NIDA Director Finds No Significant Negative Effects of Marijuana Use in Adults
Recently, Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), surprised the American pro-legalization community by openly stating in an interview that the agency has not found any evidence of negative health effects from marijuana use in adults. With this statement, Dr. Volkow confirmed the agency’s readiness to move away from its previous position that considered marijuana a potentially dangerous drug for human health.
“At this time, we have no reliable evidence that marijuana use by adults poses any danger to their physiological or psychological health. Despite the growing number of independent studies on the plant and its active components, we still have not found credible proof of the negative side effects that were previously accepted by the medical community,” she said in an interview with the news outlet FiveThirtyEight. “Of course, I base these statements on third-party research. Unfortunately, we currently lack the resources and authority to conduct our own long-term studies of this kind.”
Dr. Volkow also expressed her own surprise at the number of potential benefits associated with marijuana, based on the many studies reviewed by the agency in recent years. “I was especially surprised to see that several studies confirm marijuana’s high effectiveness as a tool for weight loss and weight control,” she said. “Currently, a large number of studies examining the effects of cannabinoids on metabolism note that people who regularly use marijuana tend to have a lower body mass index (BMI) than their non-using peers. Not long ago, this claim seemed illogical to me. However, experimental data and practical observations support this fact. It’s possible that with more in-depth and centralized research, we may discover and confirm other surprising properties of this plant.”
Although Dr. Volkow expressed skepticism about the commercial legalization of recreational marijuana at the end of the interview, she fully supported the idea of medical legalization. She noted that new information about marijuana’s properties in recent years has convinced her of the plant’s high and diverse therapeutic potential. “While we have not found negative side effects in adult users, the situation is very different when it comes to minors. Studies clearly show that some active substances in marijuana can significantly affect the structure and neural activity of the developing brain,” she stated. “Additionally, we know almost nothing about how marijuana use may affect pregnant women or people diagnosed with serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia. It’s possible that for these groups, marijuana may not be nearly as safe.”
In recent months, Dr. Volkow has been actively sharing her new position on marijuana’s properties and status in various media outlets. For example, in August of this year, she reported in an interview that, according to research, marijuana legalization in certain regions has not led to an increase in crime or marijuana use among minors, contrary to the predictions of skeptics and prohibitionists. Later, she openly criticized the current criminalization regime, arguing that this policy has done more harm than good and that authorities should take decisive action to help the victims of this policy and to dispel the myths about marijuana that they themselves have created.
“Essentially, the government is satisfied with the status quo. For this reason, despite the start of discussions about possible reforms in Congress, both parties still tacitly support the policy of criminalization and stigmatization of marijuana,” she noted in an interview. “As a result, even in regions where marijuana has been decriminalized or legalized, its use is still equated with ‘drug addiction,’ which authorities recognize as a form of crime rather than a chronic illness. In other words, until the government takes steps to break the stigma around ‘drug addiction,’ people suffering from it will continue to end up in jail instead of hospitals and clinics where they could receive real help with rehabilitation.”
Additionally, NIDA recently submitted a report to Congress on the advisability of simplifying the process of researching marijuana’s properties. In this report, agency scientists urge U.S. authorities to strongly support such initiatives, both for public health reasons and to advance the country’s position in the international therapeutic cannabis industry.