This category needs to be renamed to be meaningful than “Miscellaneous” but it will do for now. Basically it’s intended for news, research, legal actions and other information about medical marijuana for the general, nonexpert audience: patients, jouralists, the curious, etc.

Editorial: Lung macrophages high on cannabinoids: jamming PAMs and taming TAMs?

Authors: Jürg Gertsch
Journal of Leukocyte Biology, April 2016

Discussion of cannabinoid receptors and the ECS in macrophage activation.

Medical marijuana laws and adolescent marijuana use in the USA from 1991 to 2014: results from annual, repeated cross-sectional surveys.

Authors: Deborah S. Hasin, Melanie Wall, Katherine M. Keyes, Magdalena Cerdá, John Schulenberg, et al
The Lancet Psychiatry, July 2015

BACKGROUND: Adolescent use of marijuana is associated with adverse later effects, so the identification of factors underlying adolescent use is of substantial public health importance. The relationship between US state laws that permit marijuana for medical purposes and adoles…

Cannabinoid Dose and Label Accuracy in Edible Medical Cannabis Products.

Authors: Ryan Vandrey, Jeffrey C. Raber, Mark E. Raber, Brad Douglass, Cameron Miller, Marcel O. Bonn-Miller
JAMA, 23 June 2015

As the use of cannabis (marijuana) for medical purposes has expanded, a variety of edible products for oral consumption has been developed. An estimated 16% to 26% of patients using medical cannabis consume edible products.1,2 Even though oral consumption lacks the harmful by-…

Medical Marijuana: Is the Cart Before the Horse?

Authors: Deepak Cyril D’Souza, Mohini Ranganathan
JAMA, 23 June 2015

There is a pressing need to develop new medications for many debilitating conditions. Novel approaches based on marijuana or its constituent cannabinoids, if proven, could be added to the armamentarium of available treatments. In this issue of JAMA, reviews by Whiting et al1 a…

Current Status and Future of Cannabis Research

Authors: Ethan B. Russo, Alice P. Mead, Dustin Sulak
Clinical Researcher, April 2015

Although cannabis is primarily viewed by the public as a recreational drug or agent of abuse, its medical application spans recorded history.1,2 Evolution has yielded a cannabis plant that produces a family of some 100 chemicals called phytocannabinoids (“plant cannabinoids”)…

The impact of marijuana policies on youth: clinical, research, and legal update.

Authors: COMMITTEE ON SUBSTANCE ABUSE, COMMITTEE ON ADOLESCENCE
Pediatrics, March 2015

This policy statement is an update of the American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement “Legalization of Marijuana: Potential Impact on Youth,” published in 2004. Pediatricians have special expertise in the care of children and adolescents and may be called on to advise legi…

Systematic review: efficacy and safety of medical marijuana in selected neurologic disorders.

Authors: Barbara S. Koppel, John C.M. Brust, Terry Fife, Jeff Bronstein, Sarah Youssof, et al
Neurology, 29 April 2014

OBJECTIVE: To determine the efficacy of medical marijuana in several neurologic conditions. METHODS: We performed a systematic review of medical marijuana (1948-November 2013) to address treatment of symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), epilepsy, and movement disorders. We gra…

Epigenetic control of skin differentiation genes by phytocannabinoids.

Authors: Mariangela Pucci, Cinzia Rapino, Andrea Di Francesco, Enrico Dainese, et al
British Journal of Pharmacology, October 2013

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Endocannabinoid signalling has been shown to have a role in the control of epidermal physiology, whereby anandamide is able to regulate the expression of skin differentiation genes through DNA methylation. Here, we investigated the possible epigenetic r…

Cannabinoid exposure in adolescent female rats induces transgenerational effects on morphine conditioned place preference in male offspring.

Authors: John J Byrnes, Nicole L Johnson, Marian E Schenk, Elizabeth M Byrnes
Journal of Psychopharmacology, October 2012

In the United States, marijuana is one of the drugs most abused by adolescents, with females representing a growing number of users. In previous studies, treatment of adolescent female rats with morphine significantly altered brain reward systems in future offspring. As both c…

Effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol administration on human encoding and recall memory function: a pharmacological FMRI study.

Authors: Matthijs G. Bossong, Gerry Jager, Hendrika H. van Hell, Lineke Zuurman, et al
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, March 2012

Deficits in memory function are an incapacitating aspect of various psychiatric and neurological disorders. Animal studies have recently provided strong evidence for involvement of the endocannabinoid (eCB) system in memory function. Neuropsychological studies in humans have s…

Beyond-THC Chemovar Evaluation Survey

The Society of Cannabis Clinicians developed a survey in 2011 that asked about patients’ responses to CBD-rich cannabis.

Taming THC: potential cannabis synergy and phytocannabinoid-terpenoid entourage effects.

Authors: Ethan B. Russo
British Journal of Pharmacology, August 2011

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) has been the primary focus of cannabis research since 1964, when Raphael Mechoulam isolated and synthesized it. More recently, the synergistic contributions of cannabidiol to cannabis pharmacology and analgesia have been scientifically demonstrated…