A team from Oregon State University identified Hemp, known scientifically as Cannabis sativa, compounds via a chemical screening technique.
Hemp is a source of fibre, food and animal feed, and multiple hemp extracts and compounds are added to cosmetics, body lotions, dietary supplements and food, said Richard van Breemen, a researcher at varsity.
The team found that a pair of cannabinoid acids bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, blocking a critical step in the process the virus uses to infect people. The findings were published in the Journal of Natural Products.
The compounds are cannabigerolic acid, or CBGA, and cannabidiolic acid, CBDA, and the spike protein is the same drug target used in Covid-19 vaccines and antibody therapy. A drug target is any molecule critical to the process a disease follows, meaning its disruption can thwart infection or disease progression.
"These cannabinoid acids are abundant in hemp and in many hemp extracts," van Breemen said. "They are not controlled substances like THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, and have a good safety profile in humans. And our research showed the hemp compounds were equally effective against variants of SARS-CoV-2, including variant B.1.1.7 (Alpha), which was first detected in the UK, and variant B.1.351 (Beta), first detected in South Africa."
Lab tests showed that cannabigerolic acid and cannabidiolic acid prevented infection of human epithelial cells by the coronavirus spike protein and prevented entry of SARS-CoV-2 into cells.
"These compounds can be taken orally and have a long history of safe use in humans," van Breemen said. "They have the potential to prevent as well as treat infection by SARS-CoV-2. CBDA and CBGA are produced by the hemp plant as precursors to CBD and CBG, which are familiar to many consumers. However, they are different from the acids and are not contained in hemp products."
An exclusive investigation by OTV revealed gross violation of rules inside the Bargarh Sub-Jail. Bribe the jail authorities and you can get anything inside the jail including liquor, marijuana and even a mobile phone.
Binay Khamari who is serving a life sentence takes money from his fellow inmates and provides them with various kinds of intoxicants. He has a list of the prisoners and their choices of intoxicants. And the whole show is run by Khamari in the knowledge of jail authorities. Binay also has a personal gym and an electric shaver at his disposal.
Binay's younger brother Bira Khamari is also serving life sentence and he is free to roam outside the jail wearing civil clothes and not jail uniform. He supplies the intoxicants and various other materials inside the jail and all this happens under the nose of jail authorities.
While an under-trial prisoner Sahil is free to talk on a mobile phone sitting comfortably on a chair in the Pharmacist's room of the jail, the Pharmacist Sarat Jena has made it a part-time business to provide intoxicating medicines to the jail inmates, the pictures of which are with OTV.
The video evidence which OTV has obtained shows the Head Warder Santosh Mishra takes money from the family members of the inmates and Warder Subrat Acharya shows illicit videos to the inmates on his mobile phone in exchange of cash.
The Jailor of the sub-jail was not available for comments on the matter.
A few days back, Mancheswar police had arrested a lady from West Bengal and her associate from Pandara area and seized about 25 kgs of ganja.
However, with the arrest of another member, police have come to know about the modus operandi of this racket which, apart from drug peddling, is also involved in loot and robbery by luring customers through help of the glamour girls.
The arrested youth, identified as Ranjan Sahoo, is said to be closely linked with the mastermind- the arrested Bengali girl and her associate Prasant Sahoo. Police, in course of investigation, have found evidence of the trio holidaying in Goa, Darjeeling and Himachal Pradesh. Besides, Ranjan has a close relationship with the arrested Bengali girl who was being used in drug peddling, flesh trade and robbery.
As informed by sources, the racket shares the mobile numbers of the glamour girls from porn sites and use them to attract potential customers. As the customers arrive to pick up these girls, the members used to rob them. The gang used to rob people in lonely places by using these girls who stop their vehicle on the pretext of giving them a lift. However, such incidents went unreported by the victims in fear of shame. Moreover, the gang members in a bid to stay clear of police, were using these girls to peddle ganja and brown sugar.
“Police is currently questioning the accused and will take necessary action after getting information,” Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi said.
After the arrest of Ranjan Sahoo, police is hopeful of getting more information about the racket.
“I have no links whatsoever with the girl. I came to know about the girl through Prasant Sahoo,” said arrested Ranjan Sahoo.
The effect is due to its active ingredient -- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which like tobacco smoke, pesticides, flame retardants and even obesity can alter sperm.
