Tag Archives: medicalxpress.com

In this photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, Michael Fasman poses with his dog Hudson at his home in San Francisco. As more states legalize marijuana for humans, more pet owners are giving their furry companions cannabis-based extracts, ointments and edibles marketed to treat everything from arthritis and anxiety to seizures and cancer.

Australia's first medical marijuana farm received its growers' licence Wednesday, opening up domestic production of the drug for people seeking relief from serious illnesses.


The Cann Group, who last month received a cannabis research license, was awarded the cultivation permit after a "rigorous on-site security assessment".
"This major development will lead to improved access to domestically produced medicinal cannabis products for Australian patients," said Health Minister Greg Hunt.
"We are now making it easier to access medicinal cannabis products more rapidly, while still maintaining strict safeguards for individual and community safety," he added, with more licences expected

Cannabis indica.

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.

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.

Credit: CC0 Public Domain
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.