German authorities say they expect to have a cannabis-growing program up and running in 2019 after the country approved legislation allowing some patients to get the drug as a prescription medication.


Germany's Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices said Friday that it's setting up a "cannabis agency" to oversee the growing program. It plans to solicit bids from throughout the European Union to find companies to run it.
The program's first cannabis is expected to be available in 2019.

Teens should think twice if they believe the negative effects from misusing medication to treat ADHD are short-term. In fact, problems associated with prescription stimulant misuse can last through age 35, according to a new University of Michigan study.

But using medication to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as prescribed by doctors does not show long-term negative effects.
However, high school students who use prescription stimulant medication on their own—without a doctor's orders—are less likely to obtain a four-year college degree and more likely to develop a substance use disorder as adults.

Credit: shutterstock.com/Rice University
A rise in the use of synthetic cannabinoids (syncans) in Houston has prompted law enforcement officials to target sellers and users of the drug. However, taking a public-health-based approach toward curbing the use of syncans, which have caused dangerous and sometimes fatal side effects in extreme cases, may be a more effective use of city resources, according to a new report from a drug policy expert at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Marketed as "legal weed," syncans are not marijuana, according to the report's author, Katharine Neill, the Baker Institute's Alfred C.

Credit: UCLA
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Vital Statistics Reports, more than one in five U.S. births now occur in states where marijuana is legal. That's triggered a concern among health professionals about the use of marijuana by pregnant women.

Along with the broader availability of marijuana comes the perception that it is a harmless substance, health professionals say.

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People with intermittent explosive disorder (IED)—a condition marked by frequent physical or verbal outbursts—are at five times greater risk for abusing substances such as alcohol, tobacco and marijuana than those who don't display frequent aggressive behavior, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Chicago.

In the study, published Feb. 28, 2017 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Emil Coccaro, MD, and colleagues analyzed data from more than 9,200 subjects in the National Comorbidity Survey, a national survey of mental health in the United States.

A dried flower bud of the Cannabis plant. Credit: Public Domain
An influential doctors group is beefing up warnings about marijuana's potential harms for teens amid increasingly lax laws and attitudes on pot use.

Many parents use the drug and think it's OK for their kids, but "we would rather not mess around with the developing brain," said Dr. Seth Ammerman.
The advice comes in a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, published Monday in Pediatrics. The group opposes medical and recreational marijuana use for kids.

Credit: RTI International
Pot brownies may be a thing of the past as there are new edible marijuana products, or edibles, on the market, including chocolates, candies, and cookies.

Michael Vaughn, Ph.D., professor of social work at Saint Louis University, studies preventing and treating problem behaviors in adolescents. Credit: Saint Louis University
Despite reports about the increase in heroin use, more teens believed it was "probably impossible" to get heroin in 2014 than in 2002, according to a Saint Louis University study.

"Overall it's cautious good news," said Michael Vaughn, Ph.D., professor of social work at Saint Louis University and the lead author of the paper. "It's a nuanced picture.

Various pills. Credit: Wikipedia
Nearly 70 percent of prescription opioid medications kept in homes with children are not stored safely, a new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds.

In a national survey of 681 adults who used opioid pain relievers in the past year and had children ages 17 and younger living with them, only 31 percent reported safely storing them away from their children.