Americans think the pot is healthy, but scientists still have questions



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  Americans think the pot is healthy, but scientists still have questions

The majority of Americans favorably consider marijuana, but there is little science to support any health benefit of this flowering grass.

Credit: Shutterstock

What is your opinion on marijuana?

If you are like the majority of Americans, you probably think that this flowering plant has significant benefits and little serious risk, even if there are very few scientists. evidence to support this point of view. That's according to a new study, published today (July 23) in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, which surveyed people in the United States about their beliefs about the drug.

The reputation of marijuana is a holistic and benign means of self-medication has increased in recent years, said lead author of the study, Dr. Salomeh Keyhani, a physician and Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. A few years ago, Keyhani came across online articles that touted dozens of health benefits of marijuana, but they were all unfamiliar to him. "I am a doctor and I did not know any of these benefits," she said. "I did not see the evidence."

Keyhani and his colleagues were questioning the effects of marketing marijuana as a beneficial drug. Has this led the American public to consider the substance favorably, even though very few studies examine all the effects of its use? To better understand the public's point of view, the researchers created an online survey that was answered by more than 9,000 people from across the country. [Image Gallery: 7 Potent Medicinal Plants]

Overall, researchers found that 81% of American adults believe that marijuana has at least one benefit. The most common benefit named was the management of pain, followed by the treatment of diseases such as epilepsy and relief of anxiety, stress and depression. (They're right about one of them, at least: The FDA has recently approved the first marijuana-derived drug as treatment for two severe types of epilepsy.) A greater proportion of US adults, 91 percent, said they believe that marijuana has at least one risk. What worried the researchers the most was that the public viewed marijuana as having a low risk to health and a significant health benefit, Keyhani told Live Science. (Legal risks were of greater concern to respondents than health risks.)

"In the end, there is no evidence for the vast majority of these risks," he said. she said. "Keyhani said that she think that the widespread commercialization of the drug has largely contributed to the increasingly favorable opinion of the drug in the United States" I think there are amounts Keyhani Silver Massifs said:

The researchers hoped hope that consumers will strive to learn about the use of marijuana and avoid making assumptions based on biased marketing efforts. . "The lack of evidence does not mean proof of absence," warned Keyhani. "Buyer beware."

Original article on Live Science

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