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The benefits and harms of marijuana, explained by the most thorough research review yet

Marijuana has been with humans in some way or another for thousands of years. But after all this time, there is still a lot of public debate about what, exactly, pot’s risks and benefits are.

A recent review of the research from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine attempts to fill the gap in our knowledge. By combing through more than 10,000 studies published since 1999, the review, conducted by more than a dozen experts, provides the clearest look at the scientific evidence on marijuana yet.

The research finds both some strong benefits and major downsides to cannabis. It seems to be promising for chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, and cancer patients.…

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Featured

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Within the timeframe of the legalization of recreational cannabis, there's been a rise in cannabis “use disorder” and the diagnosis of schizophrenia. It's become a chicken or egg which-came-first problem. A new study suggests cannabis is the gateway, creating 15% of new cases of schizophrenia annually.

 5 recent scientific findings that change what we know about cannabis

As legal restrictions loosen, scientists are investigating long held beliefs that cannabis has few side effects and can effectively relieve pain.

 The Heart of the Matter: What National Geographic Got Wrong About Cannabis

atching flak about a cannabis lifestyle is so overplayed, most of us in the industry laugh it off with the flick of a cherried ash. Especially as cannabis crusaders continue to prove it all wrong. Top-tier athletes use cannabis to get their head in the game and recover better afterward. High-level executives are making crucial decisions daily, taking a puff of a doinker on their lunch break, or microdosing with a cannabis energy drink instead of coffee.

Articles of Interest

Cannabis, Psychosis, and the Legal Implications: Chicken or Egg?

Additionally, although risk of cannabis use in triggering psychosis is recognized, the risk of use on ongoing psychotic disorders and in the exacerbation of other disorders (involving mood, concentration, and other symptoms) are not fully understood.

Pot Shops Should Celebrate 4/20 ⎯ By Closing for the Day

April 20th is a sort of Black Friday for the cannabis industry, with pot users flocking to dispensaries to celebrate the closest thing they have to a national holiday. But in the midst of COVID-19, that’s exactly why dispensaries should just say no.

Proponents Should Not Overlook Legitimate Concerns About Cannabis (Mis)use

It's a new day for marijuana, with mounting evidence about the potential medicinal benefits and a general public that's moving past "reefer madness" sensationalism about potential harms. But intellectually honest discussion by legalization advocates means not throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

The Dirty Secret of California's Cannabis: It's Dirty

As cannabis use goes recreational in California, producers are facing a reckoning: They’ll either have to clean up their act, or get out of the legal market.

There's Still So Much We Need to Learn About Weed—and Fast

UC Berkeley opened the Cannabis Research Center to start tackling some of these social and environmental unknowns. With its proximity to the legendary growing regions of Northern California, the center can start to quantify this historically secretive industry, measuring its toll on the environment and looking at how existing rules affect the growers themselves. The goal is to create a body of data to inform future policies, making cannabis safer for all.

A Guide to All the (Technically) Legal Cannabinoids You Can Buy Right Now

A legal loophole has led to an explosion in hemp-derived ways to get high. Here’s what you can buy—and what researchers say you need to keep in mind.

A User's Guide to Drug Apps

From validating your parking to validating your love life, it’s easy to say there’s an app for everything. But could scoring drugs (or a drug buddy) be as convenient as ordering take out? The blossoming weed industry argues that it should be. Here is a guide (and a Los Angeles-based user's commentary) to the apps that might make your life as a recreational drug user easier, more interesting, and definitely more tech savvy.

America Doesn’t Understand Gateway Drugs

More teens now try marijuana before alcohol or cigarettes. This complicates a long-held narrative about how people spiral into drug abuse.

Can you overdose on weed?

You probably can’t blaze yourself to death, but your body could be miserable if you proceed without caution.

Canada just legalized marijuana. That has big implications for US drug policy

It’s the second country in the world to legalize pot, following Uruguay.

Cannabis gets its high-inducing power from ancient viruses

A new genome map reveals that the genes for THC and CBD production probably came from viral DNA.

Cannabis Is No Ordinary Commodity

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Everything You Need to Know About Marijuana Wax

Over the past year or so, a unique form of marijuana has become popular—it's called marijuana wax. Also known as "ear wax," or simply "wax," this marijuana concentrate is more powerful. Far more powerful. Because it allegedly leads to a quicker, stronger high, wax is said to be the strongest form of marijuana on the market.

Highly Potent Weed Has Swept The Market, Raising Concerns About Health Risks

As more states legalize marijuana, more people in the U.S. are buying and using weed — and the kind of weed they can buy has become much stronger. That concerns scientists who study marijuana and its effects on the body, as well as emergency room doctors who say they're starting to see more patients who come into the ER with weed-associated issues.

Is Cannabis Good or Bad for Mental Health?

The evidence says it can go either way.

Is Legalizing Marijuana Too Risky?

Readers discuss an Op-Ed that argued that the health risks are being ignored as more states legalize pot.

It’s Time for a New Discussion of Marijuana’s Risks

You may reasonably decide the benefits outweigh the harms, but you should know about those potential harms.

Jury Nullification: When the Spirit of Justice Should Rise Above the Law

Just about every American knows that juries have the power to rule whether a defendant deserves to be convicted of a crime. What few Americans know is that a jury has legal power to disregard the facts of the case and exonerate a defendant who has broken a law the jury sees as unjust.

Legal Marijuana Is The Fastest-Growing Industry In The U.S.: Report

Legal marijuana is the fastest-growing industry in the United States and if the trend toward legalization spreads to all 50 states, marijuana could become larger than the organic food industry.

