries, with many physicians on the take. And as for pediatric concerns, they need to look at high school and college alcohol consumption, which is epidemic. Alcohol use leads to sexual and physical assault, depression, digestive system cancer risk, auto accidents, and impaired judgment.
How many article on that this week?
64
After retiring to Nevada vaping legal weed has cleared up my asthma and relieved by arthritis. Decades of effort to make weed more therapeutic has resulted in an excellent product with many positives. Oh and food, music, movies and sex are much better after taking the stuff. Finally my alcohol consumption dropped dramatically. As best as I can tell the sky did not fall in Nevada. In fact, they just might be the model for how to legalize weed.
81
So far the most widely and universally accepted negative side effect from marijuana use is a criminal record.
Along with legalization, the records should be expunged.
Should you decide to use marijuana, only do it in state where it is legal, and keep that in mind while traveling.
344
"...keep that in mind while traveling."
That's going to be very difficult to do, since even Prof. Carroll admitted puffing and driving, in close proximity of time, is not a good idea. Hope you won't be too wasted to remember that.
4
I completely support medical marijuana and lean towards complete legalization.
However, this article doesn't seem very balanced and seems to take every leap possible to discount potential harms found in research to date. A study that shows harm potentially not being thorough is still cause for concern - not something to be dismissed.
4
I'll know that we're finally serious about empirical research on the effects of cannabis when we distinguish between strains and attend to differences in chemical makeup. In other words, when scientists treat cannabis like any other substance.
6
All of the studies cited looked at heavy users. I was a heavy user in high school and for a few years after. I was, indeed, lazy.
Since I am retired and don't need to do UAs anymore. My husband and I have been smoking a bit on weekends. We buy the low THC variety since we enjoy talking to each other and reading.
What are the long term affects of light pot use? Although at my age long term isn't really a problem.
3
Thank you. For nearly all my adult life, discussions about the risks of pot have been dominated by federal anti-drug crusaders who were being paid a good salary at taxpayers' expense to spin lies and exaggerations.
It was nearly impossible for reasonable people to find good information in the sea of government propaganda.
For Washington to continue to put cannabis in the same legal schedule as heroin (i.e. risk of death from overdose, and without any known medical use) just underscores how intellectually bankrupt federal drug policy is today.
Federal "experts" should basically just shut up at this point, because nobody believes a word they say.
6
Let's talk about the potential benefits here for society, especially given the recent opioid epidemic. Pot provides many of the same pain and anxiety relief effects without the addiction. In addition, the industry is largely made up of small businesses with no single corporation owning the patent to a large portion of the market, making the industry ripe for common sense regulation. All in, it seems like a good alternative to the Medical-industrial complex that pushes opiates out like candy today.
100
Nice example of the faulty logic behind this movement.
1. What scientific evidence do you have to support your claims of anxiolysis and pain relief? Answer: little exists. It is mostly hearsay. Proper studies need to be done in order to confirm or refute your claims.
2. As profitability and legal restrictions move in positive direction, the same giant corporations will take over, and it will no longer be a cute little cottage industry. Ohio's first (and abortive) legalization start failed because the entire state's production would have fallen into the hands of 8 producers who would have had a monopoly of production and sales. No different from the "Medical-industrial" complex." you deride. Once legal, advertising will push it out like candy. In fact it already does, with candy edibles already prominently displayed in stores.
3. You obfuscate medical marijuana with recreational. It is one thing to say marijuana has medical benefits and could be a replacement for more dangerous drugs and that outcomes would be better if it were legal. It is disingenuous to say MJ should be a legal means of getting high because it may have medicinal properties.
4. "Common sense regulation" created the "medical-industrial complex", so good luck with that.
Living in a state with legal pot, we can use edibles instead of smoking which eliminates 50% of the "cons" outlined in this article.
And, as most are aware, the potential downsides to pot use versus alcohol use are far fewer and less severe. And when you factor in the potential positive uses for pot, there is no contest that they far outweigh the negatives.
Just another reason to end the Federal government's "reefer madness" and legalize it everywhere in the USA.
157
It seems iffy to say eating rather than smoking marijuana eliminates 50% of the cons. A whole new set of questions arise about ingesting via the respiratory system vs the digestive system.
