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- Researchers say they looked at 9,000 pregnancies and concluded cannabis is associated with a number of unhealthy pregnancy outcomes.
- They noted that they used testing rather than self-reporting, as in other studies, because of the amount of contradictory information about cannabis’ effect on pregnancies.
- The researchers concluded that exposure to cannabis was associated with a 1.5-fold increase in risk for people who are pregnant.
A study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) may not clear the air entirely, but researchers say their findings do determine that pregnant people can be at greater health risk if they are using cannabis.
The University of Utah researchers looked at more than 9,000 pregnant women from eight medical centers across the United States.
They concluded that cannabis is associated with “a composite measure of unhealthy pregnancy outcomes, especially low birth weight, and that higher exposure is associated with higher risks.”
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So, What’s Wrong With Marijuana? Dr Drew Pinsky – Physician & Addiction Medicine Specialist, unpacks the reality, not the hype, of cannabis use. “Two of my family members are among these statistics, one developed an addition, the other psychosis.”
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A critique by Neil O’Connell of Brunel University London found that 10 studies led by Marco Monticone of Italy’s University of Cagliari in Italy had inconsistencies including data that diverged from almost all similar studies, impossible statistical significance values, and duplicate or very similar data.
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Oral cannabidiol (CBD) as add-on to paracetamol for painful chronic osteoarthritis of the knee: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.
Background: Painful knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is common, pharmacological treatment, however, is often hampered by limited tolerability. Cannabidiol, which preclinically showed anti-inflammatory, analgesic activity, could supplement established analgesics, but robust clinical trials are lacking. The aim of our study was to investigate the effects of oral high-dose CBD administered over 8 weeks on pain, function and patient global assessment as an add-on to continued paracetamol in chronic symptomatic KOA.
Methods: Prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel-group study. Single center, Outpatient Clinic, Department of Special Anaesthesia and Pain Therapy at Medical University of Vienna, Austria. Eligibility criteria included: age: 18–98 years; painful KOA; score ≥5 on the pain subscale of the Western Ontario and McMasters Universities Osteoarthritis (WOMAC) Index; KOA confirmed by imaging. Participants were on continued dosage of paracetamol 3 g/d and randomly assigned by web-based software 1:1 to oral cannabidiol 600 mg/d (n = 43) or placebo (n = 43). Study period: 8 weeks. Primary outcome: Change in WOMAC pain subscale scores (0 = no pain, 10 = worst possible pain) from baseline to week 8 of treatment. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04607603. Trial is completed.
Interpretation: In KOA patients, oral high-dose add-on cannabidiol had no additional analgesic effect compared to adding placebo to continued paracetamol. Our results do not support the use of cannabidiol as an analgesic supplement in KOA
(Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666776223001965 )
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Researchers examined cannabis use among heroin users over a 20-year period.
With cannabis marketing propaganda proliferating in the commercialized settings, it’s no wonder nearly 44% of US adults think marijuana is safer than tobacco.
People with heroin dependency don't use less of that drug if they start also using cannabis, according to a new study.
The findings cast some doubt on the idea that cannabis might help people reduce their dependence on opioids, experts say.
"Despite suggestions that cannabis may be used as a method for reducing opioid use, we found no evidence to suggest a relationship between the use of these [substances]," Dr. Jack Wilson, a researcher at The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use at the University of Sydney.
"Increasing the availability of cannabis is unlikely to have an impact one way or the other on the opioid crisis and overdose death rate," said Dr. Andrew Saxon, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and a member of the American Psychiatric Association's council on addiction psychiatry.
The study found that cannabis use was very common among those who were dependent on heroin. However, there wasn't a consistent relationship between the patterns of use of the two drugs, and no evidence to suggest that cannabis use reduced long-term opioid use.