Many heavy pot users suffer severe nausea—and they’ve all landed on the same weird solution

Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) is a condition where heavy marijuana users (those who smoke 20 times a month or more) are frequently wracked with bouts of intense abdominal pain, along with severe nausea and vomiting. And the vast majority of people who experience these symptoms all mysteriously arrive at the same solution. CHS is still poorly understood, but researchers are making strides in identifying and characterizing its origins. A new study by Joseph Habboushe, an emergency medicine professor at New York University Langone/Bellevue Medical Center, suggests that perhaps one-third of the 8.3 million heavy users in the U.S. who present with nausea experience CHS. And there's one thing almost all of them have in common: Their incessant need for hot showers.

Marijuana for Moms

In states where weed is legal, new mild cannabis products are catching on with parents.

Marijuana is a relatively safe drug — with some risks

Overall, marijuana is a relatively safe drug — certainly less harmful than some of the drugs that are legal today, and potentially beneficial to some people’s health through its medical use. But it’s not harmless.

Marijuana Is More Dangerous Than You Think

As legalization spreads, more Americans are becoming heavy users of cannabis, despite its links to violence and mental illness.

No, smoking weed will not protect you against COVID-19

Let's be blunt: Don't consume cannabis to prevent COVID.

Nobody really knows what smoking pot does to your lungs

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Now that cannabis is legal, let’s use it to tackle the opioid crisis

The legalization of cannabis for adult use in Canada is one of the biggest national public policy shifts that many of us will ever witness in our lifetimes. This historic change in drug policy was proposed by the Canadian government as a way to promote public health, as the country grapples with some of the highest cannabis consumption rates of the developed world, including among adolescents. Meanwhile, Canada is struggling to contain an entirely different substance-related problem: The opioid overdose epidemic.

Presidential Mercy as a Means to More Just Jurisprudence

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THC! CBD! Terpenoids! Cannabis Science Is Getting Hairy

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The 11 Stupidest Arguments Against Legalizing Marijuana

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As marijuana restrictions ease, consumers are navigating a list of names that may seem nonsensical—but can hold clues to what you're buying.

Will Smoking Pot Make Me Vomit Forever?

Cyclic vomiting syndrome is on the rise among adults, and marijuana use may be partially to blame.

Resources

High Times

HIGH TIMES is the world's No. 1 resource for cannabis information and culture.

Leafly

The world's largest cannabis strain resource. Discover over 1,000 strains, their effects, flavor profiles, and where to find them!

Marijuana Legalization

All sides re one of the most controversial issues of the century.

Marijuana Policy Project

MPP and MPP Foundation envision a country with public policies that (1) allow for the responsible medical and non-medical use of marijuana, and (2) minimize the harms associated with marijuana consumption and the laws that manage its use.

Marijuana.com

Marijuana.com is the leading cannabis-related message forum and news site for in-depth, comprehensive cannabis strain and product education, marijuana media, growshop information and pricing. Marijuana.com has been in operation since 1995 and is owned and operated by Weedmaps.com, the most widely used medical and recreational marijuana dispensary locator in the industry.

MassRoots

Connect with the cannabis community.

The Cannabist

The Cannabist is The Denver Post's home for ideas, people, art, food and news, centered around the culture of cannabis.

WeedMaps

We're a community where medical marijuana patients find and connect with dispensaries.

Cannabis Consumers Campaign

The goal of the Cannabis Consumers Campaign is to create public policy changes by: 1) dispelling the myths and negative stereotypes that perpetuate marijuana prohibition and all its harsh consequences and 2) providing a more positive and accurate image of adults who consume cannabis.

Cannabis News

Informing the public about cannabis.

Cannabis.net

Although the cannabis plant is now ubiquitous, unlike other wide-spread types of hallucinogen (such as Psilocybe 'magic mushrooms' or 'Datura'), it is not native to more than one continent. Cannabis is a plant native to Central Asia that has spread all over the world and is probably the most widely used recreational and usually illegal drug in the world, being smoked from the inner cities of America and Europe to the outlying atolls of Micronesia.

CannabisFacts.ca

Essential information for an informed debate about cannabis policy.

Green Aid

Founded on an activist impulse, GREEN AID seeks to be bold and daring in its efforts "to legislate on behalf of the will of the people." With its focus on the legal and judicial realm, Green Aid will serve as an important vehicle for new points of public dialogue regarding marijuana, not to mention new platforms forms of civic engagement.

Know Cannabis

This website can help you assess your cannabis use, its impact on your life and how to make changes if you want to.

Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse

MAMA's goals are to provide current, scientific drug education to all ages, to offer social and recreational alternatives to drug use, to promote better communication between policy makers, educators, law enforcement, service providers, seniors, parents and youth and to question techniques of advertising all drugs and advertising's effects on the entire population.

National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

NORML's mission is to move public opinion sufficiently to achieve the repeal of marijuana prohibition so that the responsible use of cannabis by adults is no longer subject to penalty.

NDA for Teens

Recognizing that teens want to be treated as equals, NIDA scientists were careful not to preach about the dangers of drug use. Rather, the site delivers science-based facts about how drugs affect the brain and body so that kids will be armed with better information to make healthy decisions.

Schaffer Library of Drug Policy

Materials related to hemp (marijuana), cannabis sativa.

UK Cannabis Internet Activist

UKCIA is a pragmatic cannabis law reform campaign for a drugs policy based on proper control and regulation of the commercial supply, coupled with effective harm reduction measures.

WHO

Cannabis is by far the most widely cultivated, trafficked and abused illicit drug. Half of all drug seizures worldwide are cannabis seizures.