5
Carol,
Cannabis is first and foremost an herb. Are we concerned about the havoc reeked on the digestive system by rosemary, parsley, sage, and thyme?
I've actually found that, like peppermint tea, cannabis, whether smoked or eaten, aids the digestive system!
A,
You have to acknowledge a difference between cannabis and your garden variety herb. And to me, that suggests more research.
What about the Netherlands? Marijuana has been decriminalized there for many years. Presumably Europe does not have the same restrictions on public research dollars that the U.S. does. I was hoping the article would tell me more about what our allies have concluded concerning potential health hazards.
183
Those of us who lived through the sex-drugs-and-rock'n'roll days (late 60s/early 70s) all had dear friends who burned themselves out smoking pot to excess. Brilliant minds dulled into sullen or goofy mush -- never to return to normality.
That whole era was a experiment whose results could be captured by a dedicated researcher-- now, the experiment will be en enacted on a huge scale as millions of bright minds brown-out, smiling their way to near mindlessness -- not every user, of course, but a societally-dangerously high percentage.
The Question that journalists should be asking is: WHO PAID for the hugely expensive Marijuana Legalization Campaigns. In 2016, $31 million was spent promoting Proposition 64 --where did that money come from?
34
There's simply no basis for saying this. In the 60s and 70s the cannabis available at that time wasn't even very potent, so if people damaged their brains it wasn't pot, it was cocaine, heroin, alcohol, LSD etc.
Personally I think a lot of people hurt their lungs in those days because you had to smoke so much to get high.
Of course the legalization movement is backed by big business. But the War on Drugs is an even bigger business.
Most of the people you see quoted against legalizing marijuana have a paycheck in it -- part of the huge government drug-enforcement complex, or part of the treatment complex -- the tens of thousands of treatment centers and therapists who make a great living off court-ordered drug treatment every time someone gets arrested.
75
"Those of us who lived through the sex-drugs-and-rock'n'roll days (late 60s/early 70s) all had dear friends who burned themselves out smoking pot to excess."
Sorry, I was there and know of no one suffering as you describe. I do know several that suffered greatly from alcohol, however. The opposition to legalization is almost entirely funded by the other profiteers of a moderately intoxicated public.
41
I lived through those days, and the dear friends of mine who smoked pot are still brilliant and thriving...never seeking normality.
The "normals" are dull, sullen, and goofily mushbrained.
Is it possible that what you saw as brilliance, wasn't?
28
In my state there are recreational cannabis stores everywhere, and it at least seems to be reducing alcohol consumption. If this is true, then it is a huge health benefit of cannabis -- one not mentioned in this article.
248
"Reducing alcohol consumption" points to a quiet but powerful lobby group for one reason marijuana has been illegal for so long...
26
Here in my state of New Hampshire, unlike in most of the rest of New England, there's been quite a lot of resistance to the idea of legalization.
Also in my state of New Hampshire, the state maintains a monopoly on liquor sales, operates state-run liquor stores, and has huge outlet stores on every highway near our borders with the other New England states.
One might wonder if there's some correlation between these two things.
29
Thank you for this review Dr. Carroll; writing on scientific/medical issues is better done by scientist-authors than by journalist-scientists.
It was in my public health training that I learned the lessons of tobacco: when there are huge profits to be made, corporate greed cannot be controlled even when it (tobacco) "is the only product known that kills when used as directed." It took some 100 years after the mass production of cigarettes in factories that epidemiology picked up on higher rates of death among smokers vs non smokers. The lesson is that it takes mass consumption to see cause/effect. And it takes a profit motive to trigger tobacco products designed to addict, never mind its harm to users.
Tobacco is poised to enter the MJ market, pending federal legalization. MJ is already selectively farmed for sales appeal with additions of adulterants my small time dealers; just think what block busters Big Tobacco will invent.
If MJ is fully legalized, it should be sold at cost. It's the profit motive that I fear much more than the native plant.
11
Congrats.
You played yourself.
10 things listed as potential harm, all have ZERO evidence that show harm from Cannabis use.
Should print media that uses the term "Pot" be taken seriously?
My vote is NO.
Also, I have driven for the past 25 years "HIGH" on POT. Haven't had a single issue, NOT ONE. So perhaps it's a good idea to smoke and have a drive. For me it mitigates road rage, kind a the feeling I get when I read this article.