The findings, from Duke University researchers, showed that THC also affects epigenetics, triggering structural and regulatory changes in the DNA of users' sperm.
"What we have found is that the effects of cannabis use on males and their reproductive health are not completely null, in that there's something about cannabis use that affects the genetic profile in sperm," said Scott Kollins, Professor at Duke.
"We don't yet know what that means, but the fact that more and more young males of child-bearing age have legal access to cannabis is something we should be thinking about," Kollins added, in the paper published in the journal Epigenetics.
THC appeared to impact hundreds of different genes in rats and humans, but many of the genes did have something in common - they were associated with two of the same major cellular pathways, said lead author Susan K. Murphy, Associate Professor at the varsity.
One of the pathways is involved in helping bodily organs reach their full size; the other involves a large number of genes that regulate growth during development. Both pathways can become dysregulated in some cancers.
"In terms of what it means for the developing child, we just don't know," Murphy said.
"It's unknown whether sperm affected by THC could be healthy enough to even fertilise an egg and continue its development into an embryo," she said.
The findings defined regular users as those who smoked marijuana at least weekly for the previous six months. Their sperm were compared to those who had not used marijuana in the past six months and not more than 10 times in their lifetimes.
The higher the concentration of THC in the men's urine, the more pronounced the genetic changes to their sperm were, the team found.
The findings, presented at the World Stroke Congress in Montreal, showed a rise in stroke incidence among marijuana users from 2010-14 while overall stroke prevalence remained stable.
According to the researchers from the University of Toronto, there are over 80 million people currently living with the effects of stroke globally.
For the study, the team evaluated the use of the drug rivaroxaban versus acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) to prevent strokes in patients with an enlarged left atrium of the heart.
The study examined a total of 2.3 million hospitalisations among people who used marijuana recreationally among which 32,231 had a stroke including 19,452 with acute ischemic stroke -- sudden loss of blood circulation to an area of the brain.
"We are seeing a very intriguing signal here, and it has biological plausibility, but it is going to require independent validation before making any changes to practice recommendations," said co-author David Gladstone, Associate Professor from the varsity.
The results showed that the rate of stroke of all types among marijuana users increased from 1.3 to 1.5 per cent.
In addition, the rate of ischemic stroke increased from 0.7 to 0.9 per cent, the team said.
During the five-year period, the prevalence of stroke among all patients was stable, findings revealed, they added.
The researchers concluded that these growing trends of stroke among marijuana users "warrant further prospective studies to evaluate the marijuana-stroke association amidst legalisation of recreational use."
The study, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, suggested that they are also at higher risk of poly substance use than their heterosexual peers.
"This data shows definitively that polysubstance use is an issue among many youth who identify as sexual minorities, meaning they are facing added health risks," said Sarah Dermody, Assistant Professor at the Oregon State University in the US.
"But there are also differences among the subgroups of youth who identify as sexual minorities, suggesting we need to look beyond the averages to understand what factors may be influencing substance use in this population," Dermody added.
Sexual minority is an umbrella term for those who identify with any sexual identity other than heterosexual or who report same-sex attraction or behaviour.
For the study, the team involved more than 15,000 lesbian, gay or bisexual youth. The goal of the study was to better understand the risks associated with polysubstance use, or the use of three or more types of drugs, among sexual minority youth.
The data showed that there is a sizeable number of youth, both heterosexual and sexual minority, who don't use any substances at all, Dermody said.
Also Read: A diet that may help you live longer
But among those who do, she found that those identified as sexual minority youth were at higher risk of using each type of drug -- alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes -- compared to heterosexual youth.
And within the sexual minority youth population, some groups were at more risk than others for using one, two or all three substances, the researchers found.
Bisexual youth faced the largest increase in risk of polysubstance abuse as well as combinations of two substances, while those who identified as lesbian or gay were only at higher risk for some combinations, the team said.
The disparity may be due in part to stress from discrimination, violence and victimisation rooted in their sexual minority status, Dermody noted.
The Cannabis Act passed its final hurdle on Tuesday in a 52-29 vote in the Senate. The bill controls and regulates how the drug can be grown, distributed and sold, the BBC reported.
Canadians will be able to buy and consume cannabis legally as early as this September.
