• Medical benefits of marijuana still hazy

    By David Ingram
    Reuters

    Supporters of medical marijuana may have some evidence to back up their claims of its health benefits, but not enough to overrule the U.S. government's judgment that the drug should be tightly controlled, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

    The ruling means the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration can keep marijuana on its list of the most dangerous, tightly controlled drugs, alongside heroin.

    Medical marijuana supporters sued over the DEA's classification in 2011, and they hoped the suit would build on victories at the ballot box in states such as Colorado and Washington.

    But the challengers, including a disabled veteran from Virginia, failed to show convincingly that marijuana has an effective, accepted and safe medical use, said the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C.

    Without further scientific evidence, the court must defer to the DEA, wrote Judge Harry Edwards for a 2-1 majority. The third judge also sided with the DEA but for a different reason, finding that none of the challengers had a right to sue.

    Since 1970, the U.S. government has classified marijuana as a Schedule I drug, a category it reserves for drugs with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.

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  • Study: Legalizing medical pot doesn't boost teen drug use

    Ted S. Warren / AP

    Researchers have found no correlation between legalization of medical marijuana and increased pot use among teens, according to a new study.

    MyHealthNewsDaily
    The legalization of medical marijuana in several states had no impact on high school students’ likelihood of experimenting with the drug, a new study suggests.

    Researchers looked at marijuana use among youth between 1993 and 2009, a time when 13 states legalized the drug for medical use. They found no correlation  between legalization of the drug and increased use among teens in a given state.

    In fact, slight drops in teen use were seen in some states where marijuana was legalized.

    "We are confident that marijuana use by teenagers does not increase when a state legalizes medical marijuana," said study researcher D. Mark Anderson, assistant professor of health economics and risky behavior at Montana State University.

    The researchers used data from the Youth Risky Behavior Survey, conducted by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The survey collects self-reported data from a nationally representative sample of high school students on various risky behaviors.

    The researchers looked at how legalizing marijuana  affected youth rates of frequent marijuana use, marijuana use at school, alcohol use and cocaine use. No correlation was seen between legalization and any of these substance use questions.

    Today, 17 states along with the District of Columbia have approved medical marijuana use, while seven states have similar legislation pending.

    The study was funded by the Institute for the Study of Labor, a private, nonprofit research institute in Bonn, Germany. 

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