Looks like I will be looking to ingest more of the pot, that substance that is proven I can use without any substantial harm to my health, perhaps even promotes health.
11
Chill out... This piece was not a hit job on marijuana. Discussing potential risks of drug use (any drug) is important. As much as anything, the author is calling for comprehensive research to be undertaken.
It ends with "People who use marijuana ... will need to weigh the pros and cons for themselves."
This type of decision is best when made as an *informed* user, which means informed of potential risks and benefits. We know far less than what we should about the health effects of marijuana thanks to the legal system.
9
Put the joint down and listen. The author said "unquestionably there's a need for more research." Your anecdotal evidence about driving high doesn't count. Perhaps other drivers were just skillful avoiding you. Finally, it's not all about you.
10
Please re-read the article. The article most certainly did not say that there was ZERO evidence of harm. Kind regards.
1
I don't think it's fair to invoke actual studies about the potential risks and then reference the concept of a "gateway" drug in such an offhand manner. Hasn't the reality of this been studied?
Also, the world has moved towards vaping...
14
The main health risk of cannabis use is due to its illicit nature. Adulteration with unknown contaminants, and low purity that increases exposure to chemicals unrelated to the active drug, are potential risks. If health was the priority, cannabis would be decriminalized and regulated to provide the lowest-risk dosing.
33
@RC
That's the benefit of legalizing recreational use.
Here in Oregon, products don't go to market until they are lab tested. You don't have to worry about adulteration. The crops are grown legally and have to follow regulations.
Purity is something employees can help a customer with. Notably able to tell people what strains would be best fit them.
5
There need to be more studies done on the beneficial qualities of smoking marijuana, using CBD or THC tinctures, edibles, or any other form of this plant.
We also need medical students to be informed about these products and their addition to any sensible regimen for pain relief.
I am unafraid to admit that I use these products for pain relief and assistance with controlling inflammation, when I deem it necessary to do so.
As long as one is responsible when using these products, i.e. not driving a vehicle, operating heavy machinery, etc. there's very little, if any, downside to their usage.
It's long past time for their medical acceptance and for the federal and state governments to work in tandem to stop the ridiculous interference between medicinal and recreational usage, absurd over-taxation and the manipulation of the truth regarding these products.
17
"What makes this complicated is that it’s hard to establish the arrow of causality. Are people who smoke pot more likely to develop mental health problems? Or are people with mental health problems more likely to smoke pot?"
It is a reciprocal relationship.
6
"It is a reciprocal relationship."
Even that is a claim which would need to be defended through empirical evidence. Does it seem intuitive? Perhaps. But that doesn't necessarily make it the case.
2
Discussing medical/psychological risks and benefits of cannabis use outside of the context of the legal issues is problematic. It's safe to say that the data is overall likely poor given the federal prohibition on research. The report upon which this article is based costs $78.00, so any informed opposing/supporting opinion on the statements is impossible for the average interested reader.
6
"The report upon which this article is based costs $78.00, so any informed opposing/supporting opinion on the statements is impossible for the average interested reader." Seems to me, that you just made the case for the opposite. If all it cost was $78, just about anyone could look at the same research, and come to their own conclusions. That's just a bit more than the cost of a vape pen cartridge.
1
While weed might not have many downsides, according to the research, I do know a couple people who have reacted badly to it, in the form of anxiety and heart palpitations, and have given it up. And this does not include all the people I know who smoked it when they were younger and never liked it much, because it made them paranoid. It is just not a benign drug for some folks. However, one of the persons who reacted badly has enjoyed calming effects with a CBD only product, available over the counter here in WA.
6
Talk to others that currently use cannabis. I'll bet that every single one of them has had a bad experience with it. More recently, the trend is to misjudge how much to consume in an edible, and get the "I'm dying!" (you're not) response. It's all about dosage and learning what your own physiology can comfortably handle.
3
Horrible headline.
100
Why? Perhaps the research remains limited at this point but why stick one's head in the sand? Anything you ingest into your body will have an outcome so perhaps you should sidestep the political/social catechism and consider the science as it becomes fact.
6
Unintentionally or by design, Prof. Carroll mentions a number of disease effects that can be interpreted as dangers of marijuana use. Thus, this column has the effect of scare tactics intended to keep people from using the mild hallucinogen.
