Adolescent boys who regularly use marijuana are at increased risk of experiencing persistent, subclinical psychotic symptoms, particularly paranoia and hallucinations, even after they stop using the drug, a new study suggests. "Perhaps the most concerning finding is that the effect of prior weekly marijuana use persists even after adolescents have stopped using for 1 year," lead investigator Jordan Bechtold, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania, and colleagues note.
"Given the recent proliferation of marijuana legalization across the country, it will be important to enact preventive policies and programs to keep adolescents from engaging in regular marijuana use, as chronic use seems to increase their risk of developing persistent subclinical psychotic symptoms," they add.
Pot for the poor! That could be the new slogan of marijuana legalization advocates. In 1996, California became the first state to legalize the use of medical marijuana. There are now 25 states that permit the use of marijuana, including four as well as the District of Columbia that permit it for purely recreational use.
Colorado and Washington were the first to pass those laws in 2012. At least five states have measures on the ballot this fall that would legalize recreational use. And that number is only likely to rise with an all-time high (no pun intended) of 58 percent of Americans (according to a Gallup poll last year) favoring legalization.
The effects of these new laws have been immediate. One study, which collected data from 2011-12 and 2012-13, showed a 22 percent increase in monthly use in Colorado. The percentage of people there who used daily or almost daily also went up. So have marijuana-related driving fatalities. And so have incidents of children being hospitalized for accidentally ingesting edible marijuana products. But legalization and our growing cultural acceptance of marijuana have disproportionately affected one group in particular: the lower class. A recent study by Steven Davenport of RAND and Jonathan Caulkins of Carnegie Mellon notes that “despite the popular stereotype of marijuana users as well-off and well-educated . . . they lag behind national averages” on both income and schooling.
A massive study published this month in the Journal of Drug Issues found that the proportion of marijuana users who smoke daily has rapidly grown, and that many of those frequent users are poor and lack a high-school diploma.
Examining a decade of federal surveys of drug use conducted between 2002 and 2013, study authors Steven Davenport and Jonathan Caulkins paint one of the clearest pictures yet of the demographics of current marijuana use in the U.S. They found that the profile of marijuana users is much closer to cigarette smokers than alcohol drinkers, and that a handful of users consume much of the marijuana used in the U.S.
DALLAS, July 27, 2016 -- Rats' blood vessels took at least three times longer to recover function after only a minute of breathing second-hand marijuana smoke, compared to recovery after a minute of breathing second-hand tobacco smoke, according to new research in Journal of the American Heart Association, the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.
When rats inhaled second-hand marijuana smoke for one minute, their arteries carried blood less efficiently for at least 90 minutes, whereas similar exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke caused blood vessel impairment that recovered within 30 minutes.
"While the effect is temporary for both cigarette and marijuana smoke, these temporary problems can turn into long-term problems if exposures occur often enough and may increase the chances of developing hardened and clogged arteries," said Matthew Springer, Ph.D., study senior author and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco's Division of Cardiology.
Blood vessel function was examined in rats before and after exposure to second-hand marijuana smoke at levels similar to real-world second-hand tobacco smoke.
"Arteries of rats and humans are similar in how they respond to second-hand tobacco smoke, so the response of rat arteries to second-hand marijuana smoke is likely to reflect how human arteries might respond," Springer said.
Smoking cannabis affects the reward centre in a user's brain, scans show
That is the region responsible for releasing 'pleasure' hormone dopamine
In cannabis users, scans show less activity in the reward centre, so a smaller amount of dopamine is released
That dampened, blunted emotional response means a marijuana smoker will need more of the drug to illicit the same reward - raising addiction risk
By LIZZIE PARRY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM PUBLISHED: 07:21 EST, 7 July 2016 | UPDATED: 07:37 EST, 7 July 2016
For most people, the idea of winning some money will ignite a rush of emotions - joy, anticipation, excitement.
If you were to scan their brains at that very moment, you would see a surge of activity in the part of the brain that responds to rewards.
But, for people who've been smoking cannabis, that rush is not as big - and gets smaller and smaller over time, new research suggests.
And that dampened, blunted response may actually increase the risk that marijuana users are more likely to become addicted to pot and other drugs.
Smoking cannabis dampens activity in the brain's reward centre, a new study has shown. The blunted emotional response it provokes, increases the risk that marijuana users will become addicted to the drug, and other addictive substances
Dr Mary Heitzeg, senior author of the new study, a neuroscientist from the University of Michigan Medical School, said: 'What we saw was that over time, marijuana use was associated with a lower response to a monetary reward. 'This means that something that would be rewarding to most people was no longer rewarding to them, suggesting but not proving that their reward system has been "hijacked" by the drug, and that they need the drug to feel reward - or that their emotional response has been dampened.'
The findings come from the first long-term study of young marijuana users, that tracked brain responses to rewards over time, and is published in the JAMA Psychiatry. They reveal measurable changes in the brain's reward system with cannabis use - even when other factors like alcohol use and cigarette smoking were taken into account.
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