Uruguay became the first country to legalize the sale of cannabis for recreational use in December 2013 while nine US states and the District of Columbia also allow recreational marijuana use.
Thirty US states allow marijuana for medical use.
Cannabis possession first became a crime in Canada in 1923 but medical use has been legal since 2001. The bill will likely receive Royal Assent this week and the government will then choose an official date when the law will come into force.
On Twitter, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised the bill and focused on Canada's youth.
"It's been too easy for our kids to get marijuana - and for criminals to reap the profits. Today, we change that. Our plan to legalize and regulate marijuana just passed the Senate," he said.
Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould also applauded the vote. "This is an historic milestone for progressive policy in Canada," she tweeted. "This legislation will help protect our youth from the risks of cannabis while keeping profits out of the hands of criminals and organized crime."
But some groups objected to the new law, with opposition Conservative politicians and indigenous groups among those voicing concerns.
The government is expected to give the provinces and territories, as well as municipalities, eight to 12 weeks to set up the new marijuana marketplace. This time-frame will also allow industry and police forces to prepare for the new legal framework.
Once the bill is formally approved, adults will be able to carry and share up to 30 grams of legal marijuana in public. They also will be allowed to cultivate up to four plants in their households and prepare products such as edibles for personal use.
However, stringent rules will still govern the purchase and use of marijuana.
Teenagers downing over 10 beers in one night and high on pot were less likely to go to college, get full-time work or even get married, it said.
The findings showed that dependence on alcohol and marijuana might affect young boys more severely as they were more likely to achieve less across all four measures on achievement of life goals -- education, employment, marriage and social economic potential.
"This study found that chronic marijuana use in adolescence was negatively associated with achieving important developmental milestones in young adulthood," said lead author Elizabeth Harari, psychiatrist from the University of Connecticut.
Given the current move in the US toward marijuana legalisation for medicinal and possibly recreational use, awareness of marijuana's potentially deleterious effects will be important moving forward, Harari added.
The results were presented at the American Public Health Association 2017 Annual Meeting and Expo in Atlanta.
For the study, the team included 1,165 young adults from across the US whose habits were first assessed at age 12 and then at two-year intervals until they were between 25 and 34 years old.
Previous research had shown that heavy use of alcohol or marijuana in adolescence affects people developmentally.
This study followed up on that, to look at what happens after age 18, the researchers said.
She has often spoken candidly of her tryst with drugs, and said that she had decided to quit smoking marijuana in June.
In an interview to The Sun, Cyrus insisted she has been sober for weeks, reports dailymail.co.uk.
She is working on her new music and album "Younger Now".
The "Wrecking ball" singer, 24, claimed that smoking the drug had affected her energy levels and hindered her ability as a performer.
"It doesn't allow me to have as much energy as I'd like to have or to focus on my work... I really want to be clear about my music. For me, I wanted to be clear-headed," she said.
The national Monitoring the Future follow-up study, funded by the the National Institute on Drug Abuse, showed in 2016, 39 per cent of full-time college students aged 19-22 indicated that they used marijuana at least once in 12 months, and 22 per cent indicated that they used at least once in 30 days, reports Xinhua news agency.
Both of these 2016 percentages were the highest since 1987, and represented a steady increase since 2006, when they were 30 and 17 per cent, respectively.
Daily or near daily use of marijuana-defined as having used 20 or more times in the prior 30 days-was at 4.9 per cent in 2016; this is among the highest levels seen in more than 30 years, though it has not shown any further rise in the past two years.
"These continuing increases in marijuana use, particularly heavy use, among the nation's college students deserve attention from college personnel as well as students and their parents," John Schulenberg, the current principal investigator of the Monitoring the Future follow-up study, said on Monday.
"We know from our research and that of others that heavy marijuana use is associated with poor academic performance and non-completion of college.
In 2016, 30 per cent of those aged 19-22 perceived regular use of marijuana as carrying great risk of harm, the lowest level reached since 1980.
These findings come from the long term Monitoring the Future study, which has been tracking substance use of all kinds among American college students for the past 37 years.
The name of Babli cropped up twice -- once last year and again lately when the Crime Branch unearthed an inter-state marijuana racket and a man named Babli turned out to be their source, senior officials said.
The marijuana was sent here with a consignment of mangoes which, investigators say, is the modus operandi of the Odisha module.
