Marijuana

AP News - Daily and near-daily marijuana use is now more common than similar levels of drinking in the U.S., according to an analysis of national survey data over four decades. Alcohol is still more widely used, but 2022 was the first time this intensive level of marijuana use overtook high-frequency drinking, said the study’s author, Jonathan Caulkins, a cannabis policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University. “A good 40% of current cannabis users are using it daily or near daily, a pattern that is more associated with tobacco use than typical alcohol use,” Caulkins said. The research, based on data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, was published Wednesday in the journal Addiction. The survey is a highly regarded source of estimates of tobacco, alcohol and drug use in the United States. In 2022, an estimated 17.7 million people used marijuana daily or near-daily compared to 14.7 million daily or near-daily drinkers, according to the study. From 1992 to 2022, the per capita rate of reporting daily or near-daily marijuana use increased 15-fold.

NBC -Teenagers who used cannabis had an 11 times higher risk of developing psychotic disorders compared to teens who did not use the drug, a new study found. The paper from researchers at the University of Toronto adds to a growing body of research that links cannabis to an increased risk of psychotic disorders, particularly in adolescence. Those disorders include schizophrenia, anxiety and depression.When researchers limited their analysis to just emergency room visits and hospitalizations, the increased risk was more apparent, with a 27-fold increase in psychotic disorders in teens who had used the drug. While the study does not directly prove that marijuana is causing psychotic disorders, it's "just hard to believe that it's not related to cannabis," one doctor said. More