This week, a team from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports that heavy marijuana use can damage the pleasure center of the brain ?. Meanwhile, UK researchers say they understand why pot makes you paranoid. But to focus research on the "wrong side" of cannabis give little attention to drugs? Science spoke to Ian Mitchell, an emergency physician at the University of Southern Medical Program of British Columbia in Kamloops, Canada, and author of the blog Cannabis clinical context in which said research the influences of politics in this controversial area. As a doctor recommends medical marijuana to patients, it follows the drug research and often critical studies he believes are based on outdated information or are made with a bias of anti-cannabis.
This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: What do you think of the NIDA study?
A: They said they were given Ritalin abusers of marijuana and nothing happens. One of the ways you could interpret that's OK, these pleasure centers are damaged. But you could also say, perhaps marijuana decreases the effects of [Ritalin] on people. It would also be right to interpret
Q:.? Why do we hear more about studies that show negative effects of marijuana
A: NIDA cannabis is the research center in America. And mandate, clearly, is to study drug abuse. So they mostly fund studies that address abuse. In America, if you want to perform a study that showed a benefit of cannabis, we could not do that because NIDA could not give you samples to use. So there was no testing [on potential medical benefits] did. For example, there has not been a good test to study the potential of marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. They could not get it done, because of all these political obstacles
Q :. Laws change for Comment example, legalization in Colorado and Washington Uruguay [1945006?] -influencing research on marijuana
A: research on marijuana is flowering. States like Colorado are allocating portions of revenues from marijuana sales for research. This will be very useful, because this money [unlike NIDA funding] will be free to apply to the search of benefits. There are certainly a lot more interest, and the political situation, I think has improved significantly.
I think it's also very important to monitor social data on recreational use. Now, Washington and Colorado, they are monitoring data on traffic accidents and deaths, pedestrian accidents, suicide, homicide rates, that kind of thing. This is an extremely large amount of data that has not really been followed so far. Now that recreational use is legal in these areas, it is much easier to study. In areas where it is illegal, you can not really ask people what kind of behavior because they do not want to get arrested
Q :. Is there a danger that research into the medical benefits of marijuana will be politicized, too? Sometimes you will hear anecdotal evidence of marijuana shrinking tumors , for example
A :. Absolutely, and I think that is a big concern. But this is why research must be done, because we have all these little stories of people saying, "I am this and my cancer better." And it is far from good enough evidence to start changing convenient.
there is a lot of criticism in search of cannabis in all, and I expect to continue. Thus, studies should be good. They must be of excellent quality, and they must be examined. And I'm sure they will, very closely.
0 Komentar