A senior police official said, modules in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh have emerged to be the major marijuana suppliers in Delhi, with large tracts of land in dense forests there being used for cultivation of the same.
While the Odisha module dispatches marijuana hiding them in trucks transporting fruits and vegetable across India, the Andhra module primarily uses heavy vehicles to transport contraband hiding them under a minimum layer of eatables, which is just the opposite of what the former does.
Hence, as far as logistics is concerned, the frequency of transportation is higher for the Odisha module and lower for that of Andhra, which prefers sending marijuana in bulk, the officer said adding that arrests are also more in connection with the latter.
In the Odisha module, Delhi Police have traced several 'carriers' -- identified as Sonu, Prabhat, Ajmeri, etc -- but succeeded in tracking none. Babli is the latest of them.
Carriers are the intermediaries between the peddlers who bring the contraband here and the investors who put money on marijuana cultivation in the source states, the senior official said.
Earlier this month, a trucker and a peddler, destined to Varanasi, were arrested by the Crime Branch and Babli emerged as their main source. They were taken to Bhubaneswar on transit remand to track Babli down.
The team of five who are presently camped at Bhubaneswar have so far only been able to gather input like Babli, who is based in Bhubaneswar, procures marijuana from official licensed outlets in the state.
"He bribes people and procures much above the quota allotted for individuals. He later sells them off in other states at an exorbitant price," an investigator privy to the operation said.
The team has raided several hideouts where they were informed that Babli could be found, but they have so far not been able to nab him.
But is ganja really that bad? Are there no redeeming features? Is there a case for lifting the ban on ganja imposed since 1985 that has been flouted with impunity?
Before you crucify me for voicing these questions, please listen to what Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Chief Medical Correspondent of CNN, has to say on the issue. In an essay on the CNN website under the title “Why I changed my mind on weed” on August 9, 2013, Dr. Gupta actually ‘apologizes’ for an article “Why I would vote No on pot” in Time magazine four years before. “I apologize because I didn’t look hard enough, until now. I didn’t look far enough. XXX I mistakenly believed the Drug Enforcement Agency listed marijuana as a schedule 1 substance because of sound scientific proof. Surely, they must have quality reasoning as to why marijuana is in the category of the most dangerous drugs that have "no accepted medicinal use and a high potential for abuse." They didn't have the science to support that claim, and I now know that when it comes to marijuana neither of those things are true. It doesn't have a high potential for abuse, and there are very legitimate medical applications. In fact, sometimes marijuana is the only thing that works.” Surely, Dr. Gupta could not have been ‘high on marijuana’ while writing this!
You don’t even have to go by what Dr. Gupta says. Just google it and you will get to read the findings of several peer reviewed scientific papers that bust some popular myths about this recreational drug; ganja is highly addictive (it is not), it is an unmitigated disaster for the human body and could even kill the user in the long run. While it is true that overuse/abuse of pot can indeed mess with your memory and emotions, its medicinal uses have forced doctors worldwide to change their views about it. In an article published on April 21, 2014, Business Insider lists no less than 23 ‘benefits’ of ganja. Among other things, it can control epileptic seizures and stop cancer from spreading. According to a study published in the American Journal of Medicine in 2013, marijuana helps metabolism in the human body. Contrary to the popular belief that marijuana is disastrous for the lungs, another study published in the same journal found that it actually does the exact opposite by reversing the carcinogenic effects of tobacco and ‘improving’ lung health. No wonder the illogical ban on marijuana is being revisited worldwide. In US, marijuana is now legal in some form or the other in 46 states while recreational use is legal in 10 of them. Among countries, Uruguay was the first to legalise marijuana in 2013 and several countries have followed suit or are planning to do so.
The irony of it! Even as state after in the USA is legalising marijuana, India, which criminalised its possession and consumption with the passing of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 primarily under US pressure, continues to have the ban in place. But it hasn’t made a difference on the ground and weed smokers continue to get their stuff – and smoke it too - without too much hassle, making a mockery of the ban. Even more ironical is the fact that government policy continues to promote the sale and consumption of liquor, which has been scientifically proved to be much more harmful and addictive than the former.
Mercifully, there has been a concerted move of late to get the ban lifted. Union minister Maneka Gandhi and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor have batted strongly for allowing medicinal use of marijuana while our very own Tathagat Satpathy have been at the forefront of the campaign to allow its recreational use.
