The head of the nation\u2019s top federal drug research agency says that she\u2019s yet to see evidence that occasional marijuana use by adults is harmful.<\/p>\n
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow made the remarks in an interview with FiveThirtyEight that was published on Tuesday. It\u2019s a notable admission given that the agency has historically gone to great lengths to highlight the potential risks of cannabis consumption.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no evidence to my knowledge that occasional [adult] marijuana use has harmful effects. I don\u2019t know of any scientific evidence of that,\u201d Volkow said<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t think it has been evaluated. We need to test it.\u201d<\/p>\n The quote stood out in an article that generally attempts to highlight possible risks of cannabis use while providing an overview of studies that run the gamut on marijuana health impacts. Volkow also said she found it \u201csurprising\u201d that research has indicated that cannabis consumers tend to have a lower body mass index (BMI).<\/p>\n \u201cBMI is lower in marijuana users, and that was very surprising, and yet we know that high BMI, particularly the older you get, can have negative effects,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is why we need to study it.\u201d<\/p>\n This is certainly not to say that the NIDA director supports marijuana commercialization efforts. But to advocates, it\u2019s encouraging to see a federal health official rely on the science and acknowledge that, as it stands, the evidence hasn\u2019t pointed to serious harms for adults who occasionally use cannabis.<\/p>\n She did tell FiveThirtyEight that she is \u201cabsolutely\u201d concerned about use by young people and said that daily consumption of high-THC products \u201c\u201ccan have harmful effects even on the adult brain.\u201d<\/p>\n But Volkow has taken a fairly level-headed approach to marijuana, pointing out potential dangers for adolescents and pregnant women, for example, while at the same time acknowledging that her expectations about the impact of state-level reforms haven\u2019t always come to fruition.<\/p>\n For example, she recognized\u00a0in a podcast interview released in August that\u00a0cannabis legalization has not led to increased youth use<\/a>\u00a0despite her prior fears, and she spoke about the therapeutic potential of certain psychedelics that have long been deemed \u201cdangerous\u201d under federal law.<\/p>\n The official has also emphasized the need to address substance misuse with a public health lens, rather than subject people to criminalization for using drugs.<\/p>\n She said in an op-ed earlier this month that \u201cstigma remains one of the biggest obstacles to confronting America\u2019s current drug crisis,\u201d and the government bears some responsibility<\/a> in perpetuating those stigmas.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernment policies, including criminal justice measures, often reflect\u2014and contribute to\u2014stigma,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen we penalize people who use drugs because of an addiction, we suggest that their use is a character flaw rather than a medical condition. And when we incarcerate addicted individuals, we decrease their access to treatment and exacerbate the personal and societal consequences of their substance use.\u201d<\/p>\n Volkow also talked about how decriminalization, coupled with increased treatment, would represent a superior alternative<\/a>\u00a0to incarcerating people over drugs in a recent interview with Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n In other recent remarks, she argued that there\u2019s no need for further research to prove that the criminalization of drugs has disproportionately impacted communities of color<\/a>.<\/p>\n And when it comes to marijuana research, the official has said that scientists should be allowed to investigate products from state-legal dispensaries instead of using only government-grown plants.<\/p>\n NIDA separately\u00a0submitted a report to congressional lawmakers<\/a>\u00a0emphasizing that the Schedule I status of controlled substances like cannabis is preventing or discouraging research into their potential risks and benefits.<\/p>\n It also said that current restrictions that block scientists from studying the actual cannabinoid products that consumers can purchase at dispensaries is impeding research to an extent that constitutes a public health concern.<\/p>\n Credit Unions Urge Congress To Pass Marijuana Banking Reform Through Defense Bill<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Martin Alonso<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Top Federal Drug Official Says There\u2019s \u2018No Evidence\u2019 That Occasional Marijuana Use Is Harmful For Adults<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The head of the nation\u2019s top federal drug research agency says that she\u2019s yet to see evidence that occasional marijuana use by adults is harmful. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow made the remarks in an interview with FiveThirtyEight that was published on Tuesday. It\u2019s a notableContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,15462],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51470"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51471,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51470\/revisions\/51471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Top Federal Drug Official Says There\u2019s \u2018No Evidence\u2019 That Occasional Marijuana Use Is Harmful For Adults<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"