Recreational use of marijuana

The District of Columbia is also part of the twenty-nine states that have made marijuana available for either medical or recreational use.
From a recent survey published in the journal Addiction, consumption of marijuana has increased by a big margin across the United States. However, the rampant increase in usage is not directly linked to the legalization of marijuana in participating states. For this reason, there are increased public health concerns attributed to the rise in marijuana usage.

What are the medical benefits of marijuana?

From the ongoing research, there is considerable positive feedback which tends to insinuate that there are plenty of conditions which could be toned down or even treated from usage of marijuana. These are listed below:

Chronic pain

Last year, a massive survey from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine assessed more than 10,000 scientific studies on the medical gains and detrimental repercussions of consumption of marijuana. One sector that the report focused on was the consumption of medical marijuana to cure recurring pain. Persistent pain is a dominant cause of disability and more than 25 million adults in the U.S can relate to it. The analysis came to a conclusion that marijuana, or those products containing cannabinoids are quite successful at handling the continuous pain. Cannabinoids are the active elements in marijuana, or other compounds that act on the same receptors in the brain as marijuana.

Alcoholism and drug addiction

Another extensive survey of evidence, published last year in the journal Clinical Psychology Review, reported that using marijuana may aid those with alcohol or opioid addictions to get rid of the dependencies. However, this observation is subject to questioning; the National Academies of Sciences review states that marijuana use basically leads to increased tendencies for abusing, and becoming dependent on, other substances. Also, the longer someone indulges in marijuana consumption, the higher the probability of developing a problem from marijuana dependency. Individuals who began using the drug while they were relatively young are in a more likely position of developing a problem with marijuana use.

Depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and social anxiety

The report put out in the Clinical Psychology Review looked into all published scientific literature that explored the use of marijuana to handle symptoms of mental illness. Its authors came across considerable evidence supporting the use of marijuana to subdue depression and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. That being said, they put out a disclaimer that states that marijuana is an inappropriate treatment for certain mental health conditions e.g. bipolar disorder and psychosis. The review implies that there is a proportion of evidence that hints that marijuana could aid in getting rid of symptoms of social anxiety; on the same note, this is contradicted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine review, which instead discovered that habitual users of marijuana may actually be at increased risk of social anxiety.

Cancer

Evidence indicates that oral cannabinoids are adequate in countering nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy; also, some minor research has discovered that smoked marijuana may also come in handy to getting rid of these symptoms. A couple of studies on cancer cells state that cannabinoids may either derail the growth of or wipe out certain types of cancer. However, initial research that tested this hypothesis in humans came to a discovery whereby although cannabinoids are a safe form of treatment, they are not adequate at containing or getting rid of cancer completely.

Multiple sclerosis

The temporary application of oral cannabinoids may improve symptoms of spasticity among people with multiple sclerosis. On the other hand, the positive effects are quite modest as proved by tests that have been conducted.

Epilepsy

In a different survey published in 2017, it was reported that a marijuana compound referred to as cannabidiol may be effective at lessening the severity of seizures among children with Dravet syndrome, which is an uncommon form of epilepsy. Dravet syndrome seizures are protracted, recurring, and quite fatal therefore they could easily lead to death. As a matter of fact, 1 in 5 children with Dravet syndrome die before they reach the age of 20. As the procedure for conducting the survey, 120 children and teenagers with Dravet syndrome, all of whom were aged between 2 and 18, were spontaneously authorized to take an oral cannabidiol solution or a placebo for about 14 weeks, along with their regular medication.

MRI scans of the brain

Researchers imply that marijuana could go a long way in treating epilepsy. The surveyors discovered that the children who received the cannabidiol solution recorded a reduced number of seizures, from around 12 to 6 per month. Three children receiving cannabidiol recorded zero seizures at all. Children who received the placebo also saw a slight reduction in seizures— the average went down from 15 to 14 seizures per month during the survey. The researchers state that this 39 percent reduction in seizure instances provides profound evidence that the compound can help people living with Dravet syndrome. Also, their paper has the first well thought-out scientific data to illustrate this. However, the survey also discovered a high proportion of side effects linked to cannabidiol. More than 9 in 10 of the children treated with cannabidiol experienced side effects. The most prevalent are vomiting, fatigue, and fever.