India has a long history of marijuana use, both for medicinal and recreational purposes. Atharva Veda lists Cannabis Sativa (its botanical name) among the five most ‘sacred’ plants that liberates humans while it is regarded as the penicillin of ayurveda.
With the scriptural prescription now backed by scientific evidence, it is about time the government of India considered lifting the irrational ban on ganja.
(DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are author’s own and have nothing to do with OTV’s charter or views. OTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same).
As someone living in Baramaunda Housing Board Colony or the N/1 area in IRC Village in Bhubaneswar, both of which were located by the side of NH 5, the kaawariyas I got to see at the time were invariably those headed for the famous Ladu Baba temple in Sarankul in Nayagarh district. Given that the starting point for most kaawariyas is the Gadagadia Ghat in Cuttack, it was a distance of well over 100 km. There were others, I was told, who preferred the Loknath Temple in Puri. With two pitchers full of water slung from a bamboo shaft on either side of the shoulder, it was easy to see that it must be a backbreaking trek.
Several of my friends used to go on their annual sojourn to their favourite Shiva Temple to pour water on the Shivalinga. But though I have always been a bhakt of Lord Shiva, the thought of undertaking such a long and tough journey with a sizeable load on my shoulders intimidated me. “What if I conk out midway?” I thought. A friend assured me that I did not need to worry since there would be vehicles plying on the road, constantly on the lookout for those unable to walk to pick them up, all through the night. That would be a disgrace, I surmised. In the end though, my journalistic curiosity got the better of my fear and I joined a group of friends to embark on my maiden ‘Bol Bom’ journey. One of the reasons I took the gamble was the fact that it was to be a journey from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar and not much longer. The year, if memory serves me right, was 2007.
It was evening by the time we filled holy water from the Mahanadi at the Gadagadia Ghat in our earthen pitchers and set off. By the time we reached the Kathajodi bridge, it had started raining. For someone unaware of the rules of the game, this was my first lesson of the trip: rain makes the task just a lot easier. The second lesson followed soon thereafter. It was that you can’t keep your pitcher on the ground and have to find something to hang it on. Lesson No. 3; you need to take a bath every time you need to relieve yourself or have a cup of tea, some snacks or a smoke.
I also learnt that every group has a cheerleader, usually someone who has gone on more ‘Bol Bom’ trips than the other members, whose primary job was to keep the spirit of the group high when they begin to slacken. The more experienced cheerleaders would instantly spot when someone in the group is falling behind and then vent out the loud cry of ‘Bol Bom, Har Har Bom’. And sure enough, it would do the magic. There would be a spring in the feet that ached just the moment before on hearing this battle cry.
On the way, we saw several tents put up by Good Samaritans where kaawariyas were sprawled on carpets, giving some much needed rest to their tired limbs. Eatables, tea and even maalis were on offer free of cost. We did take a break at one of those shelters, but partook of only a cup of tea before setting off again.
The journey till Phulnakhara passed off without any major hitch. But by the time we reached the Kukhai bridge, it was time to learnt the next lesson: the last couple of kilometers are always the toughest part of the journey. The bare feet and the shoulder were aching and doubts had set in as to whether I could really make it to the destination: the Ardhanariswar temple near the 120 Infantry Battalion. [I had abandoned all thoughts of accompanying two members of the group to the Lingaraj Temple by then.]
Something surprising happened as I was ploughing a lonely furrow on the road by the side of Nicco Park on my way to my chosen destination. An elderly person coming on a bicycle from the other side suddenly got off his cycle and was about to touch my feet when I politely requested him to desist. It was only later that I learnt that conservative Hindus believe the kaawariyas are incarnations of Lord Shiva!
Proving my own apprehension wrong, I did make it to the Ardhanrariswar Temple and poured the holy water I had brought from Gadagadia on the Shivalinga. It was like winning a war. I could scarcely believe that I had made it.
Spiritualism, I must confess, was the last thing on my mind when I decided to undertake my maiden ‘Bol Bom’ journey. But midway through the journey, I did feel that the mind was purged of all worldly thoughts and had gone on to a higher plane. I was beginning to understand the concept of ‘kuchhra sadhana’ (taking pain for spiritual realization) in Hindu philosophy.
