(HealthDay)—More than twice as many pregnant 12- to 17-year-olds use marijuana as their nonpregnant peers, and significantly more use the drug than pregnant women in their 20s, according to a letter published online April 17 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.


The new findings stem from a 2002 to 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health that explored marijuana use among 410,000 females ages 12 to 44. About 14,400 survey participants were pregnant at the time of polling. All participants were asked about their pregnancy status and marijuana use during the prior month.

Credit: Vera Kratochvil/public domain
Young adults get more pleasure from smoking cigarettes while they are drinking alcohol than they do while using marijuana, according to a new UC San Francisco study.

The study is the first to document that tobacco accompanied by alcohol provides cigarette smokers with a greater perceived reward than when they smoke cigarettes while using marijuana.
The study will be published online April 18 in the journal Addiction Research & Theory.
"What we've learned may have important implications for understanding differences in co-use of cigarettes with alcohol versus marijuana," said co-first author Noah R.

Human skin structure. Credit: Wikipedia
Cannabinoids contain anti-inflammatory properties that could make them useful in the treatment of a wide-range of skin diseases, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

The new study, published online recently in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, summarizes the current literature on the subject and concludes that pharmaceuticals containing cannabinoids may be effective against eczema, psoriasis, atopic and contact dermatitis.
Currently, 28 states allow comprehensive medical cannabis programs with close to 1 in 10 adult cannabis users in the U.S. utilizing the drug for medical reasons.

This Feb. 19, 2013, file photo, shows OxyContin pills arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt.

Dr Alan Kivitz examines Heidi Wyandt, 27, at the Altoona Center for Clinical Research in Altoona, Pa., on Wednesday, March 29, 2017, where she is helping test an experimental non-opioid pain medication for chronic back pain related to a work related injury she received in 2014. With about 2 million Americans hooked on opioid painkillers, researchers and drug companies are searching for less addictive drugs to treat pain. (AP Photo/Chris Post)
Tummy tucks really hurt. Doctors carve from hip to hip, slicing off skin, tightening muscles, tugging at innards.

A grey-haired woman in her early 60s daintily lifts small trays topped with different varieties of marijuana to her nose, sniffing each of them carefully.

"Which one would you recommend for someone with medical issues?" she asks salesman Paul Monot, co-founder of the DrGreen shop in western Switzerland.
Posters of bright green cannabis plants advertise its wares, which, like those sold openly in a growing number of shops across Switzerland, are completely legal.
There is a catch however: They won't make you high.
"There is no psychotropic effect of our weed," says Monot, at his store in

The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will unveil legislation Thursday to fully legalize recreational marijuana use, making Canada only the second country to do so, after Uruguay.

Its legalization and regulation would follow in 2018, in time for Canada's national day on July 1.
The country's ministers of health, justice, public safety and national revenue, as well as a former-cop-turned-MP who spearheaded the initiative, will make the announcement.
The stated aim is to reduce policing and prosecutions, and keep it out of the hands of children.
Canadian political leaders have also decried the current anti-drug regime as a

Two experts with opposing views squared off on the hotly debated topic of how best to control the exploding opioid epidemic in the U.S.- with increasing regulation of physician prescribing practices or by better educating patients and doctors. The fascinating and informative discussion is published in a Point/Counterpoint article in the peer-reviewed, open access journal Healthcare Transformation.

In the article entitled "Point/Counterpoint: Opioid Abuse in the United States," Moderator Antonia Chen, MD, MBA, Associate Editor of Healthcare Transformation, led a lively, straight-talking conversation between Jane C.

Uruguay will become the world's first country to allow recreational marijuana to be sold in pharmacies starting in July, the

Walk into Brett Vapnik's medicinal marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles and the pungent aroma of pot is good and strong.

All day long, hundreds of people file in and out—a sign of the strength of the pot industry, despite big question marks posed by the new administration of President Donald Trump.
For now Vapnik, who also has a small pot garden in his store, just sells marijuana for medicinal purposes: from the plant itself, with varying degrees of potency, to beauty products and even chocolate and cookies, all laced with herb.
But next year he expects sales to triple