Positive Marijuana Research Database
Prohibition of cannabis (marijuana) for the last 70 or so years led to many unfounded claims about it’s damaging effects. Claiming that it would “shrink your brain” was one that some of you may have heard. In yet another study, that shrinking brain concept has again been proven to be completely false. Seventy-nine daily users […]
As part of the past propaganda surrounding cannabis (marijuana) it was suggested that consumption of this plant would change a persons brain structure, creating alterations that could be seen on it’s surface. In this study, a multi-site data set of 120 controls and 141 cannabis users were examined regarding differences in cortical (surface) structure of […]
In order to estimate the prevalence of obesity with cannabis (marijuana) use, the authors evaluated data from 2 epidemiological studies of US adults 18 or older, the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, and the National Comorbidity Survey. This study found that obesity was approximately 8 percentage points less among those who used […]
Cannabis (marijuana) is commonly used among those diagnosed with bipolar disorder but there has been concern regarding whether or not it increases or decreases mood abnormalities in these individuals. This study set out to determine the effect of marijuana on mood in bipolar patients, as well as if there were any negative effects on their […]
The purpose of this study was to assess brain function in those who frequently use cannabis (marijuana) at a moderate level with those who do not use it. The users were tested after 1 week of abstaining. The study was small with 10 participants in each group. Functional MRI’s were used for the assessment and […]
Benzodiazepines are a class of psychoactive medications with sedative properties which are commonly used for anxiety and other neurological conditions. They are associated with several well-known adverse effects, and as of 2019, hospital admissions for their misuse has tripled since 1998. A retrospective analysis was performed on a cohort of 146 medical cannabis patients (average […]
As part of the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort, high-resolution T1-weighted MRIs were obtained from 781 youth aged 14–22 years. This sample included 147 cannabis (marijuana) users (109 used 1–2 times per week and 38 used 3 or more times per week) and 634 cannabis non-users. Several structural neuroimaging measures were examined, established procedures for stringent quality […]
“Cannabis use is associated with reduced prevalence of obesity and diabetes mellitus in humans and mouse disease models.” That is the very first sentence in the abstract of this published paper which went on to explore the association of cannabis (marijuana) with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Again the findings regarding the benefits of marijuana […]
Studying older adults offers an opportunity to explore associations among cannabis use, brain structure, and cognitive function and to observe any potential harm or benefit from the use of cannabis (marijuana). This pilot study used structural MRI to compare brain volume and function between users and non-users of marijuana. On average, the users had 23.5 […]
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was used to search for any effects on the hippocampus, which is a region of the brain especially involved in memory as well as motion. A group of 22 older, long-term cannabis (marijuana) users with an average lifetime of 20,100 smoking episodes were compared to 26 comparison subjects with no history […]