There were some worldly benefits too, though only temporary. The problem of constipation that has bothered me for years appeared to have vanished. Alas! It lasted only for all of two days!
(DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are author’s own and have nothing to do with OTV’s charter or views. OTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same)
The study looked at men who were seeking help at fertility clinics, not the general population.
But the findings, detailed in the Human Reproduction journal, stands in contrast to previous studies that suggested smoking weed can negatively affect male reproductive health.
"These unexpected findings highlight how little we know about the reproductive health effects of marijuana, and health effects of marijuana in general," said Jorge Chavarro, Associate Professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the US.
"Our results need to be interpreted with caution and they highlight the need to further study the health effects of marijuana use," Chavarro said.
In the new study, the researchers hypothesised that marijuana smoking would be associated with worse semen quality. They found no significant difference in sperm concentrations between current and former marijuana smokers.
In addition, among marijuana smokers, greater use was associated with higher serum testosterone levels.
It could be because "low levels of marijuana use could benefit sperm production because of its effect on the endocannabinoid system, which is known to play a role in fertility, but those benefits are lost with higher levels of marijuana consumption," said Feiby Nassan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard.
"An equally plausible interpretation is that our findings could reflect that men with higher testosterone levels are more likely to engage in risk-seeking behaviours, including smoking marijuana," Nassan explained.
The team collected 1,143 semen samples from 662 men aged 36 assessed for infertility.
Only 5 per cent of marijuana smokers had sperm concentrations below 15 million/ml compared with 12 per cent of men who never smoked marijuana.
Understanding the health effects associated with marijuana use is important given the growing perception that it poses few health hazards, the study suggested.
The team found a link between recreational marijuana legalisation and increased consumption of certain high-calorie foods, suggesting there may be something more substantial to the urban myth of "the munchies".
According to the researchers, including Michele Baggio from the University of Connecticut, people after smoking marijuana go on a junk food binge, consuming mass quantities of chips, cookies.
While some neuroscientists have hypotheses, there remains no formal causal evidence to support this notorious effect of marijuana on the human brain, they said.
For the study, published in the journal Social Science Research Network, the team looked at data on monthly purchases of cookies, chips and ice cream from grocery, convenience, drug and mass distribution stores in more than 2,000 countries in the US over a 10-year period.
The team compared purchasing trends to the implementation dates for recreational marijuana laws in states including Colorado, Oregon, and Washington.
Their analysis showed that legalising recreational marijuana led to a 3.1 per cent increase in ice cream purchases, a 4.1 per cent increase in cookie purchases, and a 5.3 per cent increase in chip purchases immediately after recreational marijuana sales began.
"These might seem like small numbers. But they're statistically and economically significant," Baggio said.
The findings are contrary to the belief that marijuana users who have a serious case of the munchies that will ultimately lead to weight gain.
"Over a three-year period, all participants showed a weight increase, but interestingly, those who used marijuana had less of an increase compared to those that never used," said lead author Omayma Alshaarawy from the Michigan State University.
For the study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, the research team looked at the Body Mass Index (BMI) of 33,000 participants, aged 18 and older, then compared the numbers.
While the actual weight difference among users and non-users was modest, around two pounds for a 5-foot-7-inch participant weighing about 200 pounds at the start of the study, the variance was prevalent among the entire sample size.
"An average two-pound difference doesn't seem like much, but we found it in more than 30,000 people with all different kinds of behaviours and still got this result," Alshaarawy said.
The researcher cautions that marijuana should not be considered a diet aid.
"There's too many health concerns around cannabis that far outweigh the potential positive, yet modest, effects it has on weight gain," Alshaarawy said.
"People shouldn't consider it as a way to maintain or even lose weight."
"Prospective clinical trials are needed to quantify the efficacy of marijuana in cancer-specific pain as well as the risk of opioid misuse in this patient population," said co-author Kathryn Ries Tringale from the University of California, San Diego.
For the study, 826 people with cancer were matched to 1,652 controls.
The researchers found significantly increased use of marijuana over time -- likely reflecting increased availability due to legislative changes -- but they found stable rates of opioid use.
They found patients with cancer were more likely to use prescription opioids than adults without cancer -- 13.9 per cent versus 6.4 per cent.