A former asthmatic in my 30s, I used marijuana in all its forms and strengths for fifteen years after first reading nearly every clinical report written on marijuana. That reading assured me that the drug was safe for moderate use. Consequently, I regularly used it... smoking, eating, with a water pipe, oil, etc. After years of using it, I decided to quit in favor of intellectual clarity. No problem. Thus, the addiction threat and gateway drug blather are nonsense.
I suggest that Prof. Carroll put aside his nanny cap and learn a bit about marijuana before he writes another scare article. He should stick to the realities of marijuana use in society.
48
Funny, I got the opposite, like he was almost promoting it as harmless.
6
Surely you understand that just because you quit with no problem doesn't mean everyone can.
2
"Addiction threat is nonsense" may be true for you, but not me and many others. Psychological, not physical addiction.
Does this article assume that each and every user will use the same amount of pot all the time and that all users' use is equal? Has the quality/type of pot been examined? I think many issues have been skated over here. The evidence is not all in yet.
10
This article has the same slant as the NASEM report: It discusses the absence of strong evidence of harms in a way that makes it easy to think that absence of evidence implies evidence of absence.
Take the first condition, cancer. Marijuana smoke contains carcinogens; that is not in dispute. For most consumer products, we do not wait for there to be epidemiological evidence of population-level increases in cancer before warning people of those carcinogens or even banning the product.
It is also worth remembering that it is hard to do epi studies of marijuana smoking & cancer because measures of dose are weak (not always distinguishing light from heavy use) and most people who smoke marijuana also smoke tobacco and so are usually excluded from the studies. The remaining minority of people who smoke marijuana but not tobacco may be atypical in other ways that compromises the validity of comparisons with a control group of non-smokers.
I suspect that if some other new recreational consumer product had this track record -- known to expose its users to carcinogens and inherently weak/ambiguous evidence at the population level -- it would not be given a simple green light.
31
To stick with the first issue- there isn't an absence of evidence. There have been several large, well done studies that have concluded that there is no link between marijuana use and increased risk of lung cancer- most notably one from UCLA in 2005.
135
todji,
Agreed, but you left out the kicker of Donald Tashkin's, (professor of pulmonology at UCLA) study.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse supported Tashkin's marijuana-related research over the decades and gave him a grant to conduct a large, population-based, case-controlled study that would prove definitively that heavy, long-term marijuana use increases the risk of lung and upper-airways cancers. What Tashkin and his colleagues found, however, disproved their hypothesis. The study revealed that components of marijuana smoke, although harmful to cells in respiratory tissue, somehow prevent them from becoming malignant. It turned out that increased marijuana use did not result in higher rates of lung and pharyngeal cancer. In cigarette smokers, marijuana actually acted as a cancer suppressant.
I couldn't find a link to the actual study. But many stories such as this one...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR200605...
1
We have 10s of thousands of years worth of data and it conclusively shows that cannabis poses no significant risk to health.
8
As a condition for employment, many jobs require the applicant to take and pass a drug test. I don't see how regular pot smoking is going to coincide with gainful employment. Drug testing is mandated by insurance companies and I don't imagine that will change. I've worked along side people who were high on pot and or alcohol, in many instances, where heavy equipment was involved. It wasn't very safe. Since pot has been normalized for decades in our society I think the only rational to deal with it is to legalize and regulate it. Caveat: I've smoked a lot of pot in my youth but dialed it way back when child rearing became part of my life. Abstinent completely now for many years.
28
You wrote "I've worked along side people who were high on pot and or alcohol, in many instances, where heavy equipment was involved. It wasn't very safe."
I don't think anyone would argue this point. However, just because someone drinks at home or smokes a joint at home on their own time and doesn't come to work high or drunk, is no reason to eliminate them as a candidate for employment.
15
Meanwhile, drug testing has fallen by the wayside in many industries. Look at startups, or really any industry trying to attract and retain millennial talent. Few drug test, because they'll end up filtering out too much of the "good" with the "bad."
13
States are already making it illegal to test for cannabis. Once it is removed from schedule they will not test for metabolites in fat anymore. They will still test for impairment on the job same as if you show up to work drunk. Employers are already dropping testing because demand is skyrocketing for employees.
8