With the legalization of marijuana for adult use in four
United States states and the District of Columbia since 2012, it seems
that there has been a shift in the general attitude towards marijuana
use in America.
Public polls support this conclusion,
estimating that more than half the country’s population is in favor of
legalizing marijuana.
This is a far cry from the anti-marijuana campaign
spearheaded by Harry Anslinger, who helped draft the first
anti-marijuana legislation, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. During the
Nixon Administration, the term “war on drugs” was coined, and marijuana
was even briefly put in Schedule One, the most controlled category of
drugs that was meant to include the most abusive of known substances.
Marijuana was also targeted by Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No”
anti-drug campaign.
Current research and changing public
perception have cut down on many anti-drug measures, reducing
marijuana-related incarceration. Alcohol is now known to be far more
dangerous to the individual and to society than marijuana. A comparative
assessment finds alcohol to be a whopping 114 times more deadly than
cannabis.
Nevertheless, marijuana is still a psychoactive drug with
clear physical effects on its users. Due to marijuana’s increasing
acceptance, researchers around the nation are working to bring the
health effects of marijuana to light.
A 2016 paper published in the American Journal of Psychiatry
warns that the general public attitude towards marijuana may have
become too relaxed. Despite its numerous therapeutic uses that are still
being researched and discovered, the chronic use of marijuana can cause
a subset of users to develop cognitive and physical disabilities.
Recently redefined in the latest version of the bible for psychiatric diagnosis, the fifth edition of the hefty Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM),
this disorder combined what was previously known as “marijuana abuse”
and “marijuana tolerance” into one condition termed “marijuana use
disorder.”
When looking at the general population, about 2.5 percent of
adults, or almost 6 million people, reported experiencing this disorder
in the past year. Additionally, 6.3 percent of adults reported meeting
the criteria for the disease at least once in their lifetime.
This study found that between 2001 and
2002 and between 2012 and 2013, the prevalence of marijuana use disorder
more than doubled. Data from the largest-ever survey on the connection
between alcohol use, drug use and psychiatric conditions, which involved
over 36,000 U.S. adults, revealed some important trends about the
disease. First, it was twice as common in men as in women.
It was also
far more common among young, poor and unmarried people and Native
Americans. Early lifetime use of marijuana, or before the age of 16, has
been associated with a greater likelihood of developing future brain
disorders. Furthermore, disability and frequency of marijuana use were
directly related to increasing disease severity.
Dr. Deborah Hasin, lead author and
Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University, has studied the
epidemiology of substance disorders for many years. In a 2015 paper
looking at marijuana users, she communicated her findings that three out
of 10 marijuana users developed marijuana use disorder in the 2012-2013
data set. This demonstrated the commonality of the disorder among
marijuana users.
Hasin and her team not only gauged the
prevalence of marijuana use disorder in the population, but they also
associated the disorder with a significant possibility of disability,
frequent coexistence with other diseases and a low likelihood of
receiving treatment.
While the legalization of marijuana is still an ongoing
debate, to many, its growing use in the U.S. seems to be inevitable. In
this case, the ability to diagnose, treat and prevent marijuana use
disorder will likely become more important.
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