"Medical marijuana legislation has previously been associated with reduction in hospitalisations related to opioid dependence or abuse, suggesting if patients are in fact substituting marijuana for opioid, this may introduce an opportunity for reducing opioid-related morbidity and mortality," said lead author Jona Hattangadi-Gluth from the varsity.
"First-time users may be unfamiliar with the effects of various drugs, so it is important to first understand when people are most likely to start these behaviours," said Joseph J. Palamar, Associate Professor at New York University.
In 2017, according to the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, more than three million people in the US tried LSD, marijuana, cocaine, or ecstasy for the first time.
The study used data collected from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health between 2011 and 2017 involving about 394,415 people aged 12 and older.
According to the researchers, participants were surveyed about their use of various drugs through a computer-assisted interview. New users were asked to recall the month and year when they initiated use.
The findings, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, showed that over a third (34 per cent) of recent LSD initiates first used the drug in the summer.
In addition, 30 per cent of marijuana, 30 per cent of ecstasy --also known as MDMA or Molly and 28 per cent of cocaine use was found to begin in the summer months.
The investigators suggest that the results could be explained, in part, by people having extra recreational time during the summer, as well as the growing popularity of outdoor activities, such as music festivals, at which recreational drug use is common.
"Parents and educators who are concerned about their kids need to educate them year-round about potential risks associated with drug use, but special emphasis appears to be needed before or during summer months when rates of initiation increase," Palamar said.
Previous studies have shown some connection between marijuana use and increased sexual activity as they found that daily marijuana users experience 20 per cent more sex than those who have never used cannabis.
The study, published in the Journal of Health Economics, is among the first to focus on medical marijuana legislation and what impact that has on people.
To better understand the correlation, researchers from the University of Connecticut in US, examined states that legalised medical cannabis between 2005 and 2014.
Then, they analysed how the implementation of these laws affected sexual frequency and fertility among people in their 20s and 30.
The research team studied the behavioural changes caused by marijuana use on sexual activity, contraception, and birth counts by applying a differences-in-differences approach that exploits the variation in the timing of the introduction of medical marijuana laws (MMLs) among states.
The researchers found that medical marijuana laws cause an increase in sexual activity, a reduction in contraceptive use conditional on having sex, and an increase in the number of births.
There is also suggestive evidence on temporary increases in the state-year gonorrhoea rate, the study added.
These changes may be attributed to behavioural responses including increased attention to the immediate hedonic effects of sexual contact, increased sexual frequency, as well as delayed discounting and ignoring the future costs associated with sex.
The findings on births suggest that behavioural factors can counteract the physiological changes from marijuana use that tend to decrease fertility, the researchers said.
(IANS)
Observational studies have linked marijuana use to a range of cardiovascular risks, including stroke, arrhythmia and diseases that make it hard for the heart muscle to pump properly, said the researchers.
"Marijuana use, both recreational and medical, is increasing nationally yet many of its cardiovascular effects remain poorly understood," said lead author Ersilia M DeFilippis from Columbia University in the US.
"In our National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) query, we estimated that two million adults with marijuana use had cardiovascular disease in 2015-2016. Since that time, additional states have passed legislature related to marijuana so its use may have increased even further," DeFilippis added.
"Notably, many of our cardiology patients are on medications that can interact with marijuana in unpredictable ways depending on the formulation. This highlights that we need more data so that we can better counsel providers as well as patients," DeFilippis said.
For the findings, published in the journal Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers, including one of the Indian-origin, conducted a query of data from NHANES to estimate marijuana use among US patients with cardiovascular disease.
They estimated that two million (2.3 per cent) of the 89.6 million adults who reported marijuana use had cardiovascular disease.
According to the study, the researchers outline the ways that the components and compounds in marijuana may affect the heart and other tissue at a molecular level and the drug interactions that marijuana can have with drugs that are commonly given to cardiology patients.
They also describe observational studies that suggest a connection between marijuana and heart conditions, including: Smoking-related cardiotoxicity: Many of the same cardiotoxic chemicals found in cigarettes are also found in marijuana smoke.
Coronary artery disease: Cannabis inhalation can increase heart rate and blood pressure and may be a trigger of a heart attack.
Arrhythmias: Marijuana use has been associated with abnormal heart rhythms, including atrial fibrillation.
Cerebrovascular disease: Surveys have found that marijuana smokers were three times more likely to experience a cerebrovascular event, such as a stroke.
