Perhaps there is no industry that is more exciting than the legal spread of marijuana. Last year, Canada became the first industrialized country in the world to legalize the use of recreational cannabis. 33 US states have also approved medical marijuana since 1996. What used to be a completely forbidden topic has become a relatively common phenomenon in North America and most of Europe.
A survey showed that two out of three Americans now support the widespread legalization of marijuana. In addition, a separate study from an independent university in Queennipack found that nine out of ten people believe that doctors should prescribe marijuana for medical purposes more often.
Investors are really looking for some changes at the federal level in the United States. The US will become the leading cannabis market in the world, in terms of future sales. This, experts say, could make the US the most profitable marijuana market in the world for business and investors.
American surgeon Jerome Adams has published an advisory article entitled “Marijuana use and developing brain”. The edition notes “What kind of legalization of marijuana is the majority of the US population for? Leading health officials and regulators do not support the idea of legalizing cannabis.”
In particular, the article written by Adams touches upon a number of worrying trends, including an increase in the use of marijuana among adolescents as well as among pregnant women.
The presented data show that the concentration of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) in cannabis tripled from 4% to 12% between 1995 and 2014. The national survey also found that cannabis use among pregnant women doubled to 7 percent from 3.4 percent between 2002 and 2017.
Adams says in his article that officials from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services have noted an increase in marijuana use among adolescents. This, according to the author, damages their brains at a young age.
The general surgeon, Jerome Adams, stressed the importance of protecting our country from the health risks with the use of marijuana, during adolescence and pregnancy. “Drug use … endangers our most valuable resource, the youth of our country,” Adams writes.
He concludes that “unfortunately, it can take a long time for all systems to work together to get marijuana legalization out of the country.”
And more are considering bills to do the same. Yet, while many people are using marijuana, the FDA has only approved it for treatment of two rare and severe forms of epilepsy, Dravet syndrome and, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.
Why hasn’t more research been done? One reason is that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) considers marijuana a Schedule I drug, the same as heroin, LSD, and ecstasy, and likely to be abused and lacking in medical value. Because of that, researchers need a special license to study it, says Marcel Bonn-Miller, Ph.D. Bonn-Miller is a substance abuse specialist at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
That may not change anytime soon. The DEA considered reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule II drug like Ritalin or oxycodone but decided to keep it as a Schedule I drug.
The agency did, however, agreed to support additional research on marijuana and make the process easier for researchers.”Research is critically needed because we have to be able to advise patients and doctors on the safe and effective use of cannabis,” Bonn-Miller says.
He shared some background on medical marijuana’s uses and potential side effects.
The drug can also affect judgment and coordination, which could lead to accidents and injuries. When used during the teenage years when the brain is still developing, marijuana might affect IQ and mental function.
People have turned to cannabis as an herbal remedy for centuries, and today people use it to relieve symptoms or treat various diseases. The federal government still considers it illegal, but some states allow it to treat specific health problems. The FDA, the US agency that regulates medicines, hasn’t approved the plant as a treatment for any conditions.
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