Smoking marijuana can adversely affect your physical and mental health, as well as interfere with your ability to function in social and occupational settings, according to recent clinical studies published in the latest issue of Missouri Medicine.
The negative data far outweigh the few documented benefits for medical and psychological treatments, according to the article written by Dr. Dragan M. Svrakic of Washington University School of Medicine.
In recent years, there has been a strong pressure on state legislatures across the U.S. to legalize or decriminalize use and possession of specified amounts of cannabis and/or to pass laws that allow smoking of crude cannabis plant.
Advocacy groups claim that smoking cannabis is a safe and effective treatment for various psychological and medical conditions, ranging from stress and anxiety to Alzheimer's dementia and Parkinson's disease. Cannabis has not been approved for such use by the Food and Drug Administration.
The article in Missouri Medicine, which is produced by the Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association, documents and references the health dangers, including user death by increasing the availability and use of cannabis products.
The author also argues cannabis is a powerful unstudied drug and should follow the same basic and clinical research regulatory pathways as other medicinal substances.