"This was eye-opening for us. We're seeing an accelerating use of marijuana and now, for the first time, marijuana users are exceeding cigarette smokers in the US. said Indian-origin researcher and study author Muthiah Vaduganathan from Brigham and Women's Hospital in the US.
(IANS)
Special task force sleuths also arrested Surjit of Hisar in this connection, they said.
The accused was nabbed by the STF team near Sampla road, Jhajjar by-pass area while acting on a tip off, the police said in a statement here.
During checking of the four-wheeler, police found 50 bags of the contraband weighing 1,000 kg, they said.
Paint and thinner were loaded in the vehicle in order to hide the contraband, they added.
During preliminary interrogation, it was revealed that the seized contraband was being supplied from Odisha to Hisar, the police said.
Along with Surjit, three of his aides, Ram Mehar, Anil and Sube Singh, were involved in the smuggling, the officials said.
A case under relevant provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act was registered and efforts were being made to nab the other accused, police said.
(PTI)
Published in 'Sleep Health: The Journal of The National Sleep Foundation', the study is the latest to link prenatal cannabis use to developmental problems in children and the first to suggest it may impact sleep cycles long-term.
"Mothers who said they had used cannabis while pregnant were significantly more likely to report their children having clinical sleep problems," said study researcher Evan Winiger from the University of Colorado Boulder in the US.
For the study, the research team analysed baseline data from the landmark Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which is following 11,875 youth from age 9 or 10 into early adulthood.
As part of an exhaustive questionnaire upon intake, participants' mothers were asked if they had ever used marijuana while pregnant and how frequently.
The mothers were also asked to fill out a survey regarding their child's sleep patterns, assessing 26 different items ranging from how easily they fell asleep and how long they slept to whether they snored or woke up frequently in the night and how sleepy they were during the day.
About 700 moms reported using marijuana while pregnant. Of those, 184 used it daily and 262 used twice or more daily.After controlling for a host of other factors, including the mother's education, parent marital status and family income and race, a clear pattern emerged.
Those who used marijuana frequently were more likely to report somnolence symptoms (symptoms of excess sleepiness) in their children, such as trouble waking in the morning and being excessively tired during the day.
In other previous work of the same researchers, they found that teenagers who frequently smoked marijuana were more likely to develop insomnia in adulthood.While the current study doesn't prove that using cannabis while pregnant causes sleep problems, it builds on a small but growing body of evidence pointing to a link.
Researchers aren't sure exactly how cannabis exposure during vulnerable developmental times might shape future sleep.
But studies in animals suggest that THC and other so-called cannabinoids, the active ingredients in pot, attach to CB1 receptors in the developing brain, influencing regions that regulate sleep, the authors noted.
More Stories On Marijuana Use:
Marijuana Linked To Increased Risk Of Heart Problems
Mother’s marijuana use may harm foetus’ growth
One way CBD appears to reduce the cytokine storm that damages the lungs is by enabling an increase in levels of a natural peptide called apelin, says a new study published in the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine.
Apelin is known to reduce inflammation and its levels are dramatically reduced in the face of cytokine storm.
Apelin levels go way down with the viral infection, which has killed over 1.1 million people worldwide, said the study, adding that CBD quickly helps normalise those levels along with lung function.
"It was dramatic in both directions," said corresponding author of the study Babak Baban from Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University in the US.
Blood levels of the peptide dropped close to zero in their deadly adult respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS model and increased 20 times with CBD, said the new study.
"CBD almost brought it back to a normal level," Jack Yu, Chief of Pediatric Plastic Surgery at Medical College of Georgia.
Apelin is a pervasive peptide made by cells in the heart, lung, brain, fat tissue and blood, and is an important regulator in bringing both blood pressure and inflammation down, said Baban.
As mentioned in the beginning, the researchers reported this summer in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research that treatment with CBD reduced excessive lung inflammation, enabling improvements in lung function, heathier oxygen levels, and repair of some of the structural damage to the lungs that are classic with ARDS.
The investigators said then more work was needed, including finding how CBD produced the significant changes as well as human trials, before it should be included as part of a treatment regimen for COVID-19.
Now they have correlated those improvements with regulation of apelin. While they did not attribute all CBD's benefits to apelin, they said the peptide clearly has an important role in this scenario